I sat patiently in the car, waiting for them to drive up the long driveway leading up to Aiden's dad's house. Me, Beau, Daniel and Aiden were in one car and Emma, Carlos, Diego and Nina were in the other - talk about splitting us up unfairly, I thought unhappily. Beau, Daniel and Aiden had sang along with an entire Mariah Carey CD, which Aiden just so happened to have in the car.

I was extremely nervous meeting Aiden's brothers and dad properly, especially when we hadn't even 'accepted' one another and weren't even boyfriend and girlfriend.

"April? You okay?" Beau placed a hand on my arm and I nodded, not trusting myself to speak.

"Don't worry, Antonio doesn't bite." Daniel added. I quickly looked up, my expression morphing into one of worry and I caught him giving me a teasing wink.

"Shut up Daniel," Aiden laughed, punching him lightly. Daniel punched him back and they proceeded to have... what I could only call a 'bro-fight,' both of them snorting with laughter as they did so. Then Beau joined in and he got pounced on by the two and crushed. I smiled at the sight.

I pulled my hoodie around me more tightly. Glancing down at my outfit, I wished I'd worn something slightly nicer - I didn't think an t-shirt and jeans cut it in this place. It was beautiful and grand and magnificent. I was.... substandard.

Aiden hadn't mentioned anything about the phone call and I was beginning to suspect he was drunk when he had called me, which I had to admit, hurt a little. We remained in a comfortable silence whilst approaching the huge doors.

His arm comfortably settled around my waist. "What are you doing?"

He pouted at me. "I know you feel uncomfortable but I'm just doing this to help calm your nerves. Plus, my dad and brothers are waiting at the doorway for us so we can't look as distant as we usually do."

"I appreciate that, but putting your arm around my waist is not helping!"

"Why?" He frowned. "Are you getting affected by my touch?" A smirk was beginning to form on his features and I glared at him, my stomach knotting in embarrassment - ditto Aiden. I really am getting affected by you in ways I could have never imagined before.

"No."

I tensed as we approached three figures now clearly visible against the doors - one of them was obviously Antonio because of the streaks of grey in his hair. Some distance away was Kaden - he was smoking a cigarette in his usual suit, running a hand through his hair. Cole on the other hand was busy grinning at his phone, his back turned towards the other two.

"Son." Antonio greeted Aiden with a stiff head nod. Aiden grunted in response.

"April! How are you? Looking beautiful as always," Cole yelled, breaking the tense atmosphere that was already beginning to gather around our group.

"Thank you," I said quietly. Kaden simply gave me a tired smile.

"April, why don't we go inside first; this is no place for a proper conversation." Antonio announced, his eyes darting from between his sons anxiously. I nodded as I followed him inside, glancing slightly sideways at Aiden. He was still standing outside, now in a huddle with his brothers who were whispering furiously to one another.

Oh damn.

We entered the hallway where the stars adorned the ceiling and I looked upwards in awe, entranced yet again by how real it looked and beautiful looked. My mind drifted back to when Aiden showed me the stars and how my heart beat accelerated when he kissed me on the cheek.

"April?" I looked at Antonio, suddenly realizing just how alike him and his sons looked - they had the same sturdy jaw and striking eyes. "I'm glad you're here."

"It's.... always interesting being here." I admitted, smiling slightly.

He sighed heavily, placing his hands behind his back as he craned his head up towards the ceiling. A few moments of blessed silence fell upon us as we appreciated the beauty of the ceiling. "My wife requested we have the constellations on the ceiling. She was always fascination with the stars and was intent on getting nearly every ceiling painted like this one," he pointed upwards, the ghost of a smile tracing his lips. "But that never happened. She made sure we all knew every single constellation, although Aiden's brothers always found it tedious. Aiden was the only one who was interested. He hung onto her every word and soon developed his own obsession with the heavens above." He threw a furtive glance behind him. "She was his life support."

My eyes widened and I fell silent, not knowing what to say. "It's - it's beautiful."

"I'm glad you think so. Many people find it's too extravagant." I hesitated at the next thought that came into my mind. "D-did your wife... did she -"

He cut me off gently. "You don't need to tiptoe around me about her April," he assured, smiling wearily. "Maria was a great woman - my first mate - when she died... A part of me died. But I knew I had to look after my sons. I was too late. By the time I was back, they had drifted off. Kaden was disappearing every evening, Cole was flunking school and Aiden - well Aiden cooped himself up in a shell that he still hasn't fully broken. The death of his mother struck him the hardest - they were always so close and now I fear he's too broken for me to mend our bond."

I paused, reeling from the amount of raw emotion Antonio had just thrown on me. "I - I don't know what to say."

"It's fine - I shouldn't have burdened you with that. I'm sorry." He smiled sadly and my heart twisted at his expression. "I don't talk with my sons anymore and I just want to build a good foundation with Aiden's mate seeing as he has changed too much for his own good. Drinking, smoking, doing drugs - he'll be dead by the time he's 30," his smile had turned into a grimace. "I can't see him throwing away his life like this. You are the only one who can change him April - please don't let my youngest son die."

"I don't see what good I will do. I want to help you, I really do, but the only one who can make a difference is you." I admitted softly.

"I understand. But, I'm afraid my relationship with my sons has been ruined completely. They hate me and to be perfectly honest, I don't blame them. But, as an Alpha, it is my job to keep the peace; that is what a pack is - we stick together." He said seriously as he looked down at me.

"As a human, I doubt you know much about werewolves, right?" A new voice approached from behind. I turned, seeing Kaden, hands shoved into his suit pocket walking towards us.

"Hi Kaden," I greeted awkwardly giving him a small wave. I then realized just how lame that looked and dropped my hand.

He chuckled and took out another cigarette and lit it - me and his father watched him do it in a trance. His routine of lighting it and then puffing out soft tendrils of smoke was almost hypnotic in manner. After he took several puffs, closing his eyes as he savoured it, I was instantly reminded of Aiden and I glanced around to see where he was.

Kaden rubbed his chin thoughtfully, still uneven with stubble. "Werewolves - do you know anything about them?"

After several stutters, I finally composed myself: "Well, I know that there is an Alpha and a pack, which is like a family."

"And it's not true that you change once every full moon - you have the power to change whenever, but you can harness more power during a full moon." I frowned slightly as I struggled to remember what Aiden had explained to me, but judging by Kaden's hum, I assumed I was speaking sense. "You have 'mates' which is a soul mate and I'm guessing that you can have both human and werewolf mates, although humans are more rare."

"You know a lot," Antonio intervened in surprise. "I'm glad you know the basics, although there is much still to be learnt, especially about rules."

Kaden interrupted him, sounding annoyed. "Antonio, I would like to speak to April privately if you wouldn't mind." Before waiting for a reply, Kaden grabbed my wrist and gently tugged me along after him.

We were moving fast and we'd come outside and woven past a bickering Aiden and Cole. "Where are you going?" I heard Aiden call from behind us.

"I need to talk to April privately." Kaden replied, not turning back. We walked for what felt like hours, when in reality it was just due to my excessive junk food bearing its burden.

After a few moments of silence, I decided to break it because apparently, staring at a bush for too long made your eyes go weird. "Um, you wanted to talk to me?"

"Yes, we're just waiting for Cole." He explained, his foot tapping the floor impatiently as he looked at the Rolex adorning his wrist. Cole? Why are we waiting for Cole?

We waited in silence for several more minutes until a faint rustling came from a nearby bush. I didn't bother pushing Kaden for information about why I was wanted here; I was too busy freaking out about having two of Aiden's extremely intimidating brothers wanting to talk to me in private.

Cole emerged from the bushes. "What's up Ap?"

"Where the hell have you been?" Kaden snapped, glaring at his brother angrily.

"I was talking with Aiden," I looked to Kaden next, but he didn't bother replying and simply shook his head accusingly at his brother and gestured for me to sit. I looked backwards and spotted a small, stone bench embedded within the bushes so that it was hidden from sight.

Cole ended up next to me, grinning, his tanned skin glowing in the sun - it seemed as though everything about him screamed beach bum and bad ass. I couldn't decide which he resembled more.

"Is there any particular reason you wanted to talk with me privately?" I finally said uncertainly.

Cole cleared his throat and his smile vanished with the wind. "It's about our dad - we wanted to clear some things up for you."

"You were talking with Antonio before, right?" Kaden said, cocking his head to one side as he waited for my answer. "Right, and what kinds of things did he say?"

Why did they want to know about what their father said? Surely, I couldn't go out and blurt out Antonio's inner feelings. "Um, just about your mother and you guys, I guess."

"Figured as much - well, we just wanted to explain some of the 'pack' stuff to you and clear up some things. With our dad, you'll only get the glorified version of events. His pride gets in the way of the truth, you know?" I nodded, even though I didn't really know. "Our pack is called the Silvermoon pack - we are one of the biggest in America, stretching out all across Atlanta and further. But, with every pack, also comes an enemy and an Alpha. The Alpha of the Silvermoon's is our father and Aiden is next in line since me and Kaden both refused the opportunity to become it." I frowned at the unfairness of it.

"But Aiden would've made a better Alpha than both of us - me and Cole have never had much interest in the pack - we left for a year and that's why Aiden is so angry with us. He thought we abandoned him, but we didn't - we were handling rouges - defending the pack." Kaden added.

"Wait, what do you mean defending your pack?" I asked, my frown deepening.

Cole smiled darkly. "As I was saying," he shot an accusing glare at Kaden here, "Every pack has an enemy - an opposing pack. In this case, it's the Pinewood's - they've been enemies with us for hundreds of years and my father tries keeping the peace between both packs to avoid conflict. But every now and then conflict occurs and my father always tries to smooth over cracks that already exist. Having an all out war costs money - and lives. Two things we can't afford."

"That's why we didn't want Antonio explaining the 'pack' rules to you - he would glorify it unnecessarily and you would get a one-sided view of our pack. You must understand the dangers of the werewolf world. As much of a good man our father is, his hubris is his biggest downfall." Kaden intervened, his brown crinkling.

"Well, thank you," I hesitated, still baffled by their conflicting opinions. "But... why did you want to tell me?"

Kaden and Cole let out a short bark of laughter in unison. "Because we care about Aiden - and also because we can tell that you're a good girl - different from his usual girls anyway," Cole added sincerely, his smirk fading.

"And plus April, you seem like a pretty innocent character - I think we all need some change in the Knight household." Kaden added, his lips curving upwards. I grinned back at them both and muttered an embarrassed thank you.

"Us Knight boys are quite messed up." Cole muttered softly.

"Well, I guess we better take you back to the house April, Aiden will be wondering where you are." Cole announced, getting up suddenly and stretching upwards in a dramatic yoga pose. Kaden rolled his eyes at him and gave me a wink, a rare smile slipping onto his features.

"Thanks for filling me in, I guess." I said, shrugging my shoulders at their expression. "At least now I know more about the Knight family."

"Do you mind?" Kaden asked, holding up a cigarette. His eyes were glazed over with want as he looked at the cigarette and I was in no position to say no because it wasn't any of my business so I simply shrugged.

During the journey back to the house Cole ended up quizzing me about England my background, school friends, family history and other intricate details brother apparently had to know about. I also ended up liking Cole better - he was.... very exuberant.

We reached the doors, Cole laughing about something I had said and me and Kaden grinning at Cole's laugher. Sure, the Knight's were moody gits, but they had their moments where they opened up.

"April! We've been looking for!" I heard a familiar screech from the doorway and before I had time to turn, I was charged at by two sets of arms. I stumbled backwards from the sheer force of it but quickly regained my balance. I glanced up at Emma and Nina who was also smiling and raising her eyebrows at my company. I gave her a stern look that secretly told her that I would explain later - well, parts of it anyway. I didn't feel like exposing my conversation with Kaden and Cole to anyone - it felt too private.

"What's up?"

"There's a dinner tonight and Octavian wants to pick out your dress!"

"Tonight?" I repeated in confusion - why hadn't they mentioned this to me earlier? Now I need to wash my hair, clean my face, look like a damn human.

"Your hair looks fine Ap," Nina said quickly, noticing my frustration at my hair. "But we need to go to them now so they can decide on our outfits and be prepped."

I grinned widely. "Okay, okay, I'm coming." And for once, I didn't feel dread.