“Okay, so since you met Alpha Kane, what arguments or uncomfortable interactions have you had?” Alex prompts, laptop at the ready preparing to take notes. I make eye contact with Bellamy and grin. He suddenly looks VERY nervous.“Well, my first negative interaction since meeting Bellamy would have been… my first interaction with Bellamy.” Alex starts typing then freezes. “Uh… what? But you and Alpha Kane are… I mean… oh damn. Am I supposed to know that? I can’t remember if I’m supposed to be pretending not to notice. AM I supposed to be pretending not to notice?” He anxiously asks, staring up at me. I can’t help but laugh.“Alex… I’m literally sitting in Bellamy’s lap. I don’t expect you to act dumb or pretend everything. I just want to avoid gossip. I trust you, I didn’t think I needed to tell you that, but maybe I should have said something earlier.” Oops, I didn’t realise that I was making Alex anxious, although he does seem to be a pretty anxious person anyway. I’ll

Even though he’s just left, Bellamy calls Alex. I feel kind of bad about it, he’s been here for hours and just when we finally let him go home, we call him with more work.“Hey Alex. I need you to track down Tristain’s mother. I need to know where she is, any properties she has and also anyone she might be close with, particularly magic users.” Bellamy pauses listening to Alex’s response. Man, it must be nice to be able to hear the other side of the conversation like all the Shifters in the room can. “Yes, she was here the day his mother came to see me, Ryann intervened when she became emotional. It’s possible that she might have interpreted things to believe that Ryann is responsible.” He glances down at me and hurriedly adds.“She isn’t of course. It’s ridiculous. But I don’t expect someone who thinks killing people to make a point is a good plan, to be reasonable.” He finishes. I smile at him, it was unnecessary, but I do appreciate his efforts to make sure I don’t f

As I approach the house, I can see neighbours peering out their windows at us. I give one of them, a kid, a cheerful little wave before he ducks back behind the curtain. I guess the door breaking was a little loud and this is a bit of a weird situation. I’m surprised the police haven’t turned up yet. Not that they would do anything. A Shifter Alpha has complete authority over their Shifters. If Bellamy wants her in jail or something, all he has to do is parade her up to the police station, prove who he is and tell them how long she should be put away for. I swear, the only reason the different races don’t all have separate prisons is because they just don’t need them that often. When you add magic and other impressive abilities, most people who commit serious crimes go down swinging and end up dead, like Tristain did. If he had dropped it then he probably would have just been locked away. It’s one of the reasons the MRO doesn’t like having Unknown magics around. No faction is respon

I wake up feeling groggy and I just know that I’ve slept in late. If I did dream, I don’t remember any of it which honestly is kind of a relief because I needed rest so badly. Bellamy isn’t in bed beside me, so I assume he got up at a more normal time. He must be exhausted, because I’m still tired and I obviously slept in longer than he did. It’s strange that I didn't have visions of Kiara, then again those visions seem to make me tired and use energy, particularly when I interact with her. So maybe I just didn’t have enough energy to manage it. I spend at least fifteen minutes lying in bed trying to force my brain to wake up. Okay, that’s enough. Apparently I’m not going to feel better or more awake than I do now. A shower might help. I climb out of bed, tripping over the blankets as I go, and head straight into the ensuite. I don’t think at all, just strip off my clothes and step into the shower. I turn the hot water on first and absolutely freeze as I wait for it to heat up. Fina

“Lady, can you tell me your name?” She asks quietly. She sounds like she doesn’t actually expect me to answer. Which is fair I guess, I’m not even exactly one hundred percent sure that I can. My head is aching. But that’s the question she asked and I am going to do my best to answer. It takes me a minute to manage it and I watch as Kiara’s face falls even further with every second she doesn’t hear from me. Finally I succeed“Ryann.” For a second, I don't think it worked. Kiara doesn’t react and I sigh through my aching head and prepare to try again.“That’s a nice name. Ryann… I didn’t want to believe it, I was hoping I was wrong but… I’m pretty sure that my mum and dad are dead. They weren’t moving when I was taken away. I was hoping they were just asleep or under a spell but… if that were true they would have come to get me by now. Daddy would have gotten me out of here and then probably locked me up in a tower like some fairytale character to make sure that no one ever ge