"Shiro!" Geo's voice came in his head. He sounded alarmed. "Where are you? I can't find you anywhere!"

"Something came up," he told him, still running for home. "Grab my back pack from the bench by the forest. It has my keys in it."

"What happened?"

"I'll tell you after school," he said. "I'm heading home early for the day."

He broke of communications with him after that. His mind was too shocked at what had just happened. And the pain from leaving his mate like that was rippling through him. He used it to fuel himself to run faster.

It wasn't until he got onto their territory that he noticed a familiar scent. If it were any other circumstance, he would be happy to find her here. At the moment, though, all he wished was to hide in the deepest hole that he could make.

She still found him, though. Hiroko was always good at knowing when something was wrong. She ran right next to him, not saying a word to him. He knew that she could smell the scent that Jett had left all over him. He knew that she could tell that the curse was affecting him worse than before. He felt like a madman, trying to do anything to ease the pain.

She directed him to one of the small huts that they had scattered around their lands. It was far enough in the forest that no one of importance could smell the mysterious scent coming off from him. Once they were there, she changed into her human form and threw a robe on. Her human form was taller than Shiro's. She had short black hair, with the same eyes that they both had inherited from their mother.

"Change, Shiro," she told him. All he did was whine in response. After losing control, he lost what had grounded him. It wouldn't take long to get it back. But, at the moment, he was weak.

"Please, Shiro," Hiroko placed her hand gently on his head. "Let me take care of you."

Shiro listened to her. She was the only one he could fall back on at the moment. And the only family that he could trust.

"What are you doing here?" he asked. She quickly carried him into the hut and grabbed some supplies from inside. He could barely use his legs at the moment. "I thought you weren't going to be in town until Thursday?"

"Do you really think I would let you go through all of this by yourself?" she asked. The hut quickly filled with an incent that she had lit. It was the best at hiding scents. "Stay there while I start a bath."

He did as he was told. That was all he had ever done his whole life. Following order after order, no matter how he wished he could be free from the clutches of responsibility.

"You are strong, Shiro," his grandfather said. "The Spirit of the Moon shines her blessings onto you."

"But I thought you said that you never know how strong you are until you use it?"

"You already have been, Shiro," the old man knelt down and touched his chest where his heart was. "You have had to learn responsibility at an early age. You are already one of our best fighters, even with how young you are. You have shown your strength plenty, my boy. And that is the reason why the Spirit of the Moon shines down on you. For you are her blessing to us."

He remembered that day. That was just after his thirteenth birthday. It was one of the last things that his grandfather had told him.

"Grandfather lied to me, Hiroko," he said. His body was burning, even without any clothes on.

"Grandpa never lied, Shiro," his sister shook her head. The sound of running water was soothing as it promised some kind of reprieve from this pain.

"He said that I was strong," tears burned in his eyes. Only she was allowed to see him cry. She was his only comfort. "He told me that I was a blessing from the moon. But now I am under her curse, without the strength to hide this from my mate."

"You are strong, Shiro," Hiroko helped him back to his feet. "You always have been. That's why everyone looks to you to lead them when father isn't able to."

"I can't control this, Hiroko," he let her lower him into the cold bath. "I can't do the one thing that I had prepared for since we were young."

"Who is it?" she gently started to pour the cold water over his forehead. "I missed you saying it when I was on the phone last night."

"Alpha Jett."

"That's probably why you couldn't stop it," Hiroko shook her head. "The Valor Pack are quick to pick up on their spiritual side."

"But you're still able to hide yours."

"I'm not mated to another alpha," she told him. Her voice was soothing and gentle. He had missed her. She had been gone since Christmas. "And I still have to go through great lengths to keep myself away from him."

"Where is he now?"

"Helping Mr. Ling with his business," she answered. "We'll both be here for your graduation party, though."

"I'm not sure if I can go back there, Hiroko," he told her. His heart felt raw at that moment. "I'm not sure if I can handle that again."

"Maybe it would be best if you talk to him about it," Hiroko said.

"I can't risk telling him everything," he said. The cold water helped sooth the ache. "By doing that, we could risk a war."

"Tell him you wish to wait until you gain your title," Hiroko said. "By doing that, you two can at least accept each other as mates and the curse's symptoms will lessen."

"And what if he doesn't wish for me to gain my title?"

"The Valor Pack have been known for going the longest without being under the curse," she told him. "Their Alpha isn't going to jeopardize that just because you wish to follow your career."

"This is too much," Shiro sat up in the tub and rubbed his face. He was losing to all the emotions that were going through him. It was the second thing he had failed at controlling that day. "I should have been able to keep this hidden until I gained my title. Yet I couldn't even last three days."

"But, Shiro-!"

"No!" he shook his head. "I have failed to keep control of myself, therefore I fail as a leader."

It hurt to say that. He had worked tirelessly to make himself strong in both body and mind. He was the best warrior in their pack, the most respected besides his father, and no one had ever even thought to threaten him for his power. Out of all the weak parts of himself that he had trained to get stronger, he failed to even think about this happening.

Jett was his Achilles Heel. And he could already see himself bleeding to death because of it.

"Even a leader asks for help," Hiroko gently placed a hand on his shoulder. He looked at her to see the soft face that had helped raise him. Everyone had told her that she looked just like her mother. It was why she had cut her hair short when she was a teenager. "For a leader is nothing without his people. And a humble leader is stronger than a prideful one."

"I remember Grandfather's lessons," he snapped at her. His heart was too raw to stop himself. Everything hurt him, sending him down a spiral of darkness that he had fought for so long to stay out of.

"Then relate it to your current situation," she told him. She worked on washing the dirt from his hair. He was still too weak to try to stop her. "When you were fighting those hunters, did you feel like you could take on all of them by yourself?"

"No," he answered. "It would be idiotic to attempt to take down that many by myself. Even if I could, I wouldn't be able to do it in time before they would hurt some of the citizens in that city."

"So, you requested the help of the best of your warriors," she said. "Just like any leader would do."

"Requesting help in battle is different from requesting help for an inner dilemma."

"But I requested help from you when I first went through the curse," she gently massages his scalp. "Does that make me weak?"

Shiro sighed. He was on the losing side of this debate as well it seemed.

"How would I even go about getting help for this?" he asked. "If father found out, there's no telling just what he would do."

"Talk to your mate, Shiro," Hiroko told him. "Tell him what you are feeling. I can tell from how much of his scent was all over you that he wants you as his mate."

"I'm not good at telling people what I'm feeling," Shiro said. "You of all people should know that." He had trained himself to hide and protect so well that he wasn't the best at telling anyone how he was feeling. Expressing his emotions weren't something he did that well either.

"You could always write it down for him."

"And risk someone else reading it?" he shook his head. "No, that's too risky."

"Then you're just going to have to talk to him in person."

"What if he tries to mark me again?" he asked. As much as he knew that he could throw the man off from him if that happened, he wasn't sure if he'd be strong enough to resist the man again. He so easily lost control just by a kiss. Who was to say that he wouldn't lose his control again simply by looking at those orange eyes?

"Why don't you bring him here then?" Hiroko asked. "That way there'll be Geo and I to tear him away if he tries that again."

"Hiroko!" he turned to look at her in shock. "Why would I bring him here?! That would be the same as committing suicide!"

"Not entirely," Hiroko giggled at his reaction.

"What do you mean, not entirely?!" he asked. "That would be the day that I would get my head ripped off!"

"Oh please, Shiro," Hiroko shook her head at him. "You aren't even letting me finish!"

"This is a ridiculous idea," he crossed his arms. "There's no need to finish."

"Isn't a great leader supposed to listen to everything his subjects say?"

"I'm not a great leader," he closed his eyes. "I'm nothing but a failure."

"Shiro," Hiroko forced him to look at her. "You are not a failure. And you will never be. A failure is someone who gives up on what they wish to achieve."

Shiro leaned back into the tub. He had to pull himself back out of this. He couldn't be talking like this, not when he was so close to achieving the one thing he had strived for his whole life. He couldn't be selfish when it came to this. There were too many things at risk.

"What else were you going to say?" he asked her. His sanity was finally coming back to him. And slowly he was gaining control of his emotions again. He would have to meditate more to make sure that he didn't lose to his emotions at another time.

"It could work if it was a party," Hiroko explained. "To celebrate the graduations of everyone in the pack."

That wasn't too bad of an idea. They were already planning a celebration for the day after everyone's graduation. It was something they did every year, as they rejoiced in more members who were old enough to help their pack grow and become fruitful.

"If we invited him, then we would have to invite the other Alphas as well," he told her. "I'm not sure how father would feel about that."

"I'm sure he'd want to make up for not coming to Alpha Nir's aid with the hunters," she said. "I'll see what I can do to convince him."

"There's still the issue of if he tries to start something," Shiro sighed. It was always complicated when it came to his pack. "Doing something like that in that great of a crowd is the opposite of what I want to do."

"Then trust those who are loyal to you," Hiroko said. She had drained the bath water and now handed him a towel. "Together, we will lift ourselves up to greater heights."

"Do you really think that Geo could pull him off?" Shiro raised a brow at her. He knew how strong his beta was, but Jett was still an Alpha. And his pack prided themselves on their strength and their animal instincts.

"That might be a fun sight to see," Hiroko smiled at him. "Don't forget you also have me. I've thrown plenty of alphas across a room before."

Shiro shook his head and slipped into a robe. He always knew that his eighteenth birthday was going to be hectic. It was too important of a milestone for it not to have its challenges. He knew that his mate was going to be male for a long while now. He just never knew that it was going to be another alpha. That just made his predicament ten times worse.

It was good to have a plan, though. It was full of risks and dangers of its own, but it was the best plan he had for the moment. His sister was always the best at solving problems like this one. She would make a great Luna for the pack when he finally came to power. Considering that they had both taken on the responsibility of the Luna in order to help their father, it wouldn't be difficult for her to get the hang of doing it full time. They had discussed this many times in the past as they prepared for their future successes.

Now was just like then, though: it was all just a waiting game.

"Oh, Shiro?" Hiroko snapped him out of his thoughts as they walked out of the hut.

"Yes?"

"Congratulations, by the way," she gave him a motherly smile. "For finding the other half of your soul. May the Spirit of the Moon guide you to the best path."

Shiro nodded his response. As much as he wished that the Spirit of the Moon would guide him, he wished that he could get her to understand his situation and allow him just a little more time.

But he supposed that there was no time like the present. And, sometimes you just had to accept what was given to you.