oft times, fear comes from things we are too afraid to understand

sufficient it is to learn and discover a world unknown

M A D D I E ♛

I was walking with Megan to visit the rogues and I could notice how nervous she was.

"I'm a bit scared Maddie, but I will try not to." she says making me smile.

Megan has been with me ever since we came here and kept her promise to our parents. I learned that she also came here sometimes during the summer time for the training of the future Alphas and warriors and when I couldn't keep her company, she had other acquaintances that she knew.

Unfortunately, Cassian and I weren't able to be with her the whole time as we were taking care of our own affairs.

Speaking of Cassian, I had no idea how much of a ladies man he was!

The amount of times I caught this guy with different girls is quite amazing. Whenever I asked what's his relationship with them, he could never give me a straight answer and that made me more suspicious of him.

Megan and I finally arrive at our destination and everyone was out to greet us.

My adorable little sister immediately hid behind my back and I could feel how frightened she was. Equally the rogues, upon seeing her, were a bit tensed at her presence. After all, not everyone has been kind to them in the pack.

I smile at Megan encouragingly and although she was scared, she forced herself to go in front and gave the basket of fresh bread to Melanie.

"H-here." she says and immediately came back behind my back and that made me laugh once more.

Together we walked nearer to the rogues.

"Hello everyone, how has everyone been?" I ask them. The younger ones who were about Megan's age came to embrace me and were looking consciously at Megan.

"Are we really going to become a part of this pack Maddie?" Sarah asks with a bright smile on her face.

Sarah's last pack banished her because she was found out to be a Gamma's illegitimate daughter that he had before he met his mate. If she were to be a part of a pack again, I'm sure that would delight her.

"Yes, but there's a lot of things to be done before so you have to be patient, alright?" I tell her.

Everyone else even the older ones were asking a lot of questions about how everything was going to proceed and I assured that everything would be done in due time.

The whole time, Megan was behind me, hand clutched on my clothes.

"Oh right, I want to introduce you to someone." I say and look behind. Megan shakes her head furiously.

"Maddie, I don't want to." she whispers me.

"Megan, it'll be fine. They don't bite." I assure her and I turn to everyone. "Everyone, this is Megan, she is my younger sister." I introduce.

Everyone looked on curiously especially those who were the same age as her. Finally, Ashley stepped out of the crowd and approached Megan, extending her hand out.

"You look like you're scared of us, but you don't have to be. I'm Ashley, I've been with Maddie for a year now."

Megan loosened her grip.

"I--I'm Megan." was all she says, but I know how she tried her best.

After that, we stayed some more time as I informed them more of what has been going on around. After eating food that they had prepared for us, we went on our way.

At the end, Megan wasn't as scared anymore which I was glad about. I wanted to show her that not all rogues are bad, some were unjustly put banished into the forests and that they deserved a second chance too.

"I understand." she says, now a bit more understanding. However, of course, it wasn't easy to convince everyone.

After all, the majority of the rogues are violent and aggressive and most of the time, they exact revenge on other packs.

It doesn't help that their pack status being stripped away from them, being replaced with a rogue's mark made anybody go insane if they let it and it was hard to fight it.

♛

Cassian and Megan were set to leave the pack soon since everything was stable now. As for me, I have been learning more of the duties of becoming a Luna.

I learned that it wasn't much different from what I did with the rogues since I also had to take care of everyone, but this time, it was a whole pack.

I've also been acquainted with the pack members and knowing who were who and what they did, who were mates with who and everything else.

The Luna was essentially the mother of the pack, making sure that everyone was doing just fine and that all the areas of the pack are taken care of. The Alpha dealt a lot with the external affairs as well as the training, borders and more, but they still oversee everything.

And that's why the Gamma and Beta were there to help.

An interesting position I learned about was the Delta's position. Deltas are chosen at the age 16 as a sort-of Luna stand in just in case the Alpha doesn't find his mate yet.

I learned that the girl who owned the clothing shop whose name was Lizzie was actually the Delta and learning that, it explained why the atmosphere back then was so... tense?

I met Lizzie once but she only bowed her head to me as a greeting and left. And what I learned was that it must be hard to be a Delta.

"What are you thinking about so seriously?" I hear as I feel arms around my waist. Chase had just come into the kitchen and embraced me from behind.

I could feel my cheeks blush instantly because I remembered that I was with the pack's head cook, Jane.

Embarrassed, I push Chase away, it didn't help that I was holding a knife at hand.

"Woah! Relax!" Chase backed away.

I saw Jane and the other helpers laughing at the other side and my cheeks paint redder.

"I'm busy, Chase." I argue.

"Yeah, a hug won't hurt!" Chase stubbornly retorts back. I gave him a signal that there were other people around.

Getting it, he looked around to see that indeed we were about ten individuals preparing food for the warriors who were hosting a welcome party to a new comer.

"Well, I'm sure Ms. Jane and everyone else won't mind, right?" he asks and I have the urge to stab him with the knife I was holding right now.

Jane turned with an elderly sweet smile.

"There's no problem at all, Alpha. It's normal between mates." she says and I didn't fail to catch that she was teasing us.

Everyone else around laughed.

Oh dear goodness.

Taking it as an authorization, Chase lifted me off the ground as if I was some child.

"Well then, if you'll let me, I'll borrow her for a few minutes." Chase informs everyone with a big smile on his face as he carries me away.

"Yes, Alpha." one of the helpers say and everyone laughs again.

My face must've been red with with embarrassment and I have no idea how I was going to face them when I went back.

"Wherever you are bringing me, I'm sure I can use my own feet to get there, Chase." I complained again, but he pretended like he didn't hear me and kept on walking.

He carried me up until the living room of the pack house where everyone just hangs around and talk, but since it was the middle of the day and everyone was out, there was no one there. Finally, I stood on my own two feet.

I was about to pull away from him and walk away to go back to the kitchen when Chase pulled me back to him and without warning, brought our lips together.

I couldn't lie and say I didn't like it and just as I was returning his kiss, we hear whistling and there Owen was.

"There you are, slacking off again Alpha?" Owen says strictly.

Again, I could feel my cheek heat up with embarrassment and I was going to walk away, but Chase put his arms around my neck this time and pulled me even closer to him.

"You should hurry up and find your mate Owen." was all Chase says.

"That has nothing to do with our work."

To that, Chase only sighed.

"Is it so wrong to take a break?" he complains like a child and that's when I take the opportunity to take his arms off of me.

"Don't show yourself to me." I say to Chase out of embarrassment and quickly walked away.

As I was rushing back to the kitchen, I heard Owen laughing behind and Chase complaining some more and telling me things, but I refused to turn around.

Oh, Chase.