"I've come to speak with Iliana," the deep voice from outside of the house is not familiar. It makes my she-wolf scurry into her den, fur rising along her spine.

"I'll check to see if she's busy," comes Hank's bland reply.

Considering I'm sitting on the couch eating Bacon and eggs, I'm not busy. My toes are encased in ice and propped up on a pillow and my body is sore but in a good way today. I still can't believe that I'm on the ice again. I also can't believe how natural it felt compared to the light training here in the pack.

Hank walks into the room just as a bite of egg falls out of my mouth onto the blanket. He smiles tightly, looking a little like Alphason Conner does when he braves the shotgun to venture to Hank's door because he misses Bailey. You know, after not seeing her for an hour or two.

Those two are couple's goals. My future alpha's wolf keeps bringing Bailey vegetables and she coos to his wolf as if he's an overgrown puppy. It's weirdly adorable. No one else would have the guts to speak to a wolf that way. I wish I could bottle Bailey's confidence and sell it. I'd be the richest bitch in ClearHowl, which is a high bar to scale.

"Alexander is here," Hank grunts to me.

It takes me a second to work through it. I don't know an Alexander. The only Alexander is the alpha, but he's Alpha Alex, so wouldn't Hank say...

"Alpha is here? Bailey is with Alphason Conner," I reply stupidly, before thinking. Maybe it's wishful thinking on my part, because I distinctly heard the deep voice ask for me.

Hank doesn't bother to reply. He eyes my hair critically, then reaches out and straightens the blanket around my toes, and pushes the side table with my drinks and breakfast closer to me. I sit up frantically, smoothing my hair down, only to realize that I'm probably smearing yellow egg juice all over myself.

Hank disappears into the kitchen and comes back with a damp towel. I wipe everything I can, then look up at him expectantly.

"Good," he nods, before walking back to the front door where, presumably, my alpha is standing cooling his heels.

Alpha walks back behind Hank. The sight is a little incongruous. Powerfully ranked wolves tend to take the lead, even in other people's homes. I guess Alpha is used to faking being human in all of his work.

"Iliana, good afternoon," he greets me.

"Hello, Alpha," I say. I'm very proud of my strong, clear voice, until Hank grabs a handful of my bacon (that he bought and cooked) and I squeak in protest.

One piece of bacon crumbles, almost falling. Hank snatches it up before it hits the ground and grabs another handful, then sits down with his stolen loot in his easychair and mutes the t.v.

I toss him a frown and he grunts "teenagers. There's another serving in the pan."

My she-wolf nips me belligerently. That bacon is all that way over there and Hank stole our bacon that is right here and we only just started eating real food again a few days ago. She huffs petulantly, eyeing the bacon on Hank's plate.

Alpha Alex clears his throat. I forgot for a moment that alpha was here. It's just so nice to have food treated normally around me, instead of everyone acting as though my supposed eating disorder was from my choice and not from a heartbroken wolf.

I peek at Alpha and relax when I see he's smiling. I do notice that Hank doesn't offer him anything to eat or drink, and my fingers tighten on the plate of eggs instinctively.

Alpha's smile grows and I blush, relaxing my deathgrip. "You are looking much healthier, Iliana," he says. "Skating suits you, apparently."

"You know about that?" I blurt out.

Alpha's smile falters, growing wry. "I own the rink, Iliana."

"Oh," I mutter. I didn't know that, but I'm not surprised.

"I've also commissioned building one closer," he says. Then, he clears his throat. "I imagine you know why I came here?" he asks me gently. In response, I curl deeper into my blanket. My she-wolf hides deeper into her den as we both retreat from our alpha.

Alpha nods. "I'm sorry," he says quietly.

Silence hangs over the room for a moment, broken only by Hank's chewing. The crunching seems like an admonishment from the human dad, honestly. Waves of silent disapproval waft from Hank even though his face is carefully blank.

"I should have seen it. I think... to put it mildly, he was raised better. They both were," Alpha says grimly.

I cringe a little. "So was Georgina," I mutter. Mom and Dad never liked the relationship between my mate and their daughter. That's why Sean and Georgina were so secretive and why I wasn't really aware of how deeply in love they were until that awful night.

Alpha nods, "was your sister aware that Sean was your mate?" he asks me bluntly.

Oh, goddess. My she-wolf snarls, giving the answer away. I try to stop her. We aren't ready to go head-to-head with Georgina yet. Sean isn't going to toss his lover under the bus. If he was it would have already happened. So, it's a she said - she said situation.

Alpha nods, his jaw tight. "I see," he mutters. His wolf stirs, restless and aging. Some stories claim that alphas can tell if one of their wolves is lying, but it's just rumors. Alpha is clever and it's his job to know what is happening in the pack, but there's no sixth sense, just smarts.

Alpha leans back and looks at me with dark, fathomless eyes. My she-wolf tilts her head submissively, responding to the wolf shining out of our alpha's face.

"How do you feel about those two males, Iliana?" he asks me. "I ask," he continues, "because Conner will be taking over the pack soon and he will need a Beta."

My she-wolf squirms a little and my own butt finishes the job. One of the packs of ice falls off my toes and Hank immediately reaches over and rights it. I knew that one of the males would be Beta. If Alphason is angry with Sean then it makes sense that Braxton would be next in line, but I don't want to think about it. Hell, I thought I was prepared to watch Sean and Georgina fill the roles of the Beta couple, but now I can't think about it without my she-wolf having a meltdown in my brain. Sean and Braxton live in a small box in my brain, and I shut the box and shoved it into a corner where it belongs.

Alpha Alex waits patiently while Hank noisily chews next to me. Finally, Hank asks, "why do you need Ili's opinion? What if she doesn't like either boy?"

I nod silently in agreement because I can't speak. My breath is caught in my lungs and the ache is unbearable.

Alpha Alex leans forward, meeting Hank's suspicious glare. "The male Ili chooses will rise and the other will fall apart," he explains bluntly.

My breath returns with a great whoosh as I gasp. I cough idiotically, and I think a piece of Dorito dislodges in my throat. Alpha Alex waits patiently as I die and Hank interjects again, "and if Ili chooses neither boy?"

"That depends," Alpha leans back in his chair, nodding and rubbing his palms hand over hand. "The bond in both males is incredibly strong. If Ili chooses another male, any male, then both Sean and Braxton will devolve into feral animals fairly quickly if nothing else is done."

"What can be done?" Hank asks quickly as I keep nodding like a marionette.

"A slower breaking of the bond. Braxton probably won't recover," Alpha Alex muses. "He's lost his truemate and his choice, at that point. Sean may survive..." he pauses, "but I doubt it."

"You can't force or guilt Ili into keeping one of those idiots," Hank snaps as I melt into a puddle of guilt and helplessness. The Mark on my neck that I've been somewhat successfully ignoring pulses in time with my heartbeat.

Alpha agrees wordlessly, then adds, "if she chooses no one and is alone for the rest of her life, then they will ceaselessly, endlessly pursue her as they descend into madness more slowly. Maybe they will find another mate, maybe not."

I wring my hands together helplessly. My she-wolf is no help. She thinks of Sean and wants him, then remembers what he has done. Then she thinks of Braxton and wants him, but remembers what he did. I'll get whiplash if I depend on my too-young she-wolf for relationship advice.

"You won't rush this girl into a decision," Hank warns Alpha Alex. I'm impressed at how steady and powerful the human man is in the face of an alpha wolf.

"I won't," Alpha agrees, "but if Conner takes over for soon he won't have a beta or an alpha female."

Silence hangs heavy over the room. I swallow hard and finally find my voice, "alpha," I say softly.

"Yes, Ili?"

"I would like to be the alpha female."

He looks at me with pity in his eyes. "Ili, you don't have time to prepare properly."

My she-wolf whines sadly. I find my courage again to argue, "but I thought Conner wouldn't be alpha for a couple of years? I can do it."

Alpha shakes his head and for the first time, his eyes fall to the ground. "No, Ili. Conner will be alpha of ClearHowl soon. Technically, he's already the alpha of RedMoon, but because Trey Wilkinson is still alive the Challengers are holding off, unsure of what they're dealing with."

I straighten up, "can Trey Wilkinson be the beta?"

"No. Bailey is his truemate," Alpha says simply.

I reel from the news. I knew that Alphason Conner had been rejected by a female who wanted to be with Trey instead. It was probably really stupid and insensitive to suggest Trey be a beta, but I didn't realize that Alphason Conner stole Bailey away from Trey.

Good for him.

Except... that means that Trey Wilkinson and Alphason Conner switched mates. I wonder if Alphason Conner deliberately stole Bailey away in revenge? I think of my friend and her choicemate. It certainly seems that Alphason Conner genuinely loves Bailey, but now I can't help but be suspicious.

"And," Alpha continues as if he didn't just shock me into senselessness, "if Trey accepts another official position, then the council will be prodded into acting sooner rather than later. Challenges to Conner and Bailey will be immediate."

"Can Teague continue to be the Beta for his son?" Hank asks, folding his arms across his chest and scowling.

Alpha smiles wryly, "yes, but T can't pass as an alpha female and quite honestly the weaker a pack looks the more likely we are to be targeted."

"Alphason Conner needs both a beta and an alpha female," I circle back around to Alpha Alex's logic.

"Yes," he says simply. "Soon." He rises to his feet and Hank follows suit. "The next wave of summer classes begins today. I assume you're going?"

I cringe a little. Bailey and Alphason Conner are supposed to pick me up in an hour. I was planning on faking an injury ten minutes before they show. "Yes," I promise my alpha.

He nods in satisfaction. "Good. Feel free to speak with Conner and Bailey about the males, Ili, but you really need to make a decision soon, alright?"

Hank follows Alpha to the door so that he can slam it shut behind him. He stomps back into the room and starts to clean up the room. "My mama wants to move to Florida," he announces to me. I look up at him. "Closer to us, but not giving up that island, yet. She wants to snowbird and spend half the year in Puerto Rico and half in Florida."

I look at him as laughter bubbles up helplessly. "You snowbird to cold places?"

"I know," he says. "She's ridiculous. But... her condo in Florida will be empty."

I ponder his words as he leaves the room, but deep inside I know I won't run. My she-wolf and I are a lot of things, but we don't run away.

---

Welp, class is awkward. Two reasons; one, Velia and Vicente are eyeballing each other in a hostile-slash-sexual way (no need to guess which expression is resting on which face) and two, everyone is staring at me.

I mean, I would stare at me too. I missed three weeks of class. I don't smell like myself anymore, either. I must smell of either Braxton or Sean or both of them. Or... is that alcohol? Do I smell like wine?

"Oh, no," I mutter.

"Ili?" Bailey looks up from her laptop with a vacant smile. I hope she's figuring out something good like how to shrink toxic waste before it gets to landfills by rearranging molecules of unrecyclable trash. Or she may be trying to convince Alphason Conner to adopt a kitten. She failed to do so this morning when he drove us to class and I don't think Bailey fails at much.

"I forgot to clean out my backpack," I tell her. I must have left food in it. I smell funky. My backpack smells like fermented juice. I'm wearing a high-collared, long-sleeved shirt in the middle of July to hide Braxton's Mark. Every one of my friends has greeted me with a tentative smile and then hustled off to somewhere else. I am officially a freak.

"I tend to do that. Mina is good at remembering," Bailey says offhandedly.

I hide my smile. Mina tends to barge into Alphason Conner and Bailey's apartment in the packhouse to clean or drop off food. Bailey doesn't mind. She says it reminds her of her mom, but it drives Alphason Conner crazy.

Which reminds me... three; despite what Alpha said, I can't bring up Sean and Braxton with Alphason Conner and Bailey. Bailey is treating this very similarly to her dad, Hank. She seems to think that Sean and Brax can fall into a deep hole and disappear. Alphason Conner just looks... stressed out.

"Buenos Dias, class," Beta Rique walks into the room and gives his cousin a warning frown. Vicente ignores him and keeps staring at Velia. Velia, for her part, is ignoring both Vicente and me.

I feel my heartbeat start to race again. My palms are sweaty. I'm warm for the first time since Sean or Braxton cuddled me. Great, and now I'm thinking about them again. So much for the dusty box in the corner of my brain. More like Jack-in-a-Box. I wind myself up and those two spring out over and over.

"Some of you are here for session two. Some are repeating session one," Beta Rique says with a scowl toward Vicente, "and some are new faces," Beta Rique says, greeting the newbies with a half-smile. Like a bad movie, Georgina appears in the doorway in just that moment.

Nope. No way. Hank made me bad bacon and I fell asleep on the couch. All of this has been a nightmare. Alpha Alex didn't tell me that I have to choose Sean or Braxton this morning. Georgina isn't here.

"I teach subjects on a rolling basis, sí? So every three weeks will be a different session, but we will cover new topics all summer." Beta Rique must be answering questions.

Georgina hovers in the doorway, staring around the room. Her glance bounces past me without stopping, but I see her eyes narrow and her mouth tighten when she sees that Bailey is sitting next to me.

"Come inside," Beta Rique tells her with a sense of impatience. Georgina almost jumps out of her skin as she hurries into the room and walks toward the back.

Darn Bailey and her nerdy habit of sitting in the front. I can feel Georgina's eyes settle on the back of my head. Her nasty glare joins about a dozen others.

Beta Rique starts to hand out the syllabus for the new session. "This session we will be discussing the intertwined history between wolves and other beings."

Bailey squeaks excitedly. Her hand shoots up. With an indulgent smile, Beta Rique interrupts his speech to call on her. "Yes, luna?"

"What sorts of other beings?" Bailey asks as she glances between the syllabus and Beta Rique.

He smiles. "I left it blank because I prefer to ask for guest lecturers, sí?"

Bailey is ecstatic, but the fur on the back of my she-wolf's spine rises. Uneasy, I raise my hand.

"Yes, Ili?"

"Are they coming here?" I ask. I'm about to add, or are they virtual, but a few snickers from the back of the room cut me off.

"Most will," Beta Rique shoots a warning glare past my head. "Some will video and some will join us live remotely."

I settle back into my chair, satisfied that they won't put Bailey in danger.

"In fact," Beta Rique says, "our first guest lecturer is here today."

Bailey stands next to me, squealing, "Grammie!" at the top of her lungs. The elderly human woman limps into the classroom with the aid of her cane, slapping away Alphason Conner's help.

"Ther's my peanut," the old female croons as they embrace. My she-wolf sits up and straightens her spine at the sign of an elder, despite the lack of an elder wolf in Bailey's grammie.

A gaze, much like Hank's, sweeps the room. Grammie nods to herself then swipes the cane at Beta Rique's feet. He avoids the hit nimbly, eye's widening in amusement as he and Alphason Conner share a glance behind Grammie's back.

"Let's jump to it. I don't time for pleasantries," Grammie says. She settles into a plush chair that Beta Rique pulls over from the corner that I hadn't noticed earlier. "I'm here to tell you everything you need to know about who really runs this planet."

"Oh. My. Goodness," Bailey mumbles next to me, sinking back into her chair bonelessly.

"Sirens is what you might call them. But they call themselves 'sisters.' They are the Sea." Grammie pauses as the class shifts, glancing around them, wondering if Beta Rique brought a nutcase to speak with us. I don't do the same, not only because I'm still not comfortable with my packmates, but because there is something in this human female's gaze that has my she-wolf captured tight.

"Many millennia ago, there lived a girl," Grammie interrupts the muttering class. "She lived near the sea, most likely in the Mediterranean, perhaps in Greece or Turkey, or even North Africa. Blue eyes she had," Grammie's voice drops. "KInd and sweet and normal, I suppose. Beautiful, no doubt." She pauses for a moment. "She was to be married to her sweetheart, but the King of the Sea saw her one day. He stole her away, took her to a cave on a remote island, far away from her village. She escaped finally when the King left her alone one day. She lost everything. Her sweetheart didn't want a ruined woman. Her family was shamed by her behavior. Her lover had lied to her. She threw herself into the sea," Grammie says quietly.

Grammie isn't the best storyteller, but the story captivates me. I feel a connection to this long-ago, probably made-up human girl. Except for the drowning in the ocean, thing.

"The Sea heard her. Her rage, her sorrow, her fury that her life was stolen by Her son. The Sea drowned her, filled her lungs with life-stealing water. Stole her air same as Her son stole her purity."

Uneasiness ripples through the class. Wolves and the ocean aren't friends.

"She offered a deal. Become the living Sea, the embodiment of the ocean and all its power. Control the storms and take the lives of the mortal creatures that owe their lives to Her, and live forever."

Holy shit, Grammie.

"The girl became the Eldest. Every storm, every wave, every life taken by the Sea, is because of her."

Silence hovers over the classroom as Grammie finishes her tale. The old woman waits for a beat, then heaves herself up, waving off Alphason Conner and Beta Rique as they hurry to help. "Anyway, pups," she says as if she's lived with wolves all her long life, "it's a good thing you all live here." She begins to limp out of the room, then stops, her eyes fixing on me.