Most of the Royal Council had congregated in or just outside the small hospital room that had just a few hours previously held the mysterious human Rose Tyler. Rain was still drizzling down outside, but the morning light was starting to spread up the southern facing walls. In the distance, the warning bell was tolling from its great tower in the centre of the city, telling its citizens to be on their guard and watch the gates.

So far seven members of the Council had arrived: two out of the three betas and four of the six gammas. Gamma Stephan was having to explain to his two succeeding commanders how he had catastrophically failed to confine a disabled, sick human.

"Why were there no guards outside her room?" growled one of the Betas. All of the men were of a similar stature and build, but the two Betas seemed to carry more authority than anyone else.

"They were down the corridor. The best I've managed to work out is that the storm covered up the noise of her getting out." Stephan felt the shame of his guards' failures as if they were his own.

Hanging his head slightly, "To be honest, she looked too weak to have been capable of climbing out a window. Let alone run through a hospital. It's my fault we underestimated her."

The men standing around the room were baffled; they'd all seen the medical report of her condition. A lot of them had been torn from their beds in the middle of the night to be told a human had been caught trying to hide her identity from her mate, who was most likely some high ranking official. Without meaning to, the mated males in the room were eyeing the singles and their reactions to the scent permeating the tiny space.

"So, let me get this straight. A nineteen-year-old girl has concealed herself for Goddess knows how long within the Royal Palace from her mate, who very well might be someone on this Council?" the Beta continued his assault on Stephan, who had already undertaken the difficult job of explaining Dr Evan's appraisal of the tattoo she saw.

"Yes."

"And therefore, you saw fit to leave her unattended and unguarded in a room with an unlocked window and a chair for her to access said window?"

Stephan's head could not hang any deeper in shame, "Yes."

"And, now this young lady, for reasons we do not know, has felt the need to escape barefoot, in the pouring rain, emaciated from Withdrawal sickness and this medical chart also tells me she cannot even walk properly. Correct?"

"Correct."

"Well... whoever's mate she is has got their hands full." The Beta allowed a small smirk, despite the gravitas of the situation. "And, it's no one here?" He looked around the room, specifically Leon and Daniel the only two singles present.

Daniel, a Gamma, raised his shoulders in a shrug "Not me... I don't think. Dr Richards said once the implant was out, it shouldn't take long for the scent blockers to work their way out of her system." He had got to Lake Fields earlier than most and had helped track the girl's trail through the hospital with the other Deltas, before they lost it due to the rain outside in the streets.

Everyone turned to Beta Leon, who had remained quiet during the whole investigation; his lack of mate at the age of thirty-three was a sore spot for him. When he had got the summons to come to Lake Fields, he had had to stamp down on a small fluttering of anticipation and hope, which had now been squashed totally. He simply shook his head.

Approaching footsteps could be heard coming down the corridor. With expectant faces, people turned to meet the newcomer. The typical mischievous grin of Henry came into the over-crowded little room: "Have I missed all the fun?" he asked.

The main speaker, Beta Dean chided the disgraced Gamma: "You've still got two months left before you are let back on this Council Delta Henry." The others bristled at the implied insult of his demoted title, but Henry just laughed.

"The summons said for all known Gammas and above to arrive. So here I am. And, I think you'll find I'm the most useful since I actually know Rose." Henry's impish grin did nothing to calm Dean's ire.

"What do you mean know?" the Beta growled, unimpressed with this information.

"Turns out guard duty hasn't been a total waste of time." Henry continued, "Rose comes to clean Hade's quarters every morning."

A blood vessel pumped noticeably in the Beta's forehead. Whilst, Henry was an impudent thorn in his shoe, he was also a childhood friend of King Hadrian, which he was not above flaunting in Dean's face whenever the opportunity arose. Henry's last stunt should have sent him packing to a far corner of the Kingdom; his year long demotion to Delta and guard duty was not an approved punishment in his mind, and he had said so at the time.

Henry came properly into the room, taking a sniff of the different scents permeating the space. But, they had yet to mask and cloud the chamomile smell he knew so well, although now it was laced with something else... rose? Actual rose? What were the odds of that?

Yet, there was no searing connection; no spark of soulful familiarity. If anyone was looking closely into Henry's eyes they would have noted the tell-tale droop of disappointment, hidden quickly and followed by confusion. He'd been so sure when he got the mind-link tonight: it all made so much sense. For that was the strange thing that was gradually being felt by everyone there, this lady's scent made them all bristle with protective instincts.

"Well, whose left?" Henry chuckled, further attempting to mask his regret.

"Andrew won't be back for another week" Gamma Daniel spoke up, "perhaps it's him?"

"You're wrong." Silence stifled the room. The Gammas fell down to one knee suddenly as if an avalanche had fallen upon their heads, and the Betas' heads were forced low. Power suffocated the room as King Hades stood blocking the doorway, hands extended into claws gripping the frame and causing it to fracture. His eyes flashed amber and the skin around them turned coal-black; his nostrils flared as he soaked up the scent of his mate. The cogs that had been turning over and over in Henry's mind ever since he'd been woken up, finally clicked into place: making all the right connections between the events of the last month; therefore, his King's next words were no surprise.

"She's mine."