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latches on the same way he had been physically latching onto my body just seconds ago.
    His jaw moves as he grits his teeth harshly behind his tightly closed lips.
    Isaac looks back at his father, nods and reluctantly lets go of my hand. I soften my eyes on him, hoping to calm him even more and then I walk toward Trajan, feeling every one of my steps pulling me farther and farther away from the safety of Isaac’s arms. The last time I stood face to face with Trajan was the night I was rescued from Viktor Vargas. Trajan looked down at me that night from his massive height and body; he is the biggest and deadliest werewolf in the world and I stood up to him. I didn’t fear him an ounce. He had just thrown Isaac through the wall of the Vargas house and out into the snow, saving Viktor from being killed by Isaac’s hand. Something in my mind clicked when it happened and fear was the last emotion that I could evoke in that moment. Rage, anger and hatred were all that I could feel and I had let Trajan know it.
    And he didn’t kill me.
    But right now, I’m not feeling those vengeful emotions which had helped to smother the fear in the past and as I stand before Trajan now, I can’t help but be immensely nervous and exude a childlike timidity in front of him. I fold my hands together in front of me and bow my head once out of respect. I don’t know if I’m doing it right, but hopefully Trajan will overlook it if I’m not. Just give me points for trying, please. Thanks.
    Trajan nods, opens the back door on the Escalade and motions for me to get inside with his hand palm up. Nervously, I look back at Isaac one more time as he’s walking up the porch steps, taking his time so that he can use what’s left of it to watch me.
    “I’ll be listening,” he says telepathically, “and if I sense the slightest bit of alarm I’ll be out here before you see me coming.”
    “Okay.”
    “Leave the link open,” he adds. “Even if my father tells you to close it off. Do you understand?”
    Easy for him to say that, but I’m the one outside with Trajan. Alone. If Trajan tells me to shut off the link I might have to cave and do what he says.
    “Yes,” I answer.
    Isaac walks inside the house to the voices of a dozen concerned people:
    “Isaac, what’s going on?” Isaac’s sister, Camilla, says restlessly.
    “Why is he here?” Daisy says. “I sense something is wrong, terribly wrong.”
    “You left her with him?” Harry snaps.
    “Shit around here just keeps getting better,” Zia says and I always find it amazing how she can be so sarcastic in even the most traumatic times, or maybe she’s just better at hiding her fears than some are.
    The flurry of voices snaps out of my head like turning off a light switch when Trajan speaks.
    “Please get in.”
    I finally do as he wishes and climb inside the backseat of the massive vehicle. The first thing I do is look around the seats for Aramei and I’m baffled to see that she isn’t here.
    I sit down and the noises from outside close off as the door shuts behind Trajan.
    “I assume you’re wondering why you can feel her?”
    It takes me a second to understand his question because, quite frankly, I’m sitting in a close, confined space with the world’s most feared werewolf and I have every right to be pushed up on the level of stupid and it not count against me.
    “Uhh…yes, I am as a matter of fact,” I say, forcing the nervousness down some so that I can at least retain a bit of dignity. “Where is she?”
    “Aramei is in the cabin,” Trajan reveals, “and why you can hear her and sense her is the reason that I am here.”
    He speaks so calmly that one might presume he isn’t capable of violence if they didn’t already know who and what he was. But truthfully, the calm in his voice is what intimidates me the most. It translates as confidence and dominion; he doesn’t have to raise his voice or use threatening words to get his point across because that eerie calm