Michael had just made it onto the East Wing's second floor when he pulled out his moonstone and lifted it to his lips.

"Zanna, I do not know if you are listening, but if you are, we need to talk right now. And if you are but plan on ignoring me, just know 'tis about Aria, who just came to the castle to speak with the Alpha."

He was certain she could not ignore that.

"Meet me in the West Wing as soon as possible. I mean it, Zanna. As soon as possible."

He pocketed the stone and continued on with his trek to the West Wing.

After making a turn, he heard hushed voices as he walked past a side corridor. He stopped to turn his head, expecting them to belong to some omegas. Instead, he saw Danica and Lukas.

Michael would not have thought much of it had they not been tucked away in the shadows much like he and his mother had been moments ago.

They both turned their heads at the same time and looked at him. When Danica's eyes met his, she distanced herself from his guard and walked up to him with her pink lips curved into a smile.

"Hello." She lifted her hand to tuck a stray hair behind her ear. "I was just asking your guard about your whereabouts."

He had not asked, but her eagerness to explain could have only meant she did not want him to misunderstand. But misunderstanding would have meant he cared.

And he most certainly did not.

Michael looked at Lukas, who remained tucked away in the dark hallway, then back at Danica. "In the shadows?"

Her smile receded as she casted her gaze to the ground. "I snuck out of my chambers, and only wished not to be caught."

That explained why her attendants were nowhere to be found.

"What is it you wanted?"

She looked up at him. "I wanted to ask if you could show me around the castle tomorrow?"

"I will be busy. If that is all you wished to ask, then you can return to your chambers."

He turned to walk away, but she clutched onto his arm before he could take a step.

"Please."

The moment he looked down at her hand, she pulled it away. He looked up at her, not to reprimand her for touching him but because her touch felt...wrong. She was an undeniably pretty girl—his future mate—yet her touch stirred nothing inside of him.

"Please," she repeated.

Michael sighed. Because he had more important things to do at the moment, and figured it would be the only way to make her go away, he agreed.

"Fine." He shifted his gaze to Lukas. "Take her back to her chambers."

He figured he could kill two birds with one stone—get rid of her, and prevent the guard from following him.

Still standing in the darkness of the corridor, Lukas turned his head and looked at Michael. "I think the lady would much prefer it if you took her."

Michael looked down at Danica. The hope in her eyes was not enough to make him reconsider. In fact, it only made him want to draw a clear line even more. But that, too, had to wait.

"If only I had not already commanded you to do so."

A few silent seconds ticked by before Lukas walked over and met them in the light. "Lady Danica," he gestured for her to start walking.

She looked between him and Lukas until she realized she only had one choice and started to walk away.

Only when they were out of sight did Michael continue on with his trek to the West Wing.

Within a quarter of an hour, he was able to make it to the ruins without any other delays. When he walked into the room where he previously waited for her, Zanna was already inside and in the process of sliding the hood of her black cloak off her head.

He barely had time to be surprised by her appearance or shut the door before she began her interrogation.

"Tell me word for word what Aria said."

"Hello to you, too."

She looked at him, and he looked back at her. After a brief moment of silence, she crossed the space between them, and he opened his arms for her to walk into his embrace.

Again, she had come, and, again, he was grateful.

After their embrace, Michael recapped everything—from Aria's request for the Woodlands, to the alleged century-old promise of the territory made by the Wolves.

After he was done, Zanna turned her back to him and walked a few steps away. "That means we must act fast."

He could not agree more. The sooner the fairy left, the better. "So your mother and the Witches have agreed?"

"Reluctantly, but yes."

"When?"

"The upcoming Moonrise."

Moonrise? The next full moon was weeks away. Had she not just stated how urgent the situation was?

"Surely it is not that hard to open a magical door, get the fairy through it, and close it."

She whirled around and her eyes narrowed in on him. "Not that hard? It may sound easy to you, but 'tis far from it. It can only be opened on Moonrise, as that is when magic is strongest."

But the full moon was also the only night out of every month when wolves were forced to shift. Being the product of two Alpha bloodlines, he could delay shifting, but only for a few hours, at most. Would he even be able to send the fairy off?

"Not to mention, the things required to open the door."

Michael's eyes followed her as she began to pace back and forth. "What things?"

She ignored him.

"Zanna, what things," he repeated a bit louder.

She stopped. "Things that will not be as easy to obtain. The door was never meant to be re-opened."

"If it opened once, I am sure it can open again."

"We had the most powerful of Fae then to open it. Now, we only have one fairy, who has been separated from her people for nearly a year."

"Why does that matter?"

She shook her head as she looked at him with clear disappointment written on her face. "Do you know nothing of the Fae, Michael? Much like wolves, they are stronger together than they are apart. Their light—their very essence—feed off of and strengthen each other."

Was that why the fairy seemed so weak and fragile? Being separated from the Fae had been draining her strength?

"I do not know the current condition of her light, but as she is the only fairy left, we will have to make do. Besides, Fae light is not the only requirement, but one of four. We will also need wolf blood, and a dark object."

He did not have to ask what the wolf blood was for, as he knew it was a requirement for the Witches to perform dark magic. He would offer his, just as his mother had given hers to them.

"And the fourth?"

Her expression turned serious. "If we cannot obtain the first three, the fourth will not matter."

He had a fairy, and the blood they needed running through his veins. But a dark object?

"Surely, a dark object would be within your means of obtaining."

She shook her head. "Aria has all dark objects heavily guarded. She knows the Fae had help, but has not been able to figure out which Witches helped them. You will have to find one, Michael, as dark magic cannot be performed without one."

Michael shot her a look and waited for her to recant what she had just said.

She did not.

"You cannot be serious, Zanna."

Among the millions of things he had to do—attend pack meetings, entertain his future mate, make sure the fairy was not discovered, be on constant guard to ensure the Wolves were not going into the Woodlands, protect his mother's secret—he now had to go on a scavenger hunt?

"I do not even know what a dark object is."

"'tis an object once light turned dark."

Because that explained so much.

"And where exactly does one even find one?"

"Why, in the dark, of course." She scoffed, as if the answer had been so obvious.

"Really, Zanna?" It was not the time for her snarkiness.

"You live in a castle that has been inhabited for centuries. I am sure you could find a dark object lying around somewhere within these walls. You need only look."

"Zanna, I have no time for riddles. Tell me."

She eyed him, then turned her back to him and walked towards the closed door. Once she reached it, she stopped. "I have heard stories about a locked room in the ruins of the West Wing. They say it holds a very powerful dark object."

Michael knew which room she was referring to—it was only a few feet away from the room they were currently in—but the stories he had heard since he was a pup told of the room imprisoning an evil monster.

As he got older, he had figured the stories were used as a warning to prevent the pups from going to the ruins of the West Wing, not because they had been true.

"It cannot be opened with dark magic, hence why it has been locked for nearly a century."

"And if the Witches cannot open it, how am I supposed to?"

"That is for you to figure out, Michael. It is my understanding that locked doors only open for those who ask, those it recognizes, and those deemed worthy to enter."

"Now is not the time for riddles."

She turned around. "Nor is it the time for you to stall if protecting your mother is as important to you as you claimed." She crossed the room to stand in front of him. "If you wish to call off the plan, tell me now. It is easier to end things before they start, rather than trying to stop them after they have."

She pulled her hood over her head and began to fasten the buttons on her cloak. "If you are not willing—"

He grabbed hold of her hand. "I am."

She peered up at him. "Are you sure?"

Protecting his mother was the one thing he was most sure of. If getting what Zanna needed was the only way to achieve his goal, then he had no other choice but to try.

"I am sure."

She resumed buttoning her cloak. "Then I suggest you start with what you can easily obtain. Remember, Michael, we only have until Moonrise."

If getting a dark object was going to be the hardest, and wolf blood the easiest, then obtaining Fae light fell somewhere in between.

It looked like he would be heading back to the Woodlands.

* * *

He was getting better at this.

As Michael made his way through the Woodlands, his mouth curved into a smile every time he recognized different cluster of trees, or remembered where to make a left or right turn. The sun being at its highest point in the sky certainly helped, but his pride would not allow it to take full credit.

Now that he knew how the fairy became aware when someone entered into her home, she was most likely going to find him before he found her. Even so, he found himself starting to not entirely hate navigating the massive, foreign land that was seemingly becoming a lot more familiar.

Despite time being of the essence, Michael was in no particular rush to be found. He maintained a steady pace, hoping the slower he walked the more time he would have to figure out just exactly how he would go about obtaining the fairy's light.

But perhaps he had been a little too relaxed because before he knew it, he found himself along a path that led him to a part of the Woodlands he did not recognize at all.

He stopped and scanned the area until his eyes landed upon something that made the hairs on the back of his neck stand up—a large oak tree. It was not the tree itself but its trunk that had caused the reaction.

He moved towards it, and his heart began to race the closer he got. Once he stood directly in front of it, an identical image of it flashed through his mind.

It could not be.

His eyes trailed over four names carved into the rough, grey-brown wood.

Freya.

Nissa.

Raisie.

Ellette.

It was impossible. It was supposed to be just a dream. How could he have dreamt of a tree he had never seen until now?

He lifted a hand to touch it, but his entire body stilled when, above him, the tree's barren branches began to sway, causing a light sprinkle of snow to fall all around him.

He looked around, and just as he had witnessed them do so many times before, the trees began to rustle without a breeze around to provoke them.

Someone had entered.

Given everything that had happened the day before, Michael immediately feared the worst.

Had Aria chosen not to wait for his father's decision and decided to claim the Woodlands?

With a final look at the names etched into the its trunk, he backed away from the tree, turned around and ran.

He followed the rustling trees, but because the fairy had not been around to perform the spell that made them guide him out of the Woodlands, he was unsure if they were actually leading him out or if he was heading in the wrong direction.

It was only when he saw a figure standing in the distance that he got the answer.

The last person he expected the intruder to be was Danica.

Dressed in a long, dark green cloak, she stood not too far from the entrance of the Woodlands. He walked over to her, the sound of his footsteps prompted her to turn her head in his direction. When their eyes met, she smiled.

His eyes glazed over the snowflakes all over her dark auburn hair and her cloak before settling back on her face. "Why are you here?"

Despite his tone, the smile on her lips had not faltered. "One of my attendants said she saw you heading in the direction of the Woodlands. I came to find you."

He was certain nobody had seen him leave the castle, let alone enter the Woodlands. Had he not been as careful as he thought, or had she been watching him a little too closely? She had already proven the night before how easily she could sneak away.

He opened his mouth to ask why, but then remembered he had promised to show her around.

"I forgot my promise to show you around the castle. I apologize."

"No, 'tis quite alright." Her body spun around as she looked in each and every direction. "I have heard stories about the Woodlands, but the stories and descriptions do not do it justice. 'Tis more beautiful than I ever imagined."

"Among the stories you have heard, I am sure one of them warned of it being off limits."

Only then did her smile fade as she lowered her head. "I figured it would be okay since you were here."

He wanted to tell her she had thought wrong. That the Woodlands was not a place for her to come and go as she pleased, nor a place to enter out of curiosity. But how could he tell her that without sounding like a hypocrite? He had good reason to be in the Woodlands, but he could not tell her that.

The only thing he could do was get her out. But if he demanded she return and stayed behind, it would only draw suspicion. He would have to take her out himself and try to come back later.

"I was just leaving."

Just in case she decided to ask him what brought him to the Woodlands in the first place, he brushed past her to leave the Woodlands.

After a few feet, he turned his head to the side to see if she was following, but something caught his attention. Off in the distance to his right, he noticed a cluster of trees not moving despite the swaying trees surrounding them.

The fairy was there, watching them.

He stopped and looked back at Danica, who was slowly trailing behind him but had her gaze on the snowy ground.

He was already in the process of getting her out, but it was a sudden sense of urgency that pushed him to grab her hand and practically pull her towards the exit.

And the entire time he pondered over four things.

First, if it was solely the Woodlands he wanted to get Danica as far away as possible from, or if it was the fairy.

Second, which scenario would have been worse—being caught with the fairy by Danica, or having the fairy see him with Danica.

Third, what he would tell the fairy about Danica when he saw her next.

And fourth, what the fairy thought after seeing them together, and why he seemed to care.

A/N: Danica just can't seem to leave Michael alone. How upset would ya'll be if her & Michael end up being endgame?