"Don't make me come after you, little man," Claire jokingly warned. She rested in a half crouch, arms wide and feet more than shoulder's length apart, and watched her little brother closely, ready to chase him when he ran.

Charlie giggled, flour all over him. It was in his hair, along his arms, and even all over his clothes.

Charlie faked right and then sped past Claire. He dashed right out of the kitchen and into the living room, his tiny legs carrying him as fast as he could go.

If Claire wasn't a shifted wolf, she might not have been able to catch him.

But she was, so catching up to him was easy. She feigned exhaustion and huffed and puffed even though her heart was barely going faster than normal.

"Charlie! I'm gonna get you!" she sang.

Her heart leaped with glee when she heard his trilling laughter. It was so perfect, so completely free of worry, and something she hadn't heard in a while.

"No, Care!" he squeaked, taking a running leap over a stray blanket and heading upstairs. Claire followed right on his heels, leaving her own cloud of flour mixing with the one Charlie left behind.

She followed the trail of white footsteps up the stairs and down the hallway. They stopped outside Charlie's room, where they abruptly disappeared behind the closed door.

Although she saw him escape to his room, she still held back for a bit to let the tension fill the air. After a moment, she slowly opened his door. It made a quiet creak as it swung in.

Charlie's soft, quick breathing sounded from his closet. She tiptoed into the room, purposely stepping onto a toy that began to sing.

"Hmm, I wonder where he could have gone?" she asked herself a bit too loudly.

Charlie giggled almost silently from the closet.

"Hmm..." She grabbed the knob on the door in her hand. Twisting it quickly, she pulled it open and pointed right at her little brother. "Ah ha! Thought you could get away from me, didn't you?"

He launched his teeny frame at her. She caught him easily, smiling at his utter happiness.

"You got me, Care." He swiped at the curls on his forehead and pushed some sweaty ones back. "You're too good at this."

"It's all about practice, little man. Practice."

"Are the cookies done yet?" His eyes glittered with excitement.

The timer on the oven decided right then to buzz. "It would seem the deliciousness is done being made."

Charlie gave a squeal and jumped out of her arms. He was halfway down the stairs before she could stop him.

"Hey!" she yelled down to him. "You're helping me clean this up, little man!"

"Okay, Care."

Claire glanced around at Charlie's catastrophe of a room. Toys were everywhere. Patches of white were all over the floor and on his bed sheets and so many other places where they really shouldn't be.

This was what she got for having a flour war with a six-year-old.

She threw her head back and groaned. Oh, he was so helping her clean this up.

***

Marcus waited at the end of the terminal for his brother. He could see in his line of sight the baggage claim where his brother would soon be standing, and the excitement of finally seeing him again was getting to him.

A quick glance at the clock showed it was eight pm, yet still no sign of Nate.

What was taking so long? It was only ten minutes ago that Nate had called him to tell him the plane had landed. So why—

Oh, wait. There he was.

Marcus saw the deep brown of his brother's hair flopping a bit as he walked. Not to mention, he was a good half a foot taller than most people. Marcus' eyes locked onto Nate's hair again. His poor bro needed a haircut.

When he noticed a person sauntering next to Nate, he couldn't help but smirk.

Dude still had game.

The slender girl was barely even half of his brother's height and definitely not a quarter of his weight. She brushed her too-blonde-to-be-true hair behind her ear and fluttered her eyelashes flirtatiously. He said something low to her, something deep and husky. Marcus could barely make it out even with his better hearing. It was loud with the hundreds of people moseying around. Marcus started getting a headache from the noise.

The girl slipped a small piece of paper into his front jean pocket before they split ways. Nate let it happen, but pulled it out and, shaking his head, absentmindedly tossed it into a nearby trashcan on his way over.

He met Marcus with a true smile, the sides of his mouth quirking humorously. He gave Marcus a sincere hug. "How's my little brother been?"

"Great," Marcus said, hugging Nate back. He grinned as he pulled back. "I see you've still been doing wonderful with the ladies."

Nate gave him a half smile, though Marcus could tell his comment about the women didn't mean anything to his brother. Still, he admitted, "I was never without opportunity, let's put it that way, Marc."

Marcus noticed the dejected look in his brother's hazel eyes. He sobered a bit and lowered his voice, "Did you find anything, Nate?"

For a moment, Marcus thought Nate hadn't heard him, which was almost preposterous. But Nate stayed quiet. He picked up his lone bag and headed off to the nearest exit.

That was a no. Marcus' heart sank. Despite the danger Nate had faced, Marcus almost hoped he'd been able to find information or track down the man responsible for their father's death. Then the pack wouldn't have to live with the uncertainty, the lack of closure.

Marcus trailed slightly behind him until they got to the parking lot. He led Nate to their Dodge truck, clicking the button on the keychain that made the lights flicker in the dark underground lot.

The smell of mold and dirt invaded his nose. He could hardly wait until they got to the safe confines of the 2011 Dodge Ram, if only to get away from the moldy smell. The dirt he didn't mind, but the potency of the mold practically burned all of his nose hairs off.

The brothers stayed silent, settling with their own thoughts.

They were on the expressway when Marcus finally spoke up. "Mom has been worried about you." He chuckled deep in his chest. "I swear I must've had at least ten thousand pancakes since you left."

Nate laughed. "Oh, yeah?"

"Yeah. You know how Mom gets."

And did he ever. Nate and Marcus had been eating nonstop since their Dad and Alpha had died five years ago in a rogue attack. To this day, Marcus still got flashbacks of wolves sweeping through the territory. As a seventeen-year-old, he'd been too young to fight for the pack, but that didn't mean he wasn't affected. He still saw the wives holding onto their crying children as they all sat in the pack house basement. And the tired, hollow eyes of the men who returned, bloodied and broken. Though they'd tragically lost a few, their fighters had been stronger than the rogues.

To this day, some of those men continued to recount the bravery of their father, who gave his life to battle for the pack. Nate and Marcus spent their time searching for the person responsible. Rogue wolves didn't just gather and attack.

Their mom, in a way of coping, had cooked and cooked for the pack. It would have worried Marcus, if he didn't know that the cooking was actually keeping his mom sane. She'd had nothing to do since his dad died; all the Alpha responsibilities had shifted over to Nate because he was the older of the two of them.

If they weren't werewolves, who needed a crazy amount of calories each day, they would definitely have become a chunky bunch.

"Ashley's been looking forward to your return," he stated. When he saw Nate's answering look of horror, he gave out a loud bark of a laugh. "Goddess only knows how long she's been trailing you."

Nate ran a hand through his hair. "She was annoying as a fourteen-year-old, I can only imagine how she must be as a...is she eighteen now?"

Marcus nodded. "Just had her giant birthday bash last month. It's crazy the amount of money Adam spent on that party. Makes me wonder if we can really trust him with our pack's finances."

"Should I be worried?" Nate joked, though a serious undertone was present.

Marcus chuckled and flicked on his left turn signal at the exit. "I think you should be more worried about all these newly shifted females we have."

Nate stayed quiet, thinking over what Marcus had said. He groaned. "Just what I need, a bunch of newly shifted females looking for their mates," he said sarcastically.

"It'll always be like that, Nate. After all, what girl doesn't want to mate with their all-powerful Alpha?"

Marcus could pretty much feel Nate rolling his eyes. "At this point, I'd much rather be single the rest of my life. Less commitment."

"Aw, come on, man. Don't be like that. I'm sure whoever ends up being your mate will be one hell of a chick."

A hush fell over the truck. The only sounds were the gentle hum of the engine, the talk show on the radio playing softly from the speakers, and their own breathing.

Marcus knew his brother. He knew Nate was slowly starting to lose hope of finding his mate. He was twenty-three, going to be twenty-four soon. He'd traveled to many packs for business and even around the world, tracking the rogue that had killed their father. And right now, Nate was of perfect marrying age.

But he wouldn't be for long.

"You'll find her," Marcus stated with confidence. He met silence.

They drove for a while. Nate probably basked in having that familiarity back while Marcus enjoyed finally having his brother around after all these years.

He was also excited for his brother to take over the brunt of the Alpha duties. Running the pack while he'd been away was a tricky business, and even though Nate always kept in contact and updated him biweekly, it was Marcus that basically had to follow through with everything. Yeah, he was Beta, but there was a lot more responsibilities for the Alpha than the Beta and Marcus wasn't sure how much longer he could deal with it.

It was good to have Nate home again. But Marcus couldn't help asking himself: if it wasn't the rogue, what brought him back?

"Okay, I need a brief update. Have you been working on the pack security like I told you to?"

"Yep. I've had security cameras set up all around the town and its borders. Hidden, of course. Patrols are running daily and we have a strict watch on most, if not all pack members."

"How are those new Omegas you told me about? They just moved in recently, right?"

Marcus calculated in his head. "About three years, maybe."

"Any problems with them?"

"Not so far. They're pretty quiet. They keep to themselves. I don't have anyone watching them because I don't have enough men for everyone, but it hasn't been an issue yet. They seem fine. Although, a year ago Cole came to me to discuss their financial problems."

"Financial problems?" Nate sounded surprised. "Adam's supposed to be on that. He's in charge of all the pack's money for a reason."

"I told him to fix the situation, but I haven't had the time yet to look into it with all these new security enhancements."

Nate nodded in understanding. He was probably thinking about when he was going to be surprising the Omegas with a visit.

The pack hadn't always been worried about their borders. In fact, most of the packs used to live in harmony. Well, maybe not harmony, but with a tolerance of each other. The United States was full of werewolf packs and sometimes it was too hard not to step on some toes. But other than territory disputes, everything else used to be okay. Some packs were even known to have been friends.

Then the Royals were killed. An entire family of wolves. Dead. Just like that.

It put most, if not all, Alphas on the edge. Since then, the Alphas and their packs had been watchful. They'd all waited, searching for who or what was able to kill the most dominant family of werewolves.

Lately, other packs started to fall too. The Lycans, or werewolves, as a species were beginning to be torn apart little by little as Alphas, pack members, and Omegas everywhere were being taken out without warning.

Marcus carefully pulled into the wrap-around driveway, putting the truck into park once the wheels completely stopped.

"Home sweet home," Marcus announced to Nate.

"Thank Goddess."

***

"My dear boy!" Theresa exclaimed, sweeping in and catching Nate in a tight hug.

Nate hugged his mother back just as tightly, leaning over and putting his nose into her hair. The smell of her comforted him. Her warm cinnamon scent reminded him of days spent eating cookies and playing on swings. Reminded him of why he left in the first place. What he had promised to protect.

"I've missed you so much, Nathaniel." She pulled back and narrowed her gaze on him, then pointed a finger at him warningly. "Don't you dare leave me like that again."

Nate chuckled. "Wouldn't dream of it, Mom."

Theresa's long brown hair cascaded effortlessly down her back. She appeared as young as ever—barely passing for 35, though she was far from it. Her hazel eyes still held that mischievous spark and her skin was a unique, year-round tan only achieved through genetics.

Pride welled up in Nate. His mom was strong. She was able to go through the anguish of losing her mate and continue on with her life for her sons.

Theresa grabbed him by the upper arm and coaxed him through the living room—which was shockingly empty—and passed the kitchen to the back door.

Nate glanced over to Marcus, who followed them. He gave Nate a smirk that told him he wasn't going to like what was coming.

The pack house was almost never this quiet. There were always people talking and children running amuck. Which could only mean—

"Surprise!" a chorus of voices yelled together.

Nate took in the numerous people around him. His shocked expression turned into a bemused look. He turned towards Marcus. "Why the hell didn't you warn me?"

Marcus shrugged, his smile consuming his face. "Welcome home."

And welcomed he was. Nate was immediately swallowed into the crowd as people greeted him and showed their happiness at having their Alpha back. He greeted all of them back politely, recognizing most, if not all of them. Some, he was glad to see. Others he wanted to smash through windows.

But either way, they were all his pack, and he would rather be here with his pack and the people he loved than anywhere else.

It wasn't until later that he finally got to sit down and eat. With a suppressed sigh, he fell into a fold-up chair set up in the backyard and dug into his cheeseburger. So what if it was almost 9pm. When wolves were hungry, they ate.

Alone at last.

"Nate!" a voice squeaked.

Damn.

Nate shoved the rest of his cheeseburger down his throat and readied himself to face the beast.

"Nate, there you are!" A cute looking brown-haired girl sat down next to him.

He barely held back the growl at being bothered. Anyone but her would've been better.

"My dad told me you were coming back the other day and I couldn't wait for you to get here," she said, barely containing her excitement.

Most of the females in the pack had changed drastically over the past few years. With their newly developed she-wolf bodies, they definitely were a great sight. Long legs, smooth skin, delicate features, they often had the whole package.

But not her.

He almost shuddered as she fluttered her lashes flirtatiously. Instead of turning him on, her actions only made him want to retch up the burger he just ate. He couldn't get the image of her as a gangly fourteen-year-old out of his head.

"Ashley." Nate tried at politeness, though that was the last thing he wanted to be. "How are you?"

She beamed. "I've been great. It's just been kind of hectic since you left, you know? I missed you."

Nate couldn't say the same. He'd always hated the way Ashley had latched onto his arm as a kid. He could never shake her off. As they grew up, he figured she'd find someone else to crush on, but no. Still the same painfully obvious crush. That, or it was the power he'd grown into. Female wolves tended to gravitate toward those with dominant traits. Whether they meant to or not, they searched for a mate who could offer protection.

Either way, she was definitely someone he did not miss at all.

"Yeah," he said awkwardly, scratching his head. "I can't imagine how things were while I was gone."

She shrugged her slender shoulders. "It was okay. Marcus ran a pretty tight ship. But it's great to have you back. It'll be fun to go out on the weekends and be the life of the party." Her smile couldn't be any bigger.

"Uh..." Nate had to break it to her. "Ashley, none of that is going to happen," he said bluntly, ripping off her disillusionment in one big swoop.

Her smile dropped. "What?" she asked sharply, her crystal blue eyes narrowing in confusion and disbelief. "Why?"

"I'm twenty-three. An Alpha. I have duties. I can't go frolicking around as much anymore. This pack needs someone dedicated to keeping things running and people safe. Me going to parties is not going to get that done."

"We're not going to party all weekend, silly." Ashley waved the notion away. "But I do expect us to go out on Fridays, at least."

Nate pressed his lips into a thin line, his patience starting to wear down. "Ashley, you're not getting it."

She shook her head as if shaking away the doubt. "Of course I get it. How are we supposed to be a couple if we never go on a real date?"

He almost burst out laughing. "What?"

Ashley giggled and leaned back in her chair. "Come on, Nate. We all know the real reason why you came back. You came back for me. Just like I said you would."

That was not the reason he'd finally come home. Although, he'd be lying if he said he hadn't felt a pull to come home. The past year he'd been following a nearly impossible-to-find trail, itching to return to the pack.

Okay. That was it. He had to rip it off like a band-aid. "Ashley. We. Are. Not—"

"Nathaniel!" Theresa's voice jumped out from the crowd. His mother showed up next to the table where they sat. "Come on, honey, we have cake."

Without giving him any time to argue, she grabbed his arm and dragged him back into the rush.