"What will we do?" Cole is pacing around the room, his face full of concern. Lance, Bo, Meg and I are either sitting on a couch or chairs in the Alpha's office, watching him as he's thinking this bright and early morning. Luckily, I drank my coffee already so I'm kind of awake, plus we didn't have to train today. "Paxon will not take this lightly. Then you have Rogues to worry about." My heart lurches. There are so many things that are going wrong- and guess what? I feel guilty. I bought this upon them.

"The first thing we should do is go to Paxon and talk to him about it," Lance answers. "Everyone knows he's still in mourning over his mate." Lance casts a quick glance in my direction, but averts his gaze really quickly.

"Isn't Vanessa's brother Paxon's Beta? What's his name? Sargon or something?" Bo mentions. "I think he's more clear headed right now."

"We know Paxon will want blood," Cole stops pacing and rubs a hand over his chin. "Should we tell him to just exact revenge on Steven alone instead of causing a war?"

"Trent will definitely do something," I add. My former shifty Alpha would do something stupid. "Which may cause war."

"And if Paxon kills Steven......" Bo trails off. "Where does that leave his pack? You saw his ugly mug Beta, he'll do something too."

I groan out loud. This is so complicated. Seeing Paxon would be hard and for him to see reason would be harder.

"The real question," Meg speaks up now, and she looks like she thought a lot about it, "is if Steven will accept the challenge. The laws of the Alphas state clearly if someone kills your mate, you can have trial and put said person to your prison, and the Alphas in the last Council meet agreed to death. Steven will have to accept it, and Trent will have to accept his cousin's death if it happens."

"That law also says that it has to be a fair fight," Lance includes. "If Trent tries anything, then Steven is breaking the law."

"As if Steven even gave a crap about any law when he killed Vanessa," Bo snorts.

"Trent will definitely be there if it happens," Cole says. "Which means we'll have to be there when it happens too."

I did not want to be in this. Is it too much to ask for if I want to live the commoner wolf life?

"What about the Rogues?" Bo changes the subject. We would just be going in circles with this Paxon situation.

"Lance doesn't hate Rogues like other Alphas obsess about," Meg says. "Who knows what the Rogues are planning because Lance has never done anything to them. They usually have their self interest."

"You think there's something more deep than just a war coming?" Cole asks, stopping and looking at Meg.

After they all break because it's getting really late, before I leave "Ava may I speak with you?" Lance asks, his piercing blue eyes meet my gaze. How Lance says my name should be illegal. It's so hot. How can him saying my name be hot? How can someone's voice be hot? That doesn't even make sense, but his deep baritone makes me want him to read a phone book out loud. Please just let me melt on the floor.

"Uh," I clear my throat, trying to get these thoughts out of my head. "Sure."

Lance walks outside to the balcony, his is on the third floor like mine, and I follow him outside. This is where I saw the vampire. Or think I saw one. No, I definitely saw one. I didn't want to add to his stress. I mean, no one died that night the vampire was supposedly there, right?

"I want you to decide when you want to be initiated into the pack," he tells me, looking outside in the training ground. I swallow, realizing how much I hate commitment. This little limbo I was in was great, but as an Alpha's mate there were so many expectations of me. What if I don't want any of it? What if I can't do any of it?

"I don't want to pressure you. You have to make your own choice whenever you want to. I am only saying this to you because when there are Alphas that visit or any other of my pack members, you do not have to listen to any of them about joining the pack," Lance continues. He takes a deep breath, his electric blue eyes bore into mine. "What I'm saying is you have a choice."

I shake my head, sidestepping him and the cold night air hits me in the face. I'm getting so overwhelmed, I just need to talk to someone that knows me. Everyone is great here save Grace, but I want to just talk to Julia or my sister. No one has been answering my messages. I can't even get through to Julia.

"Thanks," I finally say. He is being so patient with me. There is still so much I didn't know about him. I want to ask him something, but he seems like he's distant to me. Like he doesn't want to have anything to do with me.

Maybe I'm just too insecure about where I stand with him.

"Do you want me to?" I ask, turning around, searching for something in his usual stoic face.

His eyebrows knit. "Want you to...?"

"Join," I finish. This was such a stupid question. Lance looks at me a little confused. "Do you want me to join your pack."

"Of course I want you to join," he replied matter of factly. "If you have any questions on initiation, don't hesitate to ask me."

"Will I have to fight someone?" I ask automatically. I'll get my butt kicked, let's all be real here. Maybe I could try to do something, but in my old pack, they didn't let the female wolves train with the male wolves. Instead we just had to do stuff like cardio.

Lance shakes his head, "Not right after."

My eyes widen. So there is a fight. Oh dear. "What if I don't pass?"

Lance shakes his head, "You will pass."

"No Lance," I raise my hand, and freeze and Lance seems to stop breathing for a moment, only staring at me. I hear a small rumble, but his entire body stiffens and he turns himself around.

"You said my name," his voice is a little husky and I'm slightly turned on by this. Ugh hormones.

I just realized I said his name out loud for the first time. I didn't think it was a big deal until I actually said it because I know I was always trying to make my way around it. For whatever reason.

"Sorry?" I say even though I don't think there's anything to be sorry about. If he even expects me to-

"No, I'm glad," he turns around, his eyes briefly flashed something I couldn't describe. "You should just address me by my name. No title involved."

"Well. Cool."

Can I die. Why am I so awkward.

I clear my throat, "So yeah, I'll, eh, think about it."

***

I'm in Hope's room with Bo, and we're trying to get Hope to crawl towards him.

"Jingle your keys," I instruct.

Bo takes out his keys humming the tunes of Jingle Bells.

"I don't know," Bo picks up Hope, and cuddles her. "Nothing makes him tick. I've never seen him angry. Lance and Cole are some of the most intense beings I've met in my life. It's just how they are and why they work together so well. Their tempers are almost non-existent." Hope is doing some baby talk and Bo is saying something like "Agu ba". We try to rock her to sleep after feeding her some nasty slimy baby food, and she falls asleep soundly.

Bo and I walk out of her room like we're burglars. Bo turns to me, "Let me show you your pack."

He leads me outside the huge driveway, and we go downhill. There's a road that goes left, and I see a clear view of a creek that has a bridge over it. There are so many houses, and some buildings look to be like dorms. All resident area for werewolves. I don't even know how many acres of land this is. Like 100?

"The houses are where the families live in, and these," Bo gestures at the dorms on the opposite side, "are where wolves who find their mate or just want to get out live. It's actually legit. Wanna go into one?"

"Sure," I smile, but my heart aches a little for the college experience I will never get.

I didn't get into Harvard or anything, but I got in the local community college and wanted to study there at least. They have a 4 year program to get your Bachelor's. It's so funny how college was such a sore subject for my parents who didn't want me to go, and now there is no choice for me. Some werewolves allowed their children to go, I mean why not? Education is so important. I always hated to be dependent on your husband/mate. Even though realistically your mate would never leave you, I want to bring something to the table.

Being a future Luna worsens everything.

A few frat looking wolves are hanging in front of one of the dorm buildings. "Yo Beta Bo! Wanna grab some drinks later tonight?" one of the wolves holler.

"I'm good," Bo says, opening the door. The frat wolves- how is that even a thing- eye me wearily.

"Who's this?" a new guy steps in front of me, about an inch taller than my 5'6 frame, with brown eyes and blonde hair, and a beard. He's wearing a Vineyard shirt and khaki shorts with sandals, topping it off with a baseball cap.

Can you say go away.

"I'm Ava," I say to the guy.

"Your Luna," Bo adds.

The fratty wolves' eyes widen and back away. "Bro, we didn't know Alpha Lance found someone. That's cool, bro," the same one says to Bo, then bowing at me.

"Don't need to bow," I say awkwardly.

"It's all cool, Luna, just if you want anything, we're the bros for you," he says, and bows again. "Nice seeing you." They scamper off somewhere and Bo rolls his eyes.

"That was...." Bo gives me a look and I laugh. "I mean to each their own. As long as they're not douches." Bo gives me another look. "Shoot, they are?"

"They're the types who don't want a mate so they can just have fun," Bo shrugs, opening the door and we go in. The first thing there is, is a lobby. Really nice grey leather couches are scattered around the huge room alongside a flat screen TV on the wall. There's a pool table and a ping-pong table at the corners.

"What the heck? How come Lance has to be boring and we don't get a ping-pong table?" I exclaim, walking to the table, and getting one of the paddles. I suck like no other at ping-pong, but it was so much fun.

"We need to start making a petition. Because that's what I've been saying!" Bo raises his hand to give me a high five, and I slap it in agreement.

"We totally should. We'll name the petition something like, 'Make The Pack House Great Again'," I declare.

"Maybe the slogan for that ain't the best," Bo wrinkles his nose. "Because the pack house was never great."

We start cackling, and a I see a few other wolves some by, or just sit on the couches and read a book or eat lunch.

"Let's go into one of their rooms," Bo says, "Meg lives here, so we can go to her room."

We walk in a room that's not too big or too small, but perfect for a one person room. Meg's room is literal goals. Her bed is to the side, with a tapestry of the ocean next to it, and she has tons of pictures hanging from the other 3 sides. She also has bookshelves that are on her wall with books.

Meg walks out of what I'm guessing is the bathroom. "Oh look what the cat dragged in," Meg greets us. "What brings you in this part of town?"

"Just showing Ave around," Bo says, and I don't mind that nickname.

"This is such a cool room. I really want to decorate it nicely," I say. Meg's face brightens.

"I can totally help you," Meg says, "especially since you don't even have a budget."

I roll my eyes, "I'm not spending a ridiculous amount of money on Lance's credit card."

"But you can," Bo gives me a sly grin.

"You totally can, and you can get away with it," Meg adds on to this. "This is going to be so much fun!"

"How is Lance so rich anyways?" I ask, curious. "Like what does he do?" Why were all Alphas unfairly rich?

"He sells crack," Bo deadpans.

Meg rolls her eyes. "He's really good at investing in land, and people buying it from him. He basically like owns the city. Plus he owns a really big known restaurant- where do you think Cook spends his other time at?"

My eyes go big, "A restaurant?! That's only in my dreams! Except I want to own a bakery plus be like a business woman or something. Let's go!"

"Why would we go when we literally have the restaurant here?" Meg asks.

"But I want to see how it is!" I counter. "Oh my gosh that's so exciting."

"It's not that great," Bo chuckles, "especially since Cook makes any pup who misbehaves wash the dishes- and that just killed it for me."

Meg rolls her eyes. "Just because Bo is always slacking."

"I do the bare minimum." We all laugh, but I know we're all thinking about what we talked about earlier this morning.