I had escaped death a total of three times now. The first time was when I'd gotten bitten. The other three times were when I'd almost gotten caught by, by passers, lurking around the houses and buildings in the area.

"Come on, we're going to be late! Mom is waiting at the pack hall. The ceremony has probably started already, sheesh!" The voice of a little girl snapped me out of my daze. I could hear feet thumping along the gravel. Two pairs? No, more than two. What the hell was I thinking? One, two, three, it didn't matter! I needed to get the hell out of here.

I hid behind the closest wall with my back against it, partially peeking around the corner. It was a brown, brick, stocky building standing at a fairly short height. The brown sheet around my head camouflaged with the colors to a certain degree.

"We're coming, Leta! We're coming! Come on, Leo, we've got to catch up," a boy replied.

I saw the girl first. Her red hair curled down her gray, button dress. Two boys dressed in tan khaki pants and white button-down shirts trailed behind her. They couldn't have been any older than fourteen. Maybe even fifteen. I'd noticed a lot of the clothing people wore in this town was a modern spin on the kind of clothing I'd have seen worn in villages. Not all of it, but most of it.

"Do you guys smell that?" The boy they referred to as Leo slowed in his tracks. His nostrils wiggled around a bit. I furrowed my eyebrows and frowned. I didn't understand what he was doing. Not until moments after, at least. Shit, he was sniffing the air. His eyes almost met mine for a brief second, but I pulled my head back just in time.

"Smell what, Leo?" the other boy asked.

"I don't know. It kind of smells like a—"

"We don't have time for this!" the girl screamed.

"Fine. Whatever." Leo huffed and rolled his eyes. I peeked around the corner once more. He had given my direction one more glance. Thankfully, he missed me. I watched him run off, catching up with his siblings.

"That was too close," I muttered, holding my chest. I needed to get off the streets. Next time, I might not have been so lucky as to make it out alive. There were no fourth times in good luck charms.

I removed myself from the wall, ducking my head down as I began running alongside the buildings again. My legs stopped short when I saw the incoming four-way crosswalk. I could see a large, circular, dead-end up ahead, filled with a crowd in the street.

"Whoa," I whispered. I couldn't take my eyes off the scene in front of me.

It was just as I imagined a town gathering to be. There had to be at least three-hundred people standing there. Most of them were chanting. Those must have been the noises I heard in the room. No one was sitting. There was a brown wooden stage with a row of silver and gold chairs placed to the back—eight to be exact—all of them occupied. However, there was a larger gap between the first two seats and the rest.

A middle-aged man and a middle-aged woman were sat in the first two seats. Their auras were like parallels of each other. But everything else was the same. Skin tone, brown eyes, and all. Though her flawless brown skin glimmered under the sunlight unlike his. I caught myself gaping at her curls, that were as thick and long as mine. Gold eyeshadow covered her eyelids, all the way across the skin.

I thought Vincent bled power. These two were on an entirely different level compared to him. I wasn't even standing close to them and I felt it. As Vincent crossed my mind, I noticed him sitting in the third chair. There was a long, gold, thin piece of material covering his entire back and shoulders. I could only see some of his torso from here. By the looks of it, he was shirt-less.

I recognized the guy who wouldn't tell me his name beside Vincent, in the fourth chair. In the fifth chair, there was an extremely pale girl with black hair flowing down her back. Her green eyes were as vibrant as emerald's. In the sixth chair, there was a girl with brown skin lighter than Mariah's, but her oval-shaped face complimented the black, curly afro on her head. Especially the medium-sized golden hoops in her ears.

The last two chairs, sat a handsome male, and Mariah. The male almost looked identical to her. Except his hair was shaped up—the same with his facial hair. Considering they were the only ones on stage, I wondered if they were high-ranking officials of some sort, to this pack, too.

Vincent's eyes flicked up for a moment. My heart dropped out of my chest.

I scurried across the street, shielding myself with the nearest building closest to the crowd. But not too close, someone would have been able to sniff me out. Had he seen me? I was the only person standing back there. No. He couldn't have spotted me over the crowd.

I tilted my head around the corner of the building to check. His eyes were on the people below the stage. A breath of relief exited my mouth. Suddenly, the middle-aged man raised his hand in the air. Everyone silenced at once. I blinked in satisfaction.

It was almost scary to witness. He hadn't needed to say a word.

"Today, is a very important day," the man said as he raised to his feet. His arms went behind his back while his feet guided him center stage. "I am ecstatic that I am still alive to be able to witness such a moment." There were no microphones, no speakers. He had been projecting his voice on his own. Wow. I'd admit I was impressed.

"After the loss of Amaury, it has been a challenging time in Calamitous for all of us. Nine years ago, I stepped down as alpha of this pack. Amaury had been the one to take my place. And while all of you knew him as your leader, I knew him as my son. Losing a child is one of the worst things any parent could experience. I wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy.

"Some would even say the pain is just like losing a mate. . . Numbing and heart-breaking. . . We will continue to grieve as a pack. However, we will not continue to move forward without a leader. A pack needs a leader. That is exactly why, today, I have the honor of crowning your new alpha. . . My only remaining son; Vincent, please stand." Cheers erupted across the crowd.

Whoa. Vincent didn't look anything related to those people. Starting with his skin tone, for instance. Then, his hair. I couldn't point out a feature about him that resembled them. Wait, why the hell was I standing here watching this and worrying about that?

Geez, I was basically asking to get killed.

Vincent stood at his full height, the same blank look I was familiar with on his face. I would've thought he'd been happier to be crowned with such a high-ranking title. Apparently, not. The title obviously meant something special to these people. Then again, he hadn't sounded too happy about it when he was speaking to Mariah in the room either.

"Vincent, will you vow to accept this title and lead this pack for as long as you may find the strength to do so?" the man asked.

Vincent lowered himself to the ground on one knee. His head faced the crowd and his posture was upright. He removed the golden material off his body, letting it fall to the floor. For the first time, I noticed the black ink across the bare skin on the left side of his chest. My right, his left.

The tattoo was of a large wolf surrounded by trees behind it, howling at a full moon, overlaid with clouds. The tattoo continued down his arm into a sleeve that showed several smaller wolves, similar to that of a pack, looking up at the moon. They too, were surrounded by trees.

That was when I noticed he wasn't the only member tattooed. The people whose arms I could see from here, had a small tattoo stamped below their wrist. It was a small full moon with a wolf howling over it. I knew traditions when I saw them. It seemed Vincent was the only one with a sleeve though.

Perhaps the tattoos symbolized their places within the pack or the pack as a whole. Maybe the alpha had the largest tattoo because the alpha was the leader. It was kind of like being the heart of the pack.

"I accept," Vincent said. The man nodded then glanced over to the woman who was sitting beside him. The middle-aged woman stood to her feet and lifted something from the arm of her chair.

"Vincent, my dear boy. It is my honor to give this to you." She smiled, tilting the thorn crown over his head. When it touched his hair, he lifted himself up again. I fixed my glasses on my nose and gaped in awe. She turned towards the remaining group. On cue, they all stood.

"Bennett. Do you accept your duties as beta to your alpha?" she said.

"Yes." The man whose name I hadn't known before bowed forward slightly.

"Claudia. Do you accept your duties as third in command to your alpha?" Her eyes were now on the pale girl. Claudia did the same as Bennett, bowing forward.

"Yes, I do," Claudia said.

"Dylan. Dimitri. Do you two accept your duties as the lead warriors of our pack under the command of your alpha?"

"Yes, Lady Teresa." Both voices spoke in unison.

"Lastly, Mariah. Do you accept your duties to stay by Vincent's side as one of our best future doctors and nurses of this pack?"

"I accept," Mariah said.

"Are there any objections to your new alpha? Speak now or forever hold your peace." The middle-aged man's eyes roamed the people below them. The crowd was silent. Heads spun in different directions. But no one spoke up. No one but one person.

"I do, Alpha Amaruq, sir," the voice said. Amaruq squared his shoulders and folded his hands in front of him. He gazed down on the young man with curiosity. The young man cleared his throat and stepped forward.

"How can we trust an outsider to lead us?" Vincent tensed at the man's question. However, the distraught wiped itself clean from his face as fast as it came. Other people may not have saw it, but I saw it. The question affected him more than he was willing to show.

"Elaborate," was Amaruq's response.

"With all due respect sir, Vincent doesn't belong here. He never did. Someone who has always been a part of Calamitous should be worthy of the title. Someone who was taught the proper ways to lead."

"Does he not have alpha's blood running through him?" Amaruq raised an eyebrow.

"Yes, but sir, Vincent is still a stray—"

"Then why does it matter that he was not born in our pack? A stray, you say. He was raised here, was he not? No matter where he was born, the fact that he is an alpha-born wolf does not change. And he is the only alpha-born wolf remaining among our pack. Is that not correct?"

The man scoffed and hadn't bothered responding.

"I asked you a question, young man," Amaruq barked.

"Yes . . . I suppose that is correct," the man gritted.

"You suppose that is correct?" Amaruq stroked the bushy, black beard along his chin.

"Then, why is it you refuse to give Vincent the same respect as you all've done Amaury and I? An outsider? Unbelievable"—Amaruq scoffed and shook his head with disappointment—"as wolves of Calamitous, I expect better from all of you."

He then continued, "If any of you have the same issue with Vincent taking the throne, you are free to vanish from this pack and never return. Because the disrespect will not be tolerated. He is and will always be just as much a wolf of Calamitous as any of us."

I frowned amongst the crowd. Vincent's face remained wiped clean of emotion. He straightened his shoulders and placed his hands at his side, gazing over the people. He hadn't let those comments deter him away from the main focus of the ceremony. Geez, he really was made of steel. Those comments would have probably hurt my feelings a little bit.

Turmoil passed through the crowd. Part of me felt bad for whatever reason.

Sheesh, I shouldn't have been feeling bad for him or anyone else here. I should have been feeling bad for myself. But still. Gosh, what was I even thinking? It was stupid of me to even try and sympathize with the situation. I didn't even know any of these people. But this couldn't have been the first time this had been an issue within their pack. That much was painfully obvious.

I shook the image out of my head and focused on the task at hand. That was enough. I overstayed my visit. After peering at the group on stage one more time, I took off.