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"You..." Cronus gaped as he gazed at the male the humans call Anaconda with recognition. "What are you doing here?"

"Oh, I see you two know each other," Adeladin said as he entered behind Cronus into the bar.

He took his seat beside Anaconda, "Your friend here also wants the same thing you do.

To get rid of your leader. He is responsible for murdering your people in cold blood, but now your leader is on his tail, so he wants to get your leader off his back. "

Anaconda paid him no attention. All his focus was on Cronus.

"Cold blood... Our crime rate is almost non-existent, and the only murder going on in Naturiah is serial killing by a psychop— Wait. You are the Wild Psychopath!?" Cronus's eyes widened with shock.

"And you must be The Changeling of The Facility. That's what they call you. You are the traitor of our people." He responded without batting an eyelash.

"You damn bastard! You have been killing off our people!" Cronus rushed to him and pumped him hard in the face. He was seething in anger .

Anaconda wiped the blood from his lips and looked at it, "Do not act like a saint, Werewolf. Saints do not dine with the devils," his eyes looking from Adeladin to Beloca, "You are also here to kill one of our own."

"You fucking psychopath, I am nothing like you!" Cronus rushed him again, but Beloca reached for him.

"People, please. We are not here to fight. We are here to work together for a common goal." Beloca ordered, separating the two changelings.

Cronus took several breaths to calm himself. The human was right. He found an empty seat and lowered himself to it. "You are right, you are right."

"Good. Now let's get to the business we are here for." Anaconda merely said, his feathers unruffled.

Cronus regarded him, "You are lower than the low, you know. The Alpha King trusts you, but here you are stabbing him in the back. At least, I was never in his circle of Alphas, but you? Hell, you are in the Council of Twelve. You are a leading Alpha. Yet, you kill our people?"

Anaconda took a long sip of his drink. "If you are done throwing your tantrums, let us start the meeting."

"I am done. We can start." Maybe, when all this is over, he will kill the male, Cronus thought.

He cannot have a psychopathic Alpha killer running around his world when he becomes Alpha King.

NATURIAH.

"We are going to visit that new world of yours, one day." Amelia, Ismena's mother was saying on the phone .

Ismena laughed heartily. Oh, she has missed this woman.

It's been weeks since she heard from her mother and her younger sister. Hearing her now on the phone, She wished she could see her mother again.

"I've invited you over and over again. You just don't miss me enough, I guess." She pouted.

"Stop sulking, you know I miss you badly.

Just that work has gotten more hectic after the break I took, so I've been putting in more hours.

Once I'm able to get another permission, I'll be calling you to come pick me and Valentina up.

Besides I want to know more about that man of yours.

You know that I wasn't able to get to know him better then, because of. ..uhm...you know why."

"Yes, I know, Mom. Don't worry, when you visit you will know all about him and his people. It's a whole new world out here." She has explained the basics about changelings and their world to her mother, but there was only so much Amelia can understand without her daughter seeming crazy.

"I always knew you were meant for greater things, my dear, but even I didn't know that you were meant to date a...uhm, what did you call him again?"

"A changeling."

"Right. I mean, it's so...unbelievable. From the looks of it, you are pretty serious about this man. I've never heard you look or sound like you do whenever you talk about him. Not to mention the body language I noticed when you came with him to the hospital..."

"Mother," she groaned .

"Yes dear, I still have perfectly working eyes for my age, thanks for asking." Her tone held amusement, "Anyway, I trust you, Mena. If you say he is the one, then he is the one. I am very happy that you finally found a man that makes you happy."

"Thank you, mom." Ismena smiled. She was standing at the west window in Wolfariane’s bedroom, gazing out into the night with the phone pressed to her ear.

"Although, I feel like something is bothering you that you aren't telling me.

You sound happy when you talk about your man, but if it's not about it, there's this.

..sadness in your voice that gets to me.

I feel like there's something really bothering you, and just like always, you want to keep it to yourself. "

Jesus. She always felt like her mother was psychic when she was going growing up. The woman was always able to pinpoint whenever she did something wrong or whenever she was sad. Maybe she IS psychic. After all, changelings exist too.

"I'm fine, mother." She lied. She wasn't fine. Now that she can finally be with Wolfaraine in every sense of that word, it bothers her that she would never be able to give him a child. With every passing day, it bothered her more than it did the previous day.

It was better not to know. It was better to keep trying with the hope that one day, you will conceive for the man you love than to have the factual knowledge that it is impossible. It's heartbreaking. She has been emotionally down for over a week now.

"I'm fine," she repeated, burying her pain deep inside, because she has no intention of telling her mom the problem. It will only hurt her poor mother.

"You are not. You just don't want to tell me. You know I'm always here for you, honey?" Concern dripped from her mother's voice .

"I know, mom. I love you."

"I love you too, baby. I love you too."

She changed the subject quickly, "So, how are you holding up? I hope you are taking it better now...? I worry about you, mother."

It was Amelia's turn to be quiet.

"I am better now. I'm doing fine too. But I don't think I will ever get over the death of your father, Ismena."

The pain-filled, whispered words broke Ismena's heart. "I don't think we can ever get over it either, mom but we do have to try. Dad is no more. Wallowing in grief will not bring him back. It won't make it possible for us to ever see him again."

"I know, I do know that." Amelia exhaled shakily, "But the heart does not seem to care about what the brain knows."

Long after the call ended, her mother's words still replayed in her head over and over again.

It was late at night, she was feeling sleepy, but she wanted to stay up and wait for Wolfaraine to come back. She wanted to spend as much time as she could with him before he travels to the leopard clan tomorrow for business which will take at least three days to complete.

To keep herself awake, she remained there by the window, stargazing. Memories of her father flooded her. She welcomed them.

God, I miss my father, so much. She thought sadly.

"I hope you found rest up there, dad. We all miss you." She whispered to the stars .

"Tell me about Josiah." Kassandra blurted out.

She was having a night walk with Alphose.

They've been conversing like friends since the walk began an hour ago.

Alphose engaged her with matters of his clan, he went ahead to tell her everything about the history of the cougar clan.

She had listened with interest and asked questions on the part she hadn't understood, which in turn made Alphose tell her more and more. It was fun. Refreshing.

But all the while, that topic had disturbed her thoughts. The truth is, she has been very curious about his twin brother for a long time.

He stiffened visibly when she made the request and his steps faltered. But only for a second before he resumed walking, saying nothing.

"Alphose, please. I know he is the elephant in the room we don't ever talk about, but I truly want to know about him." She croaked, falling into steps with him again.

"Why?" A muscle ticked in his jaw, "Is it because he might be your mate?"

Her heart tightened so hard in her chest as if someone was trying to squeeze the life out of her. Just the thought of it hurts like the very devil.

"No," she gulped, shaking her head. "No, I am just curious to know about your twin brother.

Alphose exhaled, "Sorry. That was uncalled for. It's just..."

"It's okay, I understand." And she does. She really does.

They walked in silence for a couple of steps before his voice filled the air again .

"Growing up, Josiah and I were inseparable.

We could feel each other's emotions differently.

Our bond was very special. We did everything together.

When we were little, some of our agemates then, called us mates because they said we were as 'tied to the hips' as mated couples are. " He narrated, impassively.

"Wow," Sandra found it hard to believe that a bond like this ever existed between those two. It made her feel sad. Obviously, something happened to them. Something that broke the bond they had.

He continued, "Josiah and I are complete opposites.

He was the rebellious one and I was the.

..'obedient' one, if I'm to quote our father.

He did everything we were told not to do and he enjoyed doing it.

It was fun, always watching him so... free.

So happy. But then again, our father will scold him for the rest of the day.

It never stopped him though. If anything, it worked like fuel to his fire. "