The men who entered Vincent's home were nothing like I'd imagined they'd be. I was willing to bet their alpha was on the edge of his late twenties. I'd even go as far as to say he was reaching into early thirties territory. I wasn't going to bargain any age above that. If the odds were he was older than either of those ages, I'd have been shocked. I knew for sure Alpha Kai, as they addressed him, was much older than Vincent though.

Shoulder length dirty blonde hair, blue eyes, and a natural resting bitch face, that was just as intimidating as Amaruq's stoic expression, were all of the features that made up Alpha Kai's appearance. He'd made eye contact with me once before entering the large meeting room with five other men, whom I figured, were a part of his pack.

He was the perfect example of what humans would call; a man who didn't age.

The meeting room was a room downstairs to the side of the house, just in between the living room and the kitchen. I hadn't realized that area was really just two massive doors that led to a large room. I thought it had just been a blank wall. But they were all occupied there now.

"One. . . Two. . . Three. . . Four. . . One. . . Two. . . Three. . . Four. . ." I walked up and down the last four steps, counting each one aloud repeatedly. I glanced over at the doors once more, then it was back to counting.

When Alpha Kai met my gaze, that was the last time I'd seen any of them for the last hour, as Vincent and his crew slithered in behind them. Vincent may have asked me not to disrupt, however, he hadn't said anything about me roaming the house. So, I guess standing around out here was okay. But I was so damn bored.

Suddenly, one of the meeting room doors cracked open. "Do you need any help, Lady Teresa?" I heard someone ask. There was a hand gripping the doorknob from inside while a figure slipped out of the thin opening. My first instinct, for whatever reason, was to duck on the stairs. And I sat quietly, watching the scene play out.

"No, no. Thank you, Dimitri, but I've got it under control. Go ahead and don't let me distract you." Lady Teresa's brown, closed-toed heels were loud against the floor. Her eye shadow was the same color as any other day, matching the long, light brown, sleeveless, wool dress she picked out to wear today. And her hair was knotted into a neat curly bun.

I held my position and watched her enter the kitchen. She dug through the cabinets, grabbing a box of what looked like a variety of chips. She opened the refrigerator, pulled a tray full of small club sandwiches out, and closed it back. Then, she stopped.

"Genesis, would you like to help me?" she called out.

"Oh shit." I had almost toppled forward onto the floor.

"Language," she scolded.

I swore again under my breath and steadied myself. "Sorry, sorry! How'd you know I was here?" Scrambling to my feet, I spun around the corner. My face scrunched as I realized the question that left my mouth. "Wait, never mind. Don't answer that. That was probably stupid."

She paid me no mind and crooked her finger. "Come," she said, a stern expression settling on her face. I was set under a spell by the hypnotizing melody in her tone. My feet followed the path to where she stood in the kitchen.

"I wasn't eavesdropping," was the first thing I blurted.

Damn, why did I say that? She hadn't asked me about it. But that overwhelmingly, breath-taking aura of hers was making my heart leap again. I hated that I felt the need to explain myself whenever she was around.

She went on, ignoring my comment, "They've run out of refreshments in there. So, I'm preparing more of them."

"Oh, restocking? Got it," I said.

"You can start by passing me those drinks out of the fridge." She pointed behind me.

"Oh okay." I backed away to the refrigerator door. Her gentle voice hummed a soft tune I wasn't familiar with. While she peeled the plastic covering the sandwich tray back, she continued to hum that tune. It was sweet, reminding me of the baked goods my mother made on her days off from work. But appealing to my ears, not my nose or my taste buds.

"Tell me something, Genesis. Are you aware of the Cradle Song?" she asked, suddenly.

My body halted in its tracks. The fridge door was partially open. There were several mini bottles of water in my hand, slipping through the cracks of my fingertips. I kicked the refrigerator door closed with the heel of my foot and turned.

"Um, I don't think so," I spoke with caution.

Her touch was delicate on the plastic. She placed it at the top of the trash can, without forcing it down. I then watched her hands come together, gently wiping whatever it was that was there.

She began, "It's a piano piece by a man named Johannes Brahms. Very alluring sound. My parents were obsessed with human culture. And through those obsessions, they found that that beautiful, soft, piano piece could calm a pup in the matter of seconds.

"The same way it calmed human babies to sleep. I hadn't realized it then, but as my parents sang it to me, and I sang it to my pups, there was a trance. It was never just a lullaby but a hypnotizing sound that humans used to develop and connect with their child."

"I'm not sure I'm following. . ." A frown settled on my face.

"Lullabies are soothing. Forgiving. Lulling. Did you know that they also have the ability to strengthen a parent-child's emotional bond? I sang this tune to Amaury so much, there's no one in this pack who has a stronger bond with him than I do. Except you, that is."

My stomach flipped upside down. "W-what do you mean? I'm not sure I quite understand what you're trying to say." I laughed it off. But the noise died.

"Do you know the term, Luna?" I shook my head no.

She fixed her posture, picking up the tray of sandwiches in her hands. She then placed the tray on top of the large box of chips to carry it on top.

"The Alpha is like a king; the core of the pack. They have the final say. Luna is like a queen; the backbone of the pack. Luna's are what wolves refer to as mates of Alpha's. Mates fit to lead beside their Alpha's in the hierarchy of dominance that's been placed on individual ranks.

"So, as the mate of an Alpha, I bear the emotions of this pack stronger than any other wolf. But as a mother to my boys, I bear the emotions of my son. And right now, I can sense his presence, Genesis. . . In other words, you know something about Amaury that I don't."

My face paled and I was left speechless. Racking my brain for any and every lie I could say.

"You look like you've seen a ghost," she commented with a brief smile, that hadn't even lasted five seconds, before her face fell flat again.

"I, um, no. I'm just c-confused. I'm not sure what you mean. That was, I, just—"

She lifted a hand in the air to silence my rambling, using her other hand to balance the box of chips and tray on her palm. I shut my mouth and tensed. My toes curled at the front of my converse. My hands did the same, almost crushing the water bottles until the tops exploded off.

"I am not like Amaruq nor am I like Vincent. I will not grill you. I will not drill the answers out of you. That is not my purpose. But I will let it be known—there's something about you—something that reminds me of my dear Amaury. And the presence of him is strong.

"Do you think I am a fool, Genesis, that I could not hear you saying my son's name when we first met, the night before? You talked to no one then called his name after I retreated. You are hiding something. Something far more than the innocence you plead and feign."

The surge of fear that shot through me was unreal. My mouth opened and closed. I resembled a gaping fish out of water, gasping for air. But none would fill my lungs. A persistent pounding beat at the back of my skull.

Thump, thump, thump, the sound went on like that. It could've also been the sound of my heartbeat that I had mistaken for an oncoming headache. Going with the ladder seemed the most appealing right now.

Her smile was back. This time, it was a warm sight that calmed my racing heart a few beats. She wasn't angry. She wasn't threatening me. But she was accusing me of something that I was guilty of. Even if she didn't know exactly what it was. And shit, if it didn't feel not so great.

"But that's enough for today. Come along now." She gestured to the side.

I couldn't respond. And it took everything in me to move my limbs forward. The water bottles moved around in my hands. I was shaking. I hadn't noticed that. When did that start? I tucked the bottles into my chest to wrap my arms around them, for better comfort.

"Thank you, Genesis. I can handle it from here. You can return to doing what you were doing." Lady Teresa bowed her head a bit. "Just lay those bottles right there on that table. I'll be back for them in a few minutes." She was referring to the small, round, brown table outside the meeting room doors.

I nodded and began placing each bottle down one at a time. The door opened a smudge. She slid into the thin opening and closed it back almost fully. Just enough for me to overhear what was being said inside.

". . .It was something unexplainable." The deep voice speaking didn't belong to Vincent.

"Unexplainable? Pardon me, Alpha Kai, but what do you mean by that?" That was, for sure, Bennett's voice. The conversation captured my attention. So, I listened. I listened to each distinct voice talking and matched it to the person, from what I could remember.

"I'm afraid I cannot elaborate any more than I've already done. In all nine years of my leadership, I do not ever recall this. Odin claims it is no more human than we are; a creature."

"What kind of creature?" I imagined Vincent's eyebrow raising as he talked.

"Perhaps Odin can explain. He was the one who saw it for himself." Alpha Kai's breath quivered with hesitation but he cleared it from his voice. "It sounded so ridiculous, I admit, I probably wouldn't have believed him if he wasn't so convincing."

"Yeah, I almost didn't believe it either when I saw it." Whoever was speaking now, had a much more droning voice than Alpha Kai's. "Shit, I'm not afraid to say I almost pissed myself."

"Beta Odin, please explain for all of us," Vincent said.

"The Erebus wolves are evolving."

"Evolving?" Amaruq added.

"The Erebus wolves don't evolve any deeper than the monsters they've already become. How can they change further?" Dylan questioned, uncertainty clinging onto her words.

"I asked myself the same thing. But if they're not evolving, I don't know what the hell they're doing because something isn't right with them. I came across the wolf by the South entrance of our territory. It was lingering around in a daze. It didn't see, hear, or smell me coming.

"I was ready to shift and attack. However, I saw something haunting. The creature I mentioned to Kai, was absorbing it . . . as if they were fusing together. The Erebus wolf was growling in pain. That thing . . . that dark, shadow thing just . . . used its body. Like a vessel."

"I'm not understanding," Mariah said, her eyebrows probably furrowed.

My blood pumped to my ears. I understood. Anything else that was said after the fact, wasn't processed in my brain. It didn't need to be processed because I didn't care about any of that. All I cared about were the words Odin just said. He'd said it in front of a room full of people. He saw it. I wasn't alone anymore. He saw it. With his own eyes.

"Another eye-witness?" I blinked, reeling in the revelation. "Another eye-witness."

My body moved on its own.

"You saw it!" My scream echoed in the room, bouncing off the walls around us, and seeping back into my ears. The doors hit the wall when I flung them open with a loud bang. Thankfully, no one was standing behind them.

All wide eyes were on me. A man stood to the front, his silver and black hair tied in a bun. He was walking with his knuckles to his mouth but slowed his pace to get a good look at me. I assumed that he was the one who was talking; Odin.

Alpha Kai and Vincent were seated beside each other at the end of the table, towards the front. There was no need to look into Vincent's eyes when I could feel his perplexed stare weighing down on me. Alpha Kai shot him a look. He sent back an expression I couldn't decode.

But that didn't matter. My body was quivering. Not in an I want to cry way. But in an I've got too much adrenaline rushing through me way. And I couldn't calm down. My gut was urging me to keep talking before I had any second thoughts about what I was going to blurt.

"I beg your pardon." Odin lowered his fist.

"You saw it too. The shadows. Up until now I was the only one who saw them. And even then, I couldn't explain myself properly, because I had a hard time describing them." I laughed, not caring one bit how batshit crazy I looked. "But you saw them! Just like me! Shit, oh my goodness. You saw them too." I turned to Vincent grinning ear-to-ear.

Realization seemed to have hit him. His eyebrows shot up at once. I thought I heard a low snarl across the room from him. But it wasn't towards me. It was at himself. I knew because he glanced away, before glancing back. Everyone's confusion stuck out like a sore thumb in the room, as they looked between us.

Vincent scooted back in his chair and stood. "Excuse us for a moment, please."

I watched him walk to the door in less than five steps. He stopped right in front of me, inspecting me from his height. We stared at each other for what felt like over an eternity. A weird glint in his pupils brought the somersaults in my stomach back to life. I hadn't even noticed him reach for my right arm and tug on my wrist. It was a small gesture but I cherished it anyway.

"Come with me for a second," he said.

Nodding, I allowed him to guide me outside. As soon as we were on the other side of the meeting room doors, I felt his grip on my wrist loosen. He straightened up and leaned into my side.

"The door to the office is unlocked. Wait for me there. I'll be up there soon." His whisper lingered in my ear. Before he could walk away, my hand shot out, clinging onto his wrist. I held on tight—my grip so firm—it could've bruised his skin.

"Wait! Do you promise you won't leave me stranded up there?" I whispered.

"I won't. A promise is a promise, isn't it?" he replied.

"A promise is a promise," I nodded, repeating his words, after him.