"Family means nobody gets left behind or forgotten." - Lilo and Stitch

I woke up in my bed. The bright light from underneath the curtains confirmed that it was the next day. Stretching my arms and legs, I tried to piece the last night in my head. How exactly did I come up here?

Turning to the side, I saw the creases on the bed-sheet and a dent in the pillow next to mine, as if someone had slept there. It could've been done by a sleepy me during the night but the lingering woodsy smell suggested otherwise. And so did the change in my clothes.

I shook my head, a stupid smile forming on my face.

For his sake, I hope he got someone else to change my clothes.

"For my sake, I hope he did." My wolf shot back.

I checked the time – 9:42 am.

It's too early for you to be horny, go back to sleep.

The playful smile on my face soon disappeared when the subject of my fears returned. Immediately, I opened up the mind-link.

"Mom, how's Dad?"

"Come and see for yourself." She replied back, the tone of her voice sound lighter and happier, the way it used to sound before everything happened.

Hearing that managed to ease off some of my anxiety and gave me a new surge of energy. As I was about to get off the bed, something on the side table caught my eye.

It was a small, cute stuffed toy – a wolf to be exact.

Next to it was a notepad I always kept next to my bedside, the top page of it scrawled with black ink:

Never pegged you for someone who would snore.

Shit. I snored?

"Continue reading, Snora the Explorer," Her Highness called out.

Alright, alright...

Won this little one for you yesterday. Somehow, forgot to give it to you when you were awake. I blame those pups.

Hope you don't mind the fact that I decided to name it Freddie.

He's never going to let that joke down, is he?

"Nope," she confirmed.

P.S. Never pegged myself to be someone who would EVER find snoring cute.

E. S.

The last line made me laugh.

I grabbed the wol– Freddie off the side table and brought it to my eye-level, "Welcome to your new home, my Queen."

After making my bed, I placed Freddie right in the center, and then made my way to the bathroom when a strange difference in my room stopped me dead in my tracks.

What was it, what was it, what –

My eyes fell on my vanity table and everything fell together.

Ethan had bloody cleaned my room!

Even when I told him that I was joking, he actually went on and managed to organize not only my vanity but also the clothes that I had discarded on the floor while getting ready for the carnival. All of my makeup was stored in its containers and the perfume bottles were organized from tallest to shortest. The clothes were folded neatly and placed on the chair next to the vanity.

This guy, I swear...

Making a mental note to thank him later, I quickly freshened myself up and made my way towards Dad. Upon entering, I saw the bed to be empty. Almost instantaneously, my pulse picked up and the feeling of dread began to spread like wildfire. But then my gaze shifted to the side and found him, standing between Mom and Jonathan for support, trying to walk.

"Dad, you're up!" All negative thoughts left my mind as I rushed to embrace my father. He kissed the top of my head like he always did and then gazed at me from under his warm, hazel eyes.

"Good morning, Princess."

Staring into his familiar eyes managed to open a window that I was trying my best to keep shut. The past few months flashed in front of my eyes and only one sentence managed to come out of my mouth:

"I am sorry."

His brows pulled together and his face softened, "For what, Vivian?"

My gaze fell on the floor, "All of it. It was all my fault."

I could feel my eyes filling to the brim with hot tears.

He grabbed my chin and tilted my face up to meet his, "I never want to hear those words coming out of your mouth, Vivian. You understand me? Never!" He ordered as my glossy eyes refused to make contact with his, "Everything happens for a reason, sweetheart. We can't dwell on the past when we have the future to look forward too." He cupped my face with his hands, "You came back. You came back to us and that's all that matters."

Unable to control myself, I embraced him again.

"And my brave, brave son... what can I say? He was too precious for this world." He gently massaged the top of my head, "I'm sure he found something worthy of him in the next world."

With his other arm, he brought my mom, who was quietly crying, to join the hug. I felt a weight lift off my shoulders, feeling safe in the knowledge that my parents, the foundation of my very self, were with me.

"Jonathan told me about how well you've adapted to the change, Vivian." We were now settled on the chairs in the room as Dad ate his breakfast – or should I say – as Mom fed him. She refused to leave his side or let him do anything.

It was beautiful, really, to see the full wonders of mate bond when you let it take its course.

"How courageously you took over the alpha duties," Dad continued, "He told me everything that is going on, and also bragged about what a great Alpha you are. I told him it was obvious, you're my blood after all."

My mom purposely took the spoon away from his mouth, her eyes narrowed.

"Our blood," He corrected and she brought the spoon back.

I smiled at their exchange, "He is just exaggerating, Dad. I did what was to be done, that's all."

There was a small pressure in my mind, as if someone was trying to mind-link me.

"Morning, Alpha. Your permission is required for entrance – a certain Alpha and his son. The latter won't let me say their names," Andrew's voice entered my head.

I laughed at the strange request, "Let them in."

After excusing myself, I stepped outside the room and was met with the sight of two men holding huge bouquet of flowers in front of their faces, effectively shielding it from me.

"Hello Alpha Carlos," I moved my head towards the shorter one and then nodded towards the other side, "Josh."

Alpha Carlos was relieved to pull the flowers down whereas on the opposite side, Josh let out a frustrated groan, "Andrew told you it was me, didn't he?"

I crossed my arms and shook my head in amusement, "Nope."

His accusatory glance went towards his father, "You..! I told you to hide your face, Dad! I wanted her to guess."

"It wasn't him either," I answered and he sent me a thankful glance.

"Really? Then how did you know it was us?"

It was quite simple really. Aside from Josh, Tyler was the only son who wasn't an Alpha and he would've never made that bizarre request to Andrew, which only meant the person of interest was Josh.

But obviously I didn't tell that to him. Didn't want to break his heart and all.

"Because there is only one guy that I know off who owns those Air Jordan III."

Josh grinned widely, satisfied with the response whereas Alpha Carlos rolled his eyes.

"I'll leave you both to it, I have a friend to go and check-up on."

I pointed him towards the door of the room so he could walk himself over.

"This is for you," Josh walked towards me and pushed the bouquet he was holding in my hands. It was a stunning mixed flower bouquet.

"For... me?" I grabbed it, a bit surprised, "Wow, thank you, Josh."

He winked at me, "Skipped breakfast to get it for you, thought it'd make your morning after the night you had."

I let out a sigh. He was so sweet.

"Let me treat you to breakfast then," I interlinked my arm with his, my right hand holding his bouquet.

"Ah! I'm glad you asked because I am absolutely starving."

Leading the way, I took him towards the main dining area to get something to eat. Our pack had a buffet system so there were a lot of choices for everyone to choose from. After filling up our plates and meeting a few pack members, Josh recommended we eat our breakfast outside since the weather was quite pleasant. Before we left, one of my pack members volunteered to place the bouquet in my room.

"Let's sit on the bench," As we were about to sit down and dig in, a football fell near our table. Putting the plate on the table, I pushed the ball with my foot to give it to the kids who were playing quite a few miles away. The pups managed to convince me to play with them for a few minutes. Just as I was about to return to the bench, my eyes zoned in on Andrew who was talking to Ethan.

"Alpha," I heard him mind-link.

"Let him in, Andrew."

Andrew's body stiffened, he looked back in confusion and relaxed when he found me.

Ethan jogged his way over, wearing a grey hoodie and black jeans today, his hair wet as if he just took a shower before coming and didn't get the time to style them.

"Good morning, beautiful," He grabbed my face and kissed me, "You okay?"

"Much better," I licked my lips, the taste of him lingering on my lips, and interlinked my hand with his, "Come join us."

He raised his eyebrows on the word 'us' but followed nonetheless. When we neared the bench, we found Josh so lost in devouring his breakfast that he wouldn't have even noticed if a hippopotamus was dancing in front of me.

Ethan narrowed his eyes at Josh. Probably confused as to why he was there.

"Do you want something to eat? I can ask Uncle Levi to send something for you."

"No, I had my breakfast before coming here."

We both sat down and that's when Josh finally noticed us.

"Oh, loverboy!" he spoke with his mouth full, "What brings you here this fine morning?"

In pure Ethan fashion, he ignored his question and turned to address me, "How's your Dad doing?"

"Much better, all his tests came out okay. The doctor advised him to rest so he can heal as soon as possible. Alpha Carlos is with him right now, along with Mom." I answered as I cut into my chocolate covered waffles.

"That's good to hear. I also came to ask if he's taking visitors because my parents wanted to meet him."

"Mhm," I chewed a mouthful of waffles and fruits, "I'm sure he'd like that."

Ethan finally decided to regard Josh who had no problem noisily eating his food while paying no mind to those around him. It was just him, his food and no one else in the world.

"Where's your other sidekick?"

Josh managed to grace his question with a response, "He is sleeping, most probably. Not a morning person, that one."

"Thank God for that," Ethan murmured under his breath and I gave him a look.

"Alpha, this came for you," Ashlee walked over, holding out an envelope with a very familiar design.

"Thanks, Ashlee," I grabbed the letter from her and busied myself with opening it.

"Morning, Ashlee! Did you do something to your hair? You look gorgeous."

My eyes fell on a grinning Josh who was blatantly staring at Ashlee with a lopsided grin. She shyly touched her hair, fighting a faint blush that was rapidly spreading on her cheeks.

"Yes, my sister gave me haircut last night."

He nodded, "Looks absolutely divine."

"Thank you," She smiled, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear, feeling bashful.

Ever-the-charmer, Josh.

When Ashlee left, I began to read the letter and realized quite quickly why the design seemed familiar.

"Guess we are going to be very busy for the next two days, boys." I announced after I finished reading. "Leia has accepted my invitation and is coming the day after tomorrow for a two-day staycation at the North-Moon Pack."

Josh's eyes lit up with excitement whereas Ethan's face fell, realizing that it meant we had to keep ourselves at a distance.

"She is going to stay over? At your pack?" Ethan questioned and I passed him the letter in response.

Fetching my phone out my pocket, I messaged Tyler:

Once breakfast was done, we headed back inside the pack house to clean up our dishes. Josh volunteered to do my dishes as well. When I rejected, he pushed me aside, saying something about how he never even lets his mother do her dishes.

He didn't hear anything else after that so I moved aside to let him do what he wanted in peace and ended up bumping into Kal.

"Hey Kal, how ar-," Before I could finish, Kal pushed his daughter in my arms.

"Please, just hold her for a second. I need to use the bathroom real bad, Kelsey has already left for work and there is literally no one here to hold her except for you."

"Yeah, of cou...," once again, he left without letting me complete my sentence, "...rse."

Aubrey's blue eyes met with mine and her face instantly split into a grin, a toothless smile looking at me. I stuck out my tongue at her and blew a raspberry causing her to erupt in giggles. Once done, her curious eyes settled behind me.

Turning around, I saw Ethan staring at the both us.

"I think she remembers you."

He stepped closer to us, "Of course she does, who can forget a handsome face like mine?"

Leaning down so he was at eye-level with her, he raised his index finger which Aubrey quickly wrapped her tiny fingers around.

My heart skipped a beat. It was a wholesome sight to watch someone so dangerous and powerful being so gentle with a little pup.

My phone's vibration interrupted my train of thoughts. Balancing Aubrey in one of my arms; I moved my hand to take my phone out from the back pocket but stopped at the last second.

"Hey, Ethan?"

"Yeah?" His bright grey, eyes looked up at me from under his thick lashes, a single lock of wet hair falling on his forehead.

"Do you mind taking out my phone for me? It's in the back pocket of my jeans."

Not breaking eye contact, he slowly stood up to his own height causing me to tilt my head up to look at him.

I gulped.

Instead of answering me, the most devilish of smiles curled up on one side of his mouth as he walked to stand behind me, his warm breath tickling the nape of my neck. His heat warmed my body, causing my skin to prickle and pulse.

I felt him lean down, closing near my ear, my heart beat racing at this point.

"Do I mind?" His lips gently touched the top of my ears, his hands slowly, sensually tracing the side of my waist, then moving to stroke my spine, leaving tingles all over my body. His hands finally came to a stop on the back of my jeans.

An intense charge of energy passed between us, awakening every single cell in my body. I could feel the pulse of power rippling in the air, singeing our bond.

His fingers slowly traced the outside of my left back pocket, and then ever-so-slowly, he inserted his hand in the pocket. Those seductive lips ghosted over the shell of my ear, sending my nerves sparking and causing me to gasp, "Nope, not here."

He nuzzled my neck, the roughness of his jaw scraping my sensitive flesh as he retreat his hand, but not before lightly squeezing my left butt-cheek, "Just double-checking..."

Then his hand continued the journey to the right side pocket, giving it a small pat, "Hmm...," he groaned approvingly and then moved his hand inside to grab the phone, "Jackpot."

I finally let out a deep breath when his hands came out and he settled back right in front of me.

He stared at me with half-mast eyes, his gaze leaving a trail of heat wherever it touched.

My breath now came out in heavy pants. I could see it in his stormy, grey eyes how much he wanted it, wanted me. The energy that always charged between us was a testament to our sizzling bond.

From my red face and uneven breathing, it was evident that my plan to catch him off-guard had backfired and he knew that.

He looked pleased with himself, a dangerous smirk lurking on the devilishly handsome face of his.

The air crackled with tension. Even Aubrey felt it because she started to giggle.

Shit. Aubrey.

"Thank Goddess, you remember the pup. For a hot minute, I thought we were going to make one of our own down here," My wolf interjected.

"Uh—um," I cleared my throat and moved my attention back to Aubrey. "Can you check what the message says? It's probably Tyler. The password's 151413."

I knew he was probably amused at my choice of password but I restrained myself from looking at him. I didn't want to give him the opportunity to make another joke at my expense.

However, I couldn't stop myself from sneaking a glance at him. The amusement twinkling in his eyes was evident, a slight trace of smile on the corner of his face. However, instantaneously, his entire body stiffened. The softness in his face replaced with something cold and distant.

"What's wrong?"

He mulled over the answer for a minute.

But I already figured out the answer; the reason behind his coldness.

He must've seen my phone's background wallpaper which was a photo of Tyler back in the Academy days.

The time I caught him shirtless.

"Take a picture, it will last longer."

"You're right, stay there."

Since I only used the phone to keep in contact with Tyler and Josh, I never got around to changing the wallpaper.

"Nothing. It was Tyler," He turned off the phone, his eyes not making eye contact with mine. "He is on his way."

Damn it, Vivian.

---

Forty minutes later, Tyler arrived. After handing Aubrey back to Kal, Josh kept Ethan and I busy with weird stories he read on the Internet, mostly me because Ethan was silently brooding in the corner.

All of us were now making our way towards my room to discuss and come up with a plan to help Tyler and Leia.

The boys, one by one, entered my room, their eyes slowly taking in the surroundings. Tyler scanned the area and gave me an amused look, "I had quite a different vision in my mind when I pictured your room. A little less girly."

I crossed my arms and narrowed my eyes at him, "Shut up."

Josh, on the other hand, immediately headed for the bed and flopped down on it, putting a hand on his stomach and groaning loudly, "Man, I ate enough to last me a week. Think I'm going to rest here for a while."

My eyes fell on Ethan, whose confused gaze was fixed at the bouquet resting on my vanity table.

"So why did you call me here?" Tyler spoke, sitting himself on the sofa.

Josh plopped his head on his hand, "Your Rapunzel is finally being let out of her tower and is now coming over for a sleepover at our dear Vivian's."