Recap:

Alpha Trent: ex-Alpha of Ava's-----> Red Moon pack

Alpha Steven: Cousin of Trent - - - - - -> Blood Moon pack

Alpha Paxon: His mate, Vanessa died by Steven-------> some pack from the North

Alpha Lance: Ava's mate------> Noctis Luna pack

I couldn't go to sleep at night, so I woke up at the crack of dawn, and went downstairs.

No one was in the kitchen yet, but I knew where some stuff were. Like, the snack cabinet that was Bo's. Or how Cook made me cookies, and they were in the cookie jar.

I eye the cookie jar on the dining table, but decide that I want something that is more healthy. Naturally, that means Fruit Loops, so I grab a bowl, a spoon and pour my cereal to the top with the milk. I scroll through my phone. My service got cut off, but I still had wifi and other means to get in contact, but my parents hadn't texted me, my sister Lisa hadn't either. Nor Julia.

Sighing, I play some music on my phone as I wash my bowl and spoon. Sia's "Chandelier" was playing.

After I was done, I twirled around acting like the ballerina person in the music video until I hear a deep voice say, "Meredith?" which makes me crash into a hard body.

"Ack!" I say, my eyes meeting glorious blue ones, and his strong arms held me into place. Too soon did he let me go. I really really hope he didn't see me make a fool of myself dancing. My best friend tells me I just need a lot of practice.

I clear my throat,"Uh, eh, why are you so up early?" The real question was why was I up this early? No one in their right mind would willingly be up at this time.

Except for Lance and I at this moment, it seems.

"Just some Rogue that was someone's mate in my pack this morning," Lance answers me, sidestepping me and grabbing a glass of milk to pour for himself.

"Alphas usually hate Rogues," I tell him, narrowing my eyes at him, trying to figure him out.

"I find it a bit ridiculous that they have hatred towards them. Not all Rogues are evil," Lance glances at me, as if to say, 'like you'.

"Alphas hate that they trespass their lands."

"Only the really illogical Alphas are the ones that imprison them for no reason. A logical Alpha would know that not everyone knows where exactly the borders are. Border patrol is not going to always be there. Again, all Rogues aren't evil. They're misguided and they're mainly lost."

"I saw something that may have looked like a dungeon or prison, but it seems like you haven't been using it," I note.

"I don't use it," Lance nods. I bite my lip as a brilliant idea came to me.

"Do you know what you can use that area for?" I ask, grinning at him. His eyebrows knitted, looking at me like I'm a puzzle. I'm not that hard to read. I'm so easy to please: just give me sushi, pizza or ice cream and I'm a happy camper.

"What?" Lance asks, tilting his head slightly.

"A pool," I couldn't stop grinning, and I swear I see his lips twitch a fraction.

"Oh yes, a pool Bo coerced you into."

"Not true! I want one too. Bo and I will make such good use to it! We'll use it everyday!" I promise. My heart feels a little heavy because I'm thinking about this permanently. I said it without even thinking how I need to get out of here before anything worse off happens.

"We'll see," was all Lance said before he took another chug of milk.

Silence.

Then Lance asks me, "What is it?"

I ponder at this thought because Rogues are taken very seriously and everyone hates them. For some reason, Lance is so understanding of Rogues out of all wolves. Him being called the Demon Alpha and having...sympathy? Empathy for them? The main reason Lance is called The Demon Alpha is because at the young age of 14, he had killed 5 Alphas in battle. A total of 11 packs had been in it. He was the reason why the infamous Alpha War was come to a stop. I don't know much of my history, but I know that one of the Alphas Lance had killed was my ex-Alpha's father.

He was a demon in war.

I thought it was a scare tactic that the werewolves used so Lance's pack would be protected, but since my former Alpha was indeed affected by his father's death because of Lance, I knew it was true. The Alpha War was just 10 years ago. So, it was recent. Still bought up memories. The only thing I remembered was that the children and elderly women in my pack had to evacuate at some house, but we were safe through most of it. It was a weird time that I usually blocked out. I wonder how many enemies Lance made out of that even though the Great Alpha Treaty prevented from that happening again.

"You're not like many Alphas," I say at last. At least, the two I know. My ex-Alpha Trent was the typical Alpha and his cousin, Alpha Steven the one that killed Alpha Paxon's mate Vanessa was also another wack case. Steven became Alpha by taking over the pack he was in by challenging his own Alpha into a duel. A scandal was involved, but let's just say being an Alpha that way was looked down upon.

"Is that... a good thing?" Lance almost hesitantly asks.

"Oh yeah, really good," I scrunch my nose thinking of the ugly Alphas I knew. Lance was a breath of fresh air. But I didn't really know him even though slowly I feel like I was. So far, it has been interesting to see him work his pack. It was unusual, but it worked. He was quiet. He didn't like to do anything. Nothing so grand. Practical. And on the topic of Rogues he seemed to try to understand them instead of generalizing the entirety. Which earned major points for him.

"Any more questions?" Lance asks me, and he doesn't seem to mind just as Cole and Meg walk in one after the other, they probably just woke up too.

"How did Bo become the Beta?" I ask almost as a joke.

I swear I hear Cole make a small noise that sounds like laughter.

"Why do you guys always gossip about me?" Bo comes in the kitchen will full finesse and brushes past all of us.

"Why doesn't Bo answer that question?" Cole suggests, crossing his arms.

Bo shrugs turning around before he gets to the fridge, "Easy. I'm the best option."

"Or your family has a huge lineage of Betas and you conveniently got it, some miraculous way," Meg suggests smugly.

"This roasting sesh is over," Bo opens the fridge and we all kind of love teasing Bo because he's too easy to make fun of. "Can we please talk about how much I don't want to train?" Meg and I both groan as Bo sits next to me, and leans into my ear, "Did you ask him about the pool?"

I whisper back, "He's being a butt."

Lance's head shoot up and his gaze lands on me. Whoops. I forgot about werewolf hearing, and I'm 100% sure he heard that. I narrow my eyes at him in a glare that's probably not intimidating to him at all.

Someone rushes into the kitchen which breaks our eye contact, Grace and her long beautiful hair, and she looks distraught. "Lance, can you please come to the nursing room? My dad is being really stubborn!" she exclaims. Lance nods, and they hurriedly get out.

Bo lets out a breath. "He's going to give you a pool. He's probably already working on it."

"He said and I quote 'We'll see'. Which means no."

Bo huffs, "We'll see if he doesn't."

***

This is day 2 of being on the training grounds, and my resolution right now is to train a lot. The main werewolf warrior is Brick, with his assistant guy John. Brick is huge. Like he can pound you with a finger. John is okay, he's cocky and always tries to show off. Luckily, John would get his butt handed to him by Bo.

I have yet to see Lance or Cole fight. They both just watch.

I want to tell Lance that I'm not feeling too good. This isn't a lie because I have this horrible headache. My eyes roam over to where I feel the pull. I wish I could smell him like any other werewolf that has a mate can. I faintly can when he's close. It's a light citrus and the smell of a beach with the mahogany teak-wood scent undertones. It's alluring.

I walk up to where Lance is, and a burly huge looking wolf named Pete is on the training ground is standing with a red haired girl talking to Lance. I overhear the conversation a little.

"I'm sorry Alpha, but she doesn't seem to be talking much," Pete says. "She's shy. She entered our lands hurt and malnourished." So this was the Rogue that Lance was talking about earlier this morning.

I frown deeply coming in and blurting my first question, "Has she been abused?" Pete glares at me and gives a low growl. Sheesh calm down. I raise my hands. It's a legit comment that needs to be addressed.

"Please don't hurt me," the red haired girl whispers to Lance. I don't blame her. Lance was standing there looking intimidating per usual.

"Lance you're scaring her!" I kind of tease because it's funny. Lance's facial expression is completely awkward. It's like he's trying hard not to have his usual expressionless devoid of emotion face and trying to at least look like he's friendly but it looks like a grimace. I grin at him and he looks away. I bite my lip. He may be embarrassed.

Lance crosses his arms, "She needs to be initiated into the pack."

"Your own mate isn't," Pete accuses.

Pete has a point, but Lance doesn't look like he cares. "She's your Luna regardless." My heart constricts at that word. Luna. Some Luna I'd be.

Pete growls, "She needs time." The poor girl looks like she was the runt of the pack. I can empathize with her, but I let the weakness in my make me stronger. If you accepted your weaknesses and let people's opinions not hurt you, nothing could.

"I'll give you at least a month for her to warm up to you. After that, I hope for her to be able to get initiated."

"If she doesn't?" Pete is being brave for his mate. I can applaud him for that. The poor runt girl needs to socialize with people, and it looks like Pete is going to make her into a hermit. Slowly, but surely.

"Let us hope it does not come to that," Lance says calmly. Pete rubs his mate's shoulders, and they leave quietly.

"Sorry I was nosy," I say to Lance. I don't know, but our strained relationship was weird. I didn't know if he even liked me. Yes there was the unmistakable bond there. I felt it when he was int he room and my body felt like it was on fire, but what about him? He didn't do the typical thing Alphas do- which was a good thing.

"I like your input," Lance tells me, and I can tell he's being sincere.

"Thanks," I smile. One main thing that Alphas do that pisses me off is they don't let their Lunas into their politics. It's the men making the decisions for everyone. Even the women. For example, in some packs in the west mated female wolves cannot go out without their mate.

Total ugh.

Someone calls Lance for him to watch them train, I say, "Can I please be excused, I'm not feeling too well. My head is killing me."

Lance turns to me, frowning slightly, "Cole can take you to the infirmary if you need any medicine."

"Nah, I'll just go to sleep," I say, waving bye at him.

When I enter the back door to the kitchen, I see that the red-haired new girl is timidly eating some steak. "What's your name?" I ask her, sitting next to her. I wanted her to feel welcome.

"S-S-S-Samantha," she stutters, her hair falling down so I can't see her face.

"You need to stop talking to her, she doesn't like it," Pete says, coming in the room.

"Sorry just wanted to be her friend," I respond to Pete's overbearing protectiveness. It's so annoying.

"Well don't," Pete snaps. This guy kind of scared me because he was huge. Like the steroid kind.

This is what happens when I'm nice.

I roll my eyes. "Whatever." The headache is still there, but is subsiding a little.

"Out," his mate, Sam, says quietly to him.

"Hopefully we'll see each other around" I tell her, standing up. Pete growls at me. This guy needed a serious chill pill.

"Stop talking to her!" Pete does something bizarre and lunges straight at me.

Well, almost.

Stalker Cole being somewhere stalking me, is instantly in front of me, and as if holding something weightless, grabs Pete's arm and I hear a crack. Pete howls in pain, getting to his knees, not even bothering to fight back.

I cringe hard because that has got to hurt. I could have lived without hearing that sound.

"The next time you think of even going near the Luna threateningly, I'll rip both your arms off," Cole says lowly. "Be glad Alpha Lance wasn't here. You wouldn't have been alive."

Pete gulps and squirms. This huge burly guy is squirming to Cole, who's a little shorter than him too. I think the reason why Cole is being nice is because Sam is right in front of us. Cole is being considerate, in a way.

Lance decides to show up then, asking, "What happened?" Lance's eyes are on Pete's broken arm, in which Pete is clutching it tightly. ".....Cole?"

"Pete just needed a lesson," Cole responds stiffly. Lance gives Cole an unreadable expression. Pete and Sam scadaddle out.

"I trust the conflict is resolved?" Lance asks. It amazes me on how much Lance trusts Cole. Cole could probably kill someone and Lance would be like, 'it's okay'.

What was Cole's role in this pack? I don't want to hurt Bo's feelings, but I'm pretty sure that Cole is stronger than Bo. The second strongest is always the one to get the Beta position. So why wasn't Cole?

As I'm thinking about this, there's a yell from an unmistakable Bo voice, "Alpha! You would want to see this!"

All three of us left the kitchen and walked to where Bo was standing in front of the main stairs.

Bo was holding........a baby. No more than five months.

"The baby was given to one of the pack patrol members, Carter, and he gave it to me. Says a Rogue almost forced him to take the baby and left," Meg says.

"Oh my gosh," I coo at it, it's wide brown eyes staring at me. "It is so cute."

"It is a girl," Bo says, giving it the same affection I did. I can tell we're both already enamored with her and her cuteness.

"What should we do with her, Alpha?" Meg asks.

"Do with her?!" I exclaim, "Like there's any other option but to keep her!"

"Keep her?" Meg looks at me like I'm insane. "She's not some dog."

"Well technically we-" Bo starts.

"This poor baby needs someone," I interrupt, looking at her, just opening her eyes and staring at us. "Obviously the Rogue mother couldn't take care of her so she gave her to us."

"Why would someone leave a baby here?" Meg asks.

"Screw with us?" Bo suggests, still holding the baby as if she was his own.

"Okay, if we keep her," Meg looks in my direction, "who'll take care of her?"

"Me," I say, taking the baby from Bo's hands, and protectively place the baby against me, being careful to hold her neck.

I love babies. I didn't want one anytime soon, but I appreciate them and their cuteness.

All eyes turn to Lance. He looks contemplative. "If you want to keep her, then we can for the time being. She still has the mother that gave her to us that we need to find."

"Unless that wasn't her mother, and her parents have died," Cole says solemnly.

"Don't think like that, jerk," I say covering her ears as if she could understand Cole.

"We'll need baby food," Bo suddenly states, as if realizing babies are a great deal to take care of.

"And a crib," I add.

"And baby toys," Bo continues.

"And safety measures-"

Bo sniffs, "And diapers."

"Ugh I'm sick of you guys," Meg shakes her head and leaves us.

"So...what should we name her?" Bo asks.

"She looks like a Hope to me," I answer.

"We have a room that could be hers. I'll tell some people to buy her a crib and some baby food," Bo says. "Ol' Missy can take care of her for the time being...because I think she needs a diaper change."

***

After a long day of trying to get Hope to crawl to us, I go to bed because my headache is still there. I know I need to go to a doctor because I usually have them at least once a week, and sometimes the headaches are excruciating. The pain is the worst, and sleep is the only thing that helps me get rid of them.

I'm in my bed holding my phone at night, like I do every night.

I look at my background of my family. I want to hear my parent's voice. Were they thinking about me? They said they were alright when I whatsapped them earlier, but I haven't heard back from them.

And my best friend Julia. I wonder if she found her mate yet. I know she would interrogate Lance and probably threaten to break his neck if he hurt me. That's just the kind of person that girl is. I'd do the same for her mate.

I clutch my phone to my chest. I needed to stop looking at pictures of my family every night.

Tears spring in my eyes. I sniffle a little. I shouldn't cry. When will it be okay though? Will I never see them again?

I needed to tell Lance. Who I am. The fact that I came from Alpha Trent's Red Moon pack. The fact that they wanted to kill me. Even if he wouldn't help me. At least I can say that I tried. That's not just something. That's everything right now.

I sigh and throw my phone on the bed, getting out into the balcony. I need fresh air. My thoughts that spun around my head enabled me to sleep. I wonder how Hope's doing, but the baby monitor that Bo picked out for all of us, even Lance, was quiet. It was video equipped and everything.

I walk out the room, and go outside to the balcony that was with my room and overlooked the training grounds. The moon made it so that you could see as if it was light outside.

A flash of movement caught my eyes to my right. I look up, and see... a person standing on the ledge of the third room balcony. Where Lance's room would be at.

I can tell when a werewolf is a werewolf, like any werewolf can. However this guy's entire demeanor and pale skin in the moonlight had red flags all over. My entire body is alarmed. The panic rose up in me as I tried to make out what it was.

Vampire.

Our eyes meet, and he gives me a strange look before grinning then he disappears into the night, as if he was never there.