"Please stop shaking your leg," Rowan begged me, picking at his cuticles as he glanced at me from across the kitchen table.

I cleared my throat, immediately bringing my wobbling leg to a halt, my nerves getting the better of me.

"It's okay," whispered Cole to me, placing his hand on my thigh and giving it a good squeeze. He shot a warning glare at Rowan, but he didn't seem overly bothered as he averted his gaze and started sifting through his notebook.

"Are you ever going to let anybody read that?" I questioned, the words slipping out of my mouth before I could stop them.

Rowan raised his brows as he slowly met his eyes to mine, and I gulped, worried I had touched a nerve. He was rather fond of his notebook. "There's nothing that anybody needs to see in here."

"Rowan has the memory of a goldfish," Cole stated, crossing his arms as he smirked at him. "That's why he needs to jot everything down. His dementia affects him in many ways."

Rowan growled, not enjoying Cole's teasing. "I'm not that much older than you."

Cole opened his mouth to speak again, but a knock at the door sounded, and he got to his feet to make his way over to it. I hadn't asked about what they had decided to do with Amber, too afraid that I wouldn't like the answer. Cole had continuously been glancing down at me, looking surprised by my lack of speaking.

I turned my neck to see Anthony and Amber walk in, Anthony's hand on his little sister's shoulder, comforting her. She looked frightened, her arms wrapped around herself, but she had her head held up high, and I could tell that Anthony had told her to try and remain confident and calm.

"Reya," Anthony greeted me, and I smiled, glancing down at Amber who met my eyes for a split second before shuffling over to her seat.

I took a deep breath. Looking over at Cole and Rowan. Who was going to let them know their fate?

"Okay." Cole sighed, looking slightly uncomfortable, worrying me. Was he about to tell them that they both had to pack their bags and leave tonight?

"Can you just get to the point?" spoke Anthony as he clasped his hands together. "I mean no disrespect, but please don't beat around the bush. We just want to know whether we have to leave or not."

Cole hummed, his jaw twitching from the way Anthony had spoken to him. I knew it wasn't from a malicious place though. Anthony was on edge and just wanted to know whether he needed to find a new home or not.

"This decision hasn't been easy for us," Rowan chimed in, narrowing his eyes at the little girl for a second.

Dick move.

"We have decided that Amber can stay," Cole said, my body suddenly relaxing, releasing a loud breath of relief. "But there are conditions." Cole continued.

Anthony nodded. "Whatever they are, I'm sure we can make it work." He was trying to hold back his smile. I could tell. Amber still looked like a deer in headlights, but she grabbed her brother's hand, looking relieved.

"She is under probation for the time being. She'll be on it for the next three months and if anything happens that we don't agree with, then we have to discuss what will happen next," Cole informed them, Rowan jotting down a few notes. "We will have weekly meetings to discuss how Amber is doing and feeling about everything. She isn't allowed anywhere unsupervised, especially when visiting her Mother. I know that was when she took the opportunity to sneak out."

"That's understood," Anthony said, his eyes flashing to mine, causing me to beam. I knew that Amber wasn't going to do anything to jeopardise her place here.

"She must be supervised by a select few people whom we trust," Rowan added. "We'll give you the list by tomorrow."

"There's no need to worry about Amber seeing our Mother unsupervised," Anthony stated, biting down on his bottom lip harshly. "She's in the hospital and she's been given a maximum of three days left to live."

My eyes widened. "We're so sorry to hear that."

Cole nodded. "We are, and we guarantee that the hospital staff will be doing their best to make your Mother as comfortable as possible."

Anthony and Amber didn't look particularly upset about their Mother's prospect of dying, but I understood that they had had a while to process it. She had been hanging on for an extremely long time, and my guess was that they were shocked that she hadn't passed sooner. Amber was so young and it was horrible that she was going through so much at her age. We needed to have sympathy.

"And I just want to double check, nobody will be informed of what Amber did, will they?" Anthony questioned.

Rowan shook his head. "No, they won't. I personally disagree with it. I think you should know that, but Alpha Cole and Reya have decided to keep it secret for now to make this all easier on you."

"Thank you," Amber muttered quietly, taking all of us off guard. I had expected her to remain quite for the remaining of the meeting.

"I want you to both know that we understand why certain things happened," I said, Cole leaning back in his chair and hanging his arm over the back of mine protectively. "We can move past this. We can."

Rowan didn't look so convinced, and he remained quiet as he clutched onto his fountain pen harshly, the plastic almost cracking under the pressure. He wasn't happy about Amber being here- that much was obvious. He wasn't in charge though.

"Is there anything you want to say to us?" Cole asked, cocking his head and raising his thick brows.

Anthony hesitated. "Just that I want you to know that we are fully dedicated to this pack. We will put in a conscious effort to prove that we belong here."

I could tell that Rowan was resisting the urge to snap back, but he had pretty good self control. He closed his notebook, tucking it under his arm and standing up. "If this meeting is over, then you'll have to excuse me. I have a training session to get to." He nodded at Cole and I, exiting the house, causing Anthony to grimace.

"He doesn't like us very much." Anthony sighed, standing up and taking Amber's hand. "Thank you both. We are grateful for another chance."

I smiled sadly. Anthony hadn't done anything wrong. He wasn't aware of what Amber had done and it was sad that he was thanking us for giving him another chance. Families stood together though. I understood that.

Anthony and Amber quickly left, and Cole turned to me, raising his brows and smiling. "Well that went well."

"You scared me," I chuckled. "I really didn't know if you were going to tell them to leave or not."

"Would you think less of me if I had?" Cole asked, hooking his finger under my chin.

I hummed, shaking my head. "No, I wouldn't have, but you forgiving Amber has shown me that your heart is bigger than you let on."

Cole rolled his eyes. "Part of the reason I let her stay was for you. I know how much she and Anthony mean to you, but we are taking this seriously. She'll be being watched."

I smiled, wrapping my arms around his neck and pressing my lips to his. "Everything is going to be okay. I promise you."

"I hope so," he said, placing his hand over my belly, leaning down and pressing his ear to it. I laughed.

"I'm not that far along, Cole. You won't be able to hear anything."

He nodded, pulling away. "I was just hoping."

"I'm going to visit Finn. Do you want to come?"

Cole groaned, leaning his head down onto my shoulder. "I don't know if can be bothered, but I don't like the idea of you going alone, so yes. I'll come."

I smiled. "Let's go."

"Now?"

I laughed. "Yes, now. It's non stop around here."

We walked hand in hand to the hospital, the summer sun having set, the air now a little bitter and cold. Although it was warm, we were by the sea, and Cole had told me that it was always a little windy here. I enjoyed it though. My colony had been sweltering during summer, nothing but a small lake for us to use to cool down in. Most of the time, we weren't allowed in it though.

The hospital came into view, it busy as usual. A few people nodded at us, some of them gazing at us with curiosity. I hoped they weren't coming to their own conclusions about why we were here again. We didn't need anybody questioning if we were expecting or not.

We said hello to the receptionist, and she immediately gestured for us to make our way towards Finn's room. He was kept more towards the back away from the wolves, and we rounded the corner and knocked on the door, Finn quickly allowing us in.

He was on his own feet and was dressed in some clothing that I assumed a wolf had given him. He beamed, looking relieved.

"You have no idea how happy I am to see you." He sighed, shaking his head and closing the door behind us. "I've been going stir crazy in here. I've asked the doctors ten thousand times to contact either of you to come and see me, but they just tell me that you're very busy."

"We have been," Cole spoke.

"You look much better," I said, my eyes scanning up and down Finn's body briefly, causing Cole to take a sideways step towards me, wrapping his arm around my waist.

Finn nodded, shrugging.

"There's a lot we need to discuss." Cole'a voice was strained.

"Like what?" Finn asked, looking confused as he settled down in the leather chair in the corner of the room.

I sighed. "Christopher tried to get into the pack to kill you. He admitted it with no shame. He said that you're a traitor."

Finn scrunched up his eyebrows. "What? What does he know?"

I shook my head. "We didn't tell him anything, but he's jumped to his own conclusions."

"Unfortunately his conclusions are correct," Cole added, running his hand down his face.

"Is Kassandra safe?" Finn asked, and Cole looked at me with a strange expression, his brows furrowed. He looked almost guilty.

"We have guards watching the complex, but we haven't moved her away from the others. We didn't want to give them more of a reason to target her."

"That's not good enough!" Finn growled. "She could be in danger. I want to see her now."

"Finn," I tried to reason with him. "Christopher is being watched like a hawk. And-"

"Reya, please!" Finn begged me, kicking at one of the metal chairs placed next to the bed. "She's the love of my life. I need to see if she's okay. I'll go to the complex without you if I have to."

Cole shook his head. "That won't go well, Finn. You'll be questioned and it will stir things. Christopher won't hesitate to hurt you."

"I would rather him hurt me than Kassandra," Finn said, pacing the room. "I'm going there now. With or without you guys. I don't care."

Cole cursed under his breath. "Okay, okay. I know we promised that you could see her, so let's organise a meeting between the two of you. We can do it when the other humans have gone to bed."

Finn hummed. "I don't want to be sneaking around to see my girlfriend. It's not a crime to be with her."

I held out my hands, making my way over to Finn. "We know. We don't want to keep you guys apart, but we just want to know what's going on with the humans before we put you both at risk."

"Kassandra is already at risk!"

"There are no weapons in the complex," Cole explained. "The rooms are pretty minimalistic."

That didn't seem to convince Finn though. "I don't care. If Christopher wants to hurt me for being a traitor, then he will target her. It doesn't matter how many guards you have watching the place. He'll find a way."

"Alright," Cole said, nodding once. "We'll take you there tonight. Get ready to leave."

•••

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