"Find the place inside where there's joy,

and the joy will burn out the pain."

― Joseph Campbell

Chaos. The kitchen in the pack house was in chaos.

Food containers lined the table, some items inside identifiable, some not. Along the beige granite countertops rested cans of beans, corn, tomatoes, pineapples, and asparagus, all stacked together into a jumbled pile. Scattered throughout the room sat cleaning supplies. There was no empty space anywhere.

Claire's gaze swept throughout the room. How had all of this stuff fit into this kitchen? It seemed impossible.

"Theresa?" Claire called out. She was a bit frightened to find out where the woman would be and in what state of disarray she'd be in.

"Here!" A head popped out from the pantry. "Hi, Claire!"

"Hi." Claire dragged out the word, unable to make her tone match the peppy one Theresa had. "Do you...do you need help?"

"Oh no, honey, I'm fine. It's better if I do this myself." Theresa came out of the pantry to grab a few cans of beans. "Thank you, though."

Theresa had a tendency to clean out the kitchen at least once every two months, and while Claire had lived in the pack house long enough to see her do this multiple times, it still surprised her.

She bit her lip. "I was going to ask if you knew where Nate was, but it looks like you haven't left this room in a while."

"Sorry, dear." Dark strands of Theresa's hair snuck out of her ponytail and Claire watched as she brushed some behind her ear. "Have you tried his office?"

"Yes, ma'am."

Theresa waved her hand in front of her like she was shooing away a fly. "Oh hush, none of that. He's probably in the field today then. Marcus wanted to start up a new training routine and I know Nathaniel loves to be a part of those things." She sighed. "The boy never could resist the chance to train his wolves."

"I'll try that. Thank you." Claire tilted her head. "Have you eaten lunch yet?"

Theresa hesitated, and that gave Claire her answer. "Not yet. I wanted to get these cans reorganized. I swear, someone must be putting stuff back all willy-nilly. I told all the ladies that there is an order to these things, but..." She trailed off.

"Why don't we go out for lunch?" Claire suggested. "I'll find Nate, and that'll give you some time to finish up in here, then we can grab a bite to eat."

Theresa smiled at her. "That sounds lovely, Claire."

With that, Claire went out in search of her mate. It was odd that he'd be anywhere other than his office. They'd had such an influx of wolves joining their pack since Justin's demise. It left Nate with an overabundance of work to do and not enough people to do it. As it was, he'd had to work with the local architect and building designer to set up a new apartment complex to house some of these new people.

Luckily, the next town over had recently opened a new amusement park. The local people had assumed that their town had become popular because they were so close to all the fun. Or at least, that was what the new pack members had been claiming.

They had delegated Gabe to work with Marcus to train these new wolves, while Theresa had showed Claire the ins and outs of being the pack Luna. So far, she'd met so many families she had a hard time keeping names straight.

She found Nate exactly where Theresa had said he'd be: in the field, a bit of a walk behind the pack house, training with Marcus and the other wolves. "Twenty-seven! Twenty-eight! Twenty-nine!" Marcus counted out as the men and a few women, lined up in almost perfect rows, went down in a push-up and then back up.

Claire winced for them.

Nate stood off to the side, his arms behind his back. He surveyed the surrounding people.

"Are you torturing these people, Alpha?" Claire called out.

Nate turned as she approached, his eyes lighting up. "I'm improving them."

Marcus continued chanting numbers. A few of the wolves glanced up as she drew near, but were too busy to stop and stare.

She cocked her head to the side. "Do they know that? They look miserable."

Boy, did they ever. Sweat dripped down red faces. Most of them moved slowly, shakily, as if they'd hit the end of their endurance, which was saying something. Werewolves were on the more energetic side. How many repetitions did Nate have them doing?

Claire spotted Cole near the middle and had to resist a wave. "Well, look at that, you're torturing my father."

At that, Nate gave a short laugh. "Trust me, this is necessary. And completely voluntary."

Her eyebrows rose. She moved up next to Nate to stand by his side, her shoulder brushing teasingly, deliciously, against his. "Can you tell that to Gabe? I'd love it if my training was voluntary."

"That's different," he told her. "You know that."

She knew he was right, and though she had been teasing, she still wished it was true. Gabe had been riding her hard about staying in shape and being able to defend herself. Doing it was much harder than saying it.

After fifty more push-ups, Marcus moved them onto sit-ups. By then most of their t-shirts stuck to them with sweat. Yet they never stopped, never complained. Though their movements shook, their determination never wavered. For that she gave them tons of credit. She would have been passed out, sweating, and on the ground after maybe twenty-five push-ups. And they'd done eighty. Maybe more if their work out was in cycles.

Indiana's humidity never reached the level that Florida's did, but that didn't mean it wasn't bad. Claire had spent a lot of time in this kind of weather—sticky, heavy air, in addition to the heat—and yet it still made her miserable. And it was only May. They were due for a hot summer.

"Hey, you want to grab lunch later?" she asked him casually.

"Of course." He didn't hesitate.

She couldn't resist a giggle. "Cool. Your mom's coming too." She gave him a mischievous grin and a wave as she backtracked to the house.

"What? Claire!"

"Bye, Nate!"

She ran.

~

In the end, their lunch party consisted of way more people than she'd intended. Theresa was there, but so was Charlie and her mother Marie, little Wyatt and his aunt, and Marcus and Gabe. Nine people.

"Sorry," she whispered to Nate, soft enough that the others couldn't hear them. "I'll make it up to you."

Nate grumbled under his breath as they sat down at Philly's, a local restaurant known strictly for their amazing sub sandwiches. Since their party was so big, they'd had to wait a bit as the restaurant staff scrambled to push some tables together.

It really was her fault, though. Her little brother Charlie had wanted to go the second he'd heard Claire planned on going out. Then, because he and Wyatt were the best of friends and had been ever since Wyatt and his aunt came to join the pack, that meant the two were inseparable and had to go absolutely everywhere together. Marie and Wyatt's aunt had tagged along because they obviously couldn't let their kids go out on their own. Marcus jumped aboard by the time Theresa had finished with part of the pantry. He'd finished with training and had told Nate that he should at least get paid in food for all of his hard work.

The only one who really had a reason to tag along was Gabe. He'd been her designated bodyguard for quite some time now. After last year, when Claire and her brother Shane had ditched their bodyguards at the park, he'd decided the only good bodyguard was himself.

So, lucky for her, she got to spend a nice amount of time with her witty half-uncle.

Though Nate had been put out by all of them joining in for lunch, he seemed to take it pretty well. He laughed throughout lunch at Marcus and Gabe and glanced fondly over at his mother as she enjoyed a discussion with Marie and Wyatt's aunt.

Claire could see him having a good time. She didn't feel that bad at having let them all join in.

She'd been giving Theresa a smile when a paper straw wrapper hit her in the cheek.

Her head turned in the missile's direction. "Gabe, what the heck?"

Gabe blinked at her with his blue eyes and sipped innocently at a soda. "Aaricia, really, I cannot believe that you would just assume that I would purposefully aim a little straw—"

"Marcus, did he launch the wrapper at me?" she asked.

Marcus, in the middle of a huge bite of his meatball marinara sandwich, flicked his gaze between her and the leader of the Royal Guard. He swallowed his bite and licked at the corner of his mouth before responding. "Yeah."

Gabe leaned back to look at Marcus like he'd grown another head. "I'm offended."

"You're offended?" Claire piped back. "I'm the one being attacked here." She crossed her arms over her chest. "Which I find ironic. You being my guard and all."

"'Protection' is such a loose term."

She rolled her eyes, and unfortunately for her, cracked a smile. She thought by now she'd have gotten used to Gabe's antics. She loved some of his comments. Gabe was 75% goofball and 25% shit-starter. It definitely made life fun.

Speaking of protection... Claire bumped her shoulder against Nate, who glanced over at her mid-sentence.

"Sorry," Claire threw his way. "It can wait until you're done."

"It's fine. What's up?" He glanced down at her.

Claire's heart warmed as she regarded him. From the angle she sat at, the light from the window blanketed over him. A bit of stubble lined his jaw in such a teasing way that it planted butterflies in her stomach. His hazel eyes, framed by dark eyelashes, pierced straight through her. The beauty that was Nate plowed her right in the stomach. But it wasn't a bad feeling. In fact, the warmth that came from knowing he was hers bubbled up inside her. She couldn't help but grin up at him.

He blinked at her, a bemused expression slowly seeping onto his face. "What? Did I miss something?"

She shook her head, biting her lip to reel herself in. "Not at all. I...wanted to ask if you wanted to patrol tonight."

Over the recent months, Claire had decided it was high time for her to do something more for the pack. She wanted to give back in the same ways the others did.

Gabe and Nate had talked about it—with her present, thank Goddess—and decided she could do patrols around the border as long as one of them went with her. It wasn't the safest job, which was why Claire fought so hard to do it. The other members of the Mistwood Valley pack did it, so why shouldn't she?

Both of them had tried to get her to do pack house patrol instead. But everyone knew the pack house patrol wolves were just glorified hall monitors. They only sat around the pack house and monitored the outside, basically as a last result should someone sneak past the regular patrol wolves. Nothing ever did.

They'd made her do that for about four weeks until she'd convinced them she was strong enough to guard with the big wolves. Hooray that it had finally worked out.

Nate leaned further over to kiss her on the head. "Okay. But we're still watching that movie tonight."

Claire's stomach dropped. She'd been hoping he'd forget about that. "The scary one? Do we have to?"

"I'll be right there. I promise."

"Fine. But when I have nightmares—"

"I'll be there too."

From the other side of the table, Gabe made a gagging noise. "Ew. Love."

Claire only winked at him.

If she didn't know for a fact that he could be ruthless when he needed to be, Claire would've thought Gabe was good for nothing. But no, she'd seen the man in combat, seen the serious intensity in which he fought and protected those he cared about. She'd also seen the strict way he trained and commanded his men, and that made her feel better about having him on her side.

Gabe was for real. That was a given.

They finished up their lunch after that. Nate snagged the bill, despite Claire's attempts to at least pay the tip, and paid for the entire thing. The entire group then headed back to the pack house.

~

The wind brushed through the reddish-brown fur along her back. Claire refused to let it distract her from the tiny creature collecting material at the base of the tree trunk. The chipmunk picked through pieces of grass and sticks, searching. Unknowingly being hunted.

Her wolf had hunched down behind another tree and peered around towards the prey. The first rule of hunting: never lose sight of the prey. Her hind legs pushed up a bit, and she wiggled, ready to attack. Her wolf eyes narrowed.

The chipmunk chittered over toward the other side of the base.

In a flash—before Claire even considered it—her wolf struck. The chipmunk was quick work under her paws and an even quicker meal. With one crunch, the chipmunk was gone.

If there was one thing in life she'd learned from being a wolf, it was not to overthink hunting kills. While she loved chipmunks as much as the next person, the idea of eating one still had a tendency to make her queasy. Yet, her wolf relished in the hunting and had no problem killing for food. It was a basic instinct for her wolf, and her wolf ruled solely on the instincts given to her.

Before Claire had enough time to really consider what had happened, Nate padded over. His dark fur gleamed in the tiny pieces of moonlight that peaked through the treetops. Her wolf purred at the graceful way he stalked over and rubbed his cheek on her muzzle.

They'd each separated briefly on their way to the pack border to hunt down their own snack. Now that that was complete, they moved together toward the edge of their border.

Nate knew the way better than she did, and in this case, her wolf did not mind letting her mate lead the way.

At the edge of the border, one of their pack members—a tall, lanky man by the name of Paul—waited for them. They usually did patrolling in wolf form, so the reason Paul was human right now was beyond her.

He gave a slight bow of the head as the two of them approached. "Alphas."

Alpha. That word would never be one she could get used to. For most of her life she'd gone by the rank of Omega, the last of the last in the pack. To hear herself referred to at the top of the rankings caught her off guard. It might have been different if she hadn't skipped straight up to the top. If she'd gone up one rank, maybe it wouldn't be as weird.

Her wolf did not think it was weird at all. In fact, her wolf wanted her to be treated at a higher rank than Alpha. Royal. And that would be even weirder to hear.

Nate didn't seem surprised that Paul was in his human form. Or that he was without clothes. He must've just Changed, then.

The last few times she'd done border patrol with Nate, the men from the last shift had already headed home. Although, the last few times, she'd met Nate near the border. So maybe at that point he'd already sent the past volunteer on their way.

"Border's been quiet so far," Paul told them, carefully keeping his eyes low. It was not a good idea to look an Alpha in the eyes when they were in their wolf form. Wolves had a tendency to take it as a challenge, and either had to assert their dominance on the other wolf, or beat the other wolf into submission. It was very important that the other wolves understood who was higher than them. This way, the natural rankings of the pack were not confused. It prevented plays for power.

"Nothing more than a deer or two, really. Shouldn't be much of a problem tonight."

Nate's wolf nodded slowly, sending Paul on his way.

The rest of the night passed quietly. Nate and Claire paced steadily along their section of the border, alert for anything out of the ordinary. When nothing showed up by the end of the shift, they went back to the pack house to enjoy what was left of their night after making sure the next shift took over.

All was quiet. Her life, the pack, and her relationship. No, not quiet, content.