"I don't think I can do this, Eros," I whispered to Eros, fingers tightly curled into the back of his white dress shirt as I hid behind him.

His broad shoulder was facing me as he stood in front, blocking me with his taller frame from the crazy crowd that had gathered before us.

Today was supposed to be my induction day into the pack where I will be officially introduced as the Alpha Female to everyone and I can't be any more nervous than I already am.

Most of the people gathered here knew about my involvement with the government and I doubt they actually want me as their Alpha Female.

I tried to get Eros to push the date back as much as I could but, unfortunately, the day has come.

And hopefully, it won't be as disastrous as what I think it will be.

For the most part, I am content being a person that stood in the crowd, immersed and hidden in the sea of people.

But somehow, the gods had other intentions for me when they decided to 'gift' me with this magical womb and granted me an Alpha mate.

I'm not complaining but it would be nice to get a little break from all this action and drama for once.

Taking a sharp inhale of breath, I finally side stepped from Eros shadow to stand beside him.

I could barely look at the crowd of people when he reached out a hand towards me and it felt as if just his gesture was enough to anchor me to safety and reality.

My heart slightly calms at his simple notion when I slipped my own hand into his, weaving our fingers together into a tight hold.

I really hope he doesn't mind my sweaty hands because when I get nervous, my hands sweat.

A lot.

From the corner of my eye, I could see Eros lip twitch in response to my thought as if he found my predicament amusing.

Which it's not, if you ask me.

"It'll be okay. I'm right here, Emira," he murmured reassuringly, leading us further to the front until we stood facing the crowd of people in his pack.

Just knowing that Eros is here manages to calm most of my nerves, along with the urge to flee like a frightened animal.

I gritted my teeth and stood my ground beside him.

He said some things to the crowd that I completely overlooked as I tried to calm myself down.

If not, I think I will throw up in front of everyone.

Really.

Wouldn't that be a great situation to be in?

Not only will I be the laughing stock of the entire pack but I will also be the first Alpha Female to throw up all over herself while be inducted.

Note my sarcasm.

"As everyone knows, Ziron-e has been created in order to defend our pack from Hunters and it is all thanks to our Alpha Female that we are able to recreate this substance," Eros' voice boomed across the room as I literally froze in my place. "Everyone welcome Emira Hall, your Alpha Female."

Emira Hall?

I'm Emira Hall now?

Albeit I knew that this is one of the outcomes of us mating, it still didn't help the astonishment that colored my face from actually hearing my name change.

Not by seeing the change of name on a piece of paper sent to me by a governmental agency but actually hearing it come out of Eros' mouth solidified the fact that we are in a permanent union of some sorts.

This feels like marriage and we haven't even stepped foot into the church.

And at Eros' words, everyone, willing or not, knelt down before us.

It was an entirely out of body experience when I watched the wave of people come to their knees until I could only see the tops of their heads as they bowed their loyalty to us.

From there, the entire induction ceremony passed on like a blur and I couldn't even remember what all we did on that stage before Eros led me back down to earth.

Before I could say anything to him, Toran and two tall males approached us with some important pack stuff that, I'm sure, required Eros' attention.

"I'll call Rora over," Eros said, reading my mind once again.

I should get an award for being the most understanding mate of the month.

"Okay," I told him when Eros softly kissed the corner of my mouth, transferring his warmth and a shimmer of sparks across my face.

He left with Toran right after, leaving me with Rora while being surrounded all around by his--our--pack members.

I'm still quite curious about the whole induction ceremony because I knew that there was a lot more to it than just this.

From what I knew, there was a introduction, a blood ritual, a tribal marking, a chase, and a mating in the middle of a forest where anyone can walk in on you.

I don't find any of that exciting but who am I to judge the traditional practices of others?

Out of all the above, I was only introduced and that was it.

I originally thought that the induction ceremony was going to be a lot more lengthy than this.

But it wasn't.

Perhaps this pack's ritual is different from others.

I'm not too sure.

"Hey Rora, is this process the usual induction ceremony for the Alpha Female?" I asked Rora in curiosity.

"Not quite. There is a lot more to it." She glanced in the direction that Eros had left before saying, "Alpha Eros decided to cut it short and tossed away a lot of traditional steps in deference to your humanity. He did not want you to be uncomfortable and had announced this in advance so that no one would question it."

At her words, I could feel my throat tighten and my eyes burn with unshed tears.

I almost cried knowing that he waived all of his traditions in order to appease me but I had to hold it back in case I might start sobbing like an idiot in front of the entire pack.

It's not like I haven't looked like a total mess in front of them before but I didn't want to make Eros look bad with me as his Alpha Female.

If I had known about this, I would have told him that I would be willing to do it for him, no matter how uncomfortable it would make me.

He's given up so much for me, the least I could do was give some effort in our relationship.

It made me feel bad because I felt like I haven't contributed anything.

He gave and I took.

Almost like a parasitic relationship where I was the parasite.

I know that Eros doesn't mind but I do. And I really wished that there was something that I could do for him, something within my capability, of course.

As I contemplated the options, my eyes shifted from Rora's form until it landed on this rather tall blonde female who was glaring at me from the distance.

She gave me the creepy-crawlies with her adamant staring but I couldn't do anything about it so I just shrugged it off and followed Rora.

She introduced me to her friends and I could tell some of them were still sort of awkward and tense around me.

Which was expected.

Some smiled whole-heartedly while there were others whose smile seemed forced and rather strained.

I knew there was still a lot of work cut out for me in order to gain everyone's trust and I am willing to put in the effort.

But I'm really glad that they tried to remain as neutral as they could with me.

How can I expect them to trust me knowing that I was working for the opposite team?

Even I wouldn't trust me completely if I were them.

Well, at least no one has made any comments on my scientist background.

"Oh-em-gee! You're the Alpha Female aren't you! I've been waiting so long to meet you," a female's voice suddenly managed to cut through my engrossing thoughts when I looked up.

"I'm Brandy," she introduced with a wide grin on her face that showcased a full set of perfectly straight teeth and freckled cheeks.

"I'm Emi," I reply rather shortly, trying to catch my breath at her sudden appearance.

My eyes trailed from her happy face down to the biker jacket and extremely tight skinny jeans that she was wearing in question of her approach.

From my observation of her, Brandy seemed quite tough and edgy.

"I hope this doesn't offend you but you smell....thoroughly fucked," Brandy said with this mischievous inflection in her voice and a rather sly grin imprinted on her lips.

I nearly choked on the spit in my mouth at her statement and couldn't decide on swallowing it down or spitting it back up.

I noticed that Brandy had a rather uncensored mouth. She spoke what she wanted when she wanted without a care at all the dumbfounded faces she left behind.

And I can't help but wonder if all werewolves were this blunt like Brandy and Zanthos or were they the only exceptions.

My face was frozen for a split second before I choked out, "It's nice to meet you too."

What else was I supposed to say?

Bye, Felicia?

"You're so pretty! I am in love with your skin," she exclaimed with rather exaggerated hand gestures and started asking me twenty questions on what products I used and how I take care of my skin. "Like how old are you? 45? 175?"

My eyebrows furrowed together at her question and I started feeling rather offended until I remembered that werewolf years and human years were completely different.

At least I hope she wasn't trying to make a jab at me.

"30." I answered rather robotically, unsure of what else to say because it started to become awkward with her continuously rambling on about who knows what and me just standing there.

After about 15 minutes, I started praying that someone would drag her away or distract her enough so that I could make my escape.

Another 15 minutes went by when a tall muscled guy came for her.

Thank the lord.

Any minute longer and she was going to talk my ear off and Eros would never be able to see me again.

I'm exaggerating.

I breathed out a sigh of relief when I saw the male put his arms around Brandy's waist in a rather possessive hold, as if they were in a relationship.

Other than the fact that she liked to talk way too much, Brandy wasn't that bad.

"She talks a lot," Rora said to me when she disappeared from our sight and I couldn't help but nod repeatedly in response.

She sure did.

We continued to trek across the hall when we walked past that tall curvaceous blond female who was giving me the stinky eye ever since I noticed her, which was almost 30 minutes ago after Eros left.

And to be honest, I'm not that surprised.

She might be one of the haters because of my background history.

Maybe.

"Do you know her, Rora?" I asked once we were a little distance away.

I could still feel her penetrating glare on my back like she wanted to pierce straight through me with her eyes.

How scary.

"That's Lia." Rora glanced slightly at the blonde haired female who was fairly intimidating to the back of us.

"She's been glaring at me for the last 30 minutes. I almost thought that she was going to grab me by the hair and toss me around like a rag doll when we walked past," I whispered to her and noticed how a smirk seemed to curl on Lia's lips right after my comment.

She heard me.

Of course she would.

How could I forget about that superior werewolf hearing.

After hearing what I said, she looked like she wanted to make my words a reality because a rather dark and evil grin blossomed on her blood red lips.

I could even see a hint of her sharp canines that jutted out from the corner of her mouth when she grinned and I couldn't help the sudden shivers that wracked my form.

What in the world did I ever do to her?

"She knows better than to do that," Rora replied when we left the hall and started walking back to my room. "She's only giving you that ugly face because of Alpha Eros."

"Eros? What do you mean?" I reply.

"Lia has been pining after Alpha Eros for almost 300 years but he never pays her any attention," she stated with this disapproving look on her face. "She's far too young for him."

My face deadpanned for a minute and a half.

If she's 300+ years old and she's considered too young, than what am I considered?

I'm not too sure if I really want to know, because now that I think about it, this whole age things makes Eros quite the pedophile.

I've never heard of any couple having an age gap of 800+ years.

Imagine if Eros was all old and wrinkly and shriveled up.

My face immediately scrunched up at the mental image.

Okay.

I won't think about it that way because it's kind of grossing me out.

"What's grossing you out?" Eros asked when he stepped foot into our room.

Oh shoot.

I better get rid of that image of him all wrinkly and shriv----forget it.

He probably saw it.

.

.

.

A/N : I don't know why but I had a really hard time writing this chapter... a really extremely hard time. Like really. I've read this over 20+ times and I'm still not happy.

And I have a question for you guys. If I were to ever publish this on Amazon, would anyone be interested in buying it? I will still provide it free on here and Inkitt but the Amazon version will have a couple more deleted explicit scenes that didn't make it here along with Eros POV. Of course it won't be expensive. Maybe for 2-3 dollars.

And please be honest. I won't feel hurt if you guys say you can't because I understand what it means to be super broke(I'm struggling at the moment too).

I really do hope to publish my own book someday so this is a life goal for me.

Thank you for reading and supporting! :)

And please follow me :)