I have no idea when the last time was that I woke up as peacefully as I am now. The sunlight poured into the room through the window that I faced, gently bringing me out of my unconsciousness. My head didn't feel heavy when I lifted it up, yet I felt like the covers were extra heavy, keeping me close to the warm mattress. That didn't bother me. I rested my head back down on the soft, warm pillow.

I've never felt this relaxed.

"Morning Mate," Vincent purred, making my pillow vibrate with his deep voice. Oh wait, my pillow is his chest and my blanket is his arms.

Well there goes my relaxation.

I pushed myself up off Vincent's chest and sat upright. Vincent pushed himself up as well, his hair was dishelved from the night's sleep. He stretched out his beefy arms until I heard a pop. He smiled and leaned back on the head board.

"It's almost twelve," he noted. "You wanna get ready for that pool party soon?"

Twelve? I glanced around the room, finding no clock so I couldn't tell the time. "How can you tell?" I asked, mainly out of curiosity.

Vincent's grin got larger, probably because I was having a little conversation with him. He got off the bed and walked over to the window, motioning with his hand for me to follow. I reluctantly obeyed and went over to the window.

"See how the sun's more in the middle of the sky?" he asked, pointing to it.

I looked and had to squint. "Sure."

"That means it's noon. When it's closer to the east, then it's morning, west is evening." He stood back, looking at me with an eager face.

"Cool," I muttered, finding this astronomy lesson rather boring. I walked away from the window and over to the boxes in the corner of the room that contained my clothes. I popped open the first one, finding it full of my underwear and bras. Alpha touched my underwear and bras.

The thought of some grown man touching my intimate items of clothing made me blush. Hopefully Vincent hadn't gone through this box.

"Why don't you just pick out what you wanna wear and we'll put the rest away when we get back?" he offered.

I just nodded.

Vincent smiled and went over to the closet where his dresser was. He pulled out the second drawer, grabbing a pair of black swim trunks and a white wifebeater. Now call me crazy, but I expected him to go change in the bathroom like a normal person. Instead he pulled down his pajama pants and boxers, actually revealing his nude body to me.

I quickly turned around...after taking a quick peep.

Vincent laughed. "Like what you see?" he asked.

Oh God. "No," I scowled. I shifted through the box, searching for my bathing suit. It was a nice yellow string bikini that I spent a few weeks doing chores around my house to earn. I really liked it because it had padding in the top that didn't make it look like I belonged to the Itty-Bitty Titty Committee. Finally, at the bottom of the box, I spotted it and pulled it out. I put it under my arms and shifted to the second box for some shorts and a shirt to wear over it.

I felt a pair of arms wrap around my waist. "Mate," Vincent growled into my ear, "wear something appropriate."

I shrugged him off, continuing to look for some shorts. I had some jean shorts and a black t-shirt that I wanted to wear mainly because of the thin material. Inside the bedroom was a little warm, so outside must be scorching. Found them!

I pulled out my shorts and shirt, hearing another growl from Vincent, who immediately snatched them from my hands. At least he left the bikini under my arms, which I let drop to the floor so that he couldn't take it from me.

"This is too revealing!" Vincent snarled, holding up my shorts and shirt. He looked genuinely pissed, his eyes flickering yellow for a brief second. His eye brows were knit together in frustration and he had his teeth bared.

"It's hot outside!" I whined. "And besides you're wearing a thin tank top that shows off all your chest muscles! Don't you think that's revealing for a guy?" I crossed my arms in front of my chest, trying to look tough.

Vincent towered over me by at least a foot and he leaned in, intimidating me with his size. "That's different," he growled.

I cocked my eyebrow.

"I'm showing that I'm strong, hence I can protect you, therefore keeping threats away. You're just dressing to show off your body!"

"Why don't I just wear a burlap sack then?" I scoffed, turning away from him so that I could look for some less revealing shorts. The only longer ones I could find were black basketball shorts I wore that one time I thought I could play sports.

"Better," Vincent smiled, kissing the top of my head. He turned and left the room, probably to go brush his teeth with the one frickin' toothbrush in the house...disgusting. As soon as he was gone, I stripped out of the clothes I had slept in, and tied on the skimpy bikini that I knew he'd be pissed to see me wear out in public. However, I could care less about what he thinks and wants me to wear. Contrary to popular werewolf belief, he doesn't own me! As soon as my bathing suit was on, I put on a t-shirt and the basketball shorts over it.

Vincent walked back into the bedroom and gave me a nod of approval. "That's my girl," he smiled. He came over to me, grabbing my hand in his giant one, leading me out of the room. He led me to the bathroom, opening up the cabinet beneath the sink and pulled out a small plastic tub with hair care products in it.

He set it on the counter. The tub had hair spray, mousse, and a hair brush in it.

"I, um, didn't know exactly what you wanted to use for your hair. And I know that, for some reason, human females take a lot of time grooming themselves," he said, looking at me with an apprehensive look.

"Thanks," I mumbled, grabbing the hairbrush and using it to rip all the tangles out of my hair. After that I found a hair-tie at the bottom of the tub and used that to put my hair in a simple ponytail. I didn't bother brushing my teeth because I was too grossed out at having to share a toothbrush with a mutt. I'll just ask Danni if I can use hers of something.

Once again, Vincent grabbed my hand and walked me out of the house and over to his truck. I jumped in one the passenger side, rushing to do my own seat belt this time. Vincent sped down the road, one arm around my shoulders, the other attached to the steering wheel.

"So," I began, not wanting to sit in boring silence, "why are you only the future beta, and not the current one?"

Vincent looked happy that I was talking to him. His smile grew bigger and he straightened up, puffing out his powerful chest with pride. "Well, I told Jason that I'll become the official beta as soon as I find my mate. So that's why there's really no official beta at the moment."

"What about your dad?" I thought that ranks that held power in the werewolf community were hereditary. Therefore, Vincent's dad should be the current beta if he's meant to be the future one.

Vincent's posture slouched and his grip on me tightened. "My, uh, parents died in the Great War." The Great War was what was referred to as the war that followed after the werewolves and vampires exposed themselves. It was pretty brutal. "The human forces killed my mother, and since she was my father's mate, he died shortly after due to heartbreak."

I sat silent for a little bit. Vincent was orphaned in the Great War, at the hands of humans, and he chose one as a mate. How ironic.

He cleared his throat and continued. "Jason took care of me for a while. His father was alpha at the time. He died in combat, that's why Jason's one of the youngest alphas at age 29."

"And you told him you didn't want to be beta until you found your mate?" I asked.

Vincent nodded. "I knew that with a mate, I'd be motivated a lot more to protect the pack." He pulled me closer to him, nuzzling me. "Now I have you to look after. You're my family."

Eww, that was creepy. We sat in awkward silence until we pulled up in front of Danni's house. There were other cars parked in front, so it made me feel a little better to know we weren't the first ones here. I got out of the truck, only to have Vincent quickly wrap his arm around my waist, pulling me closer to him.

"Listen Mate," he whispered in my ear, "stay away from the other werewolf males here. Got it?"

"What about the human ones?" I joked.

"You and I both know how easily a werewolf can kill a human, so don't test me." His grip tightened and I pulled into full contact with his body.

That shut me up. I nodded.

I was led up to the front door, where Vincent knocked, and stood with part of his body in front of me.

Reed answered the door and only looked at Vincent.

"Beta," he smiled, "I'm glad you and your mate could make it." So I don't even have a name anymore? I was ushered inside, walking through the living room and out into the backyard.

Danni's backyard was pretty big. It had to be at least three times the size of our math class. There was an in-ground pool in the dead center, around it cement walk-way, and around that lushy, green grass. The back yard was already full with werewolves and few humans. Most of them I recognized from school, but good number of them were older and hence had to be friends of Reed. It was easy to tell which human was mated. They stood next to the werewolf, the wolf having his or her arm wrapped tightly around the human. I even saw a male werewolf with a male human mate. I heard it could happen in rare numbers, but this was the first pair I've seen.

There were a few unmated werewolves. I noticed that Kyle was here, wearing only swim trunks to show off his muscles to some unmated human girl, who was ignoring him.

"Nora!" Danni called. I turned my head and saw her waving to me. I began to walk over to her, but Vincent growled and literally yanked me back to his side.

"Where are you going?" he snarled.

"To Danni," I muttered.

Vincent looked over to where I was going to walk, verifying that Danni was standing there. He let go and leaned in closer to me. "Check back with me in five."

Yeah, there's no way I'm doing that. I shrugged and walked over to Danni.

"Hey Nora!" she cheered. "Glad you could make it. Come upstairs, there's someone here I want you to meet."

I followed her back into the house and up the stairs into a bedroom that I deduced to belong to someone else as it only had a twin bed in it. There's no doubt in my mind that Reed makes Danni share a room with him and they have a double bed.

In the bedroom was a tall female werewolf was blonde hair. She glanced at me over her sunglasses and snorted. "You Nora?" she asked in a monotone voice.

"Yes," I murmured. Was this Crystal.

The female werewolf looked at Danni. "Close the door," she ordered. Danni closed the door and led me over to the bed to sit down with her.

"Nora, this is Crystal, Reed's sister," Danni said, motioning at the werewolf.

I'm saved! This is the woman who's supposed to save me from Vincent and this pathetic pack!

Crystal looked me over and strained her ears, most likely to make sure no one could hear us. "You got the 500 dollars?" she asked.

"Not at the moment," I began, "but I can get-"

"Then go," Crystal interrupted, opening the door. "I'm not risking my ass for free. Come back when you can pay me. And make it quick. Your mate already scented you, you reek like Beta male."

That can't be it! Nonetheless Danni got up and led me out of the bedroom and into one that I knew was hers due to the double bed. "Sorry about that," she said, "Crystal can be a little irritable."

"It's fine," I lied. I have no idea how on earth I'm going to come up with $500. "What did she mean by Vincent scented me?"

Danni chuckled. "Seriously? It's a little hard to miss."

I cocked my eyebrow at her. "What do you mean?"

Danni stopped laughing. "He must have done it when you were sleeping then," she almost whispered.

"What do you mean?" I all but shouted.

"Well," Danni mumbled, shifted on her feet, "when a werewolf scents their mate, they have to get rid of the mate's original scent. The way they do that is by...um, I'm sure how to put this lightly, so I'll just say it. Vincent licked you head to toe and then rubbed against you to get his scent on you so that other werewolves would smell him on you, thinking of you as his property."

I was seeing red. Vincent licked my body while I was sleeping?! What kind of sick fuck does that? Oh, I know! A werewolf!

Screw this. I ripped my shirt over my head and threw it to the floor. I then dropped my shorts.

"Uhh, Nora? What are you doing?" Danni asked in a nervous voice.

"Relax," I said. "I'm going to prove to a certain fleabag that Nora Song is no one's property, especially a dog's."

Danni looked me over as I stood in front of her, wearing my small bikini that virtually left nothing to the imagination.

"Vincent's gonna go apeshit, you realize that, right?"

"He'll live," I responded, walking out of the room. I had noticed that even Danni was wearing a t-shirt and long shorts. It's in the low nineties! I want to be able to stay at least semi-cool...and that's my excuse for why I'm wearing a bikini.

I walked outside the house, entering the backyard. A few of the werewolves looked at me. A couple of the unmated male werewolves howled with approval and clapped their hands. To play it up, I pushed my chest forward, making my boobs look bigger.

Kyle whistled and shouted for more.

Then silenced followed as a loud snarl erupted from the crowd and I faced a very pissed off Vincent.