For the first time since they met, Lillian shifted her gaze away from Noah's.

"Um...what?" she said on the cusp of an awkward laugh.

Noah narrowed his eyes. He had been paying close attention to Lillian, as much as he'd like to deny it. When she appeared at dinner with the pup in her arms, he thought she'd mistaken him for a shapeshifter pup. But she'd known he wasn't.

Just like she'd known Karina wasn't a wolf. Noah knew how to pick up the smallest details, how to read others through the faintest clues. And he'd paid attention to Lillian's reactions. For a human who didn't know much about their world, she adapted rather quickly.

Maybe she'd met someone on the way to the pack house who told her about Rick. But every instinct of Noah screamed otherwise; there was something intriguing about this human.

"How did you know Rick wasn't a shapeshifter pup?" he repeated.

"Well..." Lillian shifted in her seat. "He's smaller than the other pups..."

Noah just quirked a brow and waited in silence until she looked his way again. Her cheeks flamed red, then she groaned and slumped back in the chair.

"Okay, fine." She rubbed a hand down her face. "I can just tell. I can differentiate between races."

"How?"

Lillian shrugged. "I just know someone is different. When I was a child I thought everyone could do it, but as I grew older I realized that it wasn't the case."

Noah tapped a finger on his desk. "So you knew Karina was a witch."

"Not instantly." Lillian cocked her head. "I mean, I knew she wasn't a wolf, but since I had never met a witch before, I didn't know what she was. Then she started using magic and I guessed."

Humans shouldn't be able to pick up such things. Noah's wolf stirred, looking through his eyes at the interesting human. The moment that thought registered in Noah's mind, he knew he was in trouble. His wolf had never shown such interest in anything or anyone before. Except maybe Elle, a few months ago.

Then this human showed up...

"Can I ask you something?" she said after a long moment of silence. Noah looked expectantly. Again, she didn't wait for his response before speaking. "Eva told me that all the wolves, no matter their rank, go through daily training. So I was wondering if I could join in?"

Shocked, Noah shook his head. "I think you should at least watch a session in progress before making that decision."

Lillian looked like she was about to argue. But for once, she actually kept quiet. "Alright."

"For the twins' integration into the pack, we'll give them a few more days to get used to things before performing the ceremony."

"There's a ceremony?" Lillian sat up straight at the mention of her pups.

"Mainly blood exchange."

Lillian wrinkled her nose. "You're all about blood. Is it safe? Will it hurt them?"

"No."

The pups would actually feel better afterwards. Their wolves needed the structure of a pack as much as they did.

After discussing the twins' classes and her work, Noah walked Lillian to her cabin. Her steps were slow and awkward, her feet swimming in his shoes.

He walked her back because she didn't know the way around the pack village yet, and not because his wolf continued to crave the fire and spring in her scent.

"Thank you." Lillian hesitated. "Can I ask you a favor?"

Noah waited.

"I want to know what happened to Lydia- the woman we lived with. I know she's dead but... I need to know what's happening back there..."

A need for closure. She was leaving a whole life behind. "Alright. I'll try to find out."

"Thank you." A relieved smile that lit up her eyes. Noah's gut tightened.

He stood in the shadows, watching Lillian walk the rest of the way back to her cabin. The sound of the pups' laughter and cheerful voices did something to his insides. Minutes later Eva walked out. She headed straight to him.

"Hey. I got them some clothes and food from the pack house. I also looked at her wounds and left a first aid kit behind for her."

The pack had an abundant stock of clothes and food at all times. The medicine was less important since they healed quickly and were impervious to human diseases. Only the infirmary had medications and drugs for silver induced wounds. They would need to stock up on human medicine.

"Do you think she'll do well here?" Eva asked, both of them facing the little family's house. The lights were on, and Noah's ears pricked, reaching for the faint hint of Lillian's melodic voice.

Noah found himself nodding, for some reason certain of his answer. "Yes."

"Me too." Eva smiled with more than a hint of delight. "I think she'll make things interesting."

Noah wanted to growl. She'd make things interesting, alright. Already, she'd defied his authority. Noah didn't know how to deal with her. For him and his wolf, individuals fell into two categories: pack or not pack.

Lillian was neither. She would live in his pack and her pups would be part of it, so she should be pack. But she was human, she had no wolf who needed the hierarchy and an alpha.

She wouldn't submit to him, or to anyone for that matter.

His wolf growled, and it wasn't in anger. He was as excited as a pup playing a new game. Noah had no idea what game that was.

After parting ways with Eva, Noah was back in his home office. The space now held hints of Lillian's scent. He found himself taking deliberately deep breaths.

He stopped as soon as he noticed and opened a window.

"You did what?!" Benjamin's voice bellowed through the phone. He'd called Noah asking for how he dealt with the human. The two alphas' locations were too remote to establish a mental link. "I can't believe it... a human in the pack?"

Noah sighed, he knew some alphas would have a hard time accepting his decision. He didn't care. It was his pack and his call. And although wolves sometimes mated to others outside their race and accepted them into their packs, humans were another story.

"Why didn't you just kill her?" Benjamin asked. "You know that's what most alphas would've done- hell, all alphas."

"She has two pups. How would I explain that I killed their mother?"

Benjamin's reply was immediate. "You could've had the pups moved to another pack. You know they'd be taken in in no time."

Noah growled. "It's done. She's part of my pack now."

Well, kind of. Benjamin laughed.

"Oh, man... I want to see it." Then his tone turned sober. "You do realize a lot of people won't be happy about it. Hell, not just the wolves. Immortals don't want humans knowing their business."

Noah hummed his agreement. He would cross that bridge when he came to it.

"Anyway, I got a call from my sister yesterday." Benjamin's sister was mated to an alpha in one of the main packs in England. "They just had another attack of demons along the border with Scotland. And the number of rogues in the area has increased at least double the usual amount."

Noah frowned, unsettled by the news. Demons did not belong to our realm.

Summoning demons has been happening for as long as magic was alive. The ritual has been leaked centuries ago, and everyone, humans and immortals alike, have been indulging in communicating with the other realm and, if they could, summoning demons.

It had always been lesser demons, because the creatures did not require too much magic flow from the other realm to sustain their existence in ours.

Six months ago, that changed.

There had been an attempt to open a gate to the other realm, one that could let in creatures much more dangerous than lesser demons. Creatures that could plunge the world in horrors of a time long past. They almost succeeded, too. The incident was known to immortals as the gate scheme, and a big number of immortals from all races had been captured because of their involvement in it.

The world was still dealing with the fallout of the gate scheme. And the fabric separating the realms has been destabilized ever since. It affected the magic system of the world, thus allowing easier summonings and pushing the unstable immortals over the edge of roguery.

Western Europe had been one of the most stable areas in the world. The strong presence of the Fae in Ireland meant better stability for the magic system. Fae were the strongest race in the world when it came to wielding magic. Over the last few years, however, things changed, and then the proverbial shit hit the fan six months ago.

"Do you think the kidnappings are connected to this?" Benjamin asked. Most immortals were aware of what happened six months ago. Noah had lived it first hand. He still bore its marks. He rubbed the scarred skin of his stomach.

The kidnappings of female werewolves was not a normal occurrence. Noah hadn't heard of such a large scale incident in all his thirty five years of life. Could it be connected to the fallout from the gate scheme? Who knew? Who was involved? Everything was possible.

"It could be."

Noah had to hang up on Benjamin after that. The other alpha was having too much fun teasing him about the human in his pack. He then placed some calls to find out what happened to the old woman Lillian asked about.

The thought of Lillian made his muscles clench. Noah didn't know how he kept his wolf from exploding out of his skin and taking off to a certain cabin in the pack village. His wolf wanted to stand guard there all night, mark the place with his scent so no one would dare approach them.

Noah put that urge down to his wolf's protective instincts. As an alpha, having a vulnerable mother and her two pups all on their own was bound to ignite his protective tendencies. Yeah, that was all.

So why did he go knocking on their door the moment the sun rose?

Little feet running before the door opened. One of the pups, Elijah, was at the door only in short briefs. The pup looked up at him with wide blue eyes.

"Elijah Jackson Miller! What did I tell you about walking around half naked?!" Lillian hollered from one of the bedrooms.

"But mom! We're gonna shift anyway!" Elijah called back over his shoulder, then looked up at Noah. "Right?"

Noah agreed with the pup. He himself was dressed only in basketball shorts. But he wasn't about to argue with their mother's words.

Lillian walked out of the room with Ezra beside her. The tamer of the twins was all dressed in a sweater, pants and sneakers. Noah fisted his hands. Lillian looked better than the day before, the dark circles under her eyes were less pronounced, her skin had a healthy flush, and the gash on her temple no longer looked awful.

She had her hair up in a ponytail, revealing the delicate arch of her neck. Noah could remember the feel of it under his hand. She looked graceful and determined in a black long sleeve shirt and blue leggings, a stack of clothing held in her hands. Her steps faltered when she saw him.

"Good morning," she said to Noah, then knelt on the floor. "Come here, honey."

Elijah obeyed. Noah leaned on the door frame, crossing his arms as he took in the scene. They had already made the cabin their own space. The combination of their scents was all over the place. A warmth that could only be associated with a home.

Promptly dressed, the boys waited for their mother to put on a jacket and shoes- not Noah's- before joining him outside.

Noah didn't know how to feel about Ezra's calm demeanor. The boy behaved much older than any pup his age. His blue eyes took in everything around them with a distinctive sharpness.

"Thank you for coming," Lillian said, closing the door behind her. "I thought you'd send someone else".

Noah shrugged, noting how her nose was quickly turning red from the cool morning air. Spring was on their doors.

"We'll drop the boys off in their shifting class first," Noah said. "Then we'll go to the training ground."

She had to see the place in order to abandon her silly idea of training with wolves. Knowing how to defend herself was important, but tangling with wolves was a crazy idea.

"But we already know how to shift!" Elijah announced proudly from his mother's side. Noah agreed with the boy, again. The twins knew how to shift, and they did it very smoothly for their age group.

Usually, werewolf pups shifted for the first time when they reached two to two and a half years of age. But their shift in the first few years remained unstable and took longer than mature wolves.

The shift in itself wasn't painful. It was a magical process. The transition between forms stayed a little uncomfortable for pups until they learned to accelerate it.

"We know that, baby," Lillian said. "But maybe you can learn something new with the other pups, hm?"

"Okay." Elijah nodded, then pointed at Noah. "And then we'll grow up to be big, just like him."

Lillian smiled, ruffling his hair. Elijah held out his arms. She stopped to pick him up, groaning when she stood with him in her arms. "You guys are growing up too fast. You're getting so heavy."

Elijah giggled, throwing his arms around Lillian's neck. Noah, spurred by a newly found instinct, stopped. He crouched down and held out his arms for Ezra. The pup took a step toward him before hesitating, looking up at his mother. At her nod, he let Noah pick him up, wrapping his little arms around his neck.

And for the first time since Noah had seen the small family of three in the bottom of a cliff on a rainy night, Noah's wolf settled down.

"Mom, look! Ezra is bigger!" Elijah said, looking up at his grinning brother.

Lillian nodded. "Next time, you get to Noah first."

Next time. The words resonated in Noah's head, spreading an unfamiliar warmth in his chest.

"You're too short, mommy," Ezra said.

Noah's lips kicked up at the corners. Lillian gasped as if offended, though her eyes filled with humor. She bantered back and forth with the twins, occasionally greeting pack members who passed by with smiles on their faces.

But Noah didn't miss the occasional suspicious looks she got.

They reached the school. A set of sprawling log cabins forming a horseshoe. Already, the playground in the middle was filled with pups. Noah released Ezra from his hold as the other pups surrounded him. He bent down to his haunches, petting the young boys and girls, listening to their excited chatter. He was the alpha, and pups were the heart of his pack. Taking the time to pet them, know every one of them and see them grow up was one of the few things that brought satisfaction to his wolf.

Lillian was talking to the teacher, Liv, a young mother of three juvenile boys. The female wolf was friendly to Lillian, and that put his mind at ease.

"Alright, kids. Come on!" Liv called. "The alpha has things to do and we have a class to begin."

The pups waved and shouted their goodbyes while gathering around Liv. The teacher grinned, nodding her greeting to Noah.

Walking beside him, Lillian looked over her shoulder at the pups, her face etched in worried lines.

"When did they shift for the first time?"

Sapphire eyes moved to his. A shadow of memory in their depths.

"When they were two. I was at work. Lydia, the woman we lived with-" she swallowed, paused for a second too long. "She called me. I remember how frantic she sounded on the phone. She didn't say anything, just to come home immediately. I was too shocked for words. I knew their... father was a wolf, but since humans can't carry immortal babies, I'd thought the twins were humans."

He couldn't imagine her shock. "And you couldn't tell they were werewolves before they shifted?"

"That's the thing," Lillian said. "It's like the change happened over-night. They'd always felt like humans to me."

Hmm. "Their shift is too smooth for pups their age," he said as he led her to the training grounds: across the lake from the pack village, a large clearing with dirt rings where the sparring sessions took place.

Lillian frowned at his comment. "Too smooth?"

Noah nodded. "Usually, the shift doesn't reach that level of finesse until they're around nine or ten. With guided training."

"Oh." Lillian's eyes widened as she chewed on his words. "It's a good thing, then. Right?"

It was a good thing. The problem was that the twins would attract too much attention if their growth kept surpassing that of their peers. Attention wasn't always a good thing, especially in their case.

"You don't seem to think so." Lillian noticed.

He kept his silence as they approached their destination. The noise of fighting and cheering grew louder.

"It may attract attention, and your situation is already too exceptional."

"You're worried the wrong people might get too interested in them." She frowned, tension bunching her shoulders.

"We're here," he said as they emerged from the trees to the training ground.

The clearing was the size of a soccer field, in human terms. It was delimited on one side by the lake, and by trees on the others.

The wolves closer to them were the first to notice their presence. They fell quiet, even the two wolves sparring in human form in one of the rings stopped dead in their track. Then the motionless silence rippled to everyone else in the grounds.

More than a hundred wolf eyes focused on Lillian. To her credit, she didn't back down, she didn't drop her gaze. Looking at her like that, Noah could easily forget how small and frail she truly was.

Noah growled out loud, his wolf pushing to the front. His beast didn't like others looking at her, especially since more than one pair of eyes was hostile.

The warriors snapped to attention at the clear command. They resumed their activities as if he and the human weren't there.

"The non warrior wolves in the pack usually divide themselves into three groups. Each group trains at a specific time frame everyday. You'll always find warriors here, though."

Lillian nodded, but kept her wide eyes on one of the rings nearby. Noah followed her gaze. Jenna and Jake were sparring. The female wolf was Jake's second and a very skilled warrior.

Their ring was surrounded with other wolves, watching the fight, learning.

During training, claws and teeth were forbidden when fighting in human form. It kept his wolves in top shape in both forms, able to defend themselves even when they couldn't call on their wolves.

Noah had implemented the measure after coming back from Europe six months ago. Being silvered and rendered helpless had made him more paranoid than he already was.

Jake's punch hit home on Jenna's shoulder, the female unable to twist in time to escape it. Her hazel eyes turned amber as she snarled at Jake. She jumped up when he kicked his leg out to trip her, and retaliated with a mean right hook that hit Jake square in the chin, destabilizing him enough for Jenna to land a blow to his ribs.

Lillian winced at the sound of cracking bones. Hugging her middle, she watched the two warriors exchange blows and kicks, snarls and growls making the hairs on her body stand on end. Lillian was amazed and shocked in equal parts. There was no holding back in their hits, no hesitation. It was a real fight. Their movements were at times too fast for Lillian's human eye to discern.

Witnessing Jake pin Jenna to the ground with a hand around her throat, the fierce woman snarling and trying to get up until Jake's hold tightened, Lillian felt so foolish for even thinking about joining the training sessions. The reality of the feral world she was now part of was a harsh slap across her face.

Noah soundlessly walked her back to the pack village, his presence a constant hum of power by her side.

"Humans don't stand a chance in a hand to hand fight," she said, letting the warmth of the sun seep into her bones, chase away the cold fingers of fear that wanted to claw her human heart out. She wouldn't bow down to it.

Noah gave a short nod, the waves of his jet hair flirting with the nape of his neck. "Werewolves are just built stronger than humans. We're faster, bigger and more insusceptible to pain."

And they healed faster. A cracked rib would take weeks for her to heal. On the other hand, she had watched the female warrior, Jenna, jump to her feet in a fluid movement only minutes after her bones had cracked.

Lillian sighed. "I guess I won't be joining in training after all."

Noah looked at her suspiciously, as if not believing she would give up that easily. Would you look at that? He knew her so well already. She wouldn't be giving up on training with the wolves. But she also didn't have a death wish.

So the first thing she'd be doing was getting back in shape. Watch and learn. Right now, she couldn't even walk up a hill without gasping for breath.

Lillian grinned at Noah, satisfied with her decision.

No doubt he had expected her to recall her decision to join training after he showed her the fights. Sneaky wolf. She would give herself time to adjust and build up her strength, but she'd be damned if she let him or anyone else keep her from learning how to defend herself.

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We're already at chapter six. Thoughts? did you like it?

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Much love <3

M.B.