The next morning was a rush of throwing clothes into my backpack, making sure I had my toothbrush and everything I would need packed in there and then meeting my parents in the kitchen. Mom handed me a smoothie—which I still had to drink through a straw with a left-tilted head for the most comfort—while Dad informed the enforcers he had last-minute decided to bring along what they might be getting themselves into should the meetings go wrong. Cole, as head enforcer, was also joining us. Sydney would stay home because of their sons, and Jaycee and Dexter would run the pack for the weekend.  Everyone would be on alert should Dad send for backup. We all prayed it wouldn't come to that, though. Suddenly I was a little more anxious about going along, but I couldn't let it show. Not after all the effort I had put into convincing Dad to bring me along.

We collected into vehicles. Dad, Mom, Cole, and me in Dad's truck, and other enforcers picked whose vehicles to drive down, filling them full. Mom turned our radio on before we even left the property.

She liked slower, softer music. I think it was calming for her for whatever reason. I preferred the numbing, popular pop songs blasting through my ears. So, I connected my headphones to my phone and shut myself off from any conversation with the three of them. We settled in for the long drive ahead of us.

I slept on and off, which might have been a bad idea considering we were pulling onto the gravel drive of the Rising Moon Pack after eight and a half hours in the car. Just in time to have dinner. Sleeping the afternoon away could make it extremely difficult to fall asleep later, but I'd deal with those consequences.

The crunching of the rocks underneath our truck's tires intensified as we climbed the slight incline of the road. Dad turned the wheel sharply to the left and then we came to an abrupt stop, the vehicle parallel to the pack house outside.

It was beautiful. It was unique.

While I hadn't been to many other packs before, I knew just at the first look that this one was different. Most packs preferred to live together in a mansion-type estate, such as ours. They were big on the outside and the inside, with a lot of land and gorgeous architecture.

This pack house had a lot of land, I could tell—the woods enclosed us from all sides and through the branches, the ground sloped and curved to create the foothills of this section of the Appalachian Mountains—but the house itself gave more of a cabin-in-the-woods vibe to it.

The stretch of greening grass between the gravel drive and the layered slabs of stone that formed the steps of the front porch was short. There were two sets of stairs that framed the middle of the house, the slabs climbing on either side of the top steps, creating four short towers. Posted on the top slab of each tower was a wood post, rounded with its bark still attached, making it look like the posts were actually trees. Maybe they were.

All along the porch were these slim tree trunks, attached to the deck at the bottom and to the roof at the top. Like a cabin version of columns that held the ceiling up. Slimmer posts jutted out of the trunks diagonally near the top as support beams, and they looked like little tree branches forming a Y shape to hold onto the roof—little arms to the trunks.

From where I was in the car, there were two sets of French doors that marked the entrances to the house. I wasn't sure why they needed two front doors, but maybe the pack used them for separate purposes. I wondered which side we would be invited in.

Above the porch's roof stood the second story of the building. Giant windows lined the entire front, the middle one with an arched attachment window where the roof peaked above it. The siding of the house was brown, and the roof was brown—only a slight shade darker. From this view, three chimneys could be spotted poking up, contrasting the roof with their lightly colored stone tiles.

More peaks of the roof could be seen over and behind the front of the house, telling me the building was actually a lot bigger inside than it looked from here. Big enough to actually accommodate a pack's size. Though from what I recalled in my readings, the Rising Moon Pack did have smaller numbers than ours.

I finally opened the car door and stepped out onto the pebbly road. I slung my backpack over my shoulder but a slim girl I didn't recognize appeared out of nowhere. She cast her thin eyes down at the floor, but held a hand out, offering to take my bag. I glanced at Mom, and she was watching me. She just nodded once, telling me to give the girl my bag.

"Thank. . . You?" I said, unsure what to do.

It was obvious this girl was an omega, sent by the alpha to come collect our things for the guest rooms we would be using tonight. I spotted several others scurrying around the building and taking the enforcers' things. This was new for me; we didn't have omegas. Dad didn't believe in them, and if there ever arose a situation where a pack member would become demoted to omega, they were given the option to leave the pack. The few I had seen that happen to always chose to be exiled rather than serve the rest of their life at the bottom.

It shouldn't be a surprise that other packs didn't do that, and actually had omegas living in their ranks, but I was fascinated by the way they scurried around with their heads down and eyes lowered, hauling away our stuff for us. None of them uttered a word, except for one or two that needed to verbally offer to take a bag from a confused enforcer—they all looked as baffled as I was.

Dad was not baffled. And surprisingly, neither was Mom. Maybe they both had visited enough packs that this wasn't a strange occurrence.

Then the French doors opened—the ones on the left side of the porch's middle section—and a man with striking black hair strolled through them. To his right, followed a short woman whose toned, but feminine, muscles were evident through her zipped up jacket and skinny jeans. Even from here, I could see how perfectly round her eyes were, and that manifested her entire appearance, the first thing you would notice besides how fit she was.

They stopped at the top of the steps, and we kept our distance, standing on the gravel at the grass line. This was werewolf civility, drilled into pups' minds as children: when entering another pack's territory, we were to wait until the alpha gave the okay to step forward. It was a respect thing.

"Welcome, Alpha Anderson." The black-haired man said. Now that he was closer, I noticed how blue his eyes were, standing out against the darkness of his hair.

Dad respectfully bowed his head. "Alpha Black."

I choked back my snort, but didn't stop myself from the thought. Like his hair? It was probably a good thing I didn't say that out loud.

"Come in, come in!" Alpha Black gestured is forward with a wave of his hand. That was our cue to be allowed entrance to his territory. Even though, technically, the gravel driveway was also his territory. He continued, "I wasn't expecting so many to join you." There wasn't a hint of suspicion or aggression in the sentence, just casual conversation.

Cole breathed a quiet sigh of relief beside me. I hadn't really thought about how this might look: bringing along a unit of enforcers when it was supposed to just be a friendly ally check-in.

The round-eyed woman next to the alpha smiled at us, her eyes finding me, and that helped me relax. They seemed friendly. I followed my parents up the stone steps and into the house. And then I was gobsmacked again.

Inside the doors, the main hall seemed to be cabin-themed as well. The walls that were the house's exterior curved in large bumps like real-life Lincoln Logs stacked on each other, and the banister to the stairs off to the left was textured and carved with designs. It made me want to run my fingers against the grooves, just to feel the wood.

A large painting of a black wolf hung on the wall to the right was so life-like I jumped a little when my eyes found it.

I admired everything about the architecture and the artwork, and the textured designs everywhere. It was a lot at first, but soon it settled into a homey, woodsy feel to it that was warm and inviting. I kind of loved it.

After my eyes finished circling the area, they landed on the short woman that had greeted us outside. She smiled at me again and I tried to smile back, but it ended in a wince when my lip pulled.

"You okay?" She asked me. Her voice was lighter than I was expecting.

"It's mostly healed." I assured her.

"Well," Alpha Black announced when we had all piled in. There weren't a crazy amount of enforcers we had brought along, but we quickly filled the entrance hall. "Your things should all be in guest rooms downstairs, so if you'd like to go there we can take you. Or, if you all are hungry, our cook is preparing dinner for everyone as we speak."

The enforcers glanced at each other, but no one spoke up. Ultimately it was Dad who decided. "I think we could all sit down and eat, if it's not too early." It was six o'clock in the evening, but I knew everyone had different schedules. Even our pack hardly all ate together because each family had their own things going on.

"Wonderful!" The woman said joyfully. She turned her back and started down the hall. "This way, everyone!"

We followed suit, down a hallway to the left past the staircase full of doors I assumed were rooms and offices, until the space opened up and I realized we were in the dining room. The kitchen was separated by a swinging door that was busy with omegas running about. A few were setting the table—adding places for the extra enforcers—and others were pouring water into glasses and handing us each a napkin. It felt all very proper, the opposite I was expecting from the exteriority of the house.

The alpha disappeared through that door for a moment, returning and leading a trail of omegas. Each had a plate in hand that they placed in front of a guest.

"Thank you." I told the omega when mine was in front of me. He didn't respond, but I caught the smile of pride he tried to hide before he turned and walked away.

In front of me on the plate was rice topped with a creamy chicken sauce and steamed, whole vegetables on the side. Vegetables were not every wolf's favorite go-to, but I personally loved them and dug into them right away. The rice and chicken was heavenly of course, and everyone was too busy eating to make much conversation. I was busy trying to eat as normally as possible in front of all these strangers.

As I slowed down when my stomach started reaching capacity, I grazed my eyes up and down the table, seeing most people still scarfing down the meal. Across from my parents were the alpha and the woman—who I would think to be safely assumed as the luna—but next to the luna and across from me was a boy.

He was younger than me by a year or two, definitely still a pup and hadn't shifted. I hadn't noticed him join us. Or the little girl that sat between him and one of my enforcers. Both children had the same dark hair as the alpha, and when the boy looked up from his meal, I saw the alpha's same blue eyes staring back at me. I quickly looked away, not wanting to get caught staring. So I glanced at the girl.

She was a few years younger than the boy, I would guess maybe ten years old. Her eyes were darker, like the luna's and a few other similarities were obvious in her face. These were the alpha's pups.

When the sounds of forks on plates dwindled, Alpha Black spoke up. "You sounded urgent on the phone." He said, his blue eyes focused on Dad. "And with the load of enforcers you brought with, I am assuming this is more than just one of your spontaneous visits." Dad must have called to check in before we came, after the initial invite from Rising Moon.

Dad stared at the table for a second. I could tell he wasn't sure how to discuss the matter so soon after arriving here. "Unfortunately, yes. We were attacked last week, out of the blue, by the Waning Moon Pack."

I caught the luna staring at my lip. She dropped her gaze and focused on her son when she saw me notice.

"Why don't you two go grab a cookie from Chef and head up to your rooms." Her voice was gentle, as if it were only a suggestion, not the order it clearly was.

The girl hopped off her chair immediately, leaving the rest of her meal untouched and all too happy to disappear into the kitchen. The boy, however, was not so keen to leave.

"I want to stay. I want to listen."

Suddenly, I related to this pup. A future alpha, eager to learn all he could even before he had shifted and actually started his training. I respected him for that, even if seeing a pup that young interested in adult matter made me slightly sad. Now I understood a little more about why Dad wasn't so enthusiastic about stepping down.

The luna sighed, but didn't argue. "Just listen."

He nodded, but sat up slightly straighter in his chair, as if correcting his posture might show his mother he could be mature enough for these meetings. I used to do that too. Sometimes, I still did.

"—would they attack you?" Alpha Black was asking.

Mom answered. "Because they want me to reclaim the crown."

Luna Black widened her eyes, as if that were the last thing she expected of this conversation.

Dad nodded, "Alpha Meyer has gotten adamant that if Eirenae sat on the throne, packs in need would actually be sent aid, and no longer overlooked."

"While that might be true," Mom added, "it also might be fixed if the queen merely stepped down and let Natalia rule."

Alpha Black scratched his chin in thought. "So, what? You're asking to help Natalia overthrow the queen?"

Mom's face slackened in horror. "No!" She cleared her throat, "I mean, no. While it is long overdue for Natalia to wear the crown, taking a fight to the Menai Moon Pack would be idiotic. A sure death sentence. Anne—excuse me—the queen has got that place stalked to the rim with patrols and guards."

"She's worried it's been a long time coming." Luna Black finished for her.

"Exactly. She's prepared."

"We came to not only just discuss the matter with you, but also to warn you that the Waning Moon Pack—and maybe others that feel similarly—might come after the Shining Moon Pack's allies." Dad explained.

"Us, and Crescent Moon." Alpha Black stated.

"What about the Quarter Moon Pack?" I blurted without thinking.

Mom shot me a look.

"What? Eva's pack would be on our side. Right?" Skylar and Eva wouldn't let their pack oppose their birth pack! But even my own thoughts weren't convincing me.

"We don't know for sure." Was all Dad told me. I reverted back to staying silent. The kid across from me sent me a glance like he knew what I was feeling. I bet he did.

"And you brought a slew of enforcers along because. . ."

"Because if I'm right, it could get messy." Dad finished. "If Waning Moon knows I'm here right now, I wanted to be prepared to help you fend them off."

Alpha Black bobbed his head slowly as he thought this information through. When he didn't reply, Dad continued talking.

"If I'm right and Waning Moon might drag us into a war as they try to bully us into having Eirenae give into the queen's wishes, I want to ask if you would be on our side. If you would be prepared to fight against a neighboring pack."

The entire table held their breaths as we waited for the alpha's response. His mate stared at him, Mom and Dad held his gaze, and I stared at my plate.

Finally, he said, "Yes. I will."