GILLIAN I hang up the satellite phone shaking my head to Tristan, “They found a trail, but… then it disappeared. They are making their way to the Ravine that borders the kingdom to the south.” Tristan swipes a hand down his forlorn face. I haven’t known him long, but I can tell he is as vexed as I am about Kolby and Tawny missing. For more reasons than just the two future leaders of Cambiador have disappeared. He sighs heavily, “This isn’t good, Gill.” He stresses and I swallow deeply. He is right. My father has already been here several times to see Kolby in the past four days that they have been missing. I can tell my father is getting suspicious, as well as pissed off. He thinks he is being ignored. Already rumors have spread that he, Lord Maydor is banding together other high-ranking were-cats and council members. Whatever he has planned cannot be good. “We have to let someone know,” Tristan says stepping up to me and wrapping his arms around me in a bid to comfort me. “No.

TAWNY At the top of Cambiador’s hierarchy sits the royal family. The King or Queen and their successors. Outside of the capital, the kingdom is split into twelve houses, or twelve separate Clowders, each house controls a large portion of land overseen by the Lord. Each of those Lords who have control of the land is responsible for overseeing the development and structure of their Clowder and they each have their own warriors and their own elders. One elder is voted on to the main council to act as a judiciary for the kingdom. To uphold the laws put into place and pass sentencing as necessary. The Lords are privy to sit in the court of councils along with the chosen elders and of course the King and Queen. Much like the Packs in the New Moon Kingdom and their order of hierarchy. The five women who sit in front of me now would be considered Lunas or Den mothers if we were in the werewolf and bear kingdoms. Here they are just referred to as Ladies. But the same principles still applied

CRIMSON “Tell me what this Althea said about you?” Mathias asks as we shuck our shirts and step onto the open training field. “Not much, just that I am the only one of my kind and the god's magic would have no effect on me.” Without warning King attempts to slap me, I’m fast enough to bat his hand away and step out of reach. “Oh, it’s like that is it?” I give him a smug smile and lift my hands ready for his next assault. I take a quick glance over to the side to see Tawny, Queen Lamia, Gillian, Mason, and Tristan watching us. The look of lust on my kitten’s face is enough to empower me with the will to give back as good as the King is going to dish out. A fist comes flying at my face and I sidestep the blow that would have done damage. Except, I didn’t see the fast left hook and turned right into the rock-hard fist. “Concentrate,” King growls at me, moving forward with inhuman speed. I block his next blow and return the hit, catching his jaw. “That’s more like it,” He smiles, lea

TAWNY The old woman, Sunu, slams the book shut and I jump at the offending sound. “It will take me a little time to translate it,” She says peering at all of us. “We can wait,” Lamia says, just as eager to know what is written in there as I am. “Why don’t we eat, first? Then hopefully Sunu will be able to give us something.” Althea suggests. We agree to her suggestion and several minutes later we find ourselves sitting at a large table in a semi-formal dining room. “Tawny told us you rescued a group of children from a warehouse in Lewe?” Mathias cuts to the chase his deep intimidating voice filling the silence of the room. “Skinwalkers?” “No not, quite.” Arik is the one to reply. His honey-brow eyes catch Mathias' holding his gaze for just a moment before he has to look away. Instead, he settles his eyes on Crimson. “When this Ashe came to my aunt, she told us where to find these children. She led us there, just over the border of Tolba and into Lewe. I had never seen anything l

TAWNY I mark things off on the calendar, erase and add other events. The only way Crimson and I could possibly attend all these events was by splitting up as well as sending someone else in our place to cover for us. At the end of this month, we had the monthly chamber meeting, which included all house of Lords, their elders, and council members. An event that took all day and sometimes ran well into the late evening. Only because people couldn’t get their heads out of their asses and agree on simple terms or policies. After that, both Kolby Crimson and I had been invited separately, to the official crowning ceremony of Tala MacTire, Kellen’s mate he found while on the other continent. I had heard from Lamia she was with pup and Kellen was cutting it close to her due date. I guess they wanted to wait for things to settle down and for Tala to get to know the kingdom and its citizens a little better. I’m pretty sure Kellen rushed the ceremony when he found out she was carrying his pup