A/N: Alright, been a little bit since I updated. I'm sorry about that. Life and everything else got in-between. I've been working on my own personal story that I'm thinking about publishing. It's taken up some of the free creativity I had. Add in that Caelie wasn't working with me. I'm so glad everyone likes this story, it makes my day. Thank you everyone for still following.

Chapter Twenty-Two- I'd settle for a slowdown

Blood splattered across the wall, nails dug deep into furred skin, as Charles eyes finally cleared enough to see that he wasn't hit. More claws emerged, growling ensued, blood sprayed, as Charles turned to see that Caelie was no longer with Bran, but Anna was. Another growl brought Charles eyes to the mess that was being created. Caelie held Leah down by the throat, her wolf mouth wrapped around the wriggling creature beneath her. The gold eyes glittered with the promise of death, but flashed with the sympathy that was no longer Caelie's wolf.

It was silent for several minutes, Anna's quiet murmurs to Bran as she checked over his wounds the only thing breaking the silence. Leah's eyes bore into Caelie's even as Caelie held her down, pinned her with her gaze. Finally, with a shuttered sigh, Leah went limp, eyes down in Caelie's mouth. Caelie let go, teeth bare, backing away with her eyes constantly on the enemy in front of her.

After a second, Caelie sat back on her haunches, eyes never leaving Leah for a second, even as she began to change. Charles watched the interaction, a weary look on his face as Leah waited until Caelie was partly shifted before shifting herself. Silence overtook everything, no one wanting to break the moment of calm between the two opponents. As Caelie came to full human, Charles blinked. She glowed, her hair flowed down her back falling in a river of black. She seemed stronger, sturdy, the woman she used to be. Her eyes glittered with the changes that flowed between wolf and human, but never in battle. Always in cohesion, a reminder of her power that her human and wolf could be bound together, yet her eyes never left the woman in front of her.

It was so different than the woman in front of her, bowed by her wounds, the wounds that Caelie had just inflicted. Leah's head was lowered, her eyes even lower. Hands clasped over a wound on her arm, she was defeated. She was not the alpha in this situation, would never be the alpha in this situation. Her hair hung in her face, the slight rocking of her body from the pain that she was enduring from Caelie's bite, from harming, defying the woman in front of her.

It was seconds, the scene lasted only seconds before Leah lifted her gaze to meet Caelie's. The defiance proved that Caelie had not broken her, was not going for broke, but was trying to prove a point. Leah didn't get the hint.

"I will not bow to some whore scum who thinks she can come in and take everything from me," Leah snarled, as Caelie bared her teeth, so in the moment that she would have never realized that her teeth were not the wolves, but her own. "I will not bow. I am the alpha in this pack, and you are a danger to everything we ever built."

The slow walk over to Leah echoed more power than any fast attack could have. The air of confidence around the woman who hours ago would have flinched from any touch brought more power to Charle's mind than anything another Alpha could have done. The slight bend at her hips to meet Leah eye to eye, the smirk that graced her lips, the wolf like shadow that seemed to follow her struck fear, yet reassured him.

"I am not alpha of your pack. I am not apart of this pack. I am a refuge until further notice, but do not be confused, Leah. I am stronger, faster, deadlier than you ever will be. I am just below, if not equal to your alpha. I am a woman who has been beaten, broken, and left for dead. I have been tortured in ways you can not imagine. I am not, nor will I ever been sane. I've lived too long, seen too many things to be sane. I, also, am a woman with nothing to lose, nothing to gain. I am, and always will be your worst nightmare. I am a woman with nothing to lose, and a reason to fight. I am Caelie Jones of no pack, with no loyalties other than to the people in this room. If you ever try to harm them again, try to push your role in to my face, harm anyone I consider family, I will kill you," The words whispered so softly, Charles strained his ears to hear them, "I will kill you, and I will get great pleasure from it. It won't be in a ring. It won't be a battle. It'll be while you're sleeping your pretty little alpha head in the soft bed that belongs to you, and they will find you, in that position with you fucking throat ripped out, bleeding over that pretty blanket that you bought not days ago. Test me, Leah. Give me the most joy in this situation, and try this little stunt again."

Caelie pulled back, a simple smile on her face, as she patted Leah's face, even as she flinched. Standing straight again, Caelie turned to Charles, her eyes seeming cold, but beneath the layer was the worry as she gave him a once over. Transferring over to Bran, the layer shattered, worry and guilt shading over what had shattered in her.

Bran laid on the sofa, in wolf form, gnawing on the steak that Anna had grabbed to give him energy to change back. Caelie's eyes never wandered from him, even as the emotions went through so quickly, changing so much. The slight way she shifted her body told that she had finally settled, a decision in her mind. She kneeled on the floor, checking with her eyes that someone, Anna, had her eyes on the bitch on the other side of the room, before lightly petting the man in front of her.

She leaned over, whispering softly in his ears. A private message between the two that left Bran shaking his head in wolf form. Caelie smiled gently, before looking at him. The longing in her eyes told Charles everything that he needed to know. A decision had been made in her mind. She was not going to change it.

She was not going to be alpha bitch.

She was not going to stay with him.

She was not going to let what is be.

She was not going to allow him to love her.

Nor was she going to let herself love him.

Charles watched as Caelie took one last pat, standing as silently, walking to the room in the back of the house. The whimpering from Bran bringing unwanted tears from Charles as he watched the alpha in front of him crumble. Movement from the corner of his eye shifted his gaze to Leah, who was standing, walking, moving toward her husband with a look of triumph in her eyes. She had won.

She leaned forward to stroke his head, to comfort him, only to get a snapped at. Pulling her hand away quickly, she stared at Bran with wide eyes, broken eyes, as she realized he was dismissing her. Standing on his own four legs, he walked over to the open front door, and left, a silence echoing the room.

Leah stood there a moment before blinking turning and following. Anna met Charles eyes. She glanced at the door that held Caelie, before looking at the door that Bran and Leah had just left out of.

"Well, that was a waste of time," Anna snapped, before sighing and flopping on to the sofa. Charles shook his head. This was only the beginning.

Caelie sat at the table with Anna and Charles, watching as another piece of cookie dough went flying by his head. The all-out war that started several minutes before began because Caelie threw a piece at Charles, allowing him to think it was his mate that started it. Charles then threw a piece at her, and they had never figure out that it was Caelie that started it.

The feeling of normalcy filled Caelie as she allowed everything to play out. It had taken a week before she would leave the house after everything went down with Bran, and Leah, but after much persuasion, and a drag to the mall from Anna with a threat to call Mercy, she dragged herself out. Now, several weeks later, she had seen Bran three times, each time they spoke politely, never saying much to each other.

After many arguments, and debates with Charles, messages delivered between the alpha, and the refugee that lived on his land, the decision to allow her to live with Anna and Charles was taken out of her hands. She was ordered to stay with them until her captors were jailed, and needless to say, they still hadn't been found.

Caelie watched, a smile gracing her face as the fight went on.

This is what life is about.