The following day, clouds spread across the sky. With those clouds came a certain quietness that made it a perfect day for reading.

Harley loved any day that involved reading.

After her work shift, she spent almost two hours finishing up her latest book. The characters Dorian and Taylor finally got together, thank God, but the ending was her favorite part. All of the loose ends were tied, the antagonist taken care of, and the reader could tell that the two would have a very happy ending.

Harley didn't mind reading about happy endings, but she knew that in real life they were a whole lot harder to come by.

In real life, fate didn't play a role in who you ended up with. In real life, there wasn't always—if ever—a man ready to take on the whole world to keep a woman by his side.

No, in real life families died, houses exploded, and little girls lost everything they've ever known.

Maybe that was why Harley liked to read so much. Fake worlds always had happy endings. It seemed like a way better way to live.

Someone knocked on the doorway.

Harley read an article once about the importance of keeping your door open in college, and while she'd never been to college, she still felt the advice could be used. Unless she was changing, she'd made a habit to keep her door open. Then, anytime anyone walked by they could either stop and talk or say hello as they passed.

It wasn't a big difference, but the little hellos given by the other pack members made her feel more welcome.

Or not.

"Dad wants to talk to you." Jamie grumbled from the doorway. Today, her long blond hair had been swept up into an elegant looking pony tail. Combined with the flowy pink collared shirt and tight black skinny jeans, Jamie looked like she was more than ready for a retail photo shoot.

Jamie was the one person Harley more than struggled to connect with. She didn't have a problem with her, but that didn't mean she couldn't feel the invisible barrier between them. There was just something so closed off about the girl—it made Harley want to stay away from her.

Harley closed the new romance book she'd opened. "Oh. Okay. Did he say why?"

Jamie smacked on a piece of gum. "Does it matter?"

"No." She climbed off her bed, feeling suddenly awkward and out of place. "I guess it doesn't. I'll be right there."

"Whatever." Jamie cast a quick look around her room. "This place is so boring."

It didn't take Harley long to see the place like Jamie did. Her room contained nothing more than the basics: a bed, a white dresser, a matching white nightstand.

The suitcase under her bed was still packed. She hadn't had the effort to pull it out and unpack it yet. Not that she wanted to.

There wasn't anything on the walls save for a generic landscape picture hung up before she'd arrived. The only thing that indicated someone lived there was the unmade bed and the stack of books on the nightstand.

"I haven't done anything with it yet." Harley defended herself.

Jamie stepped away from the door. "Well, you know what they say...a bedroom tells you a lot about a person."

And with that, Jamie left, her long hair trailing behind her.

~

The Alpha's office door had to be the most intimidating door in the entire pack house.

Whoever designed the interior of the pack house did a great job with what they had been given. Most, if not all, of the rooms throughout the house had a modern, yet homey feel to them and the hallway off of the kitchen that led to the Alpha's office was no different.

The hallway had been painted a calm beige with the slightest tint of green. The hardwood floors were dark, probably mahogany, and all the fixings throughout followed this dark pattern. The frames lining the pictures on the walls were black. The lamps and the long, narrow hallway table black as well.

She actually quite liked the color combination, but whoever had designed it had also decided to make all the doors in the hallway black as well.

While black doors in themselves weren't that frightening, the Alpha's was. It stood at the very end of the hallway and could be viewed from the kitchen, but something about the door added weight to it.

You're being stupid, Harley. Just go knock on the damn door.

There was nothing to worry about after all, right? She hadn't done anything wrong. Well, she didn't remember doing anything wrong.

She knocked on the door.

"Come on in, Harley." Alpha Mark called out. Though, how he knew it was Harley was beyond her.

"Hi Alpha Mark." She carefully stepped in.

The designer of the hallway had apparently decided to keep the theme from the hallway going. All of the Alpha's furnishings were the same dark color. His large desk, the floor-to-ceiling bookshelf behind him, and the leather couch near the entryway were all black. The only difference really was the walls—instead of continuing with the beige green, the interior designer went with more of a brown beige.

Though there were neatly organized stacks of papers on his desk all waiting to be looked at, Alpha Mark crossed his hands in front of him and gazed at her with a patience that suggested he had all the time in the world.

"Hello, Harley. How is your day going?"

She shifted, sadly aware of the visible awkwardness she portrayed. "It's been okay."

He waited expectantly as she read his next question off of his expression. "I've been okay." She reassured.

"Good." Warmth entered his eyes. She never really noticed until now how his eye color seemed to dance between hazel and brown. To be honest, she spent most of her time with the Alpha avoiding his eyes rather than meeting them. Not only was it a sign of respect in a wolf pack, but it was also an unwritten challenge if a wolf did not look away.

Because she didn't necessarily have a wolf, she never got an overwhelming urge to look down like some of the more submissive wolves did, so she had to constantly remind herself not to look him in the eye for too long. His wolf wouldn't like it.

She picked a spot on his desk to stare at instead—a small glass frog that sat near his computer keyboard.

"I wanted to talk to you about your latency." The Alpha said.

Latency, latency, latency. Why did everyone suddenly want to remind her of it?

"I appreciated you sharing the information with me when you first got here." He readjusted one of the piles on his desk. "I know it is not an easy subject and I decided to give you a bit of time to really integrate yourself into the pack before I approached this."

What could the Alpha possibly want her to do that involved her latency?

"I've already spoken to Will about it and he seems to be right on board." He said. "So I'm going to have you start training with him tomorrow."

"Training?" She asked, uncertain.

His fingers drummed the desk. "I take a lot of pride in knowing that each one of my wolves is able to defend him or herself. Usually, we do this when the wolf is a budding teenager not only to teach control, but all so that they can learn their limits.

Your case is quite different, but I will not let that get in the way of your safety. Will and I both have agreed to make sure that you know enough of a sense of self-defense so that should something happen, you'll have something to help you out. Hence, the training."

He wanted her to learn self-defense? She could see where that could be helpful, but the idea seemed to come out of nowhere.

She replayed the Alpha's words in her head. He and Will had talked about her latency? Together? The mortification of that mental picture made her face heat up.

"I will make it a command if I have to." He said when she didn't respond.

Frowning, Harley blinked and shook her head. "No, no I understand."

"Perfect." His fingers interlocked again. "I can pair you up with someone else for training, but I'd much rather put you with Will. He teaches a lot of the teenagers and will have a better feel for where you're at."

"Okay." She didn't know much more of what to say.

"That will be all, Harley."

She gave a jerky nod and practically scrambled out the door.

The entire rest of the day was spent in a daze. She would have to spend who knows how much time training with the pack's rogue hunter. The very same man who not only shared a past with her, but also knew of her weakness. And, as of lately, the one man who she might have a weak spot for.