One of the funniest things about the St. Bernard pack was that they had a range of golf carts. I guess it did make it easier to travel from the pack house to other residences, but I guess walking was just as easy. 

But it always made me have a little smile when I had to hop on to just go a few houses down the road. Although maybe today it came in handy as Nick's future retirement home was a little further away, it also looked a little different. Whilst the brick and mortar was very similar to the rest of the places, it was only single story and it had a larger garden. 

And what looked like planter boxes that were empty, I wonder what he was planing to grow. 

Zach parked the cart to the side and hopped out and I followed him.

"I feel really sad being here," he said as he stepped up to the door. I grabbed the key from my pocket handing it to him. 

"He was really looking forward to retiring."

Zach hesitated to open the door after turning the key, but before I could step in he managed to open it and we stepped inside.

There were boxes everywhere, and it looked like no one else had been here for days. There were cups on the kitchen counter, two of them, which meant Nick had company over before he had died.

I walked through the corridor, the floorboards creaking under my boots as Zach followed me.

"You're not on official Enforcer business are you?"

"What do you mean?" I asked as I walked down the entire length of the house looking in each room. I wanted to see where everything was before I had a deeper look.

"You're not in your uniform."

That was a good point.

"I'm here to pay my respects," I said, repeating what I had told Zloy earlier, it was true. There was no need for me to share the phone call, although I was itching to find out who it was from. I had a feeling it could be Zach, he seemed the most visibly upset from Nick's passing. But he also had the most alone time with me to tell me that it was him, and he hadn't.

I couldn't trust him yet to ask him. 

I started in the living rooms, opened a few boxes, trying to see if there was anything of interest. Nick sure had a lot of books, but they weren't novels, they were paperwork.

"Why does he have a lot of these?" I asked

"Not sure, these should be filed away actually." Zach grabbed a few from the top opening them and placing down, "Accounts?"

Manila folder after manila folder was found in a few of the boxes, I ended up not bothering to look any more. They were just record keeping information that I didn't think I needed. 

"So how come you and Hercules aren't together yet."

That question caught me off guard. I looked at Zach as he was going through the folders, he found them more interesting.

I leaned against the door frame, "What do you mean, we are together?"

Zach looked up from his folder and pointed to his own neck, "Mated."

I clenched my jaw, here we go again. The amount of obsession people had with mates was ridiculous.

"I heard the story you know."

"What story?" I asked, "There is no story."

"I used to be in Alpha Damien's pack. We've met before."

That...surprised me, and not many things did. 

"What?" I asked.

"I was only sixteen then, you probably don't remember me from the party but you did my sister's shoelaces for her, we didn't really talk."

"Oh," I said, trying to remember who's shoelaces I would have done up, I couldn't remember. 

"How is he...Alpha Damien?"

Zach shrugged.

"I didn't leave on the best terms. My mate died, I wanted out, so I came here. Alpha Tiane took me in before he died. My mother was from his back, before she met dad at Alpha Damien's and moved," Zach waved a hand around, "you know how it works."

"Right," I said taking seat on the bar stool that was next to me. 

"So I remember you, and the whole you getting injured and Damien and Hercules fighting over you."

"They didn't fight over me...Damien was just desperate for anyone to be his Luna that's all."

Zach shrugged again, placing the folder back in the box.

"Yeah but everyone gossiped you know."

I didn't know, and I didn't want to know...but I also sort of did. 

"About?"

"Well you and Hercules, like you know the mate pull. You never really felt that with him did you?"

"Why are you so curious?"

"There's rumours that your wolf rejected him."

I scoffed, "Well that's not true. My wolf barely exists, that's why I never had that...I don't know bond with him. It's probably here somewhere hiding." I shrugged.

The very first time I met Hercules, I remember that time he confronted me outside my room asking me why I was fighting it. I didn't know then, almost four years ago, but my wolf was never in me 24/7 like everyone else, so I didn't have that initially bond. 

Sure, he touched me, I buzzed, he hugged me, maybe I wanted to melt into the warmth of him, but maybe it wasn't as stronger as everyone else's. 

Zach looked solemn and it almost made me a little worried.

"How did....your mate pass?" I asked.

"Don't worry, you didn't kill her."

I clenched "I didn't mean it like that," but I did, I was curious, after what happened with Marcus's mate I didn't want to take any more risks. 

"She had cancer, she was half human. She couldn't fight it. I knew her for two years before she died."

"I'm sorry,"

"It's...whatever."

Zach gave me a forced half smile before he packed the rest of the folders away.

"I just think you're quite fortunate you know, you have this mate still alive and you're here neglecting your duties."

Here we go...again.

"Well," I said sighing, it was almost a fighting battle to explain my thinking. Sure, he was an Alpha so I had a duty, but if he was just another ordinary person in the pack, did it matter what I did? 

No.

It was just because previous enforcers who ended up being Luna's such as Liz, ended up taking up their duty, but that was also because they never loved their job. I did. The job was all I knew, I never had the same childhood as everyone else, so this was my home.

But there was no way explaining that to everyone, they never got it, why my job was closer to me than my own family. And now it was too late to take back all the trauma of my life to be this loving doting Luna to a pack that I did not deserve to have.

"Do you believe in Karma, Zach?" I asked.

"Why?"

"Let's just say, when you take as many lives as I did, you don't deserve a happy ending."

"You don't truly believe that."

"Well believe it," I said jumping off the bar stool, "My wolf doesn't want me, not Hercules. She didn't reject him, okay? She rejected me. So if we're going to spread rumours let's just keep it to me okay? I'm going to go check the bedrooms now."

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