Aria, Aiden and Darian stood at the edge of their territory. "Nicholas should be here soon. Thank you for helping our clan one last time to pick our new Alpha." Aiden said.

"Of course." Aria said. "It's the least I could do for you all, raising me until my appearance became mature." Aiden and Darian laughed.

"Of course. It has been our clan's pleasure." Darian said with a smile. "Don't forget to come back and visit every once and a while."

"I will, don't worry." Aria said. "I may come back every few decades and suggest someone for the Alpha position." 

"That's nice to hear." A deep voice spoke from the shadows. "I look forward to your help. But I'll also keep an eye out for the qualities you wrote down for me to reference."

"Nicholas, glad you could make it to see me off" Aria said.

"Of course." Nicholas said. "Have a safe journey." Nicholas, Aiden and Darian gave Aria a hug each before she left.

"I can't believe she only aged like six years when it's really been forty years since we took over." Aria heard Aiden say as she walked away. She could faintly hear Nicholas ask how old she had looked back then, but she didn't hear the answer.

*    *    *    *   

Aria walked for a few hours before she finally made it to the edge of the woods, it was here that she decided that it was better to stop and rest for the day. Although she knew that she could probably make it half way down the hill before it got too dark, she knew that it would be the safest for her to stay in the woods for the night. She started a small fire to cook a rabbit over. To make traveling easier she decided not to bring anything aside from clothes and currency for when she got into town. For sleeping at night and staying warm she just simply transformed into her wolf form, that was enough to keep her warm at night. 

It was her wolf form that made the other werewolves assume that she was of the werewolf people, for this she was thankful. After eating her rabbit she went in search of a pond close by to bathe in, before transforming into her wolf form and falling asleep. When morning came she transformed back and dressed quickly before heading into town. 

While she may not have had a hard life due to being protected, it was hard to hide who she really was. Werewolves don't age slowly so when she grew older and it was apparent she was barely aging after the age of five, she had to be hidden away until she could learn how to use her magic. Nadia had told her that all Fae innately knew how to use their magic. After getting the hang of it Aria used it so that the other people of the pack didn't realize that she wasn't aging like the other kids.

Now a hundred and forty-four years later, she knew that she probably wouldn't age anymore, maybe just a year or two but that would probably be it. This was Aria's first time out of the woods. She remembered to keep her eye and Mark covered, she was thankful that she had, had clothes made that covered her whole upper half. 

She remembered long ago Nadia had told her that when she was older she should go in search of the family that the vampires call their Royal family. That they had been close to the real Royal vampire family. But she shouldn't reveal who she is right away because there's a possibility someone in that family had teamed up with the Camazotz to kill the Royal family. So going by this logic she knew no matter what her Mark at least needed to stay hidden, and that if anyone saw her eye they probably wouldn't think much of it. It wasn't very rare for people to be born with eyes like hers. It would typically happen when two different races had offspring together.