Bran stared into the fire of his study as he let the thoughts trample through his mind.

The court case with Les Heuter had made the werewolves look like nothing but savage animals. It was the complete opposite of Bran's hopes. The forum that was featured on the television was simply one of many that were now being featured around the world against them and the supernatural community.

They needed to get back into a better light to the public somehow. To make the public see them a defenders, not enemies. There was no other way to help their situation and what it had become! There was no way to simply make the entire world forget his words, or for it to forget the Heuter case.

So what could they do?! He had to think of something! Anything!

"Don't stare at the fire so intently, my friend," Asil spoke to his left, momentarily bringing Bran back into the moment as the male closed the book in his hands. Treasure Island, Bran smiled in memory of his son buying him the book. The smile faded, however, as he thought of the press using Charles' killing of the stag as fuel for their consuming fires. Even his children were in danger!

"Da," Charles spoke from the other couch beside Asil's and Bran new he had heard something in his mind. Though it unsettled him when it happened, it always created an opening. He could use it this time. Samuel listened quietly from the chair beside Charles.

"I don't know what we can do to make it look better for us," Bran spoke, his gaze on the fire. "It almost seems like a lost cause. But I have to do something!"

The room was quiet as the men sat and thought about the situation. The action had to be powerful but not outwardly desperate. Calming but not in a way that surrendered to the sharks of the press. Effective but not too potent.

In the other room, Anna's cell phone rang, breaking the men's concentration.

Anna seemed to understand, though she wasn't in the room, as she answered halfway through the first ring, probably without checking the caller ID.

"Hello?" she asked softly in the other room. Her voice was softer and farther away than the ringing had been, which meant she was walking away from them, as if trying to give them privacy and not bother them with her phone call.

The breathing on the other end of the line bothered the males in the room more than the ringing had. It was heavy and sounded terrified.

"Hello?" Anna asked again, her voice now worried.

"I-is this Anna Cornick?" a hesitant and younger male voice spoke on the phone, his voice whisper light and breathless. "Please tell me I have the right number." There was some panic in the voice. "Please."

"Yes! Yes,this is Anna! How can I help you?" Anna asked and Bran heard her making her way quickly back to the study, probably already aware that the men in the study were now fully listening. She walked passed Bran and into the middle of the room without stopping, holding the phone so it was open to all and could be heard by all the wolves in the room.

"Thank God," the male voice spoke in severe relief in his hushed voice. "So there is someone up there." Anna felt her lip quirk at the boy's words. The smile ended with the next words."Can you..umm.. pass on a message to the Marrok for me? I know I can't speak to him up front, but c-can you please tell him what I tell you?"

Anna's eyes connected with Bran's as she looked from him to the phone between them. He met her eyes- and nodded.

"Child," Bran spoke into the phone, trying to keep his voice calm and not scare the boy on the other end of the line. "You have the Marrok listening."

The sharp exhale of air was audible through the phone and Bran knew the boy was scared. Before the other line could disconnect Bran continued.

"You're calling from Atlanta, Son?"

"Y-yes," the boy on the other line answered slowly, carefully, as if he were still thinking about just hanging up the phone. "I-i need to tell you something."

Bran waited, and the boy began speaking so quickly that Bran had to listen closely to process every bit of it.

"There's been a lot of teens going missing in the last few weeks in Atlanta. Most of them are being considered runaways but I think my alpha is helping kidnap them for trafficking ring. I-i'm positive he's using them and selling them as profit."

Bran watched the horror dawn on Anna's face as she heard the words as well. It was a terribly gruesome act, trading poor victims as if they were nothing but cattle.

"Does your alpha know that you have seen this?" Bran asked, seeing Charles stand out the corner of his eye. If a child was included, then Charles was immediately on board and Bran knew that, but his heart was with the frightened boy on the other end of the line.

"Yes!" The boy spoke, his voice cracking slightly. The boy's breathing quickened and Bran heard the quick beat of running footsteps. The boy was running. "He caught me earlier this morning- I've been running from him for hours,I think." A few deep breaths for a pause and now Asil was also on his feet, Samuel beside him. The whole room seemed to move with every quick breath the boy heaved in. "I was able to pick-pocket a phone, but I think I hear Toran coming after ME!" The final word was a squeak as the rapid sound of footsteps returned, this time including another sound of them.

He was being pursued.

"Just hold on, son." Bran said quickly as Anna looked at him,her eyes desperate. He reached quickly for his coat and ordered Charles to ready his jet.

"Grey," The weak, but stubborn male voice huffed into the phone as he ran and the footsteps behind him began to sound closer. "My name is Grey Hou-"

The last name was cut off as the sound of a struggle began through the phone and Anna's eyes watered.

"HOUST!" The boy screamed into the phone even as Bran heard the sick sound of impacts on the ground, as if the boy's head were being slammed to the ground . "GREY HOUST! AMETHYST! TELL MY MOM, AMETHYST!" A loud, crashing sound permeated through the phone and the scuffle apparently ended.

"Shut up, Grey!" An unfamiliar male voice shouted and Anna felt her stomach lurch as the boy made a slight whimpering sound, apparently beaten. Another impact sound that,this time, sounded similar to someone kicking someone else in the stomach traveled through the phone. "And who the hell are you talking to?!" the male demanded and Anna hoped the male didn't pick up the phone as the angry voice continued. "No body cares about you, stupid."

Anna picked up the slick sounds of a something being dragged upward and assumed that the painful sound she heard next was the boy being thrown over the male's shoulder. The whimpering noise silenced then probably as the boy passed out from the gut impact of the man's shoulder in his kicked stomach and Anna heard shuffling before a cracking sound.

"He smashed the phone," Bran said, his eyes on the disconnected phone in Anna's hands.

"Who?!" Anna asked, her voice wet. Asil reached forward and pulled the Omega into his arms as Bran answered in slight daze.

"I'm guessing it was his 'Taron'. The name is one that I have never heard on the pack sensus, however. Which means that the Atlanta packs are keeping secrets."

"The jet is ready, Da," Charles spoke, stepping into the room as his mate ran into his arms and sniffled, wanting to cry for the boy she had heard over the phone. Charles petted her hair softly, soothingly, before asking his father in a softer voice. "Is he dead?"

"I don't believe so," Bran answered, pulling out his own phone to make a call to the Housts. "He had better not be."

...

The small plane ride to the beautiful Virginia Beach, Virginia had Anna and Bran in front of the Houst residence a few hours later. The paparazzi that had already been buzzing by the outside gate of the large manor were now frantic and grappling with each other to get some kind of picture of the secret meeting between the Marrok of the werewolves and the famous Houst family.

Bran knew his son had hated when they had had to split apart, Anna and Bran talking to the Housts and Charles and Asil going a head to check into the Atlanta pack. Necessary but trifling work.

Bran had barely raised his hand to knock when the door was retched inward and Sydnie Houst was there, in the flesh, before them. "Come in, please," she insisted and stepped aside to allow them inside, her fear scenting the room, but not overwhelming the sense of worry for her missing child. A good woman, indeed. Her fear of another attack was overtaken by the fear and worry for her child.

"Honey, I told you to wait for me," Anna heard Greg Houst speak before she saw him suddenly stand in a position that was good for protecting his wife but allowing her freedom- something Charles had had to learn to do many times. Both parents seemed wired but cautious.

Sydnie, however, didn't waste any time with pleasantries as she turned and questioned Anna and Bran, almost desperately "My Grey called you?"

Anna felt her heart squeeze at the fearful but strong woman in front of her as her husband held her hand tightly, keeping a position between his wife and those he wasn't really sure he trusted yet.

"He did," Anna said, walking over to the the couches in the sitting room and used her Omega power to invite the woman to sit next to her with her husband still holding her hand. Bran sat in the seat across from the couch, a smooth glass table separating them. "He called the Marrok to inform him where he was and gave us his name."

Sydnie began trembling even as Anna spoke, her beautiful face flushing and becoming wet. "My baby? Is it really my baby?"

"How are you sure it was Grey?" Greg spoke, his voice cold, but Anna heard the slight waver in his words, as if he were afraid to believe after so long of searching. "How are we supposed to believe you?!"

"He also yelled 'Amethyst'," Bran spoke, his voice calming. "Does that mean anything?"

The word seemed to mean the world to the two parents, who both began to cry uncontrollably, turning into each others embraces.

"That," Sydnie hiccuped, her voice wet but full of happiness. "was the name that we would have named him if we had had a girl, like we were expecting." A pause as the mother laughed softly into her husband's shoulder. "We u-used to punish him by telling him that we'd ch-change his name to Amethyst if he kept acting out. It was a r-running joke, you know?"

Sydnie laughed softly once more then, her joy and pain climaxing as four years worth of emotions and futile hopes ran through her.

"Where is he?" Gage demanded, turning to Bran as he surged to his feet, a fire lit within him that had been extinguished for over four years. He was ready to take back his son. "Where is my son?"

"Atlanta," Bran said, but stood just as Gage began to take out his phone and schedule a flight immediately. Hell, the father would run all the way there if he had to and Bran would do the same for his sons so he kept speaking. "But he may be in a bad situation right now, Mr. Houst. You will have to trust us to being him home to you." He knew it was a heavy burden to ask upon two worried parents.

"What?" Sydnie demanded, jumping to her feet as well at Bran's words. "We can't just sit here! You both tell me that our baby is still alive and expect us to sit here and wait?!"

"We've been doing that for the police for four years!" Gage snapped, already dialing on his phone.

"That's not what we are asking you to do," Anna said then, calming the room as she spread her peace and paused Gage's dialing. "What Bran means is that right now, the people who have Grey may hurt him if they think that they are being cornered and that this is a situation that has to be handled delicately." She turned her eyes to gaze into Sydnie's eyes of gray depths. "You have to trust us to bring your son back to you. We are the only ones who can do this."

A silent pause filled the room as Sydnie's gaze challenged Anna's...and slid to meet the eyes of her unsure husband- before both gazes turned to Bran. The silence continued until the beautiful blond finally sighed, sagging into herself as her hands clenched at her sides.

When she turned back to Anna, her eyes were of a powerful gray flame. "I will call you every hour. You have to being my baby back, Anna. Bring. Grey. Home."

"Yes," Anna promised the woman in front of her. Sydnie Houst was, at that moment, not the world famous violinist that Anna idolized, but a mother tigress who she respected. "I will."