Miranda felt completely drained as she left the meeting and rushing out, she was avoiding Jason and he knew it. 

"Miranda!" He called out, quickly excusing himself the pair had to share the elevator back down to their office floor. "Come on, you have to talk to me eventually!"

"No. I really don't!" She sighed, watching the light count down the different levels.

"I'm sorry. I don't want you to leave with us like this!"

Miranda didn't answer and stepping out of the elevator, Melissa dared to smile at the pair. Miranda smiled back and slowly, the fear the receptionist had for her manager was wearing away. Jason followed her all the way to her office, yet Miranda stopped as she saw Rory wasn't in his place. Had he taken lunch late? If he was currently hooning around the city with Braydon in her new car, she was going to kill him. Going to his desk, she noticed everything was switched off, almost like he hadn't been in and after the strange call from Braydon before the meeting, her stomach sunk.

"Hey, what's wrong?" Jason saw her frown and as her eyes met his, he saw her fear.

"I- ah, give me a second." She rushed over to her desk and picking up her phone saw some missed calls from numbers she didn't know and instantly opened her voicemail.

"Miss Wright, my name is Lisa and I am calling from West Wing Hospital." Miranda dropped her phone before scrambling to pick it up and in the process accidently hit delete. "Shit!"

"What? What is it? Miranda, let me help you!" Jason urged.

"The hospital!" She blurted out, opening the next message with shaking hands.

"Miss Wright, this is Leigh Thompson. I'm not sure if you're aware, but-" the womans voice broke, and a mans voice came through instead. "Rory has been in an accident and you're probably wondering why he isn't at work today."

He was at work though. He couldn't be in an accident. He was meant to be getting her car and, "Miranda?"

"They're in an accident," She mumbled.

"Who?"

"Rory and Braydon." Nothing she had heard told her about Braydon, but she knew. The whole time in that stupid meeting she had felt uncomfortable, the sense of dread she had felt mistaken for nerves, but she knew it wasn't that.  "I have to go."

"Let me drive you!" Jason insisted and she blindly followed him from the building and into the waiting town car. The whole trip neither of them spoke and as they pulled up in the ambulance loading zone, Miranda was out and running to the foyer before Jason had managed to get out the car.

"Please, Miss? I'm looking for Braydon Winters and Rory Thompson. They're here, they were in an accident!" Miranda was practically screaming at the nurse who turned her way.

"I'm going to nead you to calm down. Who was it you're looking for?" She asked, sitting in front of her computer. Miranda wanted to ram the womans head into it thanks to how slow she was talking.

"Braydon Winters!" 

"Just a moment," Jason finally caught up to her and already the tears were falling fresh and fast down Miranda's cheeks. "He is in Ward B, and.."

That was enough for her and somehow she managed to keep upright on the over polished flooring as her heels struggled to find grip. Jason grabbed her arm as she wobbled by the elevator, rapidly hitting the open door button.

"Slow down, he's in the hospital which is fully equipt to deal with all kind of things. Keep this up, you'll be in here next with a broken neck!" He warned.

Jason was right.

Miranda took the trip up to Ward B to try and regain her composure so when she went to the nurses station, she managed to get out what she wanted without bursting into tears or ripping the womans head off. "Mr Winters please."

"Are you family, friend or spouse?" The male nurse asked her, looking over a chart in front of him.

"Spouse." She answered.

"Miss Wright? He's been asking for you, right this way." He said with a gentle smile and as the duo followed him down the hall, Jason took Miranda's hand and gave it a slight squeeze. The act of kindness barely registered as the entered one of the rooms and as the aqua curtain was pulled back, Braydon was sound asleep with a single drip in his arm.

"He is stable. A few bruises, nothing is broken. We had to give him a sedative as he was becoming quite aggressive and refusing treatment." The nurse told her, before moving over to check the IV bag. The heart rate monitor started to increase making him hit a few more of the buttons before he left them alone.

Instantly Miranda went to his side and threw herself across his chest, mindful of the few red and green wires that came up out the gown. Kissing his lips, she caressed his face before a gasp like sob left her. "I'm here Braydon, you're okay. I'm here."

 Jason stepped out of the room to give them some privacy and the crying duo down the hall saw him the second he saw them. The older man got up and the resemblance to Rory was uncanny.

"Mr. Carpe?" He asked as he got a little closer. 

"Rory's parents?" Jason asked, already the knowing the answer. "How is he?"

"Stable. He took a nasty knock to the head and has a broken arm. The doctors said he was very lucky. Until the swelling goes down," the man stopped, struggling to swallow, "around his brain, we don't know the extent of his injuries just yet."

"He is a good kid and I'm sure he's going to be fine."

"Thank you sir, it means a lot you would come here." The pair shook hands and offered to go make them a coffee to keep himself busy.

It was a good thing he wasn't around when Braydon opened his eyes. The eyes of the wolf greeted Miranda as the heart monitor finally evened out. 

"Hey there Wolfy!" She reached over to the tissue box and wiped her nose. With a blink, Braydon stared back at her now, his eyes glazed over as clearly what ever they gave him to knock him out was still in his system. "Hey you too."

He only groaned, moving his hand to touch the bandage on top of his head. "You're okay?"

"I'm totally fine!" She kissed his cheek, his nose and finally his lips as relief flowed through her.

"Rory?" Braydon mumbled.

"I- ah," Why didn't she ask about Rory? "I don't-"

"He's stable." Jason told her from the door and that woke Braydon up. "He has some swelling, but the doctors think he's going to be fine."

"Thank you Jason," Miranda gripped Braydons hand, rubbing small circles by his thumb as she saw him tense.

"I'll just be out here." He left them alone once more and instantly Braydon looked to Miranda for an explanation.

"Settle down. He got me here in one piece and you told me not to go anywhere alone!"

"True." Braydon sighed.

"What happened? It was a car accident?"

"Yeah, we'd only gone a couple of blocks and as we went through the lights, someone must have hit us." Shifting to sit up a little, the last of the drugs worked their way out of his system. Apart from the few bruises and cuts, he was fine now. Especially since he had Miranda with him.

"If that stupid hunk of junk is to blame, I'm going to sue that hire company!" 

"I don't think it was, Chad messaged me to before it happened." Braydon admitted.

"It was a car accident though? Surely they wouldn't do something like that?" Miranda looked at Braydon, knowing he was set on blaming the shifters. "Accidents do happen Braydon. Every day. It's just, unfortunate."

Braydon only nodded. Not buying it at all. As soon as he got out of there, he was going to go and make it clear to all of them to stay the hell away from him and her.

"Listen to me Braydon!" Miranda demanded his attention, "Why would they go after you like that?"

He couldn't believe she didn't see it like he did. "That was your car, that you'd had since Friday. If they were watching us, they would know that and barely ten minutes before it happened, you were in it, with me. It would take a lot to actually hurt me Miranda, but you? You could be Rory right now, or worse!"

With that he sat up and went to start removing the heart monitor and other things they'd put on him. If Chad hadn't warned him, then maybe, just maybe, he wouldn't be so paranoid about it all and could see it from Miranda's point of view. Yet he could even she was thinking like him now as her face paled.

"They would really try and kill me?" She whispered. Sure she'd expected some backlash, but nothing like this.  Kill or be killed. It's basic instinct really; law of the wild, and they were dealing with wolves. She still struggled to believe it though.

"They tried. They won't again!" He promised, hitting the off button on the heart monitor as it flatlined due to him taking it off.

"What?" Miranda blinked out of her daze, and realised what Braydon meant. "No! No, Braydon!"

 The commotion had a couple of nurses and Jason coming back in, which didn't exactly help Braydons mood. 

"Braydon, you're still suffering from a concussion. You're not going anywhere until the doctor has done the afternoon rounds." One of the nurses spoke up and Miranda wondered the male duo had been purposefully assigned to Braydon's room.

"Calm down, nothing is going to happen now and you're not exactly in the position to do a lot either!" Miranda ordered him, pushing Braydon down to the bed

"But what-"

"No. Not today." She said firmly.

No one moved until he reluctantly got back into bed and the bolder of the two nurses moved back to turn back on the heart monitor.

"Behave. I'm going to go see Rory." Miranda sighed, the weight of what he had said it that could have been her now heavy on her shoulders. The second she was out of the room, Jason kept pace with her.

"What is going on? I heard some of that, are you in some kind of trouble?" Jason demanded.

"No. Yes. It doesn't matter Jason. Thanks for being here, but you can go if you like." Miranda sighed, stopping just outside Rory's room as Jason pointed it out. 

"Andy, please stop pushing me away! I can help!" 

"No, you really can't." Which was true. No one could unless they knew how to get a pissed off she-wolf to go away that didn't have to result in some kind of death threat. Glancing back towards Braydon's room, she half expected to see him sneaking out. "While I'm in here, can you just, make sure he doesn't try to leave again?"

It was a lot to ask, but Jason nodded and opening his mouth to say something else, he didn't and instead went back to the seat outside Braydon's room. If nothing else, that could be enough of a distraction to keep Braydon from going anywhere and Miranda went in to see Rory's parents and her assistant, who had become so much more to her in these last few months.

-x-

Nicholas went up to the third floor with a bouquet of flowers and a cocky grin. Adjusting his tie, eh walked out into the Ward B as if he owned it and since it was a ward full of humans, the shifters scent was easy to identify. Yet so was one other.

His smile dropped as he paused and sniffed the air, not quite sure what was going on. He had been told it was successful. The taxi driver had done as the shifter with the gun had wanted. Two people were taken to hospital and there was no one by the humans name here. There was his nephew though and so why the hell was that woman's scent now in the corridor?

'Sir, this is a closed ward. Can I help you?" The skinny boy asked, appearing from behind the nurses counter. 

"Sorry, Nicholas Winters, I'm here for my nephew, Braydon."

"Just one moment."

The weak example of a human went back around to his computer and it was then Nicholas saw the one who had sent that investigator. Keeping his head down, he used the flowers to block the rest of his face and glancing back over, his fake smile altered to that of a snarl as Miranda came out of one of the rooms. As he watched Jason took her sobbing form into his arms and as Miranda wiped her eyes and said something to him, the duo walked back up to one of the other rooms.

She wasn't in the car.

There wasn't any record of her being here because she was dead; it was because she wasn't in the accident at all.

"Okay Mr. Winters," The nurse looked up to find himself alone and after walking around the counter the ding of the doors on the elevator closing gave him an idea as where he went. Shrugging he went and sat back down to finish his lunch.

"Manuel, we have a problem!" Nicholas growled down the phone, storming through the lobby and back out to the where his car waited.

"You have a problem. I wanted no part in this."

"You wanted Braydon gone. I had a solution for that and unfortunately for you, your daughter is in too deep now to walk away. All I have to do is tell my nephew it was all your doing and I'm sure we can see how that is going to end!" He warned.

"Using Carolina was never part of the deal and this latest stunt goes against what we agreed. Do not make me your enemy now Nicholas." Manuel snapped back.

"Or what? You rule over pups and we both know how your last fight turned out. Help me or loose it all, again."

Silence.

"What do you suggest then?" Manuel caved.

"Miranda wasn't in the accident. We're going to have to lay low until this passes over and it's taken as nothing more than bad luck."

"Fine. Carolina is going to struggle with that though!"

"Then I suggest you control your daughter." Hanging up, Nicholas couldn't believe how hard this had all become. Manuel was a loose end he'd be willing to get rid off. That would make sure Carolina was under his control. The she-wolf was smart, strong, but blind at the moment and he had to make the most of that while he could. 

If he could use her to manipulate Braydon, he needed the human gone. The whole situation had him seeing red. He came from a strong shifter bloodline, proud wolves and lasting pack leaders. For his nephew to be even in this position was an embarrassment to their family name. It was time he came home, where he belonged.

-x-

Putting down the phone, Manuel was restless. He didn't want to lose his daughter. He liked their life and home and it was the only reason why he had the young there. She was a natural teacher, a strong leader. All signs of a good Alpha. He had known it all along and while they lived in exile, he thought he'd never worry about losing her.

Then she had to find her mate.

"Dad, was it him? Is it done?" Carolina burst back into the room, yet the second she saw her father, she knew something was wrong. "Dad?"

"No. It's not. They fucked up!" He sighed.

"What?" 

"It wasn't the woman with him. She's very much fine and, alive."

As much as he didn't want Carolina to leave him and rejoin a pack, let alone lead one - he didn't like this. The way she had been so blood thirsty, listening to Nicholas fill her mind with his plan.  The last few days had been hell, watching her suffer her loss as if Braydon had already died. He knew that pain, but he had his daughter to pull him through it. Well, part of him through it. He hadn't been the same since that day when his own ego got to much and he was put in his place. Yet he still hadn't back down and because of that, he lost his mate as she went to defend him. 

Just like Carolina, Maria had a strong spirit. A sense of right and wrong. Yet looking at Carolina now, he didn't his daughter. 

"Carolina, Nicholas wants to wait until this blows over before trying again. We need to keep ourselves distanced from it so Braydon won't suspect we're behind it."

"She isn't dead?" She growled, not hearing much else.

Why does that human keep beating her?

"This isn't you sweetheart! Stop for a second and listen to yourself!" He begged, his resolve weakening as the one soft spot he had left was distancing herself from him. 

 Cold, lifeless eyes met his and Carolina slowly sat in the chair before his desk. "Dad, I'm stronger than this. I'm stronger than her. We will wait and our chance will come."

That's what he was afraid of.

-x-

Two days later, Rory woke up. Miranda ended up staying in a hotel as Braydon wasn't so sure about going home and he wasn't leaving her alone for a minute. Somehow amidst the chaos, he and Jason called a truce. Seeing the pair together, actually together, seemed to make something register in Jason's mind that it really was game over for the pair of them.

Since Miranda blamed herself for Rory, both men did all they could to try and assure her there was nothing she could have done. Jason thought it was because she had him returning the hire care, but obviously Braydon knew the truth. 

Her handover with Finn was short and simple. He already knew how she worked since she had trained him to the exact same job but with Tyson and he had his own Rory to bring along too. Jason didn't care she spent more time at the hospital than at work, even speaking to Gray once he found out that's where she was going about getting some time off before starting.

"He's awake!" Leigh called out into the corridor where Miranda was half asleep curled against Braydon. The doctor rushed in before Braydon had helped her up and standing by his parents, it took them ten minutes before his parents were allowed in first, then Braydon and Miranda.

The first thing he said to her had Miranda bursting into tears. "Sorry for not picking up your new car!"

"God you're an idiot!" She carefully hugged him, "I'm so glad you're going to be okay."

"You look terrible by the way, have you been looking after yourself?" Rory scolded, yet his voice was raspy from not being used.

"You're kidding right?" Miranda half laughed, half sobbed as Braydon pulled her back into his arms.

Rory started coughing and as the nurse came in, she got him some water and helped him get a drink, before checking over his charts.

"Where you even in the car?" He asked Braydon; who looked as if nothing had happened.

"I heal quick and you took the force of the hit," Braydon mumbled, wishing he could have told him he had superpowers and wasn't as fragile as his human friend. He knew Rory would like that, but the risk of telling him about what he was, especially now was to high.

"Well, Andy, you look in worse shape than he does. Go home. I'm fine!" Rory, for the first time in forever, hated all the attention and looking down at his arm, the same one he'd damaged in the plane crash, he cursed. "I only just got this thing back in shape. How can I play my playstation now?"

And just like, Miranda knew he was going to be fine.

 By the time they got back to the hotel, Miranda was exhausted. The last three weeks had been a nightmare, apart from her weekend turning out so well, but that felt more like a good dream than an actual event. "I miss my bed and my wardrobe! Can we please go home tomorrow?"

"Yeah," Braydon agreed, "Hungry?"

"Starving!"

"Room service?" He found the menu, not feeling like going out again. Looking over at Miranda, he coulnd't help frown as he noticed how thin she was looking. No amount of make up seemed able to the puffy, dark circles around her eyes either and now Rory was okay, surely she'd start to improve back to how she was before, well everything. 

By the time it arrived though, Miranda was spread out on the lounge sound asleep and unable to bring himself to wake her, he let her be. Going out onto the balcony, he scanned the car park below before looking over the city where someone the ones who had threatened his friend and mate were running free.  The urge to go out and hunt them all down had the wolf making his blood burn with the need to shift. They had to be shown their place. 

'We need to keep her safe.'  It tried to reason with him.

"I know." He mumbled in response.

To try and calm down, Braydon went back inside and carefully picked Miranda up. She barely stirred except to lean in closer against hi and the second she was down on the bed, tucked in and safe he shifted. The wolf sought revenge and had to defend what was his. They had gone too far with the accident, and now everything had turned out okay, it was time to leave his pack and hunt them down. 

'She needs us here, to guard her. What if they're watching and know when we leave?' Braydon thought, and after much arguing, the wolf reluctantly agreed.

Jumping up on the bed, he animal curled up beside her and with his head resting on her belly; the steady action of her breathing helping to sooth out his frustrations and growing paranoia. After all Braydon was right. If he left her, who would be there to keep her safe?

-----

One more chapter to go.......