Klepto POV

Consciousness comes back to me slowly but surely. The dazed reminisce of sleep lingers everywhere inside me, and I sigh contently.

I can't remember the last time I slept that well, probably because I never have.

More than anything, I want to blame the drugs leftover in my system from the doctor, but I know the truth, the idiot sleeping on the floor is the cause of this sorcery.

He isn't there when I wake up, but when I make my way downstairs I see he sits at the dining table with the two blonde lycans.

Reid and the other one, Ace.

As soon as I step into the room Ace grins at me like the cheshire cat. Reid gives me a shy smile. I find that he is sort of shy around girls, and doesn't feel comfortable around me, but he's a nice guy.

I will never forget the way he helped me when I was beaten and left to bleed in the woods.

Reid is a good guy.

So instead of sitting next to Ezra, I slide into a seat beside Reid while Hyrum brings a steaming plate of pancakes to the table, setting it in front of us with a grin.

"Thank you for breakfast, Hyrum." I say with a sweet smile sent his way. He smiles back and nods at me, giving me a salute.

"You are welcome." He sits down as we all dig in to the food. I can feel Ezra's eyes burning holes in the side of my head, and Reid shifts in his chair next to me, clearly not happy with this awkward situation. I feel a prick of guilt at putting him through this, but I brush it off as not a big deal.

"Sleep well, m'lady?" Ace asks, and I look up at him to see him pouring a lake of maple syrup on his stack of pancakes. They are completely drenched, but he seems to be okay with that.

Gross.

"Fine." I say, clearing my throat.

"Oh, I'm sure you did." He replies, winking at me with a wicked grin still plastered to his face. A growl comes from the end of the table, and we all stop what we're doing to stare at Ezra.

"I told you, nothing happened." He insists, "don't try to embarrass her."

I laugh, and now everyone's staring at me. I go quiet for a second, gulping and then clearing my throat.

"I'm not embarrassed. I don't care, let them think what they want." I say, and stare down at my food.

Once again, my mind is on display. I've been trained to not think twice about what people think or say about me. Embarrassment has no place in someone's life when they grow up being treated like dirt.

The conversation goes on from there, mostly boring talk until they bring up the rogues.

"When will strategy begin, like really begin?" Reid asks, and Ezra chuckles, shaking his head.

"Always ready for the next fight. Be patient, it will come." Ezra wipes his face with a napkin before continuing, "The Guard was notified as soon as the rogues attacked here, and have sent Veiler. He's on his way, and he'll be here soon, but apparently he's not very happy about it."

"Who's.... Who's Veiler?" I ask.

"Only the most powerful being on the planet, no big deal." Ace says, and I raise my eyebrows.

"Is he a lycan?" I press. Ezra nods, rubbing at his forehead.

"Yes, and the Alpha of a lycan pack in Montana. He's the oldest of our kind, and the most feared creature on earth. He could take out a whole pack in less than an hour." Ezra glances at Hyrum and then back to me, "He comes from royal lycan blood, though he refuses to be the ruler. That's why the Council and the Guard were formed, because when it was his turn to step up he refused. Though if he wanted he to, he could take his place on the throne any time the desire struck."

He comes from the ancient royal family? I've heard about them, but not much. They haven't ruled in literal centuries.

I furrow my eyebrows at my mate across the table.

"What, so he's like a prince or something?"

There's a long, drawn out silence.

"No, Klepto, he's the King." He says reverently, giving me a concerned look.

"What? What is it?" I ask, because I notice that all the lycans at the table gave me the same look.

Hyrum clears his throat.

"It's common knowledge, at least it's supposed to be. Did your pack not teach you about him? About his family?"

I shake my head.

"Maybe a little, bit not enough for me to recognize his name. Alpha Green controls everything we're taught in school. Anything he deems unimportant we don't learn." I shrug as if it's not a big deal, but I feel resentment boil inside.

Leave it to the useless, controlling Alpha to withhold critical history lessons.

I decide to change the subject, feeling a little anxious at my lack of knowledge.

"So if he's so powerful and royal, and an Alpha of his own pack, then why is he helping the Guard exactly?" I ask.

It's Reid's turn to pitch in to the conversation.

"Because he still wants to help. Whenever they need Veiler's help, they call him. If the issue is serious enough, he'll help, but never for long. He's very devoted to his pack and being there to lead them. He's been in Virginia for awhile, on the lookout for the Red Alpha."

Ace squints at me and suddenly asks, "You do know about the Red Alpha though, right?"

I glare at him, slamming a hand down on the table.

"Of course I know who the fricking Red Alpha is. I may be missing some info, but I'm not completely useless."

Ace's eyes light up, and his eyebrows raise.

"Woah! I surrender! Jeez."

I look around to see that the other three lycan warriors wear a mask of amusement at my outburst.

"Seems like you met your match, Acey." Says Reid.

Ezra lets out another annoyed growl, his humor gone completely.

"Oh chill out. That's not what I meant." Reid says, rolling his eyes.

We all laugh at Ezra and continue eating breakfast. When we're done, I thank Hyrum once again, doing my part to help clean up the mess from our meal.

Once I finish drying and stacking the last few dishes, I stare out the window over the sink at the snowy forest.

It snowed again last night, so frost covers every little twig on the leafless trees.

"You ready to go?" I look over my shoulder at Ezra, who's dressed for the weather. For a few seconds I don't know what he's talking about, and then I suddenly remember.

He's taking me to see my little siblings.

I smile, but then it drops as I am reminded I have to go out into the pack. I have to face all the wolves who were happy to see me banished, and furious when I returned.

The scrutiny might be more than I can handle. I might not care what they say about me, but I hate being watched.

Ezra smiles, his boots thudding against the wood as he comes towards me with a large jacket in his hand. He holds it out to me and I grab for it, pulling it close to my chest and taking a whiff of his scent, my fingertips trailing the black fabric gently.

My mate peers down at me, sighing. He brushes a hair out of my face and presses his palm to my cheek.

"No one will bully you as long as I'm around. One look and I'll have them quiet, I promise."

I grin, giving him a snort of laughter.

"How romantic, my hero using his violent intimidation to shut up my pack members. How could that possibly go wrong?" He chuckles, and the sound once again leaves me momentarily breathless.

I am supposed to be mad at him, dammit!

I take a step back, then slowly slip on the jacket, avoiding eye contact with him as long as I possibly can.

"Well, what are we waiting for? Let's get going."

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Felix shoves yet another action figure into Ezra's face, insistently displaying his collection.

"This one's name is Bob. He has rocket boosters." He explains, his little fingers pointing to the silver mechanisms on the back of the toy.

We are in my house, well, my old house. My Dad greeted us at the door, actually offering me a hug and a smile. Despite the fact that his mate is locked up in the pack prison, he's actually happy.

My Dad typically does odd jobs around the pack for the Alpha, but apparently he got off the hook with our particular situation. So now my Dad is home full time, watching over the little tikes.

"Wow, that's pretty cool." Ezra praises, and Felix's eyes fill with wonder at the compliment, "What does he use the rocket boosters for?"

Felix grins, launching into his explanation.

"He fights the bad guys. He flies over their houses and drops bombs on them."

The small bedroom booms with Ezra's laughter, echoing off the walls.

I couldn't help but smile. The whole feeling in the house is so bright and positive. It's as if my Mother was the one to suck all the happiness out of household, and now that she's gone it's been set free.

Daniel fidgets in my lap, and I can feel his jealousy. He wants Ezra to like him too. I smile and let him down, watching my tiny brother race over to my mate's side.

"Hi." Says Daniel, Ezra flashes me a grin before glancing down at the little guy.

"Hi, there. What's your name?" The enormous lycan warrior asks.

"Daniel. Kleppy calls me Tiger though." Daniel replies proudly, eyeing his older brother with a look that could only be described as gloating. I roll my eyes, if any 3 year old could pull that off it would be Daniel.

The corner of Ezra's lip twitches upwards when he looks at me over my baby brother's head. "Kleppy, huh?"

Oh no, he is going to have a field day with that one, I'm positive of that.

"Oh, nuh uh, mister, You are not calling me that." I demand, standing up and crossing my arms over my chest.

"Oh, really Kleppy? And why not?" He's smirking now, like he thinks he's the funniest idiot on the planet.

"Because you're not 3 years old." I say, only to have Daniel shoot me a glare. "No offense, tiger."

Daniel glances up at Ezra, his little face looking worried. His pink, pudgy hand reaches out to tug on my mate's blue jeans to get his attention.

"I'm almost 4." He explains, and I grin. He is still trying to impress him.

"Well I just turned 5! So I'm super old. I'm a big kid." Felix butts in, dropping his action figures on the ground and standing on his tippy toes to look even taller than his younger brother.

Daniel pouts, but he tries to hide it when tears fill his eyes.

My mate has a look of panic, yellow eyes darting over to me as if begging that I fix this. I shake my head, grinning at him and letting him handle it on his own.

It's obvious he's never been around kids before, and I am anxious to see how this will play out.

Ezra sits on the ground and pulls Daniel onto his knee.

"Hey, it's okay." He shushes, tipping his chin up with his finger. "You're both big kids, and very cool."

Daniel grins from ear to ear. He snuggles up to Ezra's chest, resting his little blonde head on his shoulder, and wrapping his tiny little arms around him in a hug.

The lycan warrior is caught off guard. He smiles up at me then, hugging my baby brother back.

Despite the fact that I am still very mad at him, the sight of Ezra being oh so gentle with the boys starts to thaw my frozen heart just a little bit.

Once it starts, I try to stop it, but I know I can't. The image is imprinted on my mind forever.

I am losing this battle, slowly but surely.

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When we got back to the "Lycan Cabin", as I have started to refer to it, I am dead tired.

It isn't very late, but my feet are already dragging under me, not willing to cooperate with what I tell them to do.

"You alright?" It's Ezra of course, leaning against a post as I make my way up the stairs. I stop where I stand and stare down at him.

He holds three boxes of things. My things. All the things I own, in fact. We were on our way out of the house when he insisted we go by the pack office building and grab my things.

Fortunately, good old Dr.Paullini volunteered to be the one to get rid all of my stuff.

I guess he had an inkling that I'd be back, so he hung onto them, and I couldn't be more thankful. I even have him a hug.

"Yeah." I sigh, messing with the hem of my oversized shirt, "Just tired. It's been a long day, you know?"

He nods, carrying the boxes up as he follows me inside the warm house. It's nice to be able to get out of the cold chill.

"It's been a good day." He says, and I smile at those words, but hide it from his view. He is definitely warming up to my little siblings, and they love him a whole lot too.

They will take any opportunity to impress him, and he finds it immensely amusing.

He will make a great dad.

I squeeze my eyes shut, shaking the thought out of my head. I am supposed to be mad at him, dang it! This grudge will be held as long as I can hold it.

Not to mention I still don't trust this lycan. He drew me in so many times, dragged me around, and dumped me only to get my hopes up again.

Looking at him now, I can see that he is trying so hard. I want to trust him, want to accept him, but I can't let myself get hurt again.

It isn't worth it.

"Well. Let's get you to bed then." Ezra says, and I agree with a simple nod, no longer feeling like doing this little dance of thought out words.

I just need some rest.

We go up to his room, his spicy scent covering everything around us. I sit on the bed, watching Ezra plop the boxes onto his desk. He stands there with his broad back to me, stretching his arms over his head and sighing.

Guilt flamed inside me, and I know he's sore from me making him sleep on the floor. I guess we will have to find a way around that.

My mate grabs a pillow, making his way over to where he slept the night before, and I grab his wrist in my hand as he passes.

He gives me a questioning look, and I grumble.

"What is it?" He wonders and I look away.

I take a deep breath "Iguessyoucansleepinthebed."

He raises his auburn eyebrows as he smiles down at me. "What was that? I didn't quite catch it, Kleppy."

I clench my fists in anger, of course he heard it. He just wants me to say it again. I take another drawn out breathe.

"I guess you can sleep in the bed." I manage, much slower this time.

"But no touchy!" I emphasize stubbornly, watching his face carefully to make sure he understands.

He lets out a tired laugh, nodding his head.

"Fine. No touchy."

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If you're reading this, I love you :)

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