I smelled him before I saw him. The scent that drove me crazy and made my heart race with anticipation. I tore my eyes away from the work at hand and looked up as he entered the kitchen. The very sight of him made my knees weak.

Greyson looked at godly as ever in the soft light of the pack house kitchen. A clean scent clung to him of soap and fresh smelling deodorant, likely due to him just finishing his training session with the Warriors.

A hush fell over the women in the crowded kitchen as they all respectfully bowed to Greyson. As promised, we'd become more involved in the pack, including a dinner that we'd decided to make a weekly tradition. We also allowed every member in the pack to become specialized in one way or another, from caretakers to fighters. It was working out really well so far.

"Good afternoon, ladies," Greyson said though his eyes were trained on me.

"Good afternoon, Alpha," everyone including me recited back, causing a surge of emotion to rush through our link before I wiped my hands off as they continued on with their work. I excitedly hurried over to him before I wrapped my arms around him.

"Hi, little wolf," he gently chuckled. His embrace felt familiar and warm, a feeling I wouldn't have dreamed of when we first met a bit over a year ago. Our lips came into soft contact and River went wild within me, but not due to sexual desire, but rather due to pride that he was mine. I held him tighter.

As we parted, my bottom lip was caught between my teeth as I looked up at him, unable to control my grin.

"What?" he asked.

I shrugged. "Nothing," I tried playing off though I knew exactly why: I was lovestruck. Sickeningly lovestruck. It was gross and annoying but also intoxicating and addicting.

"I'd hate to pull you away, but you're meeting is in five," he lowly said, pulling me back to reality.

My attention snapped to the clock and surely enough, he was right. My throat became dry as I nodded and turned back to the women. "I have to go. Link me if you need anything, and I mean anything." I was secretly hoping they'd pull me back into them and bury me in work. Anything would be better than the meeting I was set to be at in less than five minutes.

"It's alright, Luna. Thank you," one of the women, Rosemary, said with a soft grin, a hand resting on her slowly growing belly that was harboring the pup her and her mate Markus were happily awaiting.

"Rose, don't stress yourself too much, okay?" I said over my shoulder as Greyson slowly started leading me away.

She chuckled. "I won't. Promise."

I threw another "bye" over my shoulder before I let Greyson take me outside. The various scents of nature bombarded my senses and relaxed me as Greyson took my hands in his. "Avery," he gently said, looking deep into my eyes and picking me apart from the inside out. "We don't have to do this today."

"Yes we do, Grey," I countered. "I'm fine."

"No you're not, Avery. I can feel it through the link. He doesn't deserve dirt, let alone making you feel like this."

"I'm okay, Greyson. I promise this is just something new for me. Naturally, I'm a bit off but I'll be fine. Plus, you'll be right there." I held his face in my hands in an effort to reassure him. He sighed and nodded.

"Okay. I'm trusting you."

"Thank you." I offered him a soft grin before he kissed my forehead. He slid in his into mine and I followed him down into the cells. It smelled putrid and the cells were overflowing with prisoners from Phoenix's pack. "Bring him to me," I said to a guard as I entered, my voice void of all warmth and emotion.

"Yes, Luna," he said without needing specifications as to who I was referring to.

I silently made my way to the Dark Room, the room usually designated for torture and waited. My heart was beating out of my chest, but Greyson's right grip on my hand was reassuring.

After a few minutes, Andrew staggered his way into the room, escorted by two guards before they threw him on the ground at my feet. "Thank you," I said, not taking my eyes off of the man in front of me. He was beaten and weak, and blood caked various parts of his figure.

My new motherly Luna instinct sympathized for him, but I pushed the feeling down as I crouched so I was closer to his level. "H-Hello, Luna," he made out, his voice rough and empty.

"Look at me," I coldly said. It could see his muscles struggle to work together to lift his heavy, weary head, but after many seconds, he was able to do it. His eyes were badly swollen to the point that I could barely see his irises. He opened his mouth to speak but with one look from me, his lips pursed back together. "I should kill you right now. Leave you at my mercy and tear you apart worse than I did Phoenix. I could turn you over to Greyson. Leave you at the mercy of the rogues for everything you've done to me. I've had sleepless nights because of you. Trauma and endless tears. It doesn't matter that I'm your Luna, it's the fact that you did it and thought it was okay. You laughed. You passed me around like a toy, and even when I begged for you to stop, you just ignored me." Remembering the night caused River to stir within me as you pushed against my boundaries, wanting nothing more than to rip him into pieces. My eyes shifted.

"You fought for this pack, you protected it, but that doesn't magically erase what you did. You've told me your sorry, but that means nothing unless I can see that you're sorry."

"Of course, Luna," he eagerly said. I could feel his fear.

"So, I'm not going to kill you, that would be a mercy. You're going to live with what you've done and every time you see me, you're going to be reminded of what you did and know that I'm the only thing standing between your life and your death."

He let out a noisy breath of relief. "Thank you so much, Luna. I promise I won't let you down."

"I'm not done," I said, effectively cutting him off. "It's needless to say that you've been stripped of your pack rankings, and you're now an Omega. You will do whatever anyone tells you to do unless it serves as an immediate threat to your life or others. You will have to work your way back up, and I promise that I will make that extremely difficult for you. If I even think that you're causing a disturbance in the new way we're running this pack, I'll end you myself, am I understood?"

He urgently nodded before he bowed. "I understand. Thank you, Luna. I understand that it is by your will that I am still breathing, and I will spend every moment until my last breath showing you how sorry I am."

"Don't tell me, show me," I said before I looked at the guards that had brought him in and used my head to gesture for them to get Andrew. "Take him through the Omega protocol. Keep an eye on him. Make sure that everyone in the pack knows of his new rank and his rules."

"Yes, Luna," they said in unison before they roughly picked him up and pulled him out. River angrily stirred within me as my mouth became wet with a want for his blood, but I swallowed it down, knowing that if I focused on it too much, River would take control and nothing would be able to save Andrew.

I screwed my eyes shut and took deep breaths as the bloodlust clawed up my throat. My new lycanthropy made even the smallest sliver of anger increase ten-fold, so the anger I was trying to suppress was torture. "Calm down, little wolf. Calm down," Greyson softly said as he wrapped his protective arms around me, the same arms I'd once been so terrified of. A weird contrast.

I felt a switch flip in me and within a moment's breath, I wasn't in control. River was. "I'm going to rip him apart!" she growled as she broke away from Greyson's grasp and made a deadbolt toward where they'd taken Andrew away. No matter how hard I tried to fight, River's wants to kill Andrew was far greater than my need to keep her at bay.

Thankfully, I felt the familiar sparks I felt when my mate touched me before I was forced onto the ground, my hands were tightly pinned next to my head as he straddled over me. His true eyes were showing and they had an intense look in his eye that made my insides shake and my heart race.

River thrashed beneath his tight grip, but Greyson wasn't budging. "River, I'm only telling you once: stand down."

She grinned up at him, instantly letting her sexual lust overtook her bloodlust. "Make me."

Sensing the shift, Greyson relaxed. "Riv, you need to calm down."

She lifted up her head so that her face was within an inch of his. "Tell Gavin to come out and play. You and Avery get all the fun, I think it's our turn."

"Not now, River. Can I please have Avery back?"

She grinned before she quickly flipped us over so now Greyson was on the bottom and she was on the top. "Not now, Greyson. Can I please have Gavin back?"

He grinned and I couldn't help but find humor in the situation. "River, you know we both love you, right?"

She grinned. "I know."

I tried to fight to get back into control, wanting nothing more than to distract myself by taking advantage of Greyson in this position, but when his eyes glazed over and his body tensed, all playfulness left my system. When the fog cleared, he instantly shot up. "River, I need Avery back now. Matthew's awake."

River didn't put up a fight before she threw me back in control, all anger and bloodlust long were forgotten. "He's awake?" I found myself asking as Greyson helped me up.

"Yeah," he breathed out. "He's awake."

That confirmation was all that I needed to rush back to the hospital. My heart was on my throat every step of the way to the point that I barely felt the comfort that usually came with Greyson's touch. When we went into the hospital, I couldn't even register the stares and bows I was getting. All I could do was focus on getting to Matthew as quickly as possible.

So why were my feet rooted in place right outside his door?

I found myself letting out a shaky breath as I stood in front of the door. "Little wolf, you can't do this to yourself again." Greyson took my face in his hands and turned my attention from Matthew's name on the door to him. His green eyes caused me to relax like they always did as he spoke. "Everything will be alright, okay? Matthew will understand, alright? He loves you, and he knows that you didn't do this on purpose."

"Yeah, but what about how Nat reacted-"

"Matthew isn't Natalie, Avery," Greyson reassured before he kissed my forehead. "Trust me okay? I'll be right there. I'm not going anywhere. I'm never going anywhere."

I nodded. "Thank you, Grey. It's like you always know what to say."

"It's just payback for all the times you've done the same. It's almost like the Moon Goddess made us for each other or something."

His sarcasm made me punch him, pulling laughter from both of our lips. "I love you."

"I love you too," I instantly said.

He grinned and gently kissed me. "Are you ready?' he asked.

"Yeah."

He slid his hand into mine before he lightly knocked on the door before he led me in. When I walked in, Matthew was looking expectedly directly at me and Greyson with Natalie wrapped up in his arms and crammed with him in the small hospital bed. He looked like there had been nothing wrong, most likely due to our accelerated healing. "I was wondering when you would stop babbling out there and come say hi."

A grin spread across my face and it felt like he never left. I felt the pull of tears from behind my eyes as I rushed over to him and wrapped my arms around him. His scent instantly brought a familiarity I had lost without him. "I'm sorry, Matthew. I didn't mean to hurt you-"

"Shh, Avery, I know," he said with a slight chuckle as he wrapped his free arm around me. "I've been through the hard time with Greyson when he was dealing with it and now with you...it happened more suddenly with you than it did with him, and I know it's hard. And it's okay, Av, don't beat yourself up about it."

I held him tighter.

"Okay, love you, mean it, Av, but you're making it hard to breathe."

I instantly let him go. "Sorry, Matt."

"It's okay," he said with a chuckle before his focus shifted to Greyson.

"It's good to finally have you back. The pack is falling apart without you," Greyson joked as he wrapped his arms around his best friend.

"Yeah, Natalie told me that Avery persuaded you to be nice. Sickening," Matthew said with a fake gag, causing me to roll my eyes.

"It's not so bad," Natalie piped up.

"Yeah, yeah, whatever. So it seems like I have a lot to be caught up on, especially because you two's scent has changed."

I blushed as I buried my face into Matthew's body. "Matthew, stop!"

"Alright, I'll let it go for now. But I'll need a full update later."

"And you'll get one, but the most important question is how are you feeling?' Greyson asked as he sat down in a chair next to Matthew's bed.

"Honestly? I feel fine. It feels like any other day if I'm being honest."

"I'm glad, Matty," Natalie said. "You were out for a long time. We were really worried. It's been almost three weeks."

"Really?" he asked as she knitted his eyebrows. "It only felt like a couple of days."

"What was it like when you were out?" I asked. "When I was out with that stake thing Atonya gave me, it was all just black and empty. The days blended together and it was terrible."

"It actually wasn't like that for me. I saw my dads."

"You what?" we asked at the same time.

He chuckled. "Yeah, it was insane. I don't know if it was just a hallucination from my imagination to help me cope or if the Moon Goddess opened a little window to heaven for me while my body was healing or what but yeah. It felt so real. I saw both of them and we just talked and hugged and talked and hugged over and over again. It just felt so amazing because I missed them so much."

"I'm so happy for you, Matthew," I gently said. "I saw my parents while I was in convergence and it really just...it gave me a new push for life, you know?"

"Exactly," he said before he turned to Natalie. "They said that they loved you loads and they're so sorry they didn't get to know you and help you sooner."

Emotion rushed through her eyes as a grin stretched across her face. "Thank you."

He kissed the crown of her head in a loving way before he sighed. "Alright, I'm done with all this sappy emotional stuff because I don't want to get sad. I'm hungry, so how about we get a nurse, we get some food, and you guys update me on the position of this pack and what exactly is going on between you two because I heard some 'I love yous' that I didn't hear before and I know you're a lycan now, so I need to know all about that."

We all laughed.

"Alright, Matthew. Hold tight, I'll go get a nurse for you," Greyson before he got up and planted a deep kiss on my lips just to get Matthew riled up.

"Yeah, I definitely need to know when all of this happened," Matthew said as Greyson pulled away and walked out like nothing happened.

"Yeah," was all I could say before I bit my bottom lip in an effort to keep my uncontrollable grin at bay.

"Okay, so when I get out of her I want a stake. Like a really big one, oh and some of those mashed potatos and whatever that is that Margot makes because it's super good."

"Eww, no. Not happening," Natalie argued as she scrunched up her nose.

"You're just a hater!"

"Am not..!"