I can feel her eyes on me, unable to find the voice to speak back. I am guessing she is shocked by my words, many people normally are when I speak with honesty words. People always want you to speak truthfully about yourself, but when you actually do the wish you never had.

"That is not the lesson I wanted you to learn from this." She finally speaks.

"I know," I respond. "But you have shown me the vulgar truth of having a mate."

"You don't want a mate?" My mother questions. "Why would you not want that?"

"Look at them, these Alpha's are weak," I state. "They are so willing to give their lives for one another."

"Out of love!"

"Then love is just stupidity in a second form," I answer. "Perhaps this Temporal Emotion Displacement is actually a blessing in disguise..."

My mother bunches up the tablecloth in her hands. Her lips press into a frown as she looks down at the table. Just as she is about to speak another more couples enters the room, I am able to recognize a pair.

"Delilah!" My aunt, Roze, calls out.

My mother lets go of the cloth and looks up. She smiles at seeing the blonde and stands up to hug her.

"Hi, Roze! Jason!" My mother greets. "Ivy and Justin didn't come along?"

"Ivy has a small cold." Jason answers. "Justin is watching over her."

Roze releases her as Jason gives my mother a quick and friendly hug. She looks over to me with a smile.

"Are you really almost 19?" She beams.

I turn away from her. My aunt was a very... joy-filled person. I have never seen her be anything else but extremely happy. It was unsettling to me how she is able to pass on that bright energy to everyone around her so easily.

I will never understand how she does it...

"You really don't like talking to me do you, Alexander?" She smiles. "That's alright, one day... one day."

I don't acknowledge her. She eventually shrugs and strikes up a small conversation with my mother before leaving with her husband to talk to the other werewolves in the room. I watch them walk away until my attention turns to someone else in the room.

She was short and her hair was long and jet black, her brown eyes almost as dark. She wore a black cloak that covers her entire body along with a distinctive looking piece of jewelry.

"That is Lady Cora." My mother speaks up. "The very tall man next to her is her husband."

"That necklace..." I begin, "Is it what I think it is."

"Yes. It is an original piece of the Sardonyx gemstone from the Broken Kingdom." My mother answers. "Cora is a direct descendant of King Raynor and Queen Aryhanna."

"I thought that entire bloodline was killed?" I question.

"Some lived..."

I look back at the short, brooding woman. Her husband was very social while she refuses to talk to anyone... or everyone refuses to talk to her.

"You called her Lady Cora instead of Alpha Cora." I notice. "Why?"

"It is a complicated thing to answer, but knowing how hard-headed Alphas can be, it will be talked about when the meeting starts."

I study Cora, interested in the tale she has to tell. Eventually, my view is blocked when a woman in a wheelchair is pushed towards us by a girl closer to my age.

"Alpha Hanna, how are you?" My mother beams.

"I have seen better days." She laughs. "This is my daughter, Bianna."

Her daughter did not mirror her mother at all. Bianna's hair was short, black and in a bob style while her mother's hair was long and red. The only thing that was the same between them was their eyes, both which were hazel. Perhaps she resembles more of her father.

"Daughter?" My mother face changes to that of confusion. "I didn't know you had any children."

The woman laughs, "You have to remember the last time you saw us my husband was only the Beta and you weren't even Alpha yet."

"That is true..."

My mother looks at me, "They are the Alphas of The Pack of To Vounó and our closest allies."

I look at Hanna, "What happened to the previous Alpha?"

I watch as they all begin to shift and avoid my gaze. Within them was a secret so dark that is must be hidden from the light of the world. My mother looks at me again, giving me that fake smile.

"The meeting is about to start, let us just take our seats." She speaks.

We walk over to the large table in the room and find a place to sit. Many of the other Alpha's do as well. My father stands up from his seat, just as everyone is finding their own, and begins the meeting.

"Thank you all for coming." He greets. "I think first we will like to discuss the topic of the hospital being built in The Pack of To Dásos. Alpha Jason, if you would?"

My father sits as my uncle, Alpha Jason, stands from his seat.

"The hospital is near completion." He begins. "We have already started moving in patients and medical equipment. Since it is in the forest, it is well hidden among the trees, away from human eyes."

Jason looks at Roze who blushes but continues on the topic while sitting.

"This hospital can save five times as many lives compared to the work of a single pack doctor." She states. "In a way, we are honoring those long gone."

Bianna sits down in the empty seat next to me, folding her hands together and resting them on the table. She looks at me, a look I have not seen before. Something sparks in her eyes, something I don't understand.

I watch as she stands up and places both hands on her hips, cutting off whatever topic was going on right now and demanding the attention of everyone in the room.

"That's nice and everything, but are we really going to ignore the uprising being caused by Lady Cora?" Bianna speaks with confidence as if she has been rehearsing every word.

"Bianna!" Her mother scolds.

I look across the table at Lady Cora. She is looking down at the table, dreading this attention. She wanted to avoid this topic at all cost.

"It does need to be discussed..." Alpha Cynthia speaks. "It would be fine and easy to handle if it was just one or two packs but it is happening in all of ours."

"Thanks to you." Bianna glares at Cora.

"That's not fair, you all know I don't agree with any of their views." Lady Cora defends.

"But you are a key factor in this whether you like it or not." Cynthia continues. "They want to reform the Broken Kingdom, thus making you the ruler of it.

Cora's hands form a fist, "The Broken Kingdom was shattered over 400 years ago--"

"--Because of Queen Arhyanna..." Victoria interrupts, "I feel... worried. What's to say you won't follow in your ancestor's destructive footsteps if you were to be made Queen?"

Cora's husband jumps out of his seat and growls at Victoria. In retaliation, Victoria's husband does the same at the angry Alpha Male. Before the two Alpha Males could kill one another, my father breaks the scuffle.

"ENOUGH!" He booms.

The room falls silent. The fighting Alpha Males give each other one last angry look before sitting in their seats, their wives doing their best to calm them down. My father sighs and turns to look at the girl next to me.

"Bianna, was it?"

She nods and gives a small smile causing my father to frown.

"Sensitive topics like that are to be taken care of with the utmost caution and care so as to avoid things like... this." He states. "You are a naïve and foolish child."

Bianna frowns and looks down in shame, slowly sitting in her seat and muttering words of apologies. My father clears his throat and continues on with the meeting. I look over at Bianna who is looking anything but shameful. She looks almost... accomplished.

"That was reckless of you," I state. "But, that's what you wanted."

She smiles softly, "No. I didn't want that."

"What did you want?" I ask.

Bianna looks over at me before looking out at the table, watching all the Alpha's speak about the well-being of their pack and form alliances in order to keep the peace. Her face was still while her mind was most likely a buzz with untold thoughts and information.

"I want a lot of things." She speaks. "But all I really wanted..."

"Was change..."