Morpheus lead me through the hallway, and as much as Morph sulked at our departure, his unswerving attempts at sweet-talking his way to an invitation had failed. And, even though I badly wished that I could say he was denied easily and politely, I would be downright lying. Morpheus did not hesitate one bit to say no to him again, and then again, and then again.

On our way out from the abandoned office, I managed to squeak an apology.

Sorry!

It wasn't odd for me to be overwhelmed, especially with a topic as heavy as Morpheus. Throw some Gods into the mix. And, that was my situation. It wasn't exactly meant to be taken lightly, or at least there was no way that I, a human who was first taught to respect werewolves for their caring nature and then was promptly brainwashed into believing that they are not trustworthy because they could easily swallow me whole in mere seconds without any second thoughts, could take it lightly. There was always more than one thing on my mind, and usually, they stayed there. My head was never not full with lingering, nagging, and unabating thoughts.

However, as we headed closer towards the dining room, I had a split second of realization. But, it wasn't me discovering a secret, or even figuring out a mystery that had been bothering me. Actually, as odd as it sounds, I just couldn't shake away the unnerving feeling that I was forgetting something, or perhaps ignoring something. Thankfully, or maybe unfortunately, that feeling was quickly masked beneath immense awe as I was introduced to even more unexpected living areas, ones that I thought already existed elsewhere and ones that didn't exactly seem necessary.

Two offices, but I'll consider that feature an uncommon one, only because of Morpheus' unpleasant attitude towards it. Two dining rooms, which seems a little absurd, because, why not just eat with the rest of the pack? An abundance of bathrooms, littered in private bedrooms and in more than enough public spaces. They're everywhere. Excessive, that's the best word to explain it, the perfect word. It's like, what's next? A private kitchen?

The size of his personal floor was still incredibly shocking, you could describe it as a box of surprises that continued to be opened, and each time it would reveal something that I was not used to. Although, you could link that to the fact that I'm from an extremely small family, and that I've never exactly been a social butterfly.

When I was younger, I was the kid that would leave a sleepover right before the sun began setting, the kid who didn't want to host birthday parties, and the kid who always checked 'No' on the permission slips for field trips. And, to be truthful, it wasn't always like that, and it's not that I wanted it to be that way, but that's just how it was. That was reality. That was normal. But, there was reasons behind why, and I only truly understood them when I grew older. You know? My father wasn't able to pick me up most mornings because of work hours that he needed to take or because he was sleeping in from the late night before. He also really wasn't that good of a planner, nor did he want to be, and I don't think I wanted him to be one. And, he was always gone off somewhere when I needed his signature. Besides, after a while, I was no longer disappointed about missing anything. And, I became content with those aspects of my life.

To sum it up, I wasn't used to being in a big family, or many close groups, and that's what living in a pack has been like for centuries. Instead, I was used to living in a two-storey house with just enough space for our things. And, for a seemingly short while, it was just the three of us. Until, the members of our tight-knit family permanently shrunk to two.

An educated thought flooded my mind. 'Pack life means that everything is shared, that everyone is respected, and that every life is equal in the eyes of the Goddess'.

"Are you alright, Emery?" Morpheus suddenly spoke to me, his voice rough and raspy, as his words bounced loudly against the silence of the hallway. My mind had wandered, as it often tends to do, and it had gone so far away from the present that it had felt as though part of me was still lost in my head.

"Oh-" my hand unconsciously wrapped around his hand that was hanging loosely at his thigh, originally only grabbing on to reassure him that I was okay, while I gasped out a startled, "-yes! There's no need to worry about me. I'm just spacing out, that's all."

My body jumped when he welcomed my action, and butterflies ate at my stomach as he pulled me through an open entryway. Delicately, my feet were practically levitating off the ground as my body followed behind his as though he was carrying me the whole way. The wooden arch of the entrance to the fancy dining room was beautifully hand-carved, the intricate symbols were shaped into the timber, and treated as art that was not to be destroyed. In the middle, at the very top, was a familiar image of a man shifting into a wolf with the moon resting in the background.

The mile long table with hundreds of chairs seemed to elongate as I stood there in front of it, watching as it grew right before my wide eyes. The seat next to me was pulled out, and the movement caused me to flick my sight elsewhere. Morpheus' free hand stayed attached to the back of it, unmoving until I finally got the hint. Quietly, I sat down, and he pushed the chair in. My knees were soon covered by the baby blue fabric that was spread over the top of the table, and my legs quickly disappeared.

"Why is your floor so big? I don't see the point." Sighing, I started to feel a tad bit rude, but I was curious to know the answer, "As an Alpha, don't you have to take care of the pack? Hang out with the members? Train them? Guard them? Teach them? It doesn't seem like you'd ever get the time to be up here. It almost makes me feel wasteful to have all this space and to not be in it."

"Well-" he leaned down, the tip of his nose nearly hitting the side of my ear, yet skimming the tiny gold hoop in my lobe, and whispered slowly under his breath, "-this is the Alpha's family quarters. And, I do get weekends off."

"Really?" I perked up.

Unbothered, he marched off to the other side of the room and sat down in the seat at the very opposite end of the table. And, as soon as he did so, it felt as though the table immediately turned short, terribly short. He flicked his hand to the side as he leaned back, his eyes narrowing at me playfully, and he laughed lowly, "No. That's not true in the slightest. You never get a break when it comes to leadership. Not in my case, at least. That was a joke. Sarcasm, which is popular these days, apparently."

I rolled my eyes at his response. Unbelievable. This man. The audacity. "Huh, good thing that I prefer knock-knock jokes."

That's actually not true.

Ironically, a knock came at the side of the wall, and the face of Annora peeked in. A trolley was rolling ahead of her, and being used to hold two sets of trays. A huge smile was taking up half of her face, and her happiness was clearly showing, and doing wonders for her glowing skin. "Alpha-" she gently bowed her blonde head towards Morpheus and then turned to me to do the exact same, "-Luna. It is my absolute pleasure to serve you both, especially together! This will be a gift that I will cherish for the rest of my life. And, so on!"

"That's my biggest fan, you know." I pointed out, giggling as I tried to make a joke, "Now, I think that's funny, but you're not laughing and that's leading me to believe that it wasn't as funny as I thought it would be."

Morpheus cracked a smile.

Annora then served us our meals, informing us of the food on our plates and sneakily pointing out the proper utensils to me. Once she was finished, she gave another appreciative squeal of excitement, "Thank you so much for allowing me to be the Luna's personal maid, Alpha. And, to be the personal server for you both. I swear that I will never be late, and the food will always he delicious! Oh, I promise that I will not disappoint!"

And, then it was just us. Again.

As I went to dig in for my first bite, my mouth already drooling, Morpheus abruptly stopped, and his fork clattered loudly and distractingly against the table. His deep green eyes fogged over. And, worry struck.

"What? What is it?" I asked urgently.

He was back to normal in seconds. "I'm sorry. This is incredibly rude of me. I tried to block them out for our meal, but it appears that something is happening at the main door of the building." While he stood up from his seat, he reached his hand forward and ushered dramatically for me to take it. "We should hurry."

"Why? What's happening?" I fumbled as I crawled out from my spot, hitting the bottom of the table with my knees as I rushed to take his hand. "Morpheus, is something bad going on? Is it really bad? Really, really bad?"

He shushed me, rubbing his thumb along the side of my own as he said, "I would deal with it myself, but I am trying my best to be accepted by you, and not letting you be involved would definitely set us back farther than I would be able to handle."

By the time we got to the end of the stairs, at the first floor of the entire house, my nerves had been long shot.

I spotted Annora instantly. She was pacing the very bottom of the steps, and I assumed that she was waiting for us to meet her there. Her heels clicked at the floor. Clacking violently with each move that she made. The smell of liquor wafted my way, and I stopped dead in my spot. I breathed, "Oh, no."

"I knew it! I just knew it! Oh! I was praying that I was only thinking the worst, but the smells are nearly identical! Oh! I'm so sorry, Miss Luna!" Annora sniffled as she realized that her fear-driven idea was true.

Max, thankfully, was guarding the door. His tanned hand was digging into the side of the doorway, holding onto it for dear life as a human much shorter than him tried to pry his way past him. Through slurred speech, the human man snarled angrily, "I could care less about you. I could care less about your connection to my daughter!" He shoved his finger into Max's face bravely, and I couldn't help but think of the consequences that would have came long before I got the chance to witness this if Max wasn't the one to be containing him. He just about spat in poor Max's face as he continued to raise his voice, "If she's in here, then I deserve the right to take her! I'm not your kind. I don't follow your laws."

"Dad?" My heart dropped as I affirmed what everyone was thinking. Embarrassment filled my veins. My father's eyes were bloodshot and drooped. And, there was no doubt in my mind about what was wrong. It was something that I was too familiar with. It was something that I wished only I knew about.

My jaw clenched as I sucked on my teeth. Why did he have to do this to me?

At the sound of my voice, he looked at me, and said sadly, "Emmy, there's talk around the town. And, at work. Everywhere. Are you one of them? One of those mates? A mate to a monster?"

That's what I was forgetting.

His unanswered call.

💕