I stopped in front of the fire and took a deep breath. I called the fire towards me and gathered it into a small ball, ignoring the new people that were gathered around me.

"Are you two ok?" I asked and clasped the ball together until it disappeared.

"We are," Giselle confirmed from where she was protecting a cowering Caroline. "Are you ok?" she asked, concerned. "Are you hurt?"

I shook my head, no. "I am not," I said, surprised that I was still standing, "but I do think that I had used more energy than I should have."

Giselle frowned and slowly nodded. Worry filled her eyes, and she took a step towards me but stopped when someone growled a warning.

I groaned and closed my eyes, knowing full well that Cooper was coming over to us.

Couldn't this happen later? I silently asked with another groan. I'm too tired to deal with his shit.

Cooper growled again, and I rolled my eyes and scowled. "What are you?" he asked. He made no move to touch me, and I was grateful because I did not want to get shoved away from them when I was still very hyper aware of my surroundings and protecting them.

"The Red Wolf's Daughter," I replied and opened my eyes to look at him. "I thought we had gone over this, especially since I look like her, act like her, and I have the same goodies as she does."

"If not more," Giselle said softly, and I knew that she wasn't talking about me having other powers because she didn't know herself. "Did you know that you were glowing?"

I cocked my head and looked at her with furrowed brows. "What do you mean?" I asked, confused. "I know that my spear was glowing, but I didn't know that anything else was glowing."

Giselle shook her head, and she smiled, her eyes filled with hope and relief. "You were glowing as well," she said, "while you were saving someone else's life."

I didn't respond and looked at Caroline to see what she had to say.

Caroline slowly nodded, and her eyes were wide. She didn't say a word, and I had a feeling that it was because she was in awe, which I didn't understand why.

I wrinkled my nose and pursed my lips. "All I was doing was making sure that an innocent wouldn't turn into an uninnocent," I said, "because it looked like he was going to kill an innocent."

Cooper scoffed and rolled his eyes. "Like there were any innocents in that group," he said darkly. "They are all bad. They deserve t-"

"And that is where I am going to stop you," I said, interrupting him while I looked at him, "and remind you that Mom wouldn't have liked that talk at all."

"But she isn't here," Cooper replied. "It shouldn't matter wh-"

"It should if you want to keep the hope alive," I said, interrupting him, "not only for you but for the people that you swore to serve and protect." I gestured to Giselle and Caroline, and he looked at them before he looked at me.

Giselle shifted on her feet and looked nervous and sad. She looked away from me when I looked at her before she cleared throat and looked at me again. "That is something that is hard to come by these days," she said softly when Cooper didn't say a word.

I looked at her and raised an eyebrow, staying silent while I waited for her to continue to talk. I knew what she wanted to say, but I wanted to hear it, to hear her thoughts and fears.

I wanted her to let me know what she was worried about and to give her the hope that she desperately wanted and craved.

Giselle sighed and shook her head before she cleared her throat again. "Hope," she said softly, ignoring Cooper's growl of warning. "We haven't had that much hope to give because of what has happened."

"And that is none of your business," Cooper said before Giselle could tell me what happened. He scowled and narrowed his eyes while I raised an eyebrow and looked at him. "You should still be locked up and held as a prisoner like you are."

I held back an eye roll and scowled. "Uh... how about no," I said and rolled my eyes when he growled. "I don't think I will be locked up again, especially since you aren't prepared for the influx of "prisoners" that you do have. Nor do you seem to know the reason why these people were able to get in here without anyone raising the alarms until it was too late."

"And you think you can find that information?" Cooper asked with a scoff and rolled eyes. "No one is going to tell you anything."

"They don't need to," I replied and shrugged. "I had a feeling that you were going to order the remainder of your pack not to talk to me, but you can't control other packs, and you can't control the king, so I could see if they can't answer my questions."

I paused and tapped my chin while I thought about something else.

Mockingly, I raised my eyebrows and looked at him with wide eyes and raised a finger. "Oh, and one other thing, there are Witches, Warlocks, Vampires, and Demons, that don't technically have to listen to your instructions because you aren't that important."

Cooper growled and took a threatening step towards me. Anger filled his face, and power came off of him in waves. "I am the blue wolf," he growled and bared his teeth. "I control water. I outrank you."

I rolled my eyes, and I couldn't help but let the eye roll become a head roll. "And I am the Siran, whatever the fuck that means," I replied. I wrinkled my nose when I realized that I hadn't said that to him yet. "Oops."

Cooper blinked and blinked again, his mouth went wide while he looked at me. "What the fuck does that mean?" he asked, finally. He narrowed his eyes and scowled while he took another step toward me. "Answer me."

"No," I replied sassily. "I have no idea what it means anyway, and even if I did, I wouldn't tell you."

Cooper raised an eyebrow. "And why not?" he asked.

"Because you are an asshole," I replied. "And the grrrrrrring and yelling does not make me want to be nice and cough up information for you about me."

"Then you are sent here to kill us."

I couldn't help it; I started to laugh. I wasn't talking about a normal "haha," but it was a full on body laugh that had me clutching my sides and bending forward.

"Is she ok?" someone, Thaddeus, I think, asked someone else, who was standing next to him. "She looks to be having a manic breakdown."

Cooper growled but didn't lay a hand on me like I thought he would. He set his jaw and narrowed his eyes while he scowled and waited for me to stop laughing.

"Oh, good one, good one," I said and wiped the tears from my eyes while I stood. "Thank you, Cooper, I really needed that." I blinked back the tears and cleared my throat, trying to gain control of myself. "That was a funny joke, do you have anything else you want to add?"

Cooper narrowed his eyes further, and his scowl deepened.

"Oh, stop with the narrowed eyes and scowl," I said, "or else your face will freeze like that."

"Then state why you are here, or does Tabitha need to put another spell on you?"

I held up one finger. "For one, it doesn't work. She's not at her full power, so her spells won't affect me like you want, especially if I am protected by my Tabitha, who is a lot stronger than her." I held up another finger. "Two, I don't think she will do it again, and since she is a higher rank than Percy and others, I am sure she will tell them not to. Since you don't outrank her, even though you think you do because you gave a blue wolf, you can't order them to go against her orders."

Cooper opened his mouth to say something but stopped when I raised my hand to silence.

"I am not done yet, so close your fucking mouth before I close it for you."

Slowly, Cooper closed his mouth and scowled, and I had a feeling that the others gathered around us were shocked that he listened to me.

I held up a third finger. "I am here to help and to learn about myself and what it means to be the Siran. Since my grandfather won't tell me, then I have to find the information in some other way. And before you say, "your grandfather is dead," or something along those lines, I know that they are dead, but I consider the higher rank species as my grandparents too. Their children are considered my uncles and aunts, with the exception of Vulcan's kid and then Whisper's children, and the rest are considered my cousins."

"So you know us?" Thaddeus asked from somewhere to my left, and I looked that way to see an older version of my uncle, who had lost that childish spark that my uncle seemed to carry.

I nodded in confirmation. "And your kids up until Beth," I said, talking about their fourth kid. "If you have more than four, then I have no idea who they are."

"We have twelve," Thaddeus replied. He looked around for his mate to see if he was correct before he looked at Giselle when he couldn't find her. "We have twelve, right?" he asked and raised an eyebrow.

At least his humor didn't change that much, I thought, and a small smile flickered across my face.

Giselle held back an annoyed eye roll and bit back a small sigh. "Yes, you have twelve children," she said. "Why do you not know this, Thaddeus?"

Thaddeus didn't respond and shrugged.

Cooper cleared his throat, and we looked at him to see that he was again scowling with narrowed eyes. His gaze was focused on me, and I rolled my eyes but didn't say another word to him.

Giselle hesitated and looked between us before she looked at me. "What do you want to do with the people in those circles you have around them?" she asked, changing the subject.

I shrugged and placed my hands behind my back. "I know that they are going to have to be "processed" or whatever they go through before they are allowed to join, but I do think that it's in their best interest, and yours, that you help them." I looked at Cooper.

Cooper scowled and rolled his eyes. "I do not know why they should be "processed," but they will be a part of the pack. Are you sure that they are innocent, however? They could be lying to you."

Again, I rolled my eyes, and it again turned into a head roll. "I can feel it as my mom has felt it," I replied. "If you drop all of this," I gestured to him up and down, "then you'd feel it too."

Cooper raised an eyebrow, and his face grew darker. "Stop what, exactly?" he asked, and there was a small warning in his voice. "What do I need to stop?"

"I haven't figured it out yet, but I do know that this needs to stop," I replied. "Your attitude sucks. You aren't doing your "job," and you are going to need to start doing it soon unless you want another one to bite the dust." I gave him a pointed look while Caroline shifted on her feet and looked nervous.

"Wait, you know?" Thaddeus asked, and I had a feeling that he knew I was talking about Caroline being the next red wolf. "How?" He looked at her before he looked at me curiously. "Did she tell you?"

"I just know," I replied. "She didn't tell me, but I... felt it." I wrinkled my nose and shrugged. "I felt that she was one and that my mom had died."

Liam shifted on his feet and looked guilty, and I had a feeling that he killed her.

I looked at him and smiled sadly while I dipped my head. "It's not your fault," I said, soothingly. "She would have rather died than to hurt an innocent. I know that Mom is still worried about that in my timeline, and she has these fear talks with Dad."

I shrugged and wrinkled my nose while I pursed my lips. "It... might be the reason why I had been given the quest to help this pack and not her..."

"Hmph," Cooper said, uninterested. He looked at those that were gathered. "Tie up the innocents in those circles," he said. "Put them in tents. We will interrogate them later, alone." He looked at me, and I rolled my eyes and scowled.

"Nice try, Bucko," I said, and he growled in anger. "I'll be coming in too. I am sure that they won't like the way that you are going to question them, and no one has the balls to tell you to "go fuck yourself" in front of your face."

There were a few muffled snickers while Cooper growled and took a threatening step toward me.

"You are still a prisoner," he said. "I would watch your tone with me."

I took a step toward him and closed the gap between us. "I will watch my tone when you stop being a jackass," I said, my tone matching his. "And at this moment, I will not watch it, so you are going to have to deal with it. Understood?"

Cooper growled but didn't attack me like I thought he would. He also backed down, something that I was relieved with and also not expecting. "Whatever," he said coldly. He looked at Giselle. "Make sure that she gets settled in. I don't want her in my way."

Giselle nodded and looked relieved that I wasn't considered a prisoner. "Yes, Alpha," she said. "She won't get in your way."

And with that, he nodded and walked away, leaving us alone and Caroline "unguarded."