Waking up the morning of Marty's rescue had me feeling nauseas, I rolled over and faced Damien. He had a small smile on his face while he traced his fingers along my side. Running my hands through his hair, I leant up and pressed my lips to his. He drew me in closer and threw his leg over mine. Pulling back slightly, I gave him one last kiss and went to get up.

"Where do you think your going?"

"Come on, we can't be doing that this morning. We have our son to get back"

"How are you feeling about that? Are you nervous about seeing Thomas again?"

"Not really. I just want Marty home so we can be a proper family again" I walked over to the mirror and stood side on. Lifting up my shirt I smiled. My tummy is getting bigger and you can tell I'm pregnant now.

"Your getting big love" Damien walked over and laid a hand on my tiny bump, as soon as his hand was on my tummy, the baby moved.

"Feel that? I think someone is eager to meet you"

Damien looked awestruck, he had a big goofy smile on his face. "That's amazing. I can't wait to meet her"

"Her?"

"I think we are going to have a baby girl"

"You just want a girl so you can frighten off any boys"

Damien looked up at me and winked "Pretty much"

I chuckled "Come on, let's go and get ready. We have to meet everyone in an hour"

**

Walking out the front door, I saw Thrain standing by the railing, his hands were clasped behind his back and he had a stoic look on his face. I walked up beside him and tapped his shoulder.

"How you doing brother?"

"Good. I should be asking you that question"

"I'm not the one leaving his pregnant mate for a few days"

"I know. I'm so conflicted. I don't know what I would do if I wasn't here when she went into labor" Thrain let his head hang down

I laid my hand on his shoulder so he would look at me "You know I would never ask you to come if you didn't want to right? If you need to stay here with Delilah then I won't begrudge you that"

"I know, but I need to go with you as well. I need to support you through this, what else is a big brother for?"

"Being a pain in the ass really" I dodged a punch to the shoulder while laughing "Come on, you know she won't give birth while we are gone. The Doctor says that she is still at least a month away. Her condition to begin wasn't the greatest so the baby is taking a bit longer to get healthy. It's going to be perfectly fine. Okay?"

"I know, I just worry. She still isn't 100%"

"She is strong. She will be fine. Plus Lauren will be here to keep an eye on her"

Thrain nodded and turned when the front door opened. Lauren, Josh and Delilah all filed out with Damien taking up the rear. Delilah walked straight over to Thrain and tucked herself into his side. She sent me a small smile before laying a hand on her bump and snuggling into his chest. Lauren and Josh stood next to Thrain, Josh sent me a wink and a slow moving punch while Lauren held onto Myra and shook her head before slapping him on the back of the head.

I took my place next to Damien at the front of the porch. Tony, Louise, Joel and Francie all made their way onto the porch after saying their good mornings to Damien and I.

Slowly everyone who was coming with us started showing up in front of the porch. I took notice that their was at least half the pack here, I couldn't help but to smile. The warriors were the bulk of the crowd, it was a pretty even mix between mine and Damien's old pack. I saw Brooke in the crowd and almost choked on air, there was never any discussion about Brooke coming, I thought she was staying here and helping with the little ones.

I caught her eye and signaled that I wanted to talk to her after the meeting. She just nodded.

Damien was able to get everyone's attention on me in no time.

"Thank you to everyone who has decided to come and help us get our pup back. I know this isn't an easy ask as anything can happen but I'm grateful that any of you would put your life at risk for me and my family. So this morning is just about what we will be doing before we leave and how we will all be moving out. We will figure everything else out on the road.

We will be traveling for about 2 days, depending on how much distance we can cover each day. Where Thomas is keeping Marty is quite dangerous and rocky so everyone has to be on the lookout for anything out of the ordinary. Now, this morning, we will be leaving in about an hour. Everyone is to meet at the edge of the forest with all the supplies you think you might need. We will hunt while on the move, so please don't bring too much food. Damien and I will be leading the pack, Thrain and Joel will be bringing up the rear. If anyone needs to stop for any reason then please just tell us and we will stop. We will be stopping every hour for rest and for water. Any questions?"

Everyone in the crowd shook their heads, except for one small hand in the middle of the crowd.

"I have a question. What happened to your border patrol?"

My head shot over to the voice and the crowd parted to reveal Alexis and Julius. Everyone in the crowd gasped and instantly went down on one knee in reverence to their rulers. I rolled my eyes as I watched Tony, Joel and their mates on their knees as well while Thrain, Josh and their mates were bowing their heads in respect. Alexis has always told us not to bow to her as we are friends and friends do not bow to each other.

Tony looked up at Thrain and hissed at him to get on his knees. Alexis looked like she was floating as she made her way up to the porch in front of me.

"Alexis, how did you get past the patrol? And why did no one let me know?" I couldn't help but smile as I looked at Tony's horrified face as I conversed with the queen so casually

"Oh" She waved her hand at me "I told them that it was a surprise and not to tell you"

I blew air of out my cheeks harshly while Alexis looked on with an infuriating sweet smile on her face.

"Of course you did. I only spoke to you last night, why didn't you tell me you were coming?"

"It was a surprise silly" She replied like it was so obvious "Now, what have I told you about bowing to me?"

"Don't look at me, I'm not bowing to you. Everyone else is"

Alexis looked out at the crowd, there was a mixture of horrified looks from Damien's old pack and secret smiles from my old pack. Alexis frowned but smiled when she caught Julius still standing in the middle of everyone.

"Love muffin, get over here and say hello to everyone"

Julius looked like he wanted to disappear into the trees and never come out. No one else dared smile or make any sort of comments about what was just said. Well, except for me. I couldn't help but let out a loud belly laugh. I caught Julius sending me a death glare before he caught up to Alexis and wrapped an arm around her waist.

"Did she just call you love muffin? Omg, that's hilarious. Why would you let her call you that?"

"Don't even ask. I couldn't get her to stop no matter what I said" Julius had a small smile on his face as he looked down at Alexis

"I can see that, she may be small but she's a terror"

"Excuse me? But I believe you were in the middle of something?"

"Yeah yeah. Tell everyone to get up off their knees please"

Alexis turned around and told everyone to stand up, everyone did as she said but some still looked confused.

I stepped up the porch and signaled for quiet "Well, as you can see, we have a special guest at the moment. If anyone is really curious as to what just went on, just ask someone from my old pack, they will be more than happy to tell you. Now, everyone go and get your stuff ready. Tell your loved ones goodbye and meet us at the edge of the forest in an hour"

With that, everyone walked off while still casting curious glances behind them at Alexis and Julius. I motioned everyone inside and into the meeting room. Everyone filed into the room and took their seats. I took a deep breath to settle my nerves and stopped in my tracks. Frowning, I took another deep breath. That is the same scent from the castle, what is it doing here? I looked over at Alexis and Julius, the only reasonable explanation is that the person came with them from the castle.

Alexis looked over at me and I motioned my head for her to come here, Damien looked at me quizzically but I told him I just had to talk to Alexis for a minute and to continue without me. Alexis walked over to me and I moved out of the room and shut the door.

"Do you smell that?" I asked

"Smell what? There are a lot of different scents here"

"It smells like chocolate chip cookies and birch wood. Can you get it?" I turned around in circles trying to pin point where the scent was coming from

"Yeah I got it. It smells familiar. What's so special about it?"

"I have been smelling that scent for the past few months whenever we are at the castle, my mind thinks it knows who it belongs to but I just can't place it"

"Do you need some help?"

"Yes please Lex, that would be great" I mind link Damien telling him that Alexis and I have an important errand to run

"Okay, let's go"

We followed the scent through the house, first through the lounge room, then into the kitchen, then into the gym. It even went up to the top level. By now, I was horribly confused, there should be no reason for a strange wolf to be traipsing through my pack house. Even if they were a warrior for the Queen and King. We managed to follow it back outside to the backyard where I keep some of my training dummies.

My eyes narrowed when I saw a large, well built figure sniffing around the base of the dummies. A spark in my brain went off, like I should know who this person is but nothing was coming to me. I took large steps towards the strange wolf, I took a deep breath in and confirmed that he is the one with the familiar scent.

The strange man turned around before I could get all the way to him, Alexis was running to catch up to me, but stopped in her tracks when she saw who it was. She must know him, which means he came with her from the palace.

His face looked familiar to me, his warm swirling brown eyes, the smattering of freckles across his nose. His messy brown hair that kept falling into his eyes, and the scar that ran across his eyebrow.

My eyes closed as a memory flashed across my vision.