It's been days since Greyson's banishment. At every free moment when I'm not being watched by Damien or Alpha Serg, I've been out looking for Greyson in the woods. Not only have I not been able to find him, I haven't been able to catch a scent of him. My wolf's been in a deep depression ever since he's been gone. Honestly, I can't blame her, I'm not feeling too happy myself.

Thankfully, when Damien heard Greyson was banished, he was satisfied with just that; I guess he didn't know Greyson's death was on the table, or else he would have been pissed that that didn't happen.

Today, there's a different atmosphere around the pack than I've never felt before. It's almost bright and happy. Everyone is spending the day preparing for my baby announcement party. Everyone's supposed to be looking nice and will be required to participate in the festivities in the large party hall. Currently, I'm spending my time with Rina in her room. I was supposed to be getting my hair done by Marissa again, but I'm trying to avoid her. Every time I'm alone with her, a weird atmosphere collects between the two of us. It's uncomfortable and I'm still not sure why she's so angry with me.

"So you can wear this yellow dress or this sparkly purple one." Rina says as she exits her closet, holding up my options. The yellow one is a cute tube top, with a short skirted bottom. It's plan with a single black belt loosely tied at the waste. The purple one has rhinestones all over it. It also has a black belt but this dress is more of a gown, it tally's to the floor.

"The yellow one is short, let's go with that one. It will be easier to move around in." I tell her.

She giggles, "Even when you're supposed to dress up nicely you're worried about your comfort."

"Of course! I'm going to have to be dressed in it all day, I might as well have something comfortable." I hop off the bed and wander over to Rina. I grab the yellow dress from her and strip off my other clothes. I toss it over my head and wiggle into it. She helps zip me up.

"Perfect," she announces. "Now sit, I'm doing your hair and makeup."

"Please keep it simple." I complain.

She giggles, "No promises."

At the sound of her giggle, I notice something. It is a different pitch than her normal laugh, almost like it was forced. I don't know why, but I supposed I've been feeling a weird aura from her all day too.

"Are you okay?" I ask her.

"I'm fine," she says, "close your eyes, I need to do your eyeshadow."

I close my eyes, listening to her instruction. In the next moment I feel the light bristles of the small brush flutter over my eyelid. It almost tickles. "Rina, I think you're lying to me."

"About what?"

"About being 'fine'" I tell her. "I'm pretty good at reading people and you've been acting strange all day."

"I... I'm not acting strange," she lies through her teeth.

I sigh, "You know, if you and Leo are fighting or something you can talk to me about it."

"We're not fighting!" She quickly blurts out, a bit too quickly.

"Okay... that was weird." I admit to her honestly.

She sighs, "We're not fighting... but it is about him."

"What is it?" She moves onto the other eye.

"I was told not to tell you..."

"Me specifically?"

"Well," she says, "everyone, but especially not you."

"Why?"

"I can't say."

I growl. "Oh just tell me."

"Leo will be upset with me..."

"Rina if it concerns me, I have a right to know."

"It only kind of concerns you."

"What does that even mean?" I growl.

"It's about Greyson, okay?" She blurts out.

My heart drops at the sound of his name. "Excuse me?"

"Leo left the day Greyson was banished. He went after him, to make sure that he was okay, but he hasn't returned... Leo told me not to tell you specifically, I'm not sure why. Now I'm worried though because Leo hasn't returned."

"We should go look for them." I tell her.

"What?"

"During the celebration, everyone will be distracted. We should pack things up right now, and halfway through the party, we come get the stuff and leave."

"But you're going to be the center of attention. Everyone will know if you're gone."

Hm... She's not wrong. "Then you will come get our stuff. Give me a signal at the door, I will excuse myself for the bathroom, and we will go."

"Lucia, that's crazy, if we leave like that we're practically exiling ourselves. Especially you, they will know you're gone. They will send search parties after you since you're Damien's mate and since you're carrying his child..."

Oh how badly I want to correct her on that...

"I don't want to come back..." I tell her.

"What?"

"This pack is... this pack is toxic. The whole environment is toxic. The way women are treated here is terrible. Apparently it's so different out there, most other packs don't work like this one."

"I know..." Rina comments, "Leo was telling me about that as well... But we won't be welcomed into other packs Lucia. Especially because Leo says our pack is infamous out in the world. All other packs hate our pack. We're a scary opponent due to our lack of loyalty to other pack mates, so when we fight, we're merciless. That's intimidating to face. If anyone were to find out where we are from, then they would never consider us to become members of their pack."

"Then we start out own pack." I tell her, words just falling from my lips.

"Excuse me?"

"We start a pack, with you, me, Greyson, Leo, and my child."

Rina snorts, "Yeah like that could work."

"I'm not joking."

"Like hell you're not. Lucia, a pack of four plus a new born? Are you insane? Plus, I highly doubt Leo and Greyson will be into that idea. Where would we stay?"

"We'd find land."

"Land unoccupied by another pack? Good luck with that. Lucia I've been reading books my whole life, and I've read about territories. There are no territories in this state that haven't been claimed or aren't intersecting multiple packs. We would have no where to go. Now open your eyes, I have to do your mascara."

I sigh in annoyance. My brown eyes pop open. Rina steps into my field of vision with a tube of mascara in her hands. She untwists the cap and leans down, slowly working on one of my eyes. "Whether or not it would be a huge risk, I don't want to be here anymore Rina. Greyson's clearly not allowed here, and honestly, I don't want to be in a place that he's banished from. I really want you and Leo to join us, but if you decide to stay here, I understand. It's safer that way."

She groans. "You know Leo and I will follow you. But what about the rest of the squad, are you just going to leave them behind?"

"Obviously I will bring it up to them tonight, but I highly doubt they will want to come with us. They've established themselves here. They are the Alpha's right hand men, right below the Beta. I love them dearly, just like brothers, but I completely understand that this pack is their home and they've had far less terrible experiences here."

She moves onto the other eye as she adds, "alright. Fine."

"Fine?"

"Yes, fine. I'll go with you. Mostly because I'm really concerned about Leo, but I still think your plan is going to get us killed."

A smile spreads across my cheeks. "Really? Oh I'm so excited. Hurry up with my makeup so we can pack!"

She chuckles and shakes her head disapprovingly, "you have way too much excitement about this. Now hold still so I can finish."

----------------------------------------------------

The crowd around me bustles with excitement and anticipation. Everyone is mingling in the ball room and having the time of their life. All the service girls are unrecognizable tonight. They all dolled up in dresses, with fancy makeup and hair. There isn't a gypsy outfit in sight. It's rather remarkable. The ladies are even mingling in with some of the men in the pack.

If I thought the ladies were surprising tonight, I can barely believe my eyes when I look at the men. Everyone is dressed in nice shirts and pants. Everybody is groomed. It's a good thing the Alpha announced the party about a week ago, everyone was able to accomplish getting formal attire. The only ones who aren't dressed up super formally, are the maids and a few service girls who were hired to help cater this event and serve food and drinks.

There are smiles on everyone's faces. Even Raymond, Ruben and Derek are having a blast. Raymond dressed up; he pulled his hair back into a neat ponytail. Derek finally cut off the shaggy red fro he was growing, and it's finely trimmed. Same goes for Ruben, he's looking put together for once in his life, even wearing a nice blue button down shirt. They're across the ballroom mingling with a few service girls. It looks like Raymond is cracking a joke at Ruben's expense, like normal. The girls and Derek are just laughing along at the entertainment that's playing out in front of them.

I talked to them all earlier, mentioning my plan. As I had expected, they called me crazy. They've decided on their own that they will cover for Rina and I until we return. They obviously don't want us to leave, but they also know Greyson will never be allowed back. Derek has decided that I should go out, find Greyson and Leo and then return before I make any big plans to leave. I decided that was a fair agreement, plus I don't want to leave my squad members like this. I know I'm going to miss them when I eventually do end up leaving. So I definitely don't want this to be our final goodbye.

The Alpha, along with the Beta, Trinity, Milena, Palmer, and Damien are all seated at the head table. There is a spot open and left for me next to Damien, but I made the excuse of wanting to go introduce myself to more people in the pack in order to leave. I couldn't sit there idly any longer. I'm starting to get antsy about Rina and I making a move.

"Congrats," a very familiar voice purrs from behind be.

I spin around on my high heels to be confronted with a pretty blonde. "Ah, Catalina. How are you?" I ask her. I clutch onto my champagne glass, which has some sparkling cider in it.

"I'm doing well. I'm surprised that dress fits you. You're really starting to show."

I roll my eyes at her, "I'm only showing a little bit Catalina. Do you always have to ruin a good moment with some type of absurd remark?"

"Just trying to keep things interesting," she smirks and sip from her wine glass which is filled with a dark red wine.

"I'm surprised your over here talking to me. Don't you have better things to do?" I ask her.

She shrugs, "Not today. Today I'm staying on my toes.'

"Why?"

"I don't know. I'm feeling a little off by this atmosphere. It's so much different than what I'm used to, it's almost... normal." She tells me, sipping on her drink again. "It's been years since I've experienced socialization like this. Who would have thought that all the men in this pack could be so... so..."

"Civilized?" I comment, looking out into the crowd.

She nods, "Yes, civilized." She glaces down at my feet and raises an eyebrow, "what are you getting antsy about?"

"What do you mean?"

"Your foot, it's tapping a million miles per hour and let me tell you, it's annoying the hell out of me."

"Sorry," I tell her, trying to calm my nerves. I'm just so jumpy. Rina left about a minute ago, but she got caught in a conversation with a couple of service girls, the main one being Liana, the girl we went on the mission with and saved. Hopefully she will get out of the conversation soon. I really want to leave. I'm so worried about Greyson. Him and Leo are on their own. They're going to need us.

"So?" she pesters me.

"So, what?"

"What's got you tapping your toe like a jackhammer? I'm curious."

"Just nervous about the baby," I decide on.

She raises a skeptical eyebrow, "nervous about the baby or nervous that the baby daddy's father is going to find out his son's not the baby daddy?"

I quickly elbow her in the gut, she grunts and nearly spills her wine onto the floor, but manages to stablize herself before she does. "Shh!" I hiss at her.

"What the hell! I could have gotten wine on my dress!"

"Well then don't say things like that." I growl at her. "No one can know that!"

"Jeez, next time use your words, stop being so physically abusive." She groans, stretching her side. "But besides that, I think I know why you're so anxious."

I laugh, there's no way in hell she knows, but I'll hear her out, "and why is that?"

"Because this place is so cheery, it's almost eeiry, don't you think?"

"Explain?"

"Well, everyone is in here celebrating but just take in the environment. Something feels off. I normally have good intuition-"

"Like that time you went to hook up with Rodger and nearly got us all killed? Yeah, you're intuition is normally spot on." I roll my eyes at her.

Catalina growls at me, "your intuition wasn't much better that night!"

"At least I was the only one who didn't drink the blue poison they tried to feed us-" as the words slip form my lips the crowd around us starts going into a panicked frenzy. My eyes glance upward at Catalina who's glancing over the crowd. Her eyes are wide.

"Shit," she hisses. "I knew something was fishy. Run!" She yells at me, dashing into the crowd of people.

I lose sight of her in a matter of seconds. Bodies flash in front of my eyes and people start bumping into me . I'm smacked from about every angle possibly imagined. I hold my hands out in front of me to deflect away some of the bodies, when I suddenly hear screams from all angles. Howls and barks sound next, filtering into the large hall. Clothes tearing and shredding onto the floor come from all around me, filling the room with wolf bodies.

I have no clue what's going on, but I need to find Rina and get out of here.

I push through the crowds of people running away from the large double doors. When I do, I find wolves filing into the large ballroom, wolves that have very unfamiliar smells and looks about them. It's as if... as if we're under attack right now.

"Shit," I hiss under my breath. I turn and run with the crowd away form the doors when I suddenly remember a side door that's tucked behind one of the large drapes hanging next to the large windows. They were used during the set up. I helped out a bit, carrying in some chairs yesterday. I scurry out from the large crowds of people and run straight for curtain. I throw myself behind it, grabbing for the doorknob in the darkness of the large curtain. I get my hand on it. Twisting my wrist, I jerk the door open and hurry to the outside. It's starting to get dark, the sun is beginning to set, leaving a frosty blue at the top of the sky and a warm orange-pink in the horizon right around the top of the tree line of the forest.

I slink to the side of the building and creep towards the front of the pack house from the outside. Growls, howls, and barks are sounding through the air. It's definitely a full out brawl. Everyone's battling it out. I need to find Rina before something happens to her. I creep to the front if the pack house, but freeze when i get to the corner of the house. There are about five wolves standing guard in front of the pack house, and none of them look or smell familiar at all, meaning they're from a different pack. Crap, that's no good.

What can I do?

I could go to the back exit, but chances are they have that blocked off too. In order for them to be standing guard, they must have enough wolves in the pack house to fend of most of my pack. This group was prepared... Their numbers are strong.

"Grrrr." A growl erupts from behind me, making me jump.

I gulp slowly and turn around very carefully. My eyes connect with fierce dark brown one's. My heart rate accelerates in my chest. The wolf snarls their teeth in my direction, it's hackles on the back of it's neck raise fiercely. It's fur is a snowy white except for it's four paws and ears, which are a rich chocolate brown. It growls again.

Oh shit.