~Tristan~

I woke to the sound of the alarm that Alyce had set. With a groan I stretched and reached out for her, only to find her side of the bed empty and cold. I sat up in a bit of a panic. I looked toward the closet and the bathroom, finding both empty and the lights off.

I jumped out of the bed, throwing on a pair of boxers and sweatpants on my way to fling my bedroom door open, looking up and down the hallway. No sign of her.

I heard a door open ahead of me and turned to see Mat coming out of his room. I ran over to him, “Have you seen Alyce this morning?”

“No, she’s not with you?”

“No, her side of the bed was cold when I woke up, no sign of her in our room.”

“Then she’s likely in the kitchen. It’s her ‘go-to’ place this early in the morning.”

“Of course she is. She’s going to give me a heart attack one of these days.”

“Maybe we should share the love and give her one.” He laughed and we headed for the stairs.

“Sounds like a plan to me.” I grinned as we reached the stairs, both of us barreling down them and into the kitchen like something was wrong.

I knew we had scared half the kitchen staff senseless as we exploded through the kitchen doorway, our gazes shifting around the kitchen before we both settled on Alyce. She turned on us, like she had eyes in the back of her head.

“What are you two doing? Barging in here like that? What is wrong with you? Are you 12? You scared half the wolves in here to death.” She bombarded us, a scowl on her face as she stomped towards us.

“I couldn’t find you this morning, you weren’t with Tristan. You can’t just not tell us where you are, Aly!” Mat scolded her.

“I woke up and you were just gone, you can’t scare me like that!” I added.

“I’ve been in the kitchen all morning, you could have just asked..” Her eyes narrowed at us.

“You know males lose all their common sense when it comes to their mate.” Mat offered.

“I am a grown-ass woman. I do not need to give anyone a play-by-play of my movements.” She growled, stalking towards us.

Mat gulped, looking for a way to make a break for it. I reached out and grabbed his shirt, “Oh no… This was your idea, you’re not leaving me here to take the heat alone.”

“Yeah. I forgot how scary she is when she’s mad…. You’re her mate, she won’t kill you.”

“She is kinda hot when she’s fired up.”

“Ew, Tristan, just ew. Wrong gender, one, two, my sister. Ugh.”

Alyce reached us and reached up, grabbing Mat by his ear and shoved a finger into my chest, much like she had the day I first found her, “You, what’s the big idea?”

“Half-Pint, you scared the life out of me this morning. I woke up, you were gone, I didn’t know where you were. I might have overreacted.”

“Ow, Alyce! Let go of my ear!” Mat whined.

“Shut it Mattie, or I’ll get your mother.”

“Shutting it.” Mat instantly shut up and took whatever he was dealt from Alyce.

Once again her attention shifted to me, and I reached out to wrap my arms around her. She stepped back and glared at me, “Might have overreacted? Might have? You came barreling in here like the woods were on fire, or there were rouges invading! Although I’ll admit I didn’t think about how you might react to wake up and find me not in the room. So I apologize for that. However; that does not justify such a dramatic reaction.”

“I will endeavor to locate you before flipping out from now on.”

“You’d better.” She looked at Mat, letting go of his ear, “And you! You get to train an extra hour today and I won’t mention any of this to Faith.”

Mat started to protest and then thought better of it, nodding at her. “Alright. Will you at least feed us afterwards? What did you cook?” He was trying to peek around her to see what she had been cooking.

“You’ll just have to wait and find out after training.” She turned to one of the other Omegas in the kitchen, Sara, I think her name was, “Please make sure there is food set aside for Mat and I at breakfast, we will be late returning from training this morning.”

“Yes Luna Alyce.” The Omega replied

“Just Alyce is fine. No need for titles with me.”

The Omega nodded and smiled, heading off to get back to work. I scooped Alyce into my arms while she wasn’t looking and nuzzled her neck, “You’re sexy when you’re fired up.” I whispered in her ear. She blushed and I chuckled, “Are you ready for training? We need to get moving or we’ll be late. Kami is likely already there.”

~Alyce/Faelyn~

I smiled at Tristan, finding it hard to stay mad at him and Mat, and gave him a nod, reaching up to gather my hair that was hanging loose in a wild fashion. I braided it and wrapped it around my head before pinning it in place with some large bobby pins I pulled out of my pocket.

I heard Mat gasp and squeal in delight. I looked at him, raising a brow at him. He grabbed my wrists and inhaled my scent before his eyes zeroed in on my neck, “Someone has been keeping things from her bestie.”

Tristan had started to growl and move to intervene until he realized Mat was checking to see if our scents had mixed and was looking at my mark.

I rolled my eyes at him, but I could feel my cheeks heating up as well, “What did you want me to do? Sneak into your room at 2 am for popcorn and gossip?”

“Yes! That’s exactly what you should have done. It’s what I would do.”

“No, and if you ever sneak into my room at 2am for gossip, for anything other than an emergency I will kill you myself.”

Mat pouted at me and I shook my head at him. “I will gossip with you later. It’s bad enough I’m being dragged out to shop later, we both know I’ll end up your personal fashion doll, so you can just wait. Now let’s get moving.”

Mat seemed to perk up when I mentioned shopping. He always did. I grabbed his hand and Tristan’s dragging them out the back kitchen door and towards the training ground. I was excited to be able to train against more than just Faith, Jake and Mat, and to not have to hide that I was training to begin with.

We reached the grounds in no time, Kami running over to meet us, “Good Mor- ooooo, what a pretty mark you have.” She snickered as she reached us. I groaned, “Not you too, I’ve already had to deal with Mat this morning. I just wanna train.”

“Ok, ok. There will be plenty of time to talk while we shop.”

“You have no idea…” I sighed, glancing at Mat who was grinning.

Kami looked at him and grinned with him. They were two peas in a pod really, both seemed to enjoy teasing and tormenting me to no end.

“Are you two secretly twins, separated at birth?” I face palmed and shook my head.

Tristan was laughing at us and I scowled at him, which just made him laugh more, “Alright you guys, leave Half-Pint alone. Let’s get over to the group before Victor makes examples out of us. Alyce is already making Mat and I train an extra hour today due to his antics.”

“Oh, your antics too Mister, not all on him,” I smiled at him a little and we all jogged over to the rest of the group. Tristan just gave me an innocent look and turned his attention to the pack members that were gathering around us a little. Most of the pack hadn’t really met me and they were curious.

“Good morning everyone,” I greeted the group with a smile.

I heard some scattered, “Good Morning Luna’s” throughout the crowd and one very distinct scoff of distaste and irritation. I was letting my eyes scan the crowd looking for the source while speaking with the pack members, “Please, just call me Alyce. There’s no need for titles outside of some stifling, official event.”

“You think making nice is going to get you accepted here?” A tall blonde scoffed. Ah, source located, “Your own pack didn’t want you, Red Moon didn’t want you, what makes you think you’re wanted here? You’re a stray mutt looking for an easy out, seducing our Alpha into making you Luna. Not even anything pretty to look at, just a scarred up Omega.” A couple of other girls behind her murmured their support of her statement. Likely her lackeys. Every wolf like her has at least a couple.

Tristan and Mat were both bristling. If looks could kill, the look Kami was giving her would have dropped her dead in 15 seconds. I put a hand on both Mat and Tristan, “I’ll handle it.”