The signal is from one of the wolves on patrol. His howl can only mean one of two things. Either we are under attack, or there is a stray rogue who isn't in our pack that has snuck onto our property.

Luckily, Damien realizes the seriousness of the situation and unlatches his hands from my arms. He looks off into the distance. A low and annoyed growls spills from his lips.

"Shit." he grunts.

Standing up, he quickly jumps off the rock, shifting in midair into his huge blackish grey wolf, which is the same color as his hair. He runs full speed toward the howl.

I take this time to sit up. Relief filtering into my body from the distance of Damien from me. I place my hand on my head and allow the last few moments to sink in. Then I gently touch my lips.

It's as if his are still pressed against mine. I can't believe that was my first kiss, and out of all people it was Damien that kissed me.

Never in my life have I been put in a situation like this. Whenever I am with the boys, they always treat me like one of them, never have I been degraded like this. Then again, I don't think I have ever been alone with Damien before. I don't even know what he is like as a person. As our squad's leader, he is very mysterious. None of us really know what he is capable of.

I sit on the rock for a while, trying my best not to think. Trying to shake away the gross feeling of Damien touching my body. I hug my knees up to my chest, squeezing them tightly.

A dirty shiver runs through my body. The sun is already starting to sink. After being here for so long and still not being able to shake this nasty feeling, I know I need to do something.

I need a bath. I stand from the rock. I feel slightly shaken, but all in all, I am okay. I hop off and find my shirt on the tree that I left it on. I tie it to my ankle. Running a hand through my damp hair, I let out a shaky sigh. Whatever just happened between Damien and I, I hated it. Glancing down at my wrists, I notice black and blue marks where he was holding me. Great, he was rough enough to give me bruises. And let's just say it's pretty hard to bruise a werewolf.

I shake my head. No, I need to stop thinking about it. If I keep thinking then my thoughts are just going to control me. I can't allow that. Also, what about that howl? Our pack is under attack and I am here! Shit, I can't leave mom to fend for herself. Her wolf isn't strong like mine!

I sprint forward and shift into my wolf as I run. My paws collide with the dry earth as I fasten my pace. I take the quickest route back to the pack house. I leap over the familiar fallen trees and duck under low branches as fast as I can. Then I reach the tree line of the woods surrounding the pack house. I break at the last tree and catch my breath for a moment as I shift back. I bend down to undo my tied up shirt from my ankle and throw it on over my head.

I huff big breaths as I slowly peak around the tree and examine the house to make sure no one has attacked it yet. All looks clear so I sprint to the door and open it up. To my surprise, the whole place appears empty. Huh, shouldn't people be preparing for a fight? I jog through the house and then down the stairs. I hurry through the hallway and get to my suite room's door. I turn the knob and walk in.

To my surprise again, it's empty. Oh no. What if they all just got up and left?

I walk into the room and notice that a half eaten bowl of popcorn is sitting on the couch and the TV is on mom's cooking show. She must have been watching this when they heard the howl. That must mean they have all left to either run or fight. I can't believe she left without me? Now what do I do?

Shakily, I fall to the floor on my knees and stare at the ground. I can't live with myself if she were to get hurt on the battlefield. She isn't strong enough to handle herself in a fight. What can I do though? I don't even know where the battle is?

"Lucia what the hell are you doing on the floor in just a t-shirt?"

My heart bounces in my chest as I whip my head around and confirm my assumptions. My mom is standing in the doorway giving me an odd look. I feel tears creep up into my eyes as I get up off of the floor and run into her arms, squeezing her with everything I have.

"Mom I thought you left with everyone to go fight the intruders!" I shout and continue to hug her.

She places her arms around me and gently strokes my hair, "Lucia, I would never leave you alone. But what do you mean by fighting the intruders?"

I sniffle and pull back for a moment to look up at her, "Didn't the patrol wolf howl to let us know we are under attack?" I ask.

She laughs and kisses my forehead, "Oh dear you are too cute. We aren't under attack. The patrol found a couple of strays that want to join our pack. I was talking to Trinity when they were brought in."

My jaw drops open and I unlatch my arms from my mom, "So we aren't under attack?"

She shakes her head, "Nope."

"And that howl was because we have new rogues wanting a place in the pack?"

She nods her head, "Yup."

So basically that means that this new intruder or intruders, got me out of that predicament with Damien. What an odd turn of events.

I place my palm on my forehead. What a weird day.

"Honey, are you okay?" Mom says as she grabs my shoulders.

I look up at her worried face and smile brightly, "Of course I am okay, no need to worry about me! I'm just glad that our pack is safe and that we aren't under attack."

She eyes me up and down to make sure I'm not lying. Luckily, she falls for my act and smiles. Gently she pats my head, "Well why don't you go take a shower. It looks like you we running outside for a while. When you come back out, I will have dinner ready and waiting for you."

I give her a strange look, "You are going to make dinner too? What happened to my mother?"

She rolls her eyes and gives me a gentle push toward the bathroom, "Oh shut it Lucia. Go shower."

I laugh but follow her directions. I really do need a shower right now. I feel gross at the moment.

After shutting the bathroom door, I strip my t-shirt off and toss it into the little hamper we keep. I look in the mirror and notice how deranged and matted I am. My hair is wind blown and my fingers are all darkened from mud and dirt. Well this is going to take me a while to clean up.

I shake my head and turn the water on. As it begins to heat up, I grab my tooth brush and scrub out every inch of my mouth. I leave no spot untouched as I clean every tooth and crevice. I spit out the tooth paste and rinse with water.

After that, I hop into my shower and take my time cleaning myself. After soaking my hair in shampoo and conditioner, I spend most of my time cleaning my hands, under my nails and my feet.

You get so dirty in wolf form because you are naked and your whole body is closer to the ground. After getting most all the dirt off, I grab my loofah and dump liquid soap on it. I scrub my body with the bubbly sponge and allow the water to rinse away all the dirt.

After getting completely cleaned, I turn the water off and grab my towel from the closet. I dry my body first then wrap my hair in the towel to soak up most the water.

I peak my head out the bathroom door and see mom standing in the kitchen making dinner. I smile and shout, "Don't turn around! I'm naked!"

I run toward my room and laugh as I turn the door knob and open it up. Quickly I get through the doorway and slam it closed behind me. This is kind of a normal thing. Since it is just us two girls in this suite and I forget to bring clothes into the bathroom, I figure it is easiest to just sprint to my room naked. No one ever visits us anyway so I really have nothing to worry about.

I approach my closet and search through my clothes. What to wear... Finally I decide on a tight fitting long sleeved black shirt and a pair of jean shorts. I'm wearing the long sleeves to cover up my bruises. Granted, I'm sure they will be healed in a couple of hours, but I would rather be safe than sorry.

I braid my hair to the side and then I am all ready for the day. I skip out of my room and make my way toward the kitchen. Time to get some information about these intruders.

As I get to the kitchen, my mom turns to me and rolls her eyes.

"Lucia you need to start bringing your clothes to the bathroom. I don't think your mate would appreciate you running around naked in his room all the time. It isn't classy." She states.

I grunt, "Mom stop bringing up the whole mate thing."

I plop myself down on my stool and she places a fork, spaghetti and meatballs, and a napkin down in front of me. I feel my stomach growl. Wow, I had no idea just how hungry I was! I grab my fork and dig in.

"I keep bringing it up because it is something to think about. You can't live with me your whole life Lucia."

"Yeah yeah. Whatever you say mom, but I like it here so I don't see the problem with me staying." I say and continue to devour my food.

She rolls her eyes and joins me with a plate of spaghetti. She folds her napkin over her lap and picks up her fork and starts to eat.

I take this moment of silence to ask her, "So what did they end up doing about the rogues who came to us?"

Mom turns to me, "Honestly, I have no idea. I was able to see that there were two of them, but Trinity asked me to go back and talk to her later. Since I am no longer a higher up, they have no need to share that information with me." She thinks for a moment then adds, "why do you want to know?"

I casually shrug my shoulders and glance back down at my food, "No reason, I just figured you would have known because you were with Trinity. Speaking of the Devil, how did that go?"

"Oh stop it with the Devil business. Trinity is a wonderful woman. And it went very well actually. It turns out that things are quite difficult on her right now because she has to not only handle her work, but the work of the Alpha's mate."

Oh right. I forgot how stressed mom used to be back in the day. Since our Alpha lost his mate years back, the mate of the Beta has to handle all of her work.

"So Trinity asked if I could assist her."

I look at her shocked, "Are you sure you will be okay with that? You know that you are going to have to be around Emanuel because of this..."

"Lucia, I don't think you realize that I don't hate your father."

I shake my head sadly, "I never said you hated him, it's just, this will be a heartache for you to watch them together. Unlike him, you still have the scars of the mark he left. He covered his up with Trinity's mark."

I feel a hand land gently on my head and I look up to see my mom smiling at me. I know she is faking it, but it is good to know she is strong enough to handle this kind of emotional trauma.

"There is no need to worry about me Lucia. You just handle yourself. I'm happy Emanuel and Trinity were able to find each other, do you know how rare it is for someone in our pack to find their true mate? When that time comes for anyone, they have to value it for everything it's worth."

I sigh, "I know mom, it just sucks that you're so innocent, yet you are the one being hurt."

She laughs dryly and shrugs, "That's just the way life works. You know the same type of thing happened to Emanuel's mother. His father left her for his true mate. Because of that Emanuel vowed he would never do that to anyone, yet here he is with Trinity. That's how strong the bond between true mates is. Nothing can separate those two besides death."

"This is a really depressing conversation..." I add and glance down at my half eaten spaghetti and meatballs. None of it looks appetizing anymore.

"Yeah... Well on the bright side, we are having dinner with Emanuel, Trinity and her son tomorrow."

"What!?"

"Yup. It's going to be a fancy dinner so you better dress up!"

"No way."

"Yes way."

"No."

"Yes, and no arguing."

I grunt and slam my head down onto the table. Just lovely, see I have met Trinity's son a couple of times but we don't get along very well. Actually he gives me the cold shoulder just like Damien.

Damien...

Memories from earlier flash into my mind and I shiver in disgust. Just lovely, now I'm thinking about that pervert. Maybe he just hasn't had his fair share of the whore service we have here. Yeah, that is probably it. I hear that male werewolves can bottle up anger easily if they don't relieve themselves sexual. Gross, I know, but it is the truth. That's probably what happened to him, and I was just a naked girl in front of him, not the normal Lucia.

Well I'm actually glad I thought that one through. I should have known that was the reason from the beginning! Now I just need to make sure I am never naked in front of him again and we won't have any problems.

"Are you not hungry anymore Lucia?" Mom asks, cutting off my thoughts.

"It's not that, I just remembered that I have somewhere to be!" I hop off the stool, "I love you mom, but I have to go!"

I give her a quick kiss on the cheek and before she can respond I am out the door. As I walk down the hallway and up the stairs, I head toward my destination, Derek's room.

Derek knows anything about everything when it comes to our pack. Therefore he has to know where the intruders are. Even though I came to the conclusion that Damien didn't mean to do what he did, them being here still saved me from his actions. I have to meet these people.

As I make it to the boys' hallway, I see two girls dressed up in genie outfits giggling together as they leave one of the guy's rooms. I gag to myself, how are they smiling? I guess they really do enjoy what they do. Honestly, I say they are forced into working for that service, but in reality they choose to do it. If they really wanted to, they could work outside the pack house, or they could even work as maids for the pack house. Very few girls choose those two options, the rest of them would rather sleep around for money.

I make it to Derek's room and gently knock on the door. After a few moments, I hear a chair slide against the floor and footsteps cross the room. The door slowly creaks open as Derek pops his head out. I smile happily.

"Hey Derek!"

He smiles back and opens the door up all the way, letting me into his room. I follow behind him and shut the door behind me. As he walks back to his seat, I jump onto his bed and sit pretzel style.

"So what brings you here Lucia?"

"Well I was thinking about how amazingly smart and talented you were-"

He rolls his eyes and cuts me off, "Enough with the suck ups, what do you want?"

Damn. He always knows what I'm up to. I guess it is true that he really is the smartest guy in the pack. The kid has been a genius since he exited the womb.

"What happened to the rogues that wanted to get into our pack?"

He sighs and turns around toward his computer, "Lucia, you know you shouldn't get involved with this stuff. This is the Alpha's decision, don't interfere."

I growl and flop back onto the bed, "I know Derek, but this time I just really have to know. Don't worry, I won't do anything stupid, I just want to see them!"

I hear Derek begin to type away on his computer. After a few minutes of listening to his clicking in silence I start to get annoyed. Did he even listen to me?

"Derek-"

"Fine," He says with annoyance in his tone, "but don't tell anyone that I told you. The Alpha sent them down to the Right Wing Dungeon."

I spring off the bed and cheer in happiness!

"Derek you are the best! I knew I could count on you!"

He shakes his head, "Anything for you captain. Just make sure no one knows I told you."

I wave my hand dismissively, "Yeah yeah." I say and open the door to leave.

"Lucia, I'm serious I don't want to get in trouble! Also be careful the-"

"Don't worry Derek, I've got this!" I shout and close the door behind me.

I've been to the Dungeon so many times. I used to go and hang out alone down there when I was younger. I know all the securities and all the secret passage ways. Heck, I even know how to pick all of the locks in less then ten seconds, that's pretty impressive. This is going to be a piece of cake.