"Chloe stop! That's not Kaceline! That's my cousin, Dritë!"

I remove my hand from the choke hold I had on the girl who looks exactly like Kaceline, from the curly brown hair, to the chocolate brown eyes and the mole under her lower lip.

"I'm sorry. I thought you were her."

I easily lift her up from the floor and put her on her feet.

"It's fine. You sure are strong." Dritë says. "Lumia! You're finally back! Lumiere is giving us so much trouble."

She tackles Mia to the floor. "Dritë get off me now. I need to say hi to the family."

"Family?" I ask.

"Yeah. When I switched kingdoms, Dritë and Solas moved in, then more of the white witches moved in too. So it's a full house now. We're like one big family.Dritë, is Luxe here?" Mia says pushing Dritë off of her and getting up.

"Omg, I forgot that my favourite cousin is an Alpha! How is it? Do they really eat raw meat?" Dritë asks, not answering Mia's question.

"I think you should ask the future Alpha Queen and King, right here." Mia motions to me and my very silent mate.

Dritë gasps and quickly bows. "I'm so sorry your highnesses. Please come in. I apologise for my earlier statement."

"Don't stress about it, Dritë. You can call me Chloe, and this is my mate, Lorenzo. He doesn't talk much though." I say to her.

We walk into the house and are confronted by the homey smell of cookies.

A young boy with fair skin, brown eyes and curly black hair runs down the hallway, being chased by a man with fair skin, brown eyes and brown hair. The man must be the little boy's father.

"Lumia! Oh god it's been a while! Why hello there. I'm Solas, Dritë's husband and this little scamp here is our son, Lumiere." The man, Solas, says.

"Mommy!" Lumiere shouts and runs into Dritë's open arms.

"Dritë, who was at the door?" Two middle-aged looking woman come to the commotion. I noticed that they are identical African-American twins. The only difference is that the one has her hair curly, the other straightened hers.

"Hi Lumia!" The ladies engulf Mia in a bone crushing hug.

"Hi Mom, hi Aunt Fény." Mia barely gasps out.

They let go of Mia and instead turned to us.

"Lumia! Did you have a child and decide not to tell us?! Hi there dearies! I'm Luce, Lumia's mother and this is Fèny, my twin sister. Who are you lovelies?" Luce says quickly.

"I'm Chloe Halo, and this is my mate, Lorenzo Helia. Mia adopted me about fourteen years ago. We're pleased to meet you."

"Fourteen years! You've had a pup for fourteen years and didn't bother to tell us! Luxe, Argia, Leggero, Valo! Get down here and introduce yourselves!" Fèny shouts.

Instantly, a small tremor erupts as the rest of Mia's family comes down the stairs. Three males and one girl who looks to be around my age all come down.

"Hi there, I'm Leggero." The male with blue eyes and blonde hair says with a smile.

"I'm Argia. Nice to meet you, your Alpha-ness." The girl says. She has twinkling green eyes and curly orange hair, along with some freckles.

"And I'm Valo." A black haired male with blue eyes smiles at us.

Then the last one, Luxe, introduces himself and gives me a kiss on the back of my hand. He makes eye contact, his gray-white eyes that twinkle with amusement stare into mine.

"Uhm, I'm charmed." I say smiling at all of them.

"Wait, are you alphas? You both look pretty young." Luce questions.

"Mom, can we not discuss this right now?" Mia urges.

"Chloe, you can sleep in my room if you're staying overnight. I'm the only girl here who isn't married so I don't share a room with anyone."

"That's very kind of you, Argia. Let's all have some dinner, then cookies for dessert." Fèny ushers us to the large dining room.

We all sit down for the meal that Dritë prepared.Chicken parmesan and lasagna.

Everyone starts digging in and surprisingly, I eat too. I'm not exactly comfortable with eating food from unknown chefs because of what happened to my parents, but somehow I trust the white witches.

"So, Chloe. You're werewolves?" Leggero asks.

"Yes. And Lorenzo is my mate." I glance at Luxe, who visibly tenses, but only slightly so you have to have werewolf sight to notice.

"Hey, you never answered Mama Luce's question." Argia states.

"They do emit powerful auras."

"Shut up while you're chewing, Valo!" Dritë scolds at a now sheepish Valo.

"Yes, we are werewolves. Not just any werewolves. We're the rightful Alpha rulers of our kingdom." I state.

"Then why are you here?" Luxe questions rather rudely.

"Don't speak to royalty like that, idiot." Argia glares at Luxe.

"It's fine, really. Well, before we could be crowned Alpha king and Queen, Kaceline and her mate who's also my uncle, took the throne and used a delusion spell to make every wolf believe that they're the rulers and we're the outlaws." I explain.

"Kaceline. Where did I go wrong?" Luce sighs.

"It's not your fault sis. Luz and Lys wouldn't like you talking like that about yourself. We raised Kaceline pretty well." Fèny comforts her sister.

"Ya know, Kaceline used to be really close with me. We'd practice our magic together. She used to excel in all fields of magic. She was gifted." Argia sighs.

"But she only ever spoke to Argia. She used to distance herself from us, even from Lumia." Valo says.

"I was stubborn! I named her something other than 'light' because I saw her different from us, unique. But that came back to bite me." Luce starts crying.

"Mama Luce, it's not your fault." I heard my mate beside me say.

His deep, husky voice still sends shivers down my spine. Man! Having a mate that doesn't speak much makes you value his voice. Then again, I know I'm whipped.

"He has a voice after all." Luxe says.

"Enough, Luxe." Solas says firmly.

Dritë and Leggero, who are on opposite sides of Luce, wrap their arms around her.

"This isn't Kaceline's first offence. She was banished from the witch kingdom for a reason. She dared to challenge Queen Emalyn and she lost. Her hostility towards us grew and before we knew it, she moved out and went rogue." Dritë says.

"Then she probably came across the wolf kingdom and met her mate, Kenneth who almost had the Alpha King position." Mia says.

"But Mia and I defeated Kenneth before he met Kaceline." I add.

"Well, no. This was probably their plan from the beginning. To make Kaceline look oblivious to his lust for power so we could trust her. In the end, that went south because here we are, fugitives of our own kingdom while the real traitors sit on our throne." Mia finishes.

"There's only one way to claim your kingdom and your people back." Fèny says.

"How, Mama Fèny?" Leggero asks.

"If Chloe just holds the scepter of Delphinea, it's allegiance will shift back to it's rightful owner and Kaceline's spell will be lifted." Fèny explains.

"Sounds easy enough." Valo says.

"Nope. Kaceline knows that that scepter is her only weakness. None of us can break her spell, not even the queen." Luce says.

"So she has it locked away and protected more securely than ever." Argia inputs.

I sit thinking. If I can get my hands on my scepter, my kingdom is mine again. But if I fail, I'll get killed and no one can save me.

"Is the princess, Darcy, all right?" I ask.

"Yes, actually. It was on the papers. Princess Darcy returned safely a few hours ago. But her condition wasn't good, so say one of my sources." Leggero tells me.

He probably hangs around a lot of gossipmongers and knows everyone's biz.

But at least Darcy is safe and home.

"So, how are we going to get to the castle undetected? Every wolf knows who we are." I ask no one in particular.

"We can help." Fèny says with a warm smile.

All the other witches agree that they'll help us too.

"And one more thing." Valo pipes up.

"What?" I question.

"If Kaceline declares war on the witches, what's going to happen?"

I rub my chin. That was unlikely, but possible.

Very possible.