I didn't train.

Although I did eventually settle into my assigned bedroom tucked away on the west wing of the Pack House, I wasn't happy. It wasn't like me to just simply accept something and move on. I would've made a ruckus but being on foreign ground made me uneasy. I missed Ma's hug. I craved one right now, but I had to remind myself of my purpose.

I discarded my pride, swallowed a healthy dose of modesty, and just went with it.

Ma always claimed I needed more humility in my life. She would be proud if she saw little ole' me following orders.

I just finished tugging on my combat boots, slipping one leg over the window ledge when the alarms began to squeal. The sound jerked me into motion. I cursed and threw myself back from the ledge, wondering if there was some type of alarm attached to the window frame. I frantically checked but there was nothing there. I should've checked first but I had been distracted-

Movement below caught my attention. I watched shadows zoom pass under the window ledge. They were there one second and gone in another. The only evidence that showed that they had been there were the rustling bushes they'd brushed by in their haste to escape.

"What the hell is going on-"

The door slammed open. Jamison stood there, framed in the hallway light. "Get up, there's been a break-in." He ordered, running a hand through his thick hair.

I froze, wondering if he could sense that I had been seconds away from hopping out the window, but he disappeared down the hall without another word. He didn't even question why I wasn't even asleep. It was small mercy.

Since I was already dressed, I followed him down the hall and outside where Alpha Slater stood, half-dressed and annoyed. His hair was dishevelled from sleep, and he was barefoot too. It was weird seeing him like this. On this rare occasion, he looked normal. Well almost, if you didn't stare too hard at the indecipherable gleam in his eyes that was part animalistic.

I noted his chains were missing from their usual place along his forearms.

When he caught sight of us, he immediately launched orders. "Emrys counts at least ten intruders in our land. I've already instructed the others to cover the North, West, and East boundary lines. I'll be in the North but you two will stay here and catch anyone who manages to surpass our second line of Enforcers."

Without another word, Alpha Slater was sprinting for the dark crest of the trees. He was just a dot in the distance when he shed his human skin and morphed into a....beast. I choked on my saliva and stared wide eyed at Jamison who just scowled down at my shocked expression.

"There's a reason why people shit themselves when they see him." Jamison drawled as if explaining himself to a child.

"B-but that thing was not normal." I retorted. He transformed into a size of a bear! That was not normal. Unless I'd underestimated the Shadow Hunters Pack and they all transformed into big, giant wolves.

"Alpha Slater is anything but normal."

"Well clearly." I gestured with my hands, making a wide shape.

Jamison simply arched a brow at my antics and shook his head like he couldn't believe he was stuck with me. Well, I couldn't believe I was stuck with him either, but I wasn't complaining covertly like he was. He made a show of making sure I knew that he didn't like me. It was safe to say that he would probably find himself in better company with a circus monkey.

"Look, you monitor the South side of the Pack House and I'll be in the North perimeter. Scream if you see something suspicious."

"Anything suspicious?" I smirked, my mind trailing off.

"You know what I mean." He muttered, "If you waste my time, I'll make sure the Alpha is well aware of it."

Well, that put a damper on the humour. As we separated, I made myself discreet in the South perimeter. I knew why he placed me there. I wasn't stupid. The intruders had probably come from the North but spread East and West. If any of the intruders made it pass the second line of Enforcers, they'd find themselves in Jamison's path. I was far from the action, just like he wanted. He didn't want me in his way when he got all the action. I knew why I was bothered so much but I didn't like to admit that I despised it when people thought me bothersome.

That was why I was here dammit.

To prove myself.

As I cussed out Jamison in my head while simultaneously thinking of ways to severely injure his body, I found a tall, bulky tree and scaled up the length in swift manoeuvres. It wasn't difficult considering I did this a lot when I was younger, especially if Ma ran out the house, holding the wooden spoon to threaten me to do my homework.

My fingers and feet worked in effortless coordination as I moved higher until the leaves fully sheltered me under the green coverage. I sat across one of the thicker branches, my back against the sturdy trunk and my ankles crossed in front of me.

I had no chance of seeing anything suspicious, but I remained in the tree, waiting for Jamison to call me back.

Minutes transformed into an hour as I shifted on the branch wondering why the hell I was still up in the tree with no call from Jamison yet. My ass was numb from sitting way too long on the protruding branch and my legs and hands were getting stiff from the cold.

An hour was too long. They should've at least had the intruders caught or sorted out the problem. I realised then that Jamison had probably returned to his room, snickering about the fact I was still outside scanning for any suspicious activity.

That motherfucker-

I was already preparing to descend from my spot in the tree, but hushed voices caught my attention. I stilled and perked my ears to make sense of the small voices.

"Did you grab it?"

"No, not yet. There's a scary man near the door."

I peered around the leaves and tried to seek out where those whispers were coming from. There were too many trees, shrubs and bushes it was hard to spot anyone until my gaze snagged on a bright red shirt hidden behind a prickly, rose bush.

Now that was suspicious.

No longer upset about Jamison, I quietly slid down the tree keeping my movement at a minimum. It was a surprise they hadn't detected me just yet.

When I drew closer, I realised that the voices belonged to three little boys. My thoughts were confirmed when I listened to more of their conversation.

"Daisy is going to be so upset."

"I know, what do we do? Alpha Slater is going to be so mad when he finds out that I was the one who pulled the alarm."

"He won't be the only one. Mommy is going to grab the vacuum stick and hit us with it."

"Nope, Daddy is going to get us first and make us help him with the garden."

"I don't want to pull out weeds again."

"Me either."

"But we have to tell Alpha Slater it was us."

"Do you think he'll kick us out of the Pack?"

There was a long silence, before there was sniffling. They were crying now. I bit down on my lip and approached the bush. When I glanced down, there were three blonde mops of hair and they were all huddled together, crying. The sight was adorable, as well as pitiful. I tried to stifle my laughter but the one with the red shirt heard the small snort from my lips. His gaze jerked up instantly.

Bright blue, teary eyes found mine. They widened comically. The other two heads popped up and froze.

They were triplets and they all had watery eyes, with snot streaming down their noses. Their cheeks were scarlet with tearstains, and they looked petrified now that I was towering over them, casting a shadow.

"W-Who are you?" I would guess he was the braver one in the bunch. He had a stubborn tilt to his chin despite how much his lips were quivering.

"I'm a Recruit."

"Like, for the Elite Syndicate?" Another asked.

I examined all three of them. It was eerie how they all looked the same, except the braver one had more of a greener hue to his eyes, red shirt had longer hair, and the other one that asked the question had had doe eyed, he instantly remind me of Bambi.

"Exactly, now, what are you guys doing here? It's ten at night and your parents will be looking for you."

Immediately, they began to cry again.

I sighed and went to my knees so they wouldn't be intimidated by the tall stranger. I made sure that the hardness from my expression left and that I was presenting the soft, maternal look Ma always wore when I accomplished something that made her proud. I pulled off the look now and it seemed to work when they slowly stopped crying, until they were just sniffling, wiping at their eyes with their little fists.

"Now tell me what happened." I told them soothingly.

"I set off the alarm." Red shirt confessed, looking miserable as he blew his nose into the hem of his tee.

"Why'd you do that?"

"O-our sister Daisy wanted to wear a pretty crown for her birthday tomorrow but we have no money to get her a real crown with those pretty diamonds." Long hair hiccupped.

"But Alpha Slater has a pretty crown and we wanted to give it to our sister."

"But we were gonna bring it back, promise."

"And now Alpha Slater is going to kick us out."

I shoved away the musing that Alpha Slater even owned a pretty crown and softened my tone. "Hey, you don't know that." I tried to soothe them.

"Yes, he will. I heard Mommy say that the Alpha was dangerous."

"Yeah, and he's scary! He never smiles."

"Yeah." The other two chimed in unison, baffled by the fact their Alpha dared not to tilt his lips up.

I would've cooed at the overload of cuteness I was currently witnessing but I knew I had to help these kids find their parents. "If you come with me, I promise I won't let the Alpha kick you out."

They scrutinized me warily.

Smart. They didn't know who I was.

"Okay." They finally agreed, although they still looked uneasy.

I gathered them a few steps in front of me as I led them towards the Pack House, which was a fifteen-minute walk away. While they explained their story, I learned that red-shirt was Leon, long-hair was Maxim, and the other was Nyall. They were all six, and they wanted to surprise their four-year-old sister with Alpha Slater's pretty crown. Something ached in my chest when they said that Daisy had been sick for a while, and they wanted to see her smile again. Thus, the importance of the crown.

"You don't smell like us." Nyall frowned up at me, missing a step.

I caught his arm and steadied him as we continued around a fallen log, "I'm a Recruit. The Scouts from this Pack pick out potential E.S Enforcers from other Packs to come here and further their training."

"What's pa-ten-shul?"

"Potential?"

"Yes, pat-ten-shul."

When we turned the corner, there was a large crowd amassed in front of the Pack House.

I paused, taking in the scene. A woman with blonde ringlets turned and spied us. Nyall, Leon and Maxim instantly sought refuge behind me, peering at who I assumed was their mother in a shy, cautious manner.

"Oh." Leon whispered.

Oh indeed little kid. Oh oh indeed.

The woman charged forward. The triplets pulled me back to hide behind my legs. I tried to gently pry them away, but they had vice-like grips. There was no pulling them away. They were like glue.

"Maxim, Leon and Nyall!" She growled, storming towards us, her face pink with anger.

I hoped she had no wooden spoon hiding somewhere in her skirt, or I'll be climbing up the damn tree again.

"Hello Ma'am." I greeted when she was close enough.

She drew to a pause when she finally spotted me. It seemed like she didn't realise her sons had used me as their body shield. Her eyes slowly took me in, trying to figure out who I was in the Pack. She didn't bother hiding the perplexed expression etched on her heart-shaped face when she came up with no viable answer.

"Who are you?" She demanded, changing into protective mode.

Before I could answer her, Alpha Slater had descended the set of stairs in front of the Pack house, joining her side. He did this quietly without any noise. It was no surprise he didn't bother to acknowledge me. I already expected the dismissal. So, it didn't faze me when his eyes barely glanced over me and took in the sight of the three little boys huddled behind me, all peering out of their spread fingers covering their eyes.

"Bella, calm down. Your sons are safe now." He soothed the woman with a comforting touch to her slender waist. His voice took a low, gentle timbre which I've never heard before. It was remarkable how he soothed the woman with soft words until she was noticeably calm, and her stiff posture softened enough to examine her unharmed children.

One by one, her sons released me and went to their mom who embraced each child tightly. She delivered a loud kiss to their chubby cheeks. Their sniffles had tapered off at some point, until they were calm enough to speak without stuttering.

They all wiggled out of her arms with embarrassment a few seconds later but my focus was on the Alpha who watched their reunion with an indecipherable look on his face.

The look wasn't hard, or soft but somewhere in the middle. I doubted he had a soft look. I assumed this was the closest he'd look to being friendly.

I snapped a mental image of him with his dark locks fluttering gently in the breeze. His eyes were less hardened, and his lips turned in a gentle upward tilt but not quite yet a smile. If I had a talented hand in the arts, I would have painted him right here and now.

My gaze lingered for a beat longer before I tucked the tranquil image safely away for a later time to linger on.

There was something undeniably captivating about a man whose reputation preceded him when he spoke such few words.