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         Lisa

The next morning after I get dressed to deal with the female's claims to retribution, I head downstairs where I find Lucious asleep again in his office, with his head down and the pen still positioned in his hand.

Attempting to wake him up just by calling his name didn't work this time. I had to lightly shake him awake. Those dark circles and bags underneath his eyes tell me that he's only getting a very small amount of sleep before he's back up again. I can see in his face that he's tired.

I try to convince him to go upstairs and rest, but the same as yesterday he claims to be fine. But he's not fine, he's exhausted.

I choose not to pester him about getting some rest even though it's clear that he needs to sleep.

I stand here watching him as he starts to gather the papers together on the desk.

Maybe his father's death and his mother's condition are causing him a great deal of stress. This constant anger that he has within him doesn't help at all, then he has his duties to the pack with all this paperwork. I'm sure with all of this going on it's hard for him to sleep.

When I first met him, he had this cheery cockiness to him, but now he has this constant anger and hatred for revenge within him and I know that that anger and hatred for revenge are towards my family.

I want to talk with him about it all. I understand that he's angry, but revenge won't do anything but get more people killed. He says he puts his people first, then he needs to put them first and see that the best thing to do is to let this plan for revenge go because that will only get more people killed.

I want to tell him these things, but every time I tried to talk to him about this, it only angers him, turning everything into an argument.

Although I think about it all, I haven't brought it up again yet. I don't want to add to the stress that he's under with everything that has happened. For now, I'm going to just wait and give his anger and hatred time to subside a bit, hoping then he'll be more willing to at least hear me out.

I let out a small sigh watching Lucious stack the papers. This isn't the way things are supposed to be. When BJ found his mate they were happy. But it's not that way for me.

I am happy that Lucious and I have found each other, but our relationship doesn't have the same happiness that I saw with BJ when he found his mates. Maybe it all will get better over time.

Lucious and I head over to the building where the claims to Retributions takes place. I look into the crowd, seeing a couple of new faces. More of them are claiming their rights to retribution.

I guess Lucious was right about more of them will continue to step forward, but I don't care, I'm just ready for it all to be over with.

Once the fighting starts, I see that some of them are using different tactics, attacking differently from the others, but they're still predictable and when it's all said and done, they're left unable to continue, leaving me to spare their lives.

Every time I spare their life, the look that Lucious gives me doesn't go unnoticed. He thinks I'm weak. Just because I choose to not unnecessarily kill someone that doesn't mean I'm weak.

After fighting five of them, Lucious end their claims to retribution for the day.

I leave the building, heading back to the house with Lucious. "Stop looking at me that way every time I spare one of their lives." I frown, looking over at him as we walk.

"I don't look at you anyway." He continues to look straight as he walks, not looking over at me.

"You do, I see the way you look at me. You think I'm weak." My frown turns into a glare. Every time that I spare their lives he looks at me as if he wants to shake his head at me in disappointment.

"I don't think you're weak, but I do think that you have this weakness within you that holds you back from doing what needs to be done. You'll never have their respect as long as this weakness you hold stops you from doing what needs to be done." He looks over at me for a second, before looking away again.

"I don't see how me killing them will get me this respect." I do air quotations, not see the solution to this with killing.

"It won't get you respect. It will get you fear and fear will get you their respect." He says.

"They still won't like me." Even if he's right about this and fear brings me respect, killing will only make them hate me more.

"Who cares if they won't like you. I'm sure not everyone here likes me, but they respect me because they know that their disrespect will be answered with teeth and claws. They know if it comes to it, I will kill them if I have to." He frowns looking over at me. "You're their luna. This is now your pack just as much as it is mine. I'm not always going to be here every second. Sometimes I may have to leave for days to handle pack business and you'll have to run things here. But how can you do that if no one here respects you." He says making a good point now.

I didn't grow up around a pack and don't know how things are done, but now I understand why having respect is so important to Lucious. I guess having respect plays a big part in leading a pack.

I let out a sigh, looking down at my feet as we continue to walk home. "I don't think I'll be able to kill them just to get their respect Lucious." My words come out low. I just can't take someone's life when there's no reason to do so.

After I shower, cleaning the blood off, I get dressed and leave the room. Heading down the stairs, the scent of someone cooking fills the air.

I head into the kitchen where I find Lucious with that female and her little pup Sonny.

Lucious looks over at me as I walk into the kitchen. He takes his plate as he stands up, taking it over to the sink. "Thanks for coming over to cook," Lucious says to the female who gives him a nod.

"Your mother has been a good friend to me, it's the least I can do for you guys." She tells Lucious.

Lucious look at me as he passes by ruffling the pup's head, leaving the kitchen.

"Would you like something to eat?" She asks looking over at me.

I frown a little looking over at her. Everyone here seems to hate me, but not her. This is the second time she has offered me food. Why is she being nice to me? I wonder to myself, continuing to look at her.

"Well do you?" She asks with a raised.

"Yes," I say, watching as she starts to fix me a plate of food.

I walk over taking a seat next to the pup as he eats.

"Hi, Lis." He smiles, remembering me for the other day.

"Hey." I smile back at me.

I look back over at the female, still wondering why she's being nice. "Everyone else here seems to hate me, so why don't you?" I ask wanting to know.

"I don't think you're a bad person and I know that your father isn't this bad person that people try to make him out to be." She walks over placing the plate of food in front of me.

"Why is your perspective of my father different from everyone else's here?" I ask as I start to eat. Everyone here seems to hate my family and me, so why doesn't she?

She walks over and takes a seat across from her pup, cutting his food up into smaller pieces. "When I was a little girl, my parents and I lived at your father's castle for a few years. I would see your father around the castle sometimes. At such a young age, I thought he was really scary, and I found it really strange how everyone would go still whenever he entered a room." I can see that she's imagining it all as she tells me this.

"One night while everyone in the castle was off to bed, I snuck down to the kitchen to have some cookies. After climbing up to the cupboard getting the cookies, I sat there on the kitchen floor, humming to myself as I ate the cookies and suddenly your father walks through the kitchen door. He looks down at me on the floor. It was like looking up at a giant. So I did what I always saw everyone else do when he entered a room, I froze. I don't know if I was more scared of him or scared of my parents finding out I suck down to have cookies in the middle of the night." She let out a low chuckle, shaking her head a little.

"Your father just stood there for a second looking at me, then he said. 'Do you know what will make those better? A cold glass of milk.' He got two glasses of milk and took a seat next to me on the kitchen floor and ate cookies with me. That was the first time I ever had Oreos with milk." I smile hearing her story of my father. I wish I could've created these kinds of memories with my father as a little girl. It may not be my memory, but it's still really nice to hear about my father.

"Your father is a good man. People just make him out to be this monster, because they want to do whatever they please, but he won't allow it. I'm sure many people are happy your father is back. There wasn't really much order amongst the wolves once he left. The wolves became trouble makers amongst the supernatural world." She says, looking over at me. It's nice to hear that others are also happy that father is back.

"Thank you for sharing that with me." Mother and uncle Fred use to share all their memories of father with us and I always enjoy hearing their stories. Now I have another great story of father to add with all the rest.

She gives me a nod, continuing to cut her pup food into smaller bites. "I'm Maggie by the way." She looks over giving me a friendly smile that I return.

I spend the rest of the day helping Lucious with the paperwork, trying to take some of the weight off his shoulders.

Once I finish putting all the papers the Lucious finished with into the filing cabinet, I lay on the couch in the office, waiting for him to finish with more so I can put them away.

Suddenly I feel myself waking up on the couch, realizing I must have fallen asleep. I slowly sit up, looking over at Lucious with his head down on the desk. I glance over at the clock seeing that it's 12:22 a.m.

I get up from the couch, walking over to him. "Lucious," I call his name, lightly shaking him.

He slowly opens his eyes, sitting up in the chair. "Come on, you need to rest," I tell him.

He rubs his eyes. "You can go, I need to finish with these papers." He picks up the pen again, looking down at the papers in front of him.

"You can finish with this tomorrow." I reach over removing the pen from his hand. "Come on, lets go to bed." I take his hand, slightly pulling at him, not leaving any room for him to claim that he's fine.

He needs to rest.

He looks over at the paper and I slightly pull at his arm again, taking his attention away from those papers. He needs to rest and I'm not taking no for an answer. Looking at me for a second, he finally stands up from the chair.

I keep ahold of his hand, leading him out of the office.

Making our way through the house, I look back at him, seeing him watching me with those tired eyes.

Holding his hand, I lead him up the stairs, going into the room. I take him over to the bed, sitting him down, helping to take his shoes off.

I take his hand again as I climb onto the bed, bring him over on the bed with me. Laying down, I lay my head on his shoulder, putting his arm around me.

I feel his body tense but slowly starts to relax after a minute or two and not too long after he's asleep again.

I get comfortable in his arm as I take in a breath, inhaling his scent. Feeling my eyelids getting heavy, I close my eyes to sleep.

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