West wasn't letting go of me.

We were just outside of my hotel room, and haven't made it inside fully yet.

"Is this okay?" he said in a low voice as he grabbed my hand, and bought it to his lips, gently kissing it. The feel of his hand on mine made my heart skip a beat. Such a small thing, but I knew it meant a lot to West. His love language is definitely on the physical side.

"Yup," I kissed his cheek. His eyes widened, and he wrapped his other hand on my waist.

"Hey, you're not playing fair," he warned, growling out as his lips press into mine. I shiver under his touch. His lips leave mine, trailing down my cheek, and onto my neck, leaving me slightly out of breath when he touched the sweet spot where I knew- and he knew too with the small smirk I could feel as he sucked it on it a little more.

With the way West was holding onto me, I didn't ever want him to let me go. I didn't think he was going to either until we heard a shocking gasp.

"Oh!! West?!"

There was my godmother, Ava, standing on the doorway, seeing us wrapped up into each other. Somehow, my shirt rode up, and West's hands had made their way a little up my shirt.

Okay kill me now.

I wanted to die.

I tried to hide my face in West's broad chest, and he chuckled at me.

Wasn't he embarrassed? No, of course he wasn't. I don't think West got embarrassed. He embraced it.

It gets even worse when she casually puts out a, "Hey Edith!"

"Hi," I managed out a wave like West and I weren't making out.

"Mom! How are you" West peeled himself off of me, hugging his mom tightly, and she reciprocated it just as fiercely. Even thought he's significantly taller than her, it felt like she was holding onto him from falling. "Where's Dad?"

Ava gave him a small grimace, "He went straight with your grandfather."

"Oh," West's eyes widened a little.

"I was going to ask how you have been but...you guys are..." Ava trailed off, looking very interested between West and I, there was some sort of question in her eyes, and I didn't want to hide it from West's mother anymore.

"We're mates," I blurted. West grinned at me. I could never get tired of that grin.

Ava gave us a huge smile, and to my shock she teared up straight away which for some reason made my eyes water up too. "I always loved you like a daughter before I knew you are actually my daughter now," Ava came over and hugged me, and I returned it. " I've always wanted a daughter ever since I took care of you! You were dropped off right at our doorstep by some rogues and the first moment I saw you I knew we had to take care of you."

My throat was heavy, "Thank you."

"You're so strong though I can see you got that from your parents. How is your mom doing?"

"She's at a friend's place right now," I answered. "For the time being she's safe." I explained briefly about Silas taking over the pack.

"You know, I've always tried to contact her and you," Ava commented, confused. "Since we weren't allowed to come over there was so much restriction on that, and we always offered for you guys to come to our pack, but I just thought your mom never wanted to see me. So I wrote you letters. You didn't get my birthday presents either? Bo even did the unthinkable and wrote some letters too."

I shook my head. "All this time I thought I didn't have anyone. Silas made me believe I truly thought that no one really cared about us." I did it all alone. If only I've known how much I've had other people that truly loved me.

Ava hugged me again, rubbing on my shoulders in a comforting manner. It felt so good to be hugged by her, it was almost foreign to me if I didn't feel that love from West just moments ago. "You know, I cared about you first before I even cared about my own pups. I'm so angry at all of it."

"Hey!" West chimed in.

"Where's my other less problematic son? We need to head over home and discuss just what is going on."

"Who ever knows with him," West replied, but just as he said that Wyatt walked into the room and he broke out into a smile, rare and full of love as he only strode two steps towards his mom, and hugged her tightly like West.

"Have you been eating?" Ava asked him, poking him.

"Mom," Wyatt groaned out, breaking away from the hug and Ava kissed his cheeks, Wyatt rolled his eyes but smiled nonetheless. "West is definitely bigger than me."

"You mean more muscular," West cracked.

"How does anyone forget you live at the gym," Wyatt said, and he looked over winking. "We're going home?"

Home.

How they said it so casually. Their safe place.

"Yes, I saw Theo first, and he was already headed out because Julia called him to come straight," Ava told us.

"Aw, he should've came over with us," West said. "Aunt Julia is going to kill him."

It was late evening time when we arrived to Noctis Luna, Ava spoke so much to all of us, trying to get us to fill her in, and West sat next to me in the car, holding my hands, and giving me secret smiles.

Once we arrived, we settled at the family room in the pack house of Noctis Luna, it was nearly midnight, but none of us wanted to sleep. I know Ava wanted to spend as much time as she could with her two sons...and me.

Wyatt quickly claimed he had to take a shower.

West and I sat down in one love seat and she sat across from us, crossing her arms.

"Spill you guys! When and how did you guys figure out? Bo is going to actually die. Wait!" Ava snapped her fingers. "West, when you punched that kid at school you knew then?"

"Yeah," we both answered, causing her to laugh.

"Well it all started," West drawled lazily, "when we figured out, she ran away from me kind of."

"Same," Ava grinned.

Surprised I asked, "You ran away from Alpha Lance?"

"Yeah let's say I was very unsure of myself," Ava smiled sheepishly.

"And then you also actually ran away from dad by tricking Aunt Meg! That is my favorite moment in your life besides me being born." West almost fell over laughing and his Mom gave him a Mom glare.

Ava chuckled, "Mmm, I was running from other things like impending death from two other Alphas and then I didn't want Lance to get roped in. I thought he didn't like me and he thought I hated him."

"Well yeah Mom you literally ran away from poor Dad. Of course Dad is going to think you hate him."

"See... it took me a while."

"A long while," a new deeper voice entered the living room, Alpha Lance with his arms crossed, his tall frame filling up the room. West looked like an exact mix of his parents- he had his mother's eyes, nose and smile with his father's hair, eyebrows and height. It was like they perfectly mixed. "Hello everyone- Edith it is nice to see you."

By the way he smiled at me, I'm guessing he knew I was West's mate.

"Dad!" seeing West jump up and Alpha Lance's demeanor absolutely melt when he hugged his son rugged at my heartstrings.

"How was your vacation?" West asked.

"Short," Alpha Lance raises an eyebrow at his son. He looked like he wanted to say something else to West, but remained silent. I could tell Ava did too; but it was like they were walking on eggshells.

"How was Grandpa? I'm assuming you won't tell me what happened," West sniffed.

"No, I'm not," Alpha Lance responded. "Not for pups to know." That sounded very ominous, and the way West gulped, he changed the subject.

"So we have a problem, and I wanted to ask both of you guys about it." West glanced at me, and I knew what he was going to say. "Edith?"

Alpha Lance sat next to Ava, his arm casually over her shoulder, as she snuggled near him. Wyatt appeared out of nowhere, and hopped over to his dad's side.

I explained to them my predicament with Silas.

"When you came here, it was because of rogues," Lance wondered out loud. "I wonder if these same rogues that kidnapped you has any link to this Silas person."

"That's what I'm thinking," Ava agreed. "There's something not right about this whole thing."

"What about school?" Wyatt asked. "It starts in two days."

"I'm going to ask Principal Greer if we can have someone follow you around," Lance said. "Dad told me that he's going to get Reggie on you guys. We all know he's enough. In the meantime, I'm going to try to find as much as I can about Silas and speak to the Alpha council."

"What about the challenge?" West voiced out my scariest thought.

Alpha Lance looked over at me, and nodded at me, "I have no doubt you're capable of defeating this false Alpha, and you'll be training in the meantime. Remember, you are that one that has true Alpha blood running through you. I hope you already know this, but Noctis Luna is your pack too. I think it's always been. It's as if fate has a strange way of connecting you to us. You always were connected to us, Edith."