Las Vegas, five months after the rescue of Lost Mine Pack.

Sitting down in the reception area, Anjael blinked at the agent acting as courier. She ran her tongue over her pale lips as she read the letter before she turned her ice blue eyes to the Lycani.

"You are aware he fired me and mine because I saved several girls from being sex trafficked and killed three corrupt CIA agents," Anjael reminded in a cool tone. "South America was my last job because of the nature of the threat. I neglected my other responsibilities and almost this entire pack was killed before I could arrive here to help them. Everyone still living lost their mates and their pups. You know what that means and the struggle we face."

The Beta shifted slightly on her feet. "I am sorry that happened."

"No, you aren't. None of the werewolves are. Not a single representative of the surrounding packs, nor a Servant has come to see about their recovery. They are my responsibility, and I will not leave them unprotected." Anjael's pupils slit sideways, and the Beta female stepped back unconsciously.

The phone in the agent's pocket rang. Her neck almost bent in submission as she turned to answer it. "Agent Morley here... yes, sir. It's for you."

Clicking her teeth, Anjael took the smart phone. "No."

An older human's voice responded, "Now, Ms. Wasi."

"Mrs. Wasi or Lady Wasi, Assistant Director. Do not patronize me. I am not cleaning up another one of your agency's corruption problems. It was your agents' fault that lunatic general got his hands on a nuclear weapon six months ago."

"Lady Wasi, this is the director. Our investigation into those agents and their connection to Ukrainian human traffickers proved true and you were absolved of all responsibility. We also appreciate your clan's assistance in the Hummingbird Incident. But we need you."

"You need us?" Anjael scoffed. "If you really needed us, you would have come in person to apologize." She hung up, handing the phone back. "Have a nice drive back to Vegas, Agent Morley."

"You can't refuse," the young Beta insisted.

Anjael smirked, "I just did. The affairs of humans and wolves mean nothing to me. I am a demon, I only care about those beholding to me. I have outlived several kingdoms and dozens of wars. This is just another conflict that will be forgotten in a decade or century." She turned to walk out of the room. "Beta Ethridge, please show her out."

Agent Morley begged, "Please, Lady Wasi. One of our drone operators was abducted after sending back information on a lab. His drone was shot down and when he went to recover it. He found something. He called back with a Priority One Alert. He coded it as Messina."

Anjael's back became rigid as Ouro stepped out of the shadows of the office. Ethridge quickly moved to close the curtains. The UV film hadn't been placed on all the upstairs windows yet.

Ouro's voice sounded inhumanly deep as he demanded, "Messina? Are you certain?"

"Yes," Agent Morley answered, staring in terror at the giant onyx colored male appearing from the shadows of the dark office.

"We will let you know... Beta Ethridge." Anjael waved for him to escort the agent out.

"What's Messina?" Lazarus asked from the door as the front door closed.

"Eavesdropping, Alpha?" Anjael snarked, but Ouro clicked for her not to antagonize him.

"It was the city where they claimed the Black Plague started. A ship came to port with everyone dead or dying," Ouro answered. "Humans were the first to die or so the history books claim and that means the rulers of this nation believe this is a human fatal pathogen which spreads rapidly."

Anjael stood up. "I will make some calls, but we won't have the usual support." She went into the Alpha's office, her office, and closed the door.

As Ridge walked back into the living area, Lazarus asked, "Lord Ouroboros, are these missions risky?"

"Any military mission is a risk. I do not like that we do them, but since World War 2, Anjael insists we do them to spare the human population from risk of exposure. When she saw what small pox did to the indigenous population of this land, the Spanish Flu Pandemic, then the experiments done by the Nazis in the name of science, she has become determined not to let such diseases ravage the population again."

Lazarus didn't seem to be listening, then he volunteered, "Tell Lady Anjael if she needs aid, I will go with to stop these terrorists."

Ridge stared after his alpha. "He volunteered to die."

"I think you are correct, Beta Ethridge," Ouro responded then he inhaled deeply.

"Stop smelling me," Ridge snapped.

"Forgive me. Have you had more dreams?"

His tone made Ridge shiver slightly, but he lied, "No." He went after his Alpha before Ouro could remind him that he could smell the truth.

In the great room, Ridge found Lazarus staring out at the memorial rock garden that replaced the pool where they had been forced to fight to the death to save their loved ones against members of their own pack. Lazarus had lost his mate and child. Ridge had saved his sister. The Beta knew his Alpha was remembering the night he agreed to fight ten so he and Barley could leave, but it was a trick and the rogue alpha had thrown the young luna into the blood covered dry pool as number ten, demanding Lazarus, called Abel then, kill her before he would let Abel leave alive. Abel almost killed him before he was subdued. He and Barley were taken away and the pack felt her death but not his. That was three days before they were rescued by the Bibre Cruor.

The new pool was on the other side of the pack house. Each stone had the name of a pack member lost etched on it. Gravel paths lined with native plants around a simple water feature gave the place the feeling of a spring. Anjael had called the other alphas and demanded to know why they did not aid Lost Mine. That was how he discovered she had bankrolled the other two local packs. He had always thought they were wealthier than his parents' pack, but the truth was the wealth of Anjael and her uncle had built them newer homes. A loan that they were repaying the Cruor over the next two centuries.

"Why did you volunteer to go?" Ridge demanded.

"You heard her, they need help."

"So you aren't going to try to get yourself killed?"

Lazarus turned to face his beta. "I'm already dead. The Moon's hounds just haven't caught up with my body. Maybe if I do these crazy things to save the world like these demons, my mate and the Moon will see that I am not the monster my desperation made me."

Dante entered before Ridge could refute his alpha. "Anjael wishes me to teach you both how to use automatic rifles. Shishi will measure you both for body armor like the humans wear."

"I don't think we need..." Lazarus started but the alabaster colored cruor blinked golden eyes framed with dyed dark lashes to match his hair.

"You will wear body armor, Alpha. You will not die until my queen has a pup from your lineage. She has protected the heirs of the great wolf king for centuries and the deaths of your mother and daughter are something she refuses to forgive herself for. This is only the second time in eight centuries your lineage dwindled to so few."

When neither spoke, Dante placed two soft rifle cases on the table. "First, let's get you familiar with your weapons."

/\^^^^/\

Late 1420s, Italy

Anjael stood on the peak of the Basillica di Santa Maria Assunta in the Patriarchate of Aquileia. She glared at the army of the Venetians and their Hungarian mercenaries, hating that she and her clan were not allowed to fly out and slaughter them in protection of the city. Fearing the power of the Catholic Church and those who hates all who were not human, the bishop ordered the Cruor to not show themselves. Sunset was on the horizon but the glow of fires around the city made it lighter.

She heard a sound far away. A whistle from a Cruor's tooth. Three blasts, a pause, and three more. The distress call came from the hollow fang she had given Wolf King Lycaoan. A token which was handed down to his children. Her allies needed her.

"Uncle Ouroboros! Dartanian!" She bellowed in the clicks and whistles of their language as she leapt down to the courtyard.

A priest rushed toward her. "My lady, you can't be seen... the bishop..."

"Is a fool who won't let us defend the city and send these apostates away in defeat," she snarled at him. "He wants us to leave so we will. There are others who require our aid. As a boon to the people of Aquileia, we will burn the camp before we leave, then you are on your own."

The priest trembled, then bowed, "Forgive him, Fallen Angel, he cannot abide those cast from heaven even if they could save us."

"We are not the cursed creatures of your mythology, priest," Ouroboros reprimanded him.

"Lord Gargoyle, I meant no offense, but I must beg you not to leave us yet."

The three Cruor in their human forms, grew into their larger gargoyles. Anjael looked at the priest sadly then revealed, "Our presence here makes no difference, but elsewhere we may save many lives. May the Lord and his sacred mother bless you and keep you."

As they flew westward, Dartanian asked where they were going and how long it would take.

"The descendants of Lycaoan need us, I hear the whistle from my tooth," Anjael revealed.

"But that is..." Ouroborus started.

"I know how far away it is!" she snapped, "We must reach the France-Spain border as quickly as possible."

/\^^^^/\

After nine nights of hard flying, they arrived in Southern France. Several villages were burned. Fresh graves in cemeteries by abandoned chapels. Wicce had been burned and the hides of werewolves were nailed to trees.

"What is happening in this place?" Dartanian asked in horror.

"We need to find Lycaoan's Pack." Ouro gently pulled the fur from the tree. "Gather the hides."

Solemnly, Anjael and Dartanian removed the wolf skins and then they sheltered in the cemetery as the sun rose. As they were petrified, a tear of fear and worry leaked from Anjael's eyes.

The next night they roared to life, shattering the stone layer encasing them. A wolf lay by the gate. The pile of skins was gone. He chuffed at them and trotted away, so they followed. At the base of the mountains, they entered a forest. In the same meadow where they slayed the unicorn two centuries earlier a camp stood. Anjael shuddered remembering her capture and imprisonment by the Templars. The zealots hated her kind more than any other nonhuman species.

"I didn't think you were real... I didn't think you would come," a young pregnant shewolf stared at the Cruor in awe. "Please, my great-grandfather is waiting."

Anjael was shocked to see Arthuros sitting in a chair. His dark hair was silvery like a foggy morning and his eyes were blind.

"I smell moss roses and stone dust... Come to me, Anutari, give an old wolf a hug."

"My king, you still live," Anjael almost sobbed out her happiness as she hugged him.

"I do, but I had Lucania blow through your tooth for a reason. To beg for a boon, The Vampyri have murdered many including Lycaon and his mate. They have contrived to blame us, so the humans have started hunting us. I need you to help me move the children of your thrall to a safe place."

/\^^^^/\

Modern Times...

As bullets sprayed to room, Anjael slung the terrorist across the room while Ouroboros looked through the vials. He hurriedly packed them into a case as she dealt death.

Dart's clicks and whistles revealed, "They have modified the drone to spray the infection."

"Destroy it but take the computer components," Anjael clicked back as she finished connecting a router, then she typed, "Woods, do your thing."

"Airstrike inward, move out," ordered a voice in her ear.

"Ouro?"

Her uncle was sniffing a vial and then he licked it, then clicked, "We cannot let them have these vials." He put three in his pouch instead of in the case.

A grenade landed in the room so they both jumped through the hole in the ceiling and leapt skyward. Dart clicked as he rejoined them.

"Bats are out of the belfry," Anjael announced over the explosion below them.

"Pick up the dogs at the park." The voice in her ear ordered as they swooped toward the firefight on the edge of the compound.

Lazarus's beast dropped the last body he was mauling as she swept skyward.

"Incoming!" Dart snarled in warning as they scattered like a startled flock of birds.

Surface to air missiles streaked past her as she dodged. Dart dove. Ouro roared to him to save Ridge. He hurled Ridge away as the missile struck him. Ridge's warform beast howled in panic as Dart caught him. Ouro crashed into the trees. Anjael dove toward the location the missiles launch from and dropped Beast. Together, they slaughtered the soldiers. Standing among the dead, she picked up the SAM launcher and swore in several of the ancient languages she knew, then she used her claws to tear out the identifier plate. She looked at the black wolf warform mauling one of the soldiers who had shifted into a werepanther. She realized he was skinning it. Lumbering over, he spat his grizzly offering at her feet.

"My queen," he growled in the language of his beast.

She picked up the hide, it was bloody, torn and ragged, but she felt hope bloom in her chest. "Thank you, Alpha..."

His eyes narrowed, as he shifted and interrupted, "Not Abel. He want to die. Beast's gift."

"What do you mean he wanted to die?" The air left her lungs in a shocked exhale.

"Take off armor. Throw away weapon." He bowed, revealing, "Beast make him sleep. Beast fight the humans and cats."

To give her a moment to think of a response, she folded the skin and stuffed it into a backpack she took from the dead. For a Lycani to be so separated from his wolf that it would take over was a sign that they could become to unstable to be allowed to live. "Thank you, Lazarus's Beast."

He licked the blood from spattered on her cheek. "You're welcome, my queen."

She turned her head, listening to Dart's message. "Let's go. My uncle crashed and is injured. Your Beta is quite upset."

/\^^^^/\

One moment, Ridge as his beast was killing those trying to stop them from destroying the biological weapons lab, then Ouro's strong arms were around his chest. The dark gargoyle's wings beat the air as they climbed then Ouro roared and flung him away. Ridge yelped in fear as he fell but twisted to see a fireball engulfing Ouro.

"I've got you!" Dart shouted over the explosion as they tumbled then Dart spread his wings with a whomp like a parachute.

"There!" Ridge's beast growled as he craned his neck to see where Ouro crashed. As soon as Dart landed and released him, Ridge sprinted toward Ouro as he shifted back into his human. "Ouroboros!" Ridge flung the debris away.

The large dark gargoyle rolled over from where he broke a tree in half. "Bruised," he groaned.

"Give him your blood!" Dart ordered as Ridge lifted Ouro's torso.

Remembering when Ouro had almost died during the battle against the Unicorns, Deamones, and Nosferatu, Ridge shook him. "Lord Ouroboros, you must drink."

Dart licked Ridge's arm then gently pressed Ouro's fangs into the spot. The numb area barely hurt as the blood flowed into the injured gargoyle's system.

Suddenly, Ouro inhaled deeply as he clutched Ridge's arm. He withdrew his fangs, then licked the punctures. "Thank you, my wolf," Ouro murmured then he glanced to Dart. "We need to get back to the extraction point before I petrify."

Anjael landed, "We have killed the last of the resistance."

Ouro groaned again as he melted to his more human for. Worry looked strange on his gargoyle's fearsome face as Dart lifted him, announcing, "There isn't much time."

"I can carry both the Alpha and the Beta in their humans... Fly as fast as you can, he cannot be outside when the sun rises or he will be stone for a month." Anjael tried to be brave as a queen should be, but she feared her uncle was going to perish if they didn't beat the dawn to shelter. "Ridge, clip yourself to the back of my harness. Beast, I am going to have to hold you."

"Alpha Lazarus?" Ridge asked as soon as they were airborne.

"He took off his body armor and threw away his weapon. He tried to get himself killed and his beast took over. The Alpha Wolf wants to live, even his human does not," Anjael explained then they flew in silence.

Landing at an airport across the border in another country, they got in her private jet and departed as the sun rose. The stone encrusted body of Lord Ouroborus remained frozen in an almost fetal position. Ridge tried not to let the Cruor smell his internal conflict and he was glad that his alpha had freaked out and then wolfed out because Anjael and Dart had to subdue him twice on the flight back to Vegas when Lazarus realized his gambit failed because his wolf refused to die.

After they arrived at Lost Mine, Ridge showered while Anjael met with the government agent who had come before. She claimed all the computer data and the pathogens were lost when Ouroboros was almost blown up. Ridge knew it was a lie, however he didn't care about anything but sleep. That day he dreamed again about how his arm had been withered to a husk as he stabbed a Deamones with a Unicorn's horn while Ouroboros stabbed it with its own emerald encrusted pole-arm. The gargoyle had ripped the weapon from their enemy then had bitten Ridge's arm off to keep him from dying. But it wasn't Ridge, it was a wolf named Bédoier of Brittani, a cousin to wolf king Arthuros. Together, the lovers had slain four Principalities, many lesser Deamones, as well as several Unicorns and Nosferatu. The battle raged in his dreams until both were almost dead.

Waking hours later, Ridge rubbed his numb arm and clenched the hand he had lost in a lifetime seven centuries ago. Unable to stop himself, Ridge went down to Ouroboros's cellar rooms and sat next to the bed holding his curled stone form. "Please wake up."