The entire place was chaos, and had been since the alpha of the Arctic Hunters pack had been killed.  Her Alpha had plenty of good warriors at his side, but very few talented tacticians.  It was why he had called Roxie in, but he was still a rather stubborn man and knew she had issues with Benjamin, so he had not allowed her to attend the meeting with him.  She instead had waited outside, hoping that her Alpha would follow her instructions and try to show they had no motivation to kill the Arctic Hunters' Alpha.  War would just mean deaths on both sides, it wasn't worth the power that might be gained, because so much life would be lost in the process.  She had stepped away for a moment when Benjamin entered, at her Alpha's request.  Getting into a shouting match outside his office wasn't going to help either.<br/><br/>She had expected them to be in there for hours, so when Benjamin and his packmates emerged just minutes later, she was surprised, but tried not to pay it any mind.  Until she caught his scent.  A mate bond was something that no wolf could ignore, it was all about instinct and compatibility, so when she first turned she felt almost certain that it had to be one of the other wolves with Benjamin.  Mate bonds across pack lines were rare, but not unheard of or impossible.  As his packmates left, she knew there was no hope of it being either of them.  The scent was Benjamin's and his alone.<br/><br/>"It doesn't matter if I do,"  Roxie said, her brow furrowing at him.  "Not gonna happen."  It was a foolish thing to say.  It meant that they were both doomed, cursed to be alone if they could not find a way to be together.  Her wolf growled in the back of her mind, angry at her for even trying to state such a thing.  The wolf wanted to embrace him, for the human side to smile and bat her eyes.  Roxie shoved her instincts to the back of her mind.  "Not now.  Not when your entire pack is hoping to start some kind of blood bath with mine..."