“So, you’re telling me that I can never go back to my old life. And you think I’m supposed to be ok with that?” I looked at the people around me who were gathered in Shawn’s office. Shawn, Beth, Ian, and her parents looked at me sadly. They were all gathered around Shawn’s desk and I was leaning on the wall across the room. It really felt like a me vs. them situation.

“Honey. You are a werewolf now. You can’t just go back and think that everything is the same for you because it’s not.” Diana said.

“I’m willing to compromise. I’m willing to learn all that I need to learn about werewolf life then I want to go back.”

“You can’t, Mia. You’re needed here.” Phil said.

“Beth did it!” I knew that was the most immature argument I could ever come up with, but it was true. She was my manager and the one who was with me most of the time so if she could make it work I’m sure I could too.

“Beth isn’t the Luna. You are and as Luna you have a responsibility to your pack.” Diana said

“A responsibility that I did not ask for and did not agree to! I’m baffled that you all are trying to make it seem like I’m wrong for feeling the way I do. I don’t want this!”

Suddenly Ian stood up and walked over to me, “How about we all take a step back. I know exactly how you feel, Mia.” He said placing a hand on my shoulder. “I wasn’t born vampire. I was human once, so I understand how difficult it is to work through all of this. Let’s not worry about whether you’re going to leave or not just yet. Right now, the most important thing is making sure you can cope with who and what you are now.”

“I agree with Ian,” Shawn said. He had been pretty quiet while I went back and forth with Beth and her parents I was hoping he would help me convince them. “Once we get her accustomed to wolf life we could discuss everything else later.”

I pushed myself away from the wall and walked behind Shawn’s desk to look out the window. He had a nice view of the back of the property from his office you could see the lake and a wide-open space where it looked like a few people were working out and another space that looked like it had a stage set up. I sighed, what I wouldn’t give to turn back the hands of time a couple of weeks.  I should have left this place the minute I figured out what Beth had done.

“I know that your pack needs a Luna but in light of the circumstances I’d think you all could be a little more fair than this. Besides we’ve been discussing this for almost an hour and haven’t gotten anywhere. It’s time to come to a compromise for the moment and pick this back up later.” I heard Ian say from behind me. I scoffed. Fair didn’t appear to be in the werewolf vocabulary it was there way or the highway.

I heard Beth and her parents mumble their reluctant agreements and some shuffling as people began to leave the room.

“Mia.”

I turned around to see the room cleared except Shawn still at his desk and Ian standing in the doorway.

“If you ever want to talk to someone that’s been there. I’d be more than happy to listen. My transition was forced as well, and it wasn’t easy in the least.” Ian said before completely leaving the office and closing the door behind him.

“You agree with them?” I asked Shawn once we were alone. “You think I should be forced to stay here?”

He sighed, “Packs do function and flourish much better under an Alpha and a Luna, however, having a Luna who doesn’t want the job won’t do us much good.”

“Why didn’t you back me up then?” I asked him.

“The first thing you have to learn about is wolf hierarchy. Beth, Ethan, Phil, and Diana are all Alphas. I’m a Beta, like a second in command. It’s not my place to disagree with an Alpha. My relationship with Ethan is a little different we are friends as well as Alpha and Beta, plus it’s my job to advise and help him run the pack to an extent so I can get away with a bit more than with anyone else. But…it’s against my nature to do that.”

“Against your nature? Is this like another supernatural deal? The ‘force’ is keeping you from disagreeing?” I asked rolling my eyes.

He chuckled, “Something like that.”

I sighed and continued to look out the window, I could do this. I could stay here for a while and learn what I need to know and then get the hell out of here. I watched as a small family gathered in the driveway outside. Surprisingly, the woman was another African American woman, the first person I’ve seen who looked like me. Her husband looked to be leaving and she was standing next to the car holding a toddler while they said their goodbyes. He kissed the baby, then gently kissed the woman and caressed her neck where her mark was.

My hand subconsciously went up to my neck, it was mostly healed but I kept a bandage on it anyway. I had a huge scar the size of it was almost as big as my hand and you could clearly see some bite marks. It looked nothing like the mating marks I had seen on others. I was embarrassed by it and wasn’t sure exactly how to keep it covered after it healed. I couldn’t keep a bandage on it forever.

“Mia!”

I turned at the sound of Shawn calling my name.

“I’ve been calling your name…are you ok?”

Am I ok? I wasn’t sure how to answer that question. My life did not feel like my own anymore. It wasn’t a good feeling. Today I was told that I would be leaving the bed and breakfast and moving into the pack house. Shawn helped me pack up my stuff and we came to the house. I had to admit the House was wonderful. It was four floors; the top was a suite for the Alpha family basically it’s own little house, the third floor held offices and the Betas quarters (not as nice as what the Alpha has but close), the second and first floor contained bedrooms for various members of the pack, the first floor also contained a kitchen and dining room as well as a small living room, and the basement held a movie room, game room, and huge living room.

As beautiful as the house is I wasn’t thrilled to be here, “I’m fine.” I lied. I had no urge to sit and discuss all the ways this entire situation sucked. It was clear from my earlier conversation that no one seemed to be considering things from my point of view.

“I know you aren’t but that’s fine we don’t have to talk about it.” He said after a moment. “You want to go grab some dinner?”

Before I could answer, his office door flew open and we looked up to see Ethan standing in the doorway. Instantly I was on high alert, I slowly inched over towards Shawn until I was practically standing directly behind him. I was so scared I noticed my hand was shaking. Although I felt like I was in flight or fight mode there was still a part of me that wanted to run to him. I’ve heard people say that they’ve struggled with themselves over something and I can honestly say I never quite understood the feeling until just now.

“What is she doing in your office with the door closed?” Ethan’s deep voice rumbled. I shivered but I wasn’t sure if it was from fear or…. arousal. Damn it! This mate bond was another layer of confusion that I didn’t need.

“Ethan you know nothing is happening here.”

I heard a deep growl in response.

“Mia. You trust me, right?” Shawn asked.

“Yeah.”

“I need you to step from behind me back to where you were before he came in.”

“What! Why?” I asked panicking slightly.

“Please just trust me. I’ll explain later.”

Against my better judgement I moved back into Ethan’s line of sight. I would be lying if I said that he was unattractive. I was finally getting a good look at him and under different circumstances who knows what could have happened. He had black hair and dark brown eyes that felt like they were piercing my soul. He appeared to be a few inches taller than me but it was hard to tell at this distance.

“Why is she here?”

“She’s moving into the pack house.”

“No! Fucking no. Take her back to my parents.” His whole body was ridged, and his fists were balled up at his sides it was evident he hated me but the question was, why?And if he hated me so much why did he bite me? I didn’t understand much but I knew the bite or mark was special between a couple, so his behavior didn’t add up.

“No. She needs to be around our people. She has to learn to be one of us.” Shawn said.

“You’ve been real disrespectful lately, Beta.” Ethan said disapprovingly.

“Well I never imagined you would ever do anything like this to your mate. I’m finding it hard to have respect for you at the moment.”

Ethan’s eyes narrowed, and I could swear the atmosphere in the room changed, “What did you just say to me?”

Shawn stepped from around his desk and walked up to Ethan, “You heard exactly what I said.”

I had to admit I was a little worried for Shawn. They were both built about the same but Ethan was taller by a couple of inches. Not to mention power and authority seemed to radiate off of Ethan in waves. They were staring each other down and I was hoping one of them would back down but neither of them did and before I knew it Shawn swung and hit Ethan in the face and all hell broke lose from there.

I couldn’t tell you what possessed me to run up to them and try and pull them apart. I was scared for myself but even more scared for Shawn. The need to protect my friend was stronger than anything else. I didn’t want to see him get hurt. I grabbed on to Ethan's arm to try and get him to stop. Instead he used his strength to sling me away. I literally flew a couple of feet through the air and slammed into the wall banging my head against it. I let out a small whimper from the pain and slid down the wall into a sitting position. That hurt like a bitch.

At the sound of me hitting the wall Ethan paused mid swing and turned to look at me. A few emotions seemed to dance across his face one of them surprisingly being regret before he finally settled on his default feeling of anger. He swiftly turned around and walked out of the room without saying another word.

"Are you ok?" Shawn asked running over to me helping me stand. I shook him off , "I'm fine." I said angrily. "What is wrong with him? Why was he so angry?" 

"It's the mate bond. When you stood behind me he took it as a threat, like I was purposefully keeping him from his mate."

"But he doesn’t even want me." I said confused.

"He might not but I can guarantee his wolf does and as long as the mating bond is not completed then his wolf is going to be hyper protective over you and hyper aggressive to any perceived threat. Threats mostly being unmated males like me."

"When he noticed that I hit the wall he looked at me and I could have sworn he regretted it, was that his wolf too?" I asked

"Yes, more than likely. The wolf wants nothing more than to be with and protect its mate. Hurting you would make his wolf extremely upset."

"So every time I see him there is a 50% chance he will either be nice to me to attempt to hurt me in some way?"

Shawn sighed, "No, he wont intentionally try and hurt you-"

"How can you be so sure? I've only see the man twice and both times I have walked away injured." I said rubbing my head where it made contact with the wall.

"Its not that simple Mia. Being a wolf and balancing dual…personalities, for lack of a better word, is not as cut and dry as you are making it seem. This is why you need to stay and learn more. Can you imagine what would happen if you left here and something set you off and you shifted in front of humans? Or if your wolf started causing you react to things a certain way and you didn’t know why or how to stop it?"

I could see Shawn probably had a point. But I wasn’t just going to sit around and wait for Ethan to attack again. I got up and walked towards his office door. "The first thing I want to do is train. I refuse to let him put his fucking hands on me one more time without suffering consequences." I slammed the door behind me on my way out.

I made my way to my room and flopped down on my bed. The overwhelming feelings of fear, anger, and the urge to protect my friend were so strong that I really didn’t know what to do. I was just relieved that I made it out of the situation without being seriously injured again, taking on Ethan had to be the dumbest thing I had ever tried to do. In that moment I made a decision screw the pack and screw this Luna business. As soon as I was sure I knew enough to defend myself and keep myself from spontaneously shifting into a wolf, I was leaving and going back to L.A. Its not like the could hold me hostage, could they?