Grayson drives me home to gather an overnight bag. Thankfully he respects my wishes and stays in the car while I quickly gathered my things. I throw in a random outfit and stuff toiletries into a small bag to take with me. I barely pay attention to what I'm grabbing, too nervous about making him wait too long in the car. I walk downstairs with the bag slung over my shoulder, and I scream "I'm staying with a friend tonight, Mom!"

I almost escape, but my mom peeks her head around the corner with Evie slung on her hip. My mom is wearing an apron with a bikini on it- her favorite one- and Evie is wearing a cute butterfly dress as she holds her stuffed bunny close to her.

"Who's house?" my mom asks. She's purely asking out of curiosity, but I'm a little nervous to admit where I'm going. I could curb the truth and tell her I'm staying at Cooper's, but I decide that being completely honest is the best route.

"Um, I'm gonna stay at Grayson's tonight." I bite my lip and look down at the tiled floor, too nervous to see her reaction. I look up slowly and am surprised to see a huge smile on her face.

"That's great, honey! I'm glad you two are getting along after that rough patch you had. Be safe, and text me if I need to come over and whoop his ass!"

"Mom!" I complain, pointing to Evie. "Language!"

My mom has a guilty look on her face as she covers Evie's ears- as if that will make her forget the curse word she let out moments ago. Sometimes, I feel like I'm the adult.

"Go, and have fun!" my mom says. She walks me to the door and I walk outside to see Grayson leaning on his Tesla with his arms crossed. His arms look so big like that, his triceps bulging and calling out to me. I can't wait for him to hug me again- he gives the best hugs.

Grayson meets me halfway down the driveway and takes my heavy bag from me. When he holds it, he makes it seem like it weighs two pounds instead of twenty. Freaking werewolf. He gives my mom a quick wave and opens the car door for me. It's not necessary for him to do it every time, but he still remains gentlemanly and does it anyway. I don't tell him that it makes me like him even more.

Before I know it, we're on the road to the pack house. I'm a little nervous about my stay there, again, but am comforted to know that Grayson will be there next to me. Now that I've met a few of the pack members and know that Cooper will be there, I definitely feel more comfortable than last time. Thankfully I'm arriving at the house at a normal hour instead of the middle of the night.

When we arrive, Grayson immediately grabs my hand and my bag and walks us inside. As soon as I step in I'm almost instantly trampled by a group of boys who seem to be in the age range of 14 to 16 years old. They are throwing around a frisbee and trying to tackle each other right by the front door. If Grayson didn't have such quick reflexes I definitely would have been a pancake on the floor.

Grayson immediately lets out his grumpy growl, causing all of the boys by the front door to cease their playful banter and sink their heads down low as they bare their necks to him. I don't think I'll ever get used to the submissive nature everyone displays around my mate. Knowing he's an Alpha and seeing he's an Alpha are two very different things.

"Watch where you're going, pups. You almost injured your Luna." Their eyes instantly widened with fear as they noticed that I'm being held tightly in Grayson's grasp. He still has his arms protectively around me and his eyes are black like they get when he's angry.

"Hey, it's okay Gray." I gently release myself from his firm grip and walk over to the group of boys. Now that they've stopped moving, I can see that it's a group of five. The one in front who seems the oldest still has his eyes downcast. His hair is obsidian black and cropped short. His almond eyes refuse to meet mine, but I clear my throat once to make him look at me.

"I'm Thea. What's your name?"

The oldest boy looks down at me with a nervous smile. He looks over to Grayson who gives a gruff nod that he's allowed to talk to me. "I'm Jin. And I'm so sorry, Luna. I didn't see you come in! Please know that I would never try to endanger you." For a 16-year-old, he's quite mature, and I make a mental note in my mind to praise Grayson for having such great-disciplined pack members.

"Don't worry about it. My little sister runs me over all of the time, anyway." I look to the other four boys standing behind Jin, and they introduce themselves as Kiran, Benji, Oliver, and Joaquin. Thankfully, they look a little less frightened after Grayson scared them. Now that they know they're not going to be injured by their Alpha, their smiles start to come back.

Grayson comes behind me and hands my bag over to Jin. "Take this to the Alpha suite. Everyone get ready for dinner." Grayson left no room for argument. The boys immediately swept into action, I assume they head to the kitchen while Jin scrambles to get my bag from Grayson and run it upstairs. Just before Jin runs around the curve of the staircase I yell "Thank you, Jin!"

Jin peeks his head out and gives me a wide grin. "You're welcome, Luna!" Jin disappears upstairs, and now it's just me and Grayson standing alone by the front door of the huge mansion. I turn to Grayson who has a small smile on his face.

"What?" I ask, tilting my head to the side. Why is he looking at me like that. As if he read my mind, he places his hands softly on my cheeks and kisses me.

"You're already an amazing Luna. I was ready to scold those kids for being careless, and you took control and got to know them all. You're a natural." Grayson leaned down to kiss me again, but longer this time. His lips are so soft on mine, and I find myself standing on my tip-toes to get even closer to him. My arms naturally wrap around his neck as I pull him closer. Grayson's hands go to my waist as he deepens the kiss, his tongue pressing against my lips. I open for him and hesitantly touch my tongue to his.

The deeper he kisses me, the more tingles I begin to feel. My head feels light from the kiss and the tips of my toes curl from the sensation. My fingers grips Grayson's hair, and a low groan releases from his throat. I tend to lose myself around Grayson, which is probably the main reason why I didn't even hear Cooper open the front door until he whistled loudly.

I abruptly jump away from Grayson- partly from shock, but also from embarrassment. Cooper begins laughing as Grayson begins cursing him out for interrupting.

"Hey, it's not my fault you guys chose to make babies right by the front door," Cooper laughs with his hands up, feigning innocence. I hide my face in my hands as I pretend I am burrowing into the ground.

While my hands are covering my face, I hear the sound of a slap and then a whiny "ow" from Cooper. I look up to see a grinning Grayson while Cooper holds his cheek. He looks constipated with his scrunched up face.

"What the fuck was that for?" Cooper cries out, a pout forming.

"You know exactly what that was for," Grayson smirks, then takes my hand and leads me towards the kitchen. Like a loyal puppy, Cooper follows. We make it to the dining room where a group of thirty people are seated. An assortment of chicken, vegetables, pasta, potatoes, and bread are spread out across the expanse of the table, all untouched. It almost seems like they're waiting for someone.

When everyone stands and stares at Grayson, then me, I finally realize that they are waiting for someone- him. Grayson walks calmly over to the end of the table and pulls out a chair for me, then sits down himself. Cooper sits across the table next to Axel. Once we are seated, everyone else follows. As if on cue, everyone grabs various bowls and plates and begins serving themselves. I'm so overwhelmed with the food selection that I just sit still while remaining partially in shock. I've never seen this much food at one time before.

The smells coming from the food is incredible- the garlic scent from the bread, the buttery smell of the potatoes, the savory chicken- I don't know what to choose!

Grayson's soft chuckle breaks me out of my staring contest with the food. He smiles and reaches across the table and serves me some pasta, then some chicken, then vegetables. I tell him to stop serving me more food, but he ignores me and continues to fill up my plate until there's no more room on it. He served me some of everything and there's no way I'm eating all of this.

"Grayson, this is way too much food! I can't eat this much." He only looks mildly interested in my complaint.

"It's fine. Whatever you don't finish, I'll eat."

I look to his fully-stocked plate and motion towards it. His plate, if possible, has even more food than mine. There's no way that he can eat all of his food and most of mine.

"There's no way you can finish all of this!"

Axel, Cooper, and a few surrounding werewolves laugh at me- not in a malicious way, but they apparently find something I said amusing. I look to Grayson for clarification, and he gives me a light kiss on my cheek.

"Sometimes I forget you're new to all of this. I eat three times what's on my plate right now. I'm an Alpha werewolf, I need at least 4,000 calories a day."

My jaw drops so far that I'm sure everyone at the table can see my uvula. Once again, the werewolves find me hilarious and joke at my expense. Axel shakes his head and puts his arm around Cooper as he eats. Cooper snuggles closer to Axel and attempts to steal food off of his plate, but Axel blocks him with his fork and glares playfully at him.

As I'm watching their cute interaction, I don't even realize that my mouth is still catching flies until a piece of chicken is shoved into my mouth by Grayson. I quickly close my mouth and chew slowly, appreciating the flavors in the chicken. It tastes like there's a honey sauce over it, and it's honestly the best chicken I've ever tasted.

We all enjoy the food, and like I promised, I could only eat about one third of what's on my plate. Grayson happily ate my leftovers, and when dessert was served I could almost feel my stomach exploding just thinking about more food. Naturally, I still had room in my dessert stomach for more, but after trying the chocolate lava cake and the tiramisu, I was completely stuffed. Adding in my permanent exhaustion, I was practically falling asleep at the table.

My arm is propped up on the table, my fist holding up my cheek as I listen to Cooper's highlights of his best pranks he's pulled. Apparently, he keeps a book of pranks with pictures of all of his "victims" in it. He reminisces about the time he put sticky notes all over Grayson's car, which apparently took him four hours to complete. He took a picture as Grayson went to his car and freaked out over the mess on his "baby."

Cooper tells another prank story about how he replaced all of the sugar in the house with salt, so when Grayson, Axel, and the other pack members went to drink their morning coffee the taste was extremely salty instead of sweet. Cooper said the black eyes were worth it.

Another prank story is being told, and I don't even notice that I'm falling asleep until I'm being shaken awake by Grayson.

"Hmm?" I mumble, wiping the sleep away from my eyes. Cooper continues to animatedly tell stories of his best pranks to Axel, Cole, and a few other wolves I recognize. Meanwhile, Grayson looks at me worriedly as he lightly strokes my arm.

"Are you okay? Maybe we should get you to sleep, Baby. You look exhausted." I nod, and Grayson stands from his seat at the table and helps me stand. I wave goodbye to everyone, and they all say goodnight to the two of us as we head upstairs.

I expect to enter the same room that we slept in last week, but we make a different turn at the last hallway and end up in an unfamiliar bedroom. The room itself is huge with beige walls and dark wooden furniture spread sparingly across the space. The bed is a dark mahogany color which is covered in a navy blue comforter with the most comfortable looking pillows spread across them. As I look around, I see only a few picture frames spread across the space. Other than that, the walls are pretty barren except for one corner of the room that contains several model cars and a few pictures. I knew Grayson loved cars and motorcycles, so this room seems much more like his style.

"Where are we?" I ask, my tired voice coming out all croaky and ugly. Grayson reaches into a dresser drawer and pulls out a pair of sweats and a plain t-shirt and places them on the bed.

"We're in my room," he adds, then he proceeds to take off his shirt. I quickly avert my eyes and walk over to my overnight bag that Jin must have brought in here. Grayson chuckles, and when I feel his warm hands hovering over mine, I turn to see a fully shirtless Grayson grinning at me.

"You're allowed to look at me, you know," he says. He licks his bottom lip and my eyes automatically track the movement. Any other time I may be embarrassed to be caught staring, but a fully shirtless, model-worthy man is standing in front of me, practically begging me to stare. So stare I will.

I continue looking at his ripped arms, muscled abdomen and defined pecs and decide that I definitely don't deserve him. He's too attractive, too sweet, too funny to fall for someone like me. I will never understand how someone like him can fall for someone like me, but I'm over trying to figure it out. He wants to be with me, and I desperately want to be with him.

I breathe in slowly and want to say something sexy, but a god-awful yawn escapes from between my lips. Grayson chuckles and gives me a light kiss on the forehead before handing me the shirt he just grabbed from the drawer. I look at him, partly confused, but then he explains.

"You can wear my shirt to sleep tonight. I know you packed your own stuff, but I really want my scent on you... It's a werewolf thing..." Grayson shifts uncomfortably on his feet as he rubs the back of his neck. He looks a little shy asking this of me, and I find it extremely adorable that he's so confident about most things in life but he becomes unsure of himself at times around me.

I take the shirt from him and send him a small smile before going through my bag and grabbing a pair of pajama shorts with cute pandas on them along with my toiletries. I quickly change in the bathroom, then open the door once more so that Grayson can come in and brush his teeth, too. He walks in with no shirt and the gray sweatpants slung low on his hips, revealing the deep V of his hipbones. It's like an arrow pointing downwards, and I have to fight my blush as I fight to look away from his lower region.

Thankfully, Grayson chooses to ignore my staring, but that's most likely because he's staring at my bare legs. His shirt reaches to mid-thigh on me, and it completely covers the shorts I have on underneath. He hungrily stares at me, taking in my sleepwear as if it were a ballgown or a fancy pair of lingerie. I fumble with my toothbrush and begin brushing my teeth so that I'm doing literally anything else except for staring at him.

Grayson picks up a blue toothbrush and does the same. Even through this mundane action of brushing our teeth together, it still makes me feel like we're growing closer to one another. Once we're done, he turns off the bathroom light and begins removing the extra pillows from the bed, then the few layers of the comforter from the bed. The navy silk sheets are calling my name, and I let out a soft sigh as my head hits the pillow. Grayson turns off the side lamp, casting the room into darkness.

I know that there's no way that Grayson is tired- it's only 8:00 at night. Regardless, he still slides into bed next to me and pulls me towards him so that my back is pressed to his chest. His arm gravitates to my waist as he snuggles closer to me. He peppers light kisses in the crook of my neck. As I'm falling asleep in his arms, the last thing I hear is "I love you."