No one really got any sleep that night. As soon as the packs were told that the Reverence Pack was peaceful once more, they all started to flock over there, too curious to see what had happened. Shiro had cleaned up the mess that came from the challenge as well as killing Kenji. Alex was glad that the bastard was dead. Even though he could feel Geo's pain when he talked about it.

"There's still so much that I don't get," Luke rubbed his head. It was a sunny morning now, as the fog seemed to disappear if not just for the day. The greenery was absolutely beautiful, and the flowers were blooming to soak in as much sunlight as possible. It really made this pack house shine.

"Yeah," Alex smiled at him. "There's a lot of shit that happened that you didn't know about."

"Oh, calm down, Lu," Teddy popped up and hooked his hands in both of their arms. "It's time to celebrate! Not to be confused about everything that just happened!"

"I should have known that you wouldn't have died," Alex shook his head.

"Plush don't die," Teddy winked at him. He looked happier than Alex had ever seen him. "Oh, by the way, I meant it about Geo."

"I solemnly swear that I will not harm a hair on his head," Alex told him. Geo and Shiro had actually gone to their old rooms to change. Shiro still had to get all that blood and ink off him. Everyone else were getting ready for the celebration that was to take place. There were already couples holding hands and laughing in glee, and children having fun in the grass. Their mothers weren't even yelling at them for getting stains on their clothes like they normally would.

He had never seen something so purely joyful in his life. These people were acting like they had just seen sunlight for the first time in their lives. Mothers and Fathers cried as they held onto their children that they thought were long dead. They danced and laughed. It was the most awe-inspiring thing that he had ever been a part of.

"This," Detective Jim came up to them. "This is what Munni would have wanted." He looked different than before. The stress lines on his face were faded away just a little bit, and those eyes shined with happiness. The Detective Jim that he saw now was so much different than the tired old detective that he had known for most of his life.

"This is what we've all wanted," Teddy said, smiling out to the yard. "Shiro was planning this since day one."

Alex couldn't help but smile at that thought. They would have never known that a thirteen-year-old would start off this revolutionary movement to overthrow his father. When he first saw him, he didn't think he was anything but a warrior who was willing to help their pack with some hunters in their land. It was amazing just how much digging they had to do to get to the truth of the matter.

The first car he saw pull up was Bree's. Alex had called her back just as soon as all the members of Mercy Waters were accepted in the pack. He had been too focused on what was going on to pay attention to his phone. Apparently, Jett scared the shit out of her. Alex wasn't too surprised at that, though. That happened a lot in their line of work.

"Okay," Bree burst out of her car. Her dad, Elder Henry, was with her. "Where is he?! I swear to the moon and back, I'm going to kill him!"

"I don't think that would be a great idea," Alex smirked at her. "His mate seems pretty powerful."

"Oh, shut up," she rolled her eyes. "I have his clothes."

"He's just inside," Alex told her. "He was waiting on Shiro to change."

"Mind telling me what happened?"

"That's a great story," Alex said. "Honestly, I don't know half of it myself."

Oh boy. What started off with just Bree and Elder Henry, soon turned into a whole entourage of people coming in. Shiro told Detective Jim and Luke that it was alright to invite their Alphas over. He wanted the investigation to be finished by this week if it were possible. Even if they didn't already know everything that Sakdah had done, they had enough evidence for his death to be justified. Alex doubted that anyone would be mad about the old Alpha's death. If anything, it seemed as if the whole city had a weight lifted from it.

"Will someone tell me what happened?" Alpha Nir looked annoyed as he got out of his car. But as soon as he looked around at all the happy faces, his expression changed. It was difficult to stay annoyed when there was all this happiness around.

"Shiro's the new Alpha of the Reverence Pack," Alex announced just as Roger got out of his car. He had been driving right behind Nir, his warriors all around him just in case it was a trap. "Sakdah is dead."

Nir and Roger looked at each other, communicating in their own way. They were the closest of the packs in BlackCreek. Alex liked to blame it on them both being old, but Sakdah was never friendly no matter what age you were.

Alex tried his best with the help of Teddy and some others, to explain what had happened. Some of the other pack members chimed in to talk about the crazy fight between the son and father, and the pyre that Hiroko was tied onto. Alex was glad that Jett got there when he did. If Sakdah had killed Hiroko, he didn't know how Shiro would be after that.

"Where is Hiroko, anyway?" Nir asked. "Shouldn't she be around if she's the new Luna?"

"I'm afraid she will not be making an appearance today," Shiro spoke, surprising them all. Alex turned to see him walking out of the pack house with a golden kimono on. It looked great on him, but not as great as the one in blue standing next to him.

"Why is that?" Nir frowned a bit. He seemed to be in awe of the clothing choice of Shiro's as well. "Is she still recovering?"

"My sister has some important matters to tend to," Shiro told him. "You have my word that you will meet all of my council officially after today, though."

Alex looked at Jett, who was smiling like crazy behind Shiro, and gave him a playful look.

"You think they're going to be at it all day?" he asked him. He knew what Hiroko had went off to do. Well, it helped that he was told that she was under the curse, but still. He still couldn't believe that she had somehow survived three years of that curse. That sounded like the most painful thing ever.

"Pfft," Jett almost laughed in front of the small crowd of alphas when he asked him that. "If I were under that curse and forced not to even be near my mate for three years, I know I'd be gone for more than just one day."

"Tell Shiro to give them a little honeymoon or something," Alex told him. "Then you could always turn that into wedding plans for you and him. Might be a fun way to pop the question."

"We still have to figure out how we're going to sleep without each other every night."

Alex sighed. He forgot all about that. With Geo being apart of a different pack, they were going to be separated for most of the time. While he was happy that Shiro gave them his blessing for living in the city, they were still going to have to wait until they officially moved in with each other. Especially since the Reverence Pack just got new leadership all of a sudden. There was going to be a lot of change.

"You see," Bree popped into the mind link. "This is why you leave all the planning to me."

"You thought of something?!"

"Yup!" She looked so smug about it when she told him. Alex loved when they did this to each other. It always reminded him of when they were all kids and she would mess with Jett all the time. "But I'm not going to tell you right now."

"Why?!"

"Because you scared me half to death!"

"I was trying to save Shiro!"

"And how was I supposed to know that? All I knew was that you were running off, following some strange voice that you heard coming from the forest!"

Alex tuned out the rest of it. As much as it was fun hearing the two argue about something as dumb as this, he wasn't too fond of the headache that it gave him when they did it through the mind link.

Instead, he focused on the man in the royal blue kimono. It was a simple one, but it looked great on him. The collar was adorned with the badges of his rank as the Beta of the pack. Alex hadn't had to wear his in so long, he almost forgot about them. He shined with pride as he stood patiently by Shiro. Alex absolutely loved him this way.

"You still look like a Puppy," he teased him. Geo's eyes immediately darted over to him. Then they rolled and he smiled a bit.

"I swear, you're going to say that even when we're old and wrinkly."

"Hey, people call wrinkly dogs Puppy's too."

"You're ridiculous."

The celebration went on and on, everyone mingling and laughing as they told stories. Detective Jim was having a blast getting everyone's stories of what had happened. A lot of the people from Mercy Waters talked about what had happened to them and how they were saved. Their stories were so horrible, it made him wish they could have noticed that something wasn't right sooner.

"I still don't like the fact that there were so many secrets," Nir shook his head and looked to Jett. "You never kept any secrets from me until now."

"I promise you," Jett said. "It will be the last time."

"Well, there were a lot of things that we didn't know either," Teddy shrugged. "Most of the people in the Reverence Pack had no clue about Mercy Waters. Only a select trusted few did."

"How were you all able to fake so many deaths?" Roger asked this time. "It was done so skillfully. We honestly all thought that Shiro was dead."

"A mixture of their blood and animal meat," another person came outside. Shin walked towards them, showing an aloofness that had been the Gamma's specialty. Detective Jim immediately tensed up and seeing him. "The clothing that is around them is also soaked in their scent, masking the smell of the meat."

Alex stood there a little defensively. They had all thought that Shin was one of the people who were working with Sakdah. Alex still wasn't sure where the man's political views lied, but it made him worried about Geo staying in this pack. He really didn't want anything bad to happen to him again.

"You helped them with this?" Roger asked.

"Of course, I did," Shin told them, his eyes flashed with anger. "Sakdah killed my father. He would have killed my son too if he found out who he was mated with."

"Then why did you stay in his council?" Alex asked. "Why didn't you just try and run?"

"Running is the coward's way out," Shin said. "Do you know how many escape routes Sakdah had? He planned out how he would run from this pack and abandon it so many times, it was enough to make me sick."

"So, you decided to pretend to be on his side, then?' Nir asked this time. He was watching Shin with curiosity now. Detective Jim just looked baffled.

"It wasn't easy," Shin told them. "I was the last member on Munni's council that was alive. It took a lot to convince him to let me live after what had happened, let alone to keep me in the council."

Interesting. Alex knew that they had used animal meat to fake the deaths of all the ones in Mercy Waters, but he didn't think that it was Shin's doing. He thought it was Jin, considering he followed his father around everywhere. Shin just acted too much like Sakdah for him to trust him. He was always closed off, never wanted to talk to anyone, and he would always blow a fuse every time you tried to get any information out of him. He might have been a Gamma, but he knew how to intimidate people.

"You'll have to forgive me for my impoliteness," Shin told Detective Jim. "I had to push you away from all the trouble you were getting yourself into."

"Trouble?"

"Sakdah knew that you were close with Munni," Shin told him. "If he found you snooping around, then the murders that were committed would not just be from the Reverence Pack."

That left a bad taste in the back of his throat. Alex didn't like that thought. It might have meant that they would have been more suspicious of Sakdah earlier on, but, then again, that poison could have been used to try and wipe them all out.

Maybe Dr. Bailey was the true hero of all of this.

He kind of wished that Jett was listening to all of this. He was too busy walking around with Shiro at the moment as he talked to the other guests and pack members that were there. Shiro was a great host. It made Alex all the more excited to go to these parties.

"I mean," Teddy said. "There's also the fact that none of us knew that Jett was Shiro's mate too."

"What?!" Nir and Roger asked at the same time. Alex laughed at that. Teddy had probably been dying to say that from the second he found out.

"Oh, I know!" he put his hands on his hips. "I was so pissed when I found out! That's got to be the most unique match in the history of werewolves, and it gets kept secret from everyone until after all of this happens!"

"They're..." He watched as Roger slowly connected the dots. Neither of them was expecting that, which made it all the more hilarious when they were finally told.

"That's what really started the investigation," Alex told them. "That's what got us so close to the Reverence Pack, funnily enough."

"How is that going to work, though?" Nir furrowed his eyebrows. "They both have two separate packs to lead. What are they going to do?"

"They'll figure something out," Alex waved it off. "Bree said that she already had some sort of idea as to what to do for it."

"What are we talking about?" Geo finally walked over to them. Alex waisted no time in pulling him into a hug. Geo didn't seem to want it right then, probably because he was trying to look professional to everyone, but he was going to get it. Alex had been away from him for too long to not at least get one hug in.

"Oh! This reminds me!" Teddy bounced and clapped his hands. "This means that Alex gets to meet the rest of our family!"

Geo groaned right as he heard that, which meant that Alex was definitely going to meet the rest of his family. He heard that they were pretty nice. He was just unfortunate to be born and raised by the two rotten eggs of the family.

"I'm down for this."

"This is going to be annoying," Geo sighed and leaned his head a little into him.

"This is going to be fun."

"Can you at least let go of me?"

"Maybe," he smiled at him. He was having a blast being mated finally. It was complete bliss whenever Geo was near. He understood now why mates were usually so clingy. Every time he saw Geo, he just wanted to hold him. Even with all the squirming he would do, it just made it more fun.

Geo's uncle was nice and, surprisingly tall for someone in his family. With Geo, and most of the Reverence Pack being short, he wasn't expecting this tall Beta greeting him. He had a warm smile though, which he liked. His wife was really nice too. She was a Delta, which was why Teddy was one. Even though Teddy wasn't the strongest warrior, he was still an amazing fighter. Alex knew that from both the time with the hunters as well as the night before with all those Black Cloaks. He was a formidable foe when he was angry.

"Hey," Geo looked around. "Where's mom?"

His uncle's face fell at that moment. The once happy-go-lucky man that he had met turned into a solemn one really quickly. Alex didn't like that. He also didn't like how worried Geo seemed to get when he saw his uncle's reaction.

"She left," he told him. "Right after what had happened with your father."

"What do you mean?" Geo asked, looking a bit confused. Alex was glad that Nir and Roger didn't follow them over there. He wouldn't want them seeing Geo if he started getting upset. "How could she just leave? There's still the business and all of the things in her quarters to get out. That doesn't just take a few hours to take care of."

"I think she was thinking that something like this would happen," his uncle pulled out an envelope from his kimono. "She told me to give you this."

Geo looked at the white envelope for a few seconds before grabbing it. Alex put a hand on his back as some means to comfort him, but he wasn't sure what else he could do. Shiro seemed curious about what was going on as well. Him and Jett were quickly walking over there as Geo read the letter that was in it.

He could feel all the emotions that was going through him. Anger was a strong one, along with sadness. Those were two common emotions that Alex felt from Geo when he talked about his parents. He didn't want to look over his shoulder and read it, though.

"What does it say?" Teddy asked. He looked worried for his cousin too.

"She gave me the business at least," Geo gave a huff of a laugh and shook his head. "All I have to do is sign this paper."

"That's good," Teddy told him. "Now you don't have to worry about working for free anymore."

"Yeah...."

"What did she write in the letter, Geo?" Alex mind linked with him. It was obvious that he had gotten upset by the handwritten letter attached to the document.

"That I should have died instead of my dad," he told him. His heart was heavy as he said that. It made Alex want to tear the woman apart. "It doesn't matter anymore. She's gone."

"She was among the few who fled from BlackCreek," Shiro told the group, his eyes showing concern for his Beta. He liked the friendship they both had. It was good to know that Shiro had protected him from so many things when they were still kids. "I'm sorry, Geo."

"Don't worry about it," Geo shook his head. "I still have the business. I'll be okay."

Alex pulled him into a hug again, not caring about who was watching or what people might say. It didn't matter how strong you were, everyone needed to be comforted at some point in their lives. He was glad when Geo didn't struggle against him this time. He hugged him back for a second or two before pulling away. He felt better, at least. Alex was happy of that.

"There is one last thing I need to show you," Shiro said. He even got Roger and Nir's attention when he said this. "It's not pretty."

They all followed him to the backside of the building. All of them looked rather worried as they saw the huge black doors of what Alex could only assume to be the basement. He didn't even know that this house had a basement. And he didn't like the heavy feeling that came from it. He looked at Jett to see that he wasn't the only one. Jett looked like he was about to walk into a nightmare.

He wasn't wrong.

"This," Shiro opened the heavy doors and turned on the light. "Was Sakdah's torture room."

The smell was enough to make him gag. All that could be smelt was old blood and metal. Silver was another smell that mixed in with this hellish concoction. They all walked in to see that the concrete was stained with blood on the ground. The sides of the walls each had broken chains of silver dangling off from them. The more they looked, the worse the room became.

Jett just looked pissed when he saw the room. He looked like he wanted to bring Sakdah back from the grave just to kill him again. Alex didn't blame him. The main smell that everyone caught onto was of Shiro's blood. He must have been the last victim to be placed in this room.