To Walk Alone

- confessions -

"You're supposed to be dead," Korbin said, his face contorted somewhere between disbelief and shock. "No one survived the attack from what I can remember."

Her heart was racing a mile a minute in her chest.  She had no doubt everyone in the room could hear how scared and nervous she was.  The building anticipation inside her was almost unbearable, and she bit the inside of her cheek to help keep herself from screaming.  There were too many people in this room to begin with.  Too many people now knew her secret. 

"The entire Royal family was wiped out, including their pack; the Alliance confirmed all three bodies," Johnny stated, his eyes wide.

"Their confirmation was a ploy as you now know," she said gently, finally letting out the breath she didn't know she was holding. 

"Sif survived the attack miraculously but not without difficulty, and we'll come to that in just a minute," Nick piped in, and he folded his hands over the file in front of him.

"It was rogues, wasn't it?" asked Korbin to no one in particular. "That wiped them out?"

"Yes, and that gentleman leads us to the next piece of the puzzle," said Nick. "A militia group of rogues attacked the Silverload territory during a thunderstorm at midnight. Though the Silverload's were always prepared for an attack, they were not prepared for the kind of attack they received."

"They used silver bullets and bombs," said Jake heavily. "It was the deadliest attack on a pack in the history of this country."

"It wiped out the entire Royal line," someone said.

"Who led the charge?" asked Korbin, rubbing his chin.

"Adam Walker," she said, and again the room went quiet while that sunk in.

"I know that name," said Korbin, his tone getting deeper.

"I think it's safe to say everyone here knows his name," Nick said evenly. "Over twelve years ago, Adam Walker led a charge of rogue militia in a deadly attack against the Royal family and the Silverload Pack. By the time aid arrived, the pack houses were leveled and there wasn't a single person left alive. Every man, woman, and child were brutally slaughtered in the charge. Everyone, except Saphira, that is. Due to a stroke of brilliance – even though it is morbid in every way – Sif's mother, the Queen, took the body of a young girl close to Sif's age that had already been killed, and exchanged their clothes. She then proceeded to hid Sif in a bomb shelter filled with vervain below the building of the main pack house, just before an explosion leveled the entire place.

"When Walker made his rounds, he found the body of the little girl – or what was left – and he believed he succeeded in killing off the Royal family. That was, until four years ago when someone infiltrated the Alliance Protection Program's records, and it was leaked that Saphira was still alive. Walker placed a bounty on her head: four million if delivered alive, two million if delivered dead.

"The Alliance doesn't technically need her testimony against Walker for the destruction of her pack," Nick continued with a sigh, "we have enough reason to execute him without her. But her lineage means her bloodline ties her directly to the Moon Goddess herself. She is royalty."

The room remained quiet after Nick finished speaking; his words lingering in the air like a poisonous fog, and Sif hardly dared to breath. She knew the weight of what Nick and her just said, and she knew that each of their packs would be in danger if word leaked that she was here and associated with them, even if it was a brief contact.

Adam Walker's rogue militia was an army and they played dirty. They would do whatever it took to see she was dead.

She didn't dare meet Jake's gaze but that was alright; he was staring down at the table in front of him as if he were thinking things through. The weight of this rested like a giant boulder on his shoulders. She knew this day would come; the day she met her mate and he found out all about her. The day she was finally exposed. The day the world found out that the Princess of werewolves still lived. She'd mentally prepared herself for his rejection, knowing he had every right to refuse her as his mate to keep his pack safe and sound.