"We'll be back in a couple days, alright?" Maria yelled as Antonio dragged her to the car. "Don't worry about a thing, Sophie! I have a whole binder dedicated to my mate ceremony, I'll show you the whole thing!"

Sophie laughed and continuously waved at Maria as she got further and further away. "Bring Cortez's baby pictures too!" She yelled back.

"Sophie!" Cortez exclaimed.

"And Miguel's!" Maria held up two thumbs up and Sophie excitedly clapped.

"No, no, no! Ma, don't!" Miguel hollered as he stepped up beside Sophie.

Maria simply put her hands to her mouth and blew a handful of kisses at her sons and daughter in law. Sophie smiled and waved as Maria and Antonio hopped into a black car. Miguel groaned in annoyance and trudged back into the house. Their parents didn't visit all that often but he figured, now that Sophie was here, he'd have to see them all the time.

"Hey, Alpha." Jeremiah's voice caused Sophie and Cortez to turn back to the house. Sophie could see Miguel jogging through the house behind Jeremiah. "You've got a couple messages on your phone. It keeps going off."

Cortez patted down his jean pockets in search for his phone. He had forgotten he even had one with all that was going on. That's probably why he had so many messages. Which, unfortunately, meant it was time for him to get back to work. He didn't want to leave Sophie's side but with work, he didn't really have a choice. But he wondered what she would do all day in the pack house.

"I should get to work, baby." Cortez's hands rested gently on Sophie's waist as he placed a kiss on her forehead. "I'll be in my office if you need anything."

"Okay.." Sophie breathed as she felt Cortez's hands slip away from her.

Sophie suddenly realized this was going to be her life now and it felt surreal. Breakfast with Cortez's parents and Miguel, Jeremiah pulling him away for work, Sophie walking through this pack house as if it were her own. It sounded nice. It sounded simple. Sophie liked simple, now more than ever. All she had to do was get accustomed to this lifestyle and it would all become comfortable and normal.

But she couldn't do that without cleaning up her past first.

"Uh, Jeremiah!" Sophie called as she stepped back into the house. The two boys turned, Cortez's eyebrows furrowed as he wondered why Sophie would call for Jeremiah and not her mate. "Do you know where I can find Delilah? I want to go see if there is anything worth salvaging at my house before they tear it down or it falls apart or anything."

"I can do that with you when I'm done with work." Cortez blurted.

"Well, I figured I should do it now since I don't have much else to do. I don't want to wait around for you to be done."

"It won't take long, really."

"No, Cortez. It's fine." Sophie chuckled. "I'll just take Delilah and see if there is anything left. And maybe a couple Warriors incase those rogues are there or nearby or anything."

Cortez and Jeremiah exchanged glances, their expressions awkward and forced back. Cortez spoke up first. "You don't have to worry about the rogues, Sophie. They're dealt with. For now, you're safe."

"Dealt with?" Sophie questioned, her tone slightly cold. She wanted to know what that meant and why it was used in future tense. "Are you hunting them down? Do you plan on catching them?"

Cortez was reluctant to answer. "They've been caught. It's just not the right time."

"Not the right time for what?" Sophie demanded.

"For this conversation, first of all." Cortez snapped, his patience for this exchange quickly running empty.

Sophie was surprised by that answer. He was doing it again. Shutting her down. Like he did when they were talking about putting a garden in the background. It made her angry. She didn't know why he was lashing out on her about this. The rogues attacked her, they ruined her life, killed her grandfather. Why was he getting defensive about talking about them?

Jeremiah awkwardly cleared his throat in the silence and caught Sophie's attention. "I'll have Delilah meet you here in a minute. Maybe she can bring along a couple girls in case you need help carrying anything."

~

Hanging out with a group of girls wasn't really something Sophie did very often. Or.. ever.

But surprisingly, Sophie didn't hate it.

The girls comforted her as they stood in front of her burned down and torn apart house. It was hard to look at but it was nice to have people around her and coaching her through the pain. Sophie tried to go in first, through the big hole in the front of her house that she was thrown through when the explosion went off, but everyone rejected that idea. Nobody wanted the Luna to get hurt.

Delilah went in first, climbing over charred up pillars of wood and furniture that used to be on the second floor. Sophie went in second and followed Delilah through the rubble. Madison and Riley followed suit. Delilah carefully uncovered the door to the basement, which was the only thing Sophie assumed wouldn't be damaged. The door to the basement had been blown down the stairs, which wasn't totally inconvenient.

Sophie hopped off the built up rubble in front of the basement door and followed Delilah down the cement stairs. The two girls behind them followed. The power didn't work and the lights were shattered anyways so Sophie dialed in her vision to see. Her eyes glowed a bright gold as she looked around the basement.

A couple pillars of wood on the ceiling had fell and there was dust piled over everything but overall, it seemed intact. Everything was a dull grey color, which Sophie figured was probably accurate to what it would be like with the lights on anyways.

A sudden gasp to Sophie's left made her flinch. She turned to Madison, who had her hand over her mouth. All three girls stared at Sophie will their eyes burning a bright silver. "You're eyes are stunning, Sophie. I don't know why, I just didn't picture they'd be gold." Madison marveled in awe.

"She's our Luna. Of course, they'd be gold." Riley countered.

Sophie chuckled as Madison cringed. "That's true.. I'm sorry if that sounded... It's just..."

"No." Sophie interrupted with a smile. "I understand. I'm younger and smaller than you. You don't exactly think Luna the first time you see me."

"No, really! It's not.." Madison chimed again but Delilah interrupted this time.

"Let it go before you dig yourself into a hole." Delilah whispered an awkward warning. Madison defeatedly sighed.

Sophie searched the basement for anything worth bringing back to the pack house. Luckily, incase a fire or anything did happen, her grandfather kept everything important down here. It was all concrete and well supported so he figured this would be the last place to get destroyed incase of an accident. Henry proved to be a very wise man because everything down here looked fine besides some dust and other debris.

The two huge bins full of family photo albums were luckily salvageable. Since they were rather large, the girls figured they wouldn't be easy to carry over all the rubble upstairs so they began clearing a path to the backyard. Sophie also found two boxes of her parents old stuff that grandfather refused to throw out. Those would be coming back with her. Also, a bin of her grandfathers bowling trophies and her grandmothers jewelry. It was a box of treasures.

Sophie passed the boxes and bins to Delilah and she carried them up to the girls. Eventually, they all stacked up the boxes in their arms and carried them back through the woods to the pack house. After all the boxes were in Cortez and her's bedroom, she opened them and started looking through everything.

There was so much. All the photos were so old. Ancient. Her grandfather looked young and healthy and happy in every picture with her young parents. There were photos of them at peoples weddings, birthdays, just sitting at home or on vacation. She didn't get to see photos of her parents often, besides the same ones she saw every day hung up on the living room that were now destroyed. But all the photos in front of her made her happy.

Sophie loved all of her grandmothers jewelry that her grandfather had packed away after giving away all her clothes. She had the most vintage pieces of necklaces, bracelets, and rings. There was even a tiara from the time she entered a beauty pageant in the fifth grade. Sophie remembered because her grandmother used to brag about it all the time, calling herself the queen of her entire elementary school.

And then there was her grandfathers old bowling trophies. She matched up the trophies with the photos that had dates on them. Her grandfather wore the most cheesy, obnoxiously patterned shirts in every photo but wore a handsome smile. The trophies were all gold and had a little figure of a man bowling on them, Henry's bowling team's name engraved on the front.

Sophie adored them.

"There you are, Gorgeous." Cortez's voice caught Sophie's ear. She looked up from her place on the ground to see Cortez walking into the bedroom with a smile. "Is this everything you could find that was worth saving?"

"Yeah. The entire second floor was burned and piled on the first floor so this was pretty much it." Sophie sighed as she looked at everything she spread out around her.

Cortez slowly sat behind Sophie and placed a hand on her waist, his eyes scanning everything in front of him. There was to much to take in. Family photos, trophies, labeled DVD's and CD's, jewelry. Everything. Well, almost everything. It was enough.

"Is this you?" Cortez asked as he picked up an old photo.

Sophie looked at it. The picture was of her grandparents in really outdated clothes with their kids in swimsuits in their yard. The sprinklers were on in the background and Sophie's young parents had popsicles in hand and smiles on their faces.

"No. Look at the date." Sophie scoffed as she pointed at the old, digital date in the corner of the picture.

It was the mid 50's. Cortez shrugged. His baby photos had a similar date. And then he remembered, not only were Sophie and Cortez years apart in age, he was also a werewolf. They aged much slower. Sophie was a wolf now but she grew up aging at a normal human pace.

"This is me. We're the same age in these pictures." Sophie picked up a photo and held it up beside the one of her parents and grandparents.

"You and your mom look similar at this age. I was nearly right." Cortez grinned as he glanced at Sophie.

Sophie happily smiled at the pictures for a moment. And then the tears returned. She hadn't cried all day but she figured it would happen at some point. Her head fell into her hands as the sobs attacked. She didn't even get the tears first or the lump in her throat. She simply broke down in sobs.

Cortez felt his heart painfully clench in his chest. He pulled Sophie against his chest and held her as she cried. Gently resting his head on her shoulder and tightening his grip around her waist, Cortez could feel her pain. Sophie could hardly stop the sobs because every time she did, it only hurt worse. She missed her family too much. Her parents, her grandparents, her home. It was all gone and it hurt.

Sophie didn't know how long she cried in Cortez's arms but when she realized it had been awhile, she pulled herself from him and tried to calm herself down. She got up and rushed to the bathroom, using toilet paper to blow her running nose and wipe her tears. Cortez leant against the doorway and carefully watched her. He didn't know what to do to make her feel better. He didn't think there was anything he could do.

As Sophie wiped the tears off her cheeks and chin, she caught sight of Cortez in the bathroom mirror. Her elbows hit the edge of the sink as she buried her head in her hands again. "Oh my god. What would my parents say if they knew I was dating a man so much older than me? If my grandmother knew, she'd probably pass out.. I can't believe this is my life now and none of them know."

"You really feel guilty being with me?" Cortez reluctantly asked.

Sophie shook her head in her hands. "I don't know.. I don't know if I feel guilty or just... I don't know."

Cortez nodded and folded his hands over his chest. "You're not doing anything wrong, Sophie. You're a perfectly capable woman who can make her own decisions. Our relationship is not like the girls that get tricked and manipulated by perverted old men."

"I know, I know." Sophie sighed and stood up straight again. She ran her hands through her hair as she stared at herself in the mirror. "We're werewolves. Everything is different. I'm bound to you for life whether I like it or not. And I may not have made the decision to be with you forever but I sure as hell made the decision to have sex with you while my grandfather was fucking dying."

Cortez let out a defeated sigh as his head fell and eyes gently shut. "You have to stop beating yourself up over that, Sophie. You couldn't have known he was dying right then."

"I could've, though, Cortez!" Sophie exclaimed as she turned to him. Her eyes burned with anger as she stared into his pitch black ones. "I could've jumped out of the shower, gotten dressed, and headed right back into that hospital to be with him when he left. Instead, I had to fucking ask you to feel me up like a stupid, desperate virgin!"

"Sophie, stop." Cortez begged under his breath as he stepped into the bathroom. He reached for Sophie but she stepped back and quietly refused, her eyes refusing to meet his. Cortez took a deep breath as he stared at her. "You can't let it effect our relationship, Sophie. You can't refuse to touch me for the rest of your life because of one incident."

"Why not?" Sophie dared as she looked up at Cortez. "You want to have sex so badly that I have to get over my emotional trauma for it?"

"No, Sophie! That's not what I mean, at all." Cortez argued. His jaw clenched as he stared at his mate. "I'm not saying this for my sake. I don't care how long I have to wait. But when it eventually happens, you can't hate yourself for it. That's not fair to you. You can't beat yourself up for an incident you had no control over."

Sophie's eyes fell to the floor as she ran her hand through her hair in frustration once more. She slowly leaned against the bathroom sink and let out a sigh. "I don't know what I'm suppose to do."

"We'll figure it out but you can't live with the guilt forever."

"You're one to talk. You won't get over the fact that you almost killed me. At least, I'm still here. If I wasn't, would you have gotten over the guilt by now?" Sophie asked as she raised her head. "Do you only feel guilty because I know about it?"

"No. Of course, not." Cortez scoffed. "I feel guilty because the one person I'm suppose to put first in my life is you and I fucked that up so badly that you almost died."

"It's the same for my grandfather. I took care of him day in and day out. The one time I did something selfish, something so stupid, he died."

"But you didn't kill him." Cortez stated. It somehow clicked for Sophie. He might be right. "It was only bad timing. You could've been at the hospital vending machine when it happened. Just because you weren't there, doesn't mean it should haunt you."

Sophie nodded. She still felt bad and she imagined she would for a long time. Henry didn't want her with Cortez and yet, there she was, having sex with him while he died alone at the hospital. But it wasn't because she was having sex with Cortez that he died. Hopefully, at least. Cortez's guilt was a little different. Of course, it was Gabriel that had bitten her. It was his fault. But she knew Cortez regretted not handling the situation differently and successfully saving her.

But Sophie didn't resent him for what happened. She imagined her grandfather wouldn't resent her either. That soothed some of the guilt. Only some.

Cortez stepped in front of Sophie, causing her to lift her head to look at him. "Can I touch you?"

"Is this the first time you've ever asked?" A smirk crawled on to Sophie's lips as her remark reminded him of all the times he had to beg for her forgiveness since he was so bad at keeping his promise to ask for her permission first.

Cortez sighed and Sophie chuckled. "See, Sophie. Nobody's perfect. You have bad timing and I'm terrible at keeping promises."

Cortez reached his hand up to Sophie's face, obviously ready to cup her cheek. His hand stopped, though, as he silently asked for permission again. With their eyes locked, Sophie nodded. Cortez happily caressed Sophie's face in his palm and gently rubbed her cheek with his thumb. He admired her gorgeous features and soft, emerald eyes. He could stare at her forever.

"Can I kiss you?" His voice came out as a whisper.

Sophie's eyes dropped to Cortez's lips. Yes.

Gently caressing the other side of Sophie's face, Cortez brought his lips to hers. Just as he pressed his against hers, he suddenly realized how long it had been since he actually got to kiss her. Cortez could feel muscles relax in his body that he didn't even know were tense. It was the same for Sophie. His kisses were therapeutic. They always have been.

That didn't change the fact that she was still scared of giving into him. Sophie pulled away from the kiss and dropped her head as she nervously shifted in place. Cortez didn't want to let her go. He wished he could keep kissing her.

"My skin feels itchy." Sophie suddenly confessed as she hugged herself. "I feel like somethings trying to crawl out of me and it doesn't know which way to go. Maybe I just need to cry some more and get it out of my system."

Cortez snorted a laugh. "I think that's just your wolf, Angel. You haven't shifted in awhile. Should we go for a run before dinner?"

Sophie didn't have much, or any, experience as her wolf. She was nervous. This part of her life as probably the most odd thing that she had to get used to. "How often am I suppose to shift?"

"Once a day, at least. Shifting becomes easier the more often you do it. You become comfortable, familiar, and in tune with your wolf. If you go too long without shifting, you'll start losing control of yourself as it tries to take over."

Sophie understandably nodded. "And if I stayed as a wolf for too long?"

"I don't want to scare you since it's so rare.." Cortez said.

"What? What happens?"

"It doesn't happen often. Ever, really. But there has been a couple cases of rogues and or first time shifters that get stuck in their wolf form. It eventually takes over until they lose their humanity." Cortez explained. Sophie's eyes widened. "But that won't happen to you. You've shifted back and forth before, you'll be fine."

"Geez. This whole wolf thing is intimidating." Sophie nervously laughed.

"Don't worry. I'll be by your side every step of the way." Cortez kissed Sophie's forehead and grabbed her hand to drag her out of the bathroom.