"We can't go back there Will, our presence will only endanger the people that helped us, and alienate those that might still want to help us," Ansuya stated calmly though she was very tired.

Her, William, Aceso, and their entire pack had been debating the same topic for what seemed like hours and she always came back to the same conclusion. Those natives didn't want their help, and if Thom was reading his people accurately, they would just as likely hand them over to the vampires as accept anything they had to offer, which wasn't much.

"If that's true, then why are we even here wasting our time?" Amanada asked.

Aceso looked over at her fellow Healer and newest addition to the pack. Her golden eyes pierced into the young woman's dark brown eyes. "We are here because we gave our word that we would be here, at this time, to await any, and all, people who would answer our call for aid. Would you like to be on the other end and be abandoned by those around you in your time of need?"

Amanda's cheeks flushed red, she hoped the surrounding light was dim enough to conceal the sudden color of her face. Aceso had not only chastised her, but it brought to mind the fragmented memories that she had when she had… not come all the way back from the Whyte Plain, and the things that Ansuya must have done to help bring her back. Her dark eyes darted to the Elder Tracker and found the beautiful woman staring right at her. She whipped her eyes to the ground and tried to shrink away into nothingness.

Instead, she mumbled, "I was only saying that if we think these people won't answer, or accept our help, then we shouldn't waste our time." It sounded lame even to her ears but it was the best she had.

William had edged away from the pack and was sitting next to some scraggly bushes, looking up into the night sky. They had been coming here to this spot? Any spot here in the desert to the west of the reservation just as they said they would, and every night they had been met with the quiet silence of the wind and the cold light of moon and starlight looking down at them.

"Amanda does bring up a good point, though," Katherine said, "Just how long are we expecting to stay out here, coming here day after day? Who knows what our other packs have done by now? Maybe everyone is waiting for us to return?"

Ansuya and Aceso shared a look, but it was Aceso who spoke, "You may both be right and I have decided that this will be our last night here. We are needed elsewhere, regardless of what allies we have gathered. We must make final preparations for our attack against House Dukart."

Nicolas had a big grin on his face, "Finally! I'm tired of all this sand and heat and waiting around for nothing. It's about time we got off our asses and started doing something."

Ansuya started to say something, but softly rolled her eyes in the dark instead, what good was it to try to explain that nothing done in good faith is a wasted effort, but when you have nothing to show for all your work, could you really say that Nic was wrong?

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Charles looked up towards the moon and nodded to himself, "Aceso, it has been about two hours' time. If we're going to go, we had better get going. I don't know if the Shadows sleep, but we do, and if we are going back to India tonight, I would rather be as awake as possible for the journey."

Aceso didn't say anything, instead, she turned her body to the east, looking out over the desert. Her body language said that she wasn't going anywhere, not yet.

The pack looked to Ansuya, but the Elder sat as serenely as ever, following the lead of their pack Alpha, looking out over the desert. The rest of them were content to wait and continue doing what they were doing.

William was reminded of the time he and Nic had been on their own, walking outside of Los Angeles for miles and miles out into the desert. Until they had been found and taken to other places to fight, and finally back to the Mountain.

It was a long night, Aceso never taking her eyes off from the eastern horizon, as the rest of them just waited for the night to end. Finally, not even Aceso could justify staying there any longer before she roused herself. She said, "Katherine, it's time to go."

With a nod Katherine stood and prepared herself to open the way into the Whyte Plain.

"Stop!" Charles hissed.

The group looked to where Charles pointed and they saw a single light in the distant. It was at ground level. The only thing it could have been was a vehicle of some kind, it was moving too fast to be anything else.

The pack watched the vehicle, a truck maybe, move in a zigzag pattern over the rough desert floor. There was no way to really signal the truck in any way, so Nicolas set a small bush on fire as he held it up, to light the way for the truck.

It must have worked, because soon after, the truck turned and headed straight for them, the two headlights becoming more distinct as the vehicle got closer.

The engine sounded labored as it got closer. The vehicle was in fact a pretty beat up truck, though not Celestino's. It was unfamiliar to all of them and they watched it close the distance between them, each of them readying themselves for a fight, or to escape. Aceso shifted back into her native wolf form and sat down, back straight and proud.

The truck stopped about ten feet away from the pack and the engine was cut, but the headlights remained on. None of them, not even Aceso with her wolf sight could see into the cab of the truck past the glare of the headlights. The driver's side door opened and out stepped someone. He stepped in front of the headlights.

"Thom?" Ansuya asked. "You are the last person in the world I expected to see out here. What are you doing here?"

The councilman stood there, hesitating, not answering the question.

"What have you done? Are we being set up?" Nicolas took a few steps towards the native with his fists balled and ready.

"No! No, it's nothing like that." Thom held up his hands in innocence.

Aceso shifted and moved to stand with Nicolas in front of her pack, "Then what is it like? Why have you come here? Have you been forced to run from your tribe? Are you being hunted, as we are?"

Thom smiled in the reflected light of the headlights bathing him from behind, "To your last question, I have been hunted for a long time, my politics made me a target long before you and I ever met. Machiavelli was right, politics will get you killed." Thom laughed at his own joke. None of the Shape shifters joined him.

Thom coughed then continued, "Have I been forced from my tribe, yes, but no more than you already know about. And for the last two questions, I have one answer." He turned and motioned to the truck.

A dark shadow jumped out of the back of the truck and bounded forward on all fours. The pack tensed and William took up a fighting stance.

The figure bounded in front of the headlights and the pack was met by the sight of a silver-grey wolf. His golden eyes seemed to pierce the darkness and stare at each of them in turn, though his gaze rested the longest on Aceso.

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