She comes back soon enough putting a halt to my thoughts.

My stomach growls in hunger upon smelling the mouthwatering pancakes. I noticed that the amount of food on the plate was way more than I expected. Maybe it was for her too.

"There you go! Go on now, dig in! I'm sure you're hungry." She pushed the large tray towards me, smiling enthusiastically.

Picking the fork and spoon I cut a bite-sized piece and put it in my mouth. I closed my eyes in satisfaction and groaned at the amazing taste making Shadow laugh.

I didn't pay attention to her and continued eating the heavenly pancakes hungrily, I don't even notice that the number of pancakes which I thought was too much, was all eaten by me.

My eyes widened in shock when I do realize this. I looked over at Shadow in embarrassment.

"Oh don't be embarrassed Mia, all of that food was for you. After we shift for the first time we are completely drained of energy which makes us hungry too. Though you might know this I'm gonna say it anyway, since you have a wolf now your appetite will also have increased from now on."

My eyes widened once again in shock. She looked back at me in confusion.

I sighed sadly. "In my old pack, no one bothered to teach me such things, the people who should've at least cared enough to tell me these things joined in on the 'fun' which included beating me unconscious, torturing me with silver, and many other things." As I had promised to myself,  I didn't tear up at all.

But I hear both Shadow and Rowena growl loudly.

Shaking my head I say, "Don't worry Shadow it's alright. I'm here now."

"NO, IT'S NOT ALRIGHT MIA! HOW DARE THEY DO SUCH HORRIFYING THINGS TO THEIR OWN PACK MEMBER?! AND YOUR PARENTS TOO?!?" She screamed while breathing heavily.

Her outburst doesn't affect me as it should've nor does the complete onslaught of her powerful aura.

I see her muscles tense completely, ready to punch something and I know it won't be soon before she does exactly that.

I stand up and go around the table. I gently touch her left shoulder, which makes her tense even more for a few moments before she calms down just a little bit.

"Shadow see I'm here okay? Yes, I have both mental and physical scars but I managed to survive all those years didn't I? I consider you my best friend and so do our wolves, I'm sure you know that. I know it might be too soon to say that but I never trusted anyone after I was betrayed a long time ago. But you Shadow have shown me nothing but kindness and yesterday showed how much of a trustworthy person you can be. I know I can trust you so please trust me too when I say that I want to build another family here with you and all of the pack members and move on."

She stood up from the chair and I moved back a little bit to give her space, she looked into my eyes. Hers glowed a bright green filled with a mixture of sadness, frustration, and rage.

She suddenly comes forward and wraps her arms around me making me gasp lightly in surprise but after that moment of shock I hugged her back though my small frame only reaches her shoulders.

I realized that she had a scent too. It was of the forest, winter, and roses. All of which was my favorite scents.

The forest and winter I'm sure was her natural scent but the rose was probably the smell of whatever she bathe with.

"You have a nice scent." We murmured at the same time making us laugh loudly, instantly ending the tense atmosphere.

"I have a nice scent? What do I smell like?" I asked still laughing.

She pulled back and grinned, "You smell like the rain and jasmine."

I smiled, I like those scents, it's good to know my scent was something I liked.

"How do I smell like to you?" She looked at me with curiosity.

"It's like the forest, winter, and roses," I replied with a grin.

"All of those scents calm me." We both muttered again at the same time making us laugh once again.

"Do you want to take a walk around the pack grounds? I think it would be a good idea to get familiar with your surroundings you start your training."

I looked back at her in excitement, "Training? When will it start?"

She chuckled, "You won't be as excited once it starts, trust me. But it begins tomorrow morning. I tried asking the Alpha to let me train you but she said that it wouldn't be fair considering every warrior gets trained by the Gamma so he will be the one to train you." She finished looking a bit annoyed.

I sighed, "It's alright, I have already been getting treated so well here and you all have been so welcoming, I don't need special treatment. It just wouldn't be right" and then after a pause I added, "If it would be alright with you, could you show me where the library in here is first? I don't know many things about wolves even though I am a werewolf so I want to learn as much as I can as soon as possible."

She smiled mischievously, "Someone likes to read it seems. I don't."

I felt heat creep up to my cheeks which she notices and grins in return.

"Alright let's go!" She bellowed enthusiastically while walking ahead making me chuckle. I turned around to follow her.

We continued walking going through several hallways and I tried my best to memorize them all.

"I realized I didn't exactly give you a layout of the packhouse, well it's comparatively bigger than all of the packs because of the number of pack members we have. Like I had mentioned before, there are three levels. The one main difference compared to other pack houses is that we have four wings, North, South, East, and West. The wing we are in right now is the south wing. As it is part of the main entrance, warriors are on the topmost floor of this wing with the higher-ups but the warriors are in the south whereas the Alpha, beta, etc are in the north wing. So basically the top floor has 4 sides or wings to it. The north for higher-ups, the south for warriors, the east for a very large library, and the west has guest bedrooms." She took a pause and then looked at me, "You are getting the idea right?"

I nodded, "Yeah, continue."

"That was the top floor now the second floor also has four wings like each floor does, so the second floor's north and the east wing is filled with a room of pack members who wish to stay in the packhouse and not get an independent house for themselves on the pack grounds. The west and south wings both consist of training rooms and a large gym, it's there for whenever there is bad weather out— people can train inside."

"Then the bottom floor's south wing is just the entrance and has a lot of paintings and other things which have a significance to our pack so that when people from other packs come, they can get a glimpse of our history. It has a portrait of all of our past and current higher-ups. The Alpha, the Beta, the Gamma, and the pack doctors. It just shows our appreciation for them. Anyways, the East wing has a large conference room where the higher-ups discuss things whenever they want to or when someone from another pack comes. Our warrior-strategic-training also takes place there. The west wing has a big kitchen and living room area where most pack members spend their free time, the wing we were just in. The north has a children's playroom, a gaming room, and the place where a lot of pack members hang out."

While she explained all this we kept walking and soon enough we reached a large door which I assumed was of the library.

She stepped forward and said, "Considering that you are someone who likes books, I'm sure you will love this place."

With that, she opened the door, and the sight had me gawking.

I liked it. No, loved it.

It had a golden brown theme to it, the bookshelves, the floor, and the walls all appear to be made of light brown hardwood. It also had many books. Hundreds of them which was shocking to me because I didn't think the pack library would have these many books.

"You can come back whenever you want and stay as long as you want but for now let's finish our tour shall we?" Said Shadow looking at me amusedly.

I sighed sadly but nodded in return. I'm coming back here soon.

We both turned back around to head out.

Alpha Taylor's POV

"Taylor, do you truly believe that she is somehow your family?" Sel inquired still a little skeptical.

"Yes, I do. I'm not a goddess but still, my powers are strong enough to tell me that she is, in fact, somehow my family. Even if she isn't my blood relative. Somehow, she is my family. Even Athena agrees with me." I said with clenched jaws.

With a sigh, I ran my finger through my hair feeling frustrated and tired not having gotten any sleep since last night as all these thoughts kept running through my head in a loop, and yet I still couldn't figure out how she was related to me.

I felt her stare at me worriedly. "I know you always stress yourself out like this, you need to get some sleep. I will handle the paperwork and pack matters for today."

"But—"

She glared at me sternly not taking no for an answer.

And she was the only person who could get away with it considering people knew from miles away that I was around and would scamper off like the little rats they were, except of course my pack.

"Jeez okay, I'm going. But have any idea about that?" I pointed towards the window where it was still raining heavily; which was odd because there was no rain in the forecast last I checked and it wasn't even the right season for it to be raining like this.

"As I said before, Mia has a lot of potential. And the moment it started to rain I felt a wave of tremendous power coming from somewhere in the packhouse. And guess what?"

"It was from Mia's room wasn't it," I replied not as a question but a statement.

She nodded.

I sighed again and growled loudly wanting to punch something.

"Tay we need to go for a run or at least go train, we cannot continue like this," Athena whispered calmly.

I decided to heed her words and stood up. I looked back at Sel feeling upset about her having to do my work.

"If you are worried about me doing your work then don't. You already needed a break anyway. You've been working non-stop lately." She said with worry lacing her tone.

Sometimes I wondered if she had secret mind-reading powers just like me.

"Yeah I know, but Blood Moon has been annoying the crap out of me trying to look for Mia and doing pointless attacks on the borders for no reason. Plus, our pack has been growing with a steady pace which means even more paperwork—"

"I'm your Beta I know what work you have, I get that there is a lot of work but you still need to take a break from time to time too. A stressed and burnt-out Alpha is not a good Alpha."

The last part gets to me and I know she knew it would, my one main goal since I became the Alpha was to work my best and hardest at being a good one. I sighed again and nodded showing anyways.

"Okay then, I need to burn off some steam. See you later Sel." I started heading out the door to go to the gym that our packhouse had.

"Have fun!" Mind linked Sel making me chuckle. "I sure will!" I heard her chuckle too.

I knew she will always be there for me. One of the many reasons why I loved her so much.

Mia's POV

We came out of the packhouse and I took a deep breath enjoying the weather. It wasn't too hot nor too cold. Just the perfect weather. I have always loved the nature and forest. They were one of my escapes whenever it got too hard for me.

And I especially loved winter because even though the rags that I wore would have me shivering, I related to the cold. After the first time I got whipped with a wolfsbane laced silver whip, something within me snapped that day. I felt it in me. Strange darkness appeared, of which I was terrified at first. Thoughts of me snapping the necks of the people that made fun of me or tortured me appeared in my mind and I was scared of myself, I was scared that I would start acting on these thoughts. But soon enough I realized that these were my thoughts and I had control over them. And I came to enjoy the darkness because in the darkness I felt safe. Because this darkness protected me by taking away my emotions. In this darkness, I could imagine getting my revenge because I knew I was too weak to do so in reality. In this darkness, I could be myself without any fear, in this darkness I was safe.

My thoughts shifted back to my new home. Compared to our pack, my old pack— no Blood Moon didn't have so much nature in its immediate pack grounds. Of course, being wolves they did have forest surrounding the pack border but within the border, it was just the occasional trees or some plants and flowers here and there while mostly it was concrete and had a city-like feel to it.

And that was very odd because wolves didn't appreciate that type of structure for their pack grounds. Being wolves we loved to be in nature. But I guess that pack had its oddities considering they tortured their pack members and the people who helped to keep the pack running by basically doing everything, from cooking their foods, washing their clothes, buying their daily necessities, etc.

I sighed and shook my head in an attempt to get rid of these thoughts. Keyword, attempt.

"So our pack grounds have a lot of nature as you can see." Said Shadow out of nowhere, looking around and smiling fondly.

I smiled too seeing all the boundless greenery, the birds chirping, trees of various sizes, and different types of flowers blooming all around.

I heard children laughing and turned around to see a group of kids around 5-7 years old being chased by a woman in her 40s.

"LISTEN HERE YOU LITTLE DEMONS! I DID NOT SPEND MY WHOLE LIFE LOOKING AFTER THIS PLACE TO BE RUINED BY LIKES OF YOU!!" She screamed making my eyes widen.

I looked at Shadow in confusion but she just shook her head.

"That is Rosalie, she is a very nice and kind-hearted person but if you mess around with her garden; she can instantly turn into a demon spawn of hell." Shadow mind linked me chuckling lightly.

"So has she taken care of this place her whole life?" I asked looking at her in wonder.

"Yes. She had a painful childhood. She came here from a very small pack where the Alpha was cruel and treated his members harshly. At first, she wouldn't even talk to anyone when she came here making everyone assume that she was mute. But what she did show interest in was gardening, at least that's what the person who took care of this place before her said. His name was Matthew. To everyone's surprise, Matthew took her in. It was surprising because he was a very closed-off person. He didn't talk much to anyone at all and mostly kept to himself. He also had a traumatic past of which I do not know but he probably saw something in her. He, of course, must have explained to Alpha Taylor but no one else up to my knowledge knows about it. She slowly started talking to Matthew and a few months later she started talking to people other than Matthew too, you could say that he helped her move on and teach her more about gardening, making her fall in love with it."

My eyes were wide and my jaw was hanging open by the time she finished.

I was surprised there was someone out there has gone through a tough childhood just like me.

Tough is the understatement of the century but still, I felt compassion for her. I knew people like us hate pity and I did not pity her. I felt proud of her to have come this far.

"I'm glad you do."

I yelped and turned around to see Rosalie standing there staring at me in amusement.

"I said that out loud didn't I?"

"Yep."

My face instantly turned bright red.

Hello Shadowlinks!

All the questions that I ask are going to be random :]

Q. Who's your favorite character so far?