Luke sat at his desk in the War Room while Maya explained the breach. Originally the room was just supposed to be an office, but after a few pitched battles and the necessary planning meetings that came up from running a successful pack, someone started calling it the War Room. Much to Luke's consternation, it stuck.

"Best as we can tell, it was a flock of bats." Maya said, her bright red hair was pulled back tightly into a bun, though she also had on a small elastic headband to keep some of the frizzy bits under control. The hair was obviously colored, he knew she was naturally a brunette, but he also knew why she did it. With the large scar on her cheek and the honey colored eyes of a lioness, Maya screamed predator. And she would rather have people see the hair and the stylish clothes and discount her as a threat until she was slitting their throats. Luke appreciated that about her.

"So it was the vampires?" It was half statement, half question. Vampires couldn't turn into bats - at least they never admitted it if they could. But rumor had it that they could use them as spies.

"Seems like." She spread a map out on his desk and pointed to an area about five miles from the house. "They stayed just outside the interior perimeter. Looks like a scouting party. Technically this doesn't break any agreements we have standing with them, and since we can't even prove it was them, there's no point in bringing it up."

Luke studied the map. "What tipped you off?" There were enough caves in the area to make bats common, even a colony of that size taking to wing shouldn't have brought him running back to the heart of his territory.

"Genie said they smelled dead." Maya wore a wry smile. Genie had never said something so tame in the half a decade that she'd been working for Luke.

"What did she really say?"

Maya took a moment to consider, smiling all the while. "Something like they smell like flying rats covered in shit left out to rot for three days? I don't have her way with words."

"No one does." Luke studied the map. "Double the after dark patrols. But if the vamps do show up, no violence unless they offer it first. We want to contain them, not kill."

"Already done. I'll relay your orders regarding prisoners." She rolled up the map and left without another word.

Luke followed her after a minute. Yes, the office was his, but work as the alpha rarely required long stints behind the desk. And, truth be told, he'd give up the job in a heartbeat if it he was going to just be filing paperwork all day. But Maya's words put him in mind of the upcoming summit, and he made his way through the house, down two flights of stairs, and through a heavy metal door to the vault.

The vault predated the house by some time. As a matter of fact, it predated most of the buildings within Eagle Creek. But the town wasn't even a hundred years old, so that might have been bragging over nothing. He hadn't wanted to build his fortress so far out, but the former alpha kept all his goodies here, and while the man could barely keep himself standing in a fight, his home security was pretty decent. But that didn't mean that Luke hadn't made his own improvements.

After entering his security code on the keypad and stepping through the door, the lights came on automatically. It all looked a bit like a bank vault with individual lockboxes secured on the wall. At one point he'd considered moving to a digital system, but the cost didn't make sense compared to the reward. Besides, there was only one thing in the entire vault worth spending millions to protect.

The Scarlet Emerald.

He kept it in a glass case in the center of the room. All of the security in the vault was dedicated to protecting that one ugly-ass stone.

He'd first heard of the stone when he was a kid back in college. How Jaime Pascal had used it to ward off wolves and protect his clan for fifty years. It had always belonged to the alpha of these cats. And when Luke fought for his place twelve years ago, the stone became his. Whether it offered real protection or not was anyone's guess. There were stories, rumors, tall tales, but nothing definitive. And he'd never needed it or even tried to use it. If the stone was magic, there would be a price. There always was.

But in two weeks he'd finally take it out of the case and put that chunky gold chain around his neck. Vampires appreciated ostentation. Wearing a huge, cloudy, red stone the size of a baby's fist would catch their attention. He only wished he could go out and bury the stone back in the mountains and be done with it. His pack didn't need mystical protection, not when they had sharp teeth and pointy claws.

He abandoned the vault. There was nothing there but the weight of responsibility. He made his way up the inner, twisting staircase to his quarters where he planned to take a nice hot bath and think of that sexy redhead. Even now his cock stirred at the memory. He wondered what her real hair color was, how it would feel in his hands, how it would look spread out on his bed.

Oh, now there was a thought.

He was so wrapped up thinking about it he didn't notice the intruder in his room until he'd already taken off his shirt.

"Ew, gross!" Said the eighteen year old girl sitting on his couch, reading a magazine. Well, she was reading a magazine until she threw it at him and used one of the pillows to cover her face. "I'm going to have to cut my eyes out!"

Cassie was the dramatic one. His little sister was visiting while on autumn break from school. Between beautiful strangers and security risks he'd forgotten all about her. "It's a torso, I'm sure you've seen one before," but he pulled his shirt over his head anyway. No need to court the wrath of a teenaged girl. "And what are you doing in here, brat? I thought you were given quarters down the hall."

She stood up and collected her magazine from the floor. Looking at the two of them, no one would realize they were siblings. Cassie looked far too much like her father, Luke's step-father, Scott, and not enough like their mom. His sister was as tall as him, with blonde hair halfway down her back that she usually gathered into a ponytail or bun whenever it annoyed her. She did have their mother's brown eyes, but her skin was almost pale, with little hint of their Mexican origins.

"We were supposed to grab a bite after you did your thing in town?" she suggested.

A glance at the clock on the wall showed that it was inching towards nine o'clock. She must have been waiting for hours. "Damn it, I'm sorry. I got caught up with some stuff." He didn't want to put it off any longer. "Let's go raid the kitchen."

They foraged some leftover pizza and soda which Luke insisted that they take to the balcony outside his room. It was late enough in the year that even with the lights on they weren't bothered by insects. Cassie nibbled at her slice without quite looking at him. It took Luke several minutes to realize that she was trying to work her way up to something.

"So when am I driving you to the airport?" Denver was two hours away, but that didn't mean he'd delegate that task. Cassie was his sister after all.

She took another bite, bigger than the last. She made an exaggerated motion of chewing, delaying him further. But Luke had learned how to deal with the silent treatment. He returned her silence, keeping his expression pleasant. After she swallowed, his sister pondered the crust a moment before setting it down. "I was thinking that maybe I could extend my trip a bit? We haven't really gotten to hang out." She sounded just as innocent as she had when she had sprayed bright pink paint over the walls of his room.

Luke knew she was hiding something, even if she was right about hanging out. "What about class?"

She rolled her eyes, "It's not like I have to worry about perfect attendance."

Luke took a sip of his drink before answering. "With the vampires coming I can't risk it. Not with–"

"It's because I can't shift?" Pain laced her words. "I asked you to turn me, why won't you?"

Shapeshifters weren't born with the ability to change into animals. If their parents had the ability, usually sometime in their late teens a shifter would learn. But in some cases, especially when only one parent was a shifter, it didn't happen. And Cassie was getting close to nineteen. "Because it's dangerous and we don't know that it won't happen naturally."

She held up a fist and extended her fingers as she spoke, "Alana did when she was 15, Joey at 16, Leah last year. Of all my friends, it's just me who hasn't. Why won't you, or Mom, or Dad just accept that I'm broken and fix me?" Her voice cracked, and Luke saw a tear in her eye. But Cassie tilted her head back and turned aside, discreetly wiping it away.

Scott hadn't been turned until after their mom was pregnant with Cassie. And Luke knew that Cassie didn't want her friends to know she was technically only half shapeshifter. "You're not broken." Luke leaned over and put an arm around her shoulders, hugging her close. "But it's so dangerous, and way more painful than the other way. Just wait until you're twenty, okay? If Mom or Scott won't do it then, I will." He'd made that promise to her before, but he hoped it stuck this time.

And he hoped that she changed before then. He couldn't imagine mauling his sister.

They finished up their dinner and Cassie didn't repeat her plan to stay longer. Luke forgot about it.