"If I wasn't here would you eat her?"
-Bridgette, Ginger Snaps

Considering how Caroline reacted over the news of him being a werewolf and her status as his one-and-only till kingdom come, she was quite alright by Monday. Tyler supposed it was just a Caroline thing, the girl could always bounce back fast. He should've known it would only take her a small bit of time to stop dreading and fearing this situation and start treating it like one of her student council projects.

And when Caroline had a project on her hands, she took all her time and effort on it.

So come Monday morning, she woke him up with a phone call, telling him that she'd like to talk more about this 'werewolf thing' and that she'd see him at school. He just gave some kind of response and went back to sleep. Tyler Lockwood could never be mistaken for a morning person but he was a werewolf, ergo, he was supposed to like nighttime more.

A little while later, Caroline greeted him at the parking lot with a cheery smile. Caroline Forbes was obviously a morning person. He wanted so badly to hate her for that but his damn genetics wouldn't let him. Instead he (unwillingly) smiled back just as cheerily back at her because when she was happy, he was happy. And if he was in wolf form, he'd probably be wagging his tail and jumping up to give her a big sloppy lick on her cheek.

Damn his stupid genetics to hell! He was even starting to think less like a wolf and more like a dog. This was shameful especially for a Lockwood. Grandpa Lockwood, the alpha male of the pack that he was, had ingrained one rule in his head the moment he was born – Lockwoods were alphas, they didn't bow down to no one.

Except their mates apparently as Tyler remembered how Grandpa Lockwood did cater to Grandma Lockwood's every whim. What a pathetic lot they were.

He walked into school with Caroline, earning curious glares from their classmates and a particularly spiteful glare from Matt who couldn't get a twenty feet radius of them since he ordered Conor and Aiden to keep him at bay. It was nice to be alpha wolf.

"So about the pack, how does it work?" Caroline asked and he smiled pleasantly like the whipped bastard that he was how interested she was. Next thing you know he'd be writing fucking poetry about her.

He tried to snap back to his normal self and reply to her question. "There's a hierarchy of how things work. The leader is the alpha, beta, delta, gamma, the elders, the den mothers and the pups."

"And what category are you?"

"I'm an alpha…or one in training anyway. The alpha is the leader of the pack, they make sure that the pack is taken care of and is safe from danger."

She furrowed her blonde eyebrows at him. "Danger?"

He tried not to wince as he stated, "Werewolves and mankind haven't always gotten along."

That was a bit of an understatement, just take a tour through medieval Europe and see just how 'unfriendly' things got for a while there.

Caroline just nodded as if to absorb that all in and gestured for him to continue his explanation.

"The second in command to the alpha is the beta. He's the most trusted and is the one to take care of things that the alpha is not able to do."

"And that's me right, boss?" Aiden said with his trademark smug expression.

Tyler had led them outside to where the picnic tables were available and at one of them, the circle of troublemakers he called his pack waited, excited to meet his mate. He had half a mind to just drag Caroline inside and not bother with introducing her to them. But she'd half to eventually and might as well do it now before the pack continued to bug him about her.

"Do you mind skipping first period? I want you meet a few people." He told her, hoping she'd say yes.

She just shook her head, ever lovely and said, "Of course not."

He could practically see Aiden bouncing on his feet in excitement like an overenthusiastic puppy.

Calm down, you son of a bitch.

Forgive the ironic statement.

Sighing to himself, he led Caroline to where his pack was seated, Aiden standing with the largest grin ever on his face. His beta was such a freak.

"Caroline, this is the high school werewolf pack." He started, wanting to be doing anything but this. "Pack, this is my mate, Caroline Forbes."

"Hi Caroline." They all greeted friendly as ever and tamer than he expected (except Aiden who practically yipped it). Well, at least the rest of his pack wasn't going as crazy as Aiden…well, Reina wasn't speaking but she never spoke so therefore she didn't count.

He offered Caroline a seat on the opposite side of the table which was empty. Caroline sat on one end, facing Reina who was staring at her with those intense electric blue eyes, Tyler was in the middle facing Conor and Aiden took the other end and stared at Caroline like she was a new puppy.

Aiden…

His beta was going to get smacked soon if he didn't calm down.

"It's very nice to meet you all." Caroline told them in that sweet way of hers, striving to please.

Though really there was nothing to please, his pack was a bunch of psycho mongrels really.

Shaking his head at the craziness of it all, he continued what he was saying earlier. "As I was saying, betas are the second in command to the alpha. My beta is Aiden here." He rolled his eyes as he made the introduction. "Caroline, Aiden. You know him, the annoying dick of a jock who doesn't know how to shut his mouth. Aiden, Caroline."

Tyler smacked the wolf at the back of his head after the bastard had the audacity to wiggle his eyebrows at his mate. Caroline just laughed at their antics which in turn made him grin and the rest of the pack observed this with great interest.

He mentally gave them the finger and turned back to his mate.

"Caroline, this is Conor Vander Wel. You know him too. He's famous in school was 'Library Man'." He gestured to the sandy blond who flashed his dimples at her when he smiled. Tone down the charm, wolf boy, if you don't want me to rip your face off. "He's the delta, the third in command. If there's something the alpha and beta aren't able to do, he steps in."

"Next is the gamma, the fourth in command. A gamma doesn't really do much but they're still trusted by the alpha. I guess that's you River."

River just raised her eyebrows at him and looked bored.

"River's new to the pack and she's in the year above us."

Caroline just smiled at the girl who was busy glaring at Aiden who was making funny faces at her.

"Then there are the elders and den mothers, they're the older wolves of the pack who watch over and help with decision making." Tyler elaborated. "The bottom of the pack is the omega. They're the weakest and have not much footing in the pack."

Smiling slightly, he said. "Caroline, this is my cousin, Reina. Reina, meet Caroline."

Reina just narrowed her eyes at her cousin's mate and kept silent (as always) while Caroline looked slightly unnerved at the gesture.

"What's her position in the pack?" She asked him.

"She doesn't have one yet. She's still considered a pup." He grinned broadly at the annoyed look on the thin brunette's face. "AKA a baby wolfie,"

He laughed loudly when his cousin gave him the finger. He vaguely remembered her learning how to do that from him at the age of ten. Her dad was still fuming over his 'corruption' over his daughter. Poor Remus, could not let bygones be bygones.

"Are there any other wolves in school?"

He turned back to his mate. "Around our age, there's my other cousin Jeffrey but he goes to another school. His mate goes here though, forgot her name."

"Her name's Amber Bradley." Conor put in.

Oh right, the 'light ray girl' or something they called her. Whatever.

"The rest are either in college or already graduated." He tried to hide how excited his smile was. "You can meet them at the next pack meeting."

The idea of bringing her to the pack meeting and presenting his mate the whole pack, to just show her the life and family who grew up with made him more excited than he thought he'd be. He thought he'd be dreading it but…it felt like such an honor for her to come with him and truly be able to see his world.

"That is if you want to come," He added more bashfully. "You don't have to if you don't want."

Though he wasn't sure if she was ready to see his wolf form just yet, the scene of him shifting wasn't exactly a pretty sight and Caroline was very soft-hearted. It might just scare off.

Her big blue eyes blinked up at him and it made his pulse rise with anticipation. "Do you want me to go?"

Yes, please!

But instead he tried to appear cooler. "I'd like it if you were there."

Her smile was so brilliant, it made him warm all over. "Then I'd love to go."

He wanted to do a happy dance or howl in joy and run around like a hyped up toddler but instead he just grinned back and nodded.

Turning to the pack, he scowled at the knowing looks on their faces, each one screaming at him, 'You are so totally whipped'.

And yeah they were right but…

Just shut up.

He wished he'd just disappear into his seat and not have to deal with their looks. How dare they, he was the alpha. They had no right to make jokes about this.

Because really, none of them was mated yet, they didn't understand the turmoil.

And what turmoil it was because Caroline was still there beside him, close enough he could smell her scent of oranges, vanilla and something almost earthy….sandalwood? He wasn't sure. He'd have to lean closer and…

"Tyler?" Caroline stared at him questioningly.

He retreated with a blush heating his face. "Sorry."

Please ground, open up and eat him.

He was acting crazy and whipped because he was mated to a hot, pretty, blonde who had big magical eyes and smelled so sweet, it was unfair.

Stupid big magical eyes.

Stupid sweet scent.

Stupid pack.

'Whipped…'

Shut up!

I'm just in a really bad mood right now... Do you guys ever feel that your parents are trying to turn you into them?