"This is so sweet!" Maggie grins as we enter her new office. It looks like your average doctors office, but with a desk in the corner and a small sofa. There are a few cabinets and shelves that hold various spell/healing books, medicines, and other herbs.

"Feel free to redecorate it anyway you would like, we can send in someone to assist you." Delilah offers.

"This is already more than I could have dreamed of!" she sighs, plopping down on the couch.

I take a seat beside her. "Now I can finally stop injuring myself just to give you something to do."

Delilah laughs softly at that. "Well I need to get back to David, but you'll want to meet the other pack members at some point today. They'll either be in the training quarters or gathering room." She turns and walks away, leaving me and Maggie to ourselves.

"So, ready to go hunt down your mate?" Maggie suggests innocently.

I glare at her in response. "Shut up. We need to be serious and come up with a plan."

"I think our best bet would be to try the gathering room, I'm sure he's probably still there waiting for you." Maggie replies with a smirk.

"Maggie. Shut. The. Fuck. Up." I growl at her and her eyes widen.

"Dang! My bad. Note to self, she-wolf is touchy about mate." She nods to herself and I roll my eyes.

"I need to figure out how I can avoid him. I can't do this Maggie, not now. I can only handle so much change..." I whimper.

Maggie's mouth opens just as we hear a quick knock on the door. I glance over and do a double-take; the man that appears before us looks to be nineteen or twenty, and with his messy brown hair and strong jaw, he's clearly worthy of the title 'drool worthy'.

"Hello ladies, I'm Dillan, your trusty Beta. Avoiding who might I ask?" He smirks, raising an eyebrow. He has a twinkle in his eye as if he knows something we don't.

Maggie is caught off guard by the glorious creature standing before us ,but quickly recovers, though much to my dismay because she blurts out my little secret before I could stop her.

"Meredith found her mate!" She squeals, clasping her hands together in awe.

Dillan hold back a laugh and I blush deeply. "And who might the lucky guy be?" He asks in surprise.

"Oh you'll never believe it, it's the Alpha-" I cut Maggie off by tackling her and slapping my hand over her mouth, making sure to give her a heck of a glare.

I stand back up and look at Dillan, who's carrying an amused expression.

"Well I hate to break it to you, but the Alpha is already mated. Unless of course you were about to suggest it was the Alpha's son, Brian..." He trailed off and his eyes widened as he realizes that was exactly was Maggie was about to say.

I quickly intervene. "No, no it's not for certain or anything. I'm really not sure-"

"She's sure." Maggie interrupts, "Her wolf was going all ape-shit crazy and her eyes were glowing when she saw him and heard his voice. Plus, they even have the mental bond!"

Dillan nodded, "If you have the mental bond then he already knows your his mate, so he'll be here any minute looking for you. Except he just got on the pack's private jet to go on a business trip to Italy...wait when did this happen?"

I let out a sigh of relief. He was gone for the time being, at least I don't have to deal with this right now. "It happened when Delilah was introducing us to the pack, but as soon as I felt the mental bond I closed it. We didn't talk or anything, I don't think he even knows that I did that." I explain.

Dillan looks thoughtful for a minute. "Probably not, but that explains why he was acting weird this morning. He said he felt different, that his wolf was acting funny." Then, an expression of excitement covering his face, he pulls out his phone and says, "Here, I'll call him! Trust me, when he find out his mate is here he'll turn around the plane and be here before you can-"

"No!" I cry, earning a confused look from Dillan.

I take a breath. "I don't want him to know. I don't want this, not yet. That's why I'm trying to avoid him."

"But..you're the other half of his soul...and he's the other half of yours. How can you not want that? Mates are a gift from the Great Luna, and not everyone is so fortunate as to meet their at such a young age." He gives me a disapproving scowl and I immediately feel even worse.

"I know but try to look at it from my perspective. I just found out two days ago that I was going to cancel my college plans to move to Romania. Then I discover that my parents use to rule this pack, then for some unknown reason had to leave. Plus, they weren't even planning on telling me I am a werewolf. Then I find my mate, it's all a bit overwhelming." I closed my eyes and rubbed my temple. "Please just don't tell anybody, especially him."

Dillan shakes his head. "I get where you're coming from, but Brian will understand. He'll get you want to take things slow, get settled in before the Bonding Ceremony." I wince as he mentions this, and the description of the painful sounding Blood Rites floods my mind.

"Besides...he's my best friend. You're asking me to not tell my friend that the love of his life is sitting here while he goes off to Italy?" he says in disbelief.

I give him a pleading look. "Please Dillan, don't tell him. When he gets back we're bound to meet sooner or later, just let me deal with it then. I'm begging you."

After a few quiet moments he reluctantly agrees. "Fine. He'll be back in a week."

I had hoped that he would be gone at least most of the summer, but one could only dream. My wolf isn't not agreeing with me at all at the moment. She wants to take up Dillan on his offer to call Brian so she could meet him. As much as I hate to admit it, a small part of me agrees. I'm not too crazy about the idea of him being in another country with other women.

Unable to bear my curiosity, I ask, "What's he doing in Italy anyway?"

Dillan smirks, clearly aware of my obvious interest in Brian. "He's gone to speak with the Italian Alpha. There's a few other wolves with him, for safety purposes, but David decided to let him take this one on his own."

I pretend to act like I don't care, but I still feel like I should be with him on this trip. I inwardly groan, this was going to be a lot harder than I thought.

"Anyways," Dillan coughs after a few moments, "I came to see if you two would like a tour of the place. Then you could come meet the rest of the pack, if you wanted."

Grateful for the change of subject, I look at Maggie who gives me a small nod. "Sure," I smile, "this place is huge. It's easy to get lost."

We follow Dillan outside to the training facility where he explains that all pack members were required to train at. It was mainly for pups but everyone was expected to stay in shape and attend combat classes a few times a week.

Back inside the mansion we see a miniature movie theater, the ballroom, and the kitchen. Next he shows us where the different room floors where un-mated males and females, and mated pairs reside. Our room was of course on the hallway where the other un-mates females were. My stomach drops as I realize that soon I might be forced to move in the section where mated couples stay.

Our last stop is the gathering room, where we were earlier introduced to most of the pack. I try to see if I can caught Brian's scent, but to my disappointment there are too many others interfering.

Suddenly a gasp from behind me makes me jump. I turn around to see a tall legged red head staring at Maggie.

"Oh my gosh, you're a healer!" she squeals. Maggie smiles, but looks around nervously. "Well, um, yes. Yes, I'm a healer, my name is Maggie."

The girl looks at her in awe. "I've always wished I was a healer, my mother was the healer to the Serbia pack but unfortunately I didn't get that gene. I'm Caroline, by the way!"

"Nice to me you, and this is Meredith." Maggie introduces me. The girl turns to me and bared her neck. This is something I will definitely have to ask David about. I give a small smile and dipped my head in reply.

"So this place is great and all but it gets super boring. A few of us were gonna go to a club tonight, would you girls like to join us?" Caroline offers, a devilish smile appearing on her lips.

"Oh, thank you but we're only seventeen." Maggie regretfully answers.

Caroline tilts her head back and laughs. "Silly, that doesn't matter! We have a pack member, Ray, that works the bar. Whenever he's on his shift he sneaks us in and sets us up with some drinks." She adds a wink to the last part and I smile. She definitely has a carefree, party girl personality, though I have a feeling that she is well grounded and isn't the kind to sleep around with everyone.

I nod once towards her, "In that case, we would love to tag along. What time?"

"Ooh, fabulous! We'll head out around 7:30, it's a bit of a drive out but we'll get there by eight." She replies. "You can meet us here. "

"Sounds like a plan," Maggie says. "We'll catch up with y'all some more then!" We turn and head back to our rooms, eager to find an outfit for tonight's adventure.

After trying on countless outfits I decide on a red halter top that I pair with a black miniskirt and black pumps. My hair is styled in beach waves, and I end up wearing a bit more makeup than normal, but I still stick to natural, smokey colors. I do venture out so far as to wear red lipstick-I had debated on it for a while but I decided that with these changes I was undergoing I would become bolder in the process. So if wearing a bold lip color was a start, then I would take it.

Maggie wears a more conservative outfit. Her black top only hints at the slightest bit of cleavage and is adorned with crystals that grow sparser down the shirt. She wears denim shorts that are a respectable length. As much as she jokes around about sex and partying, when it comes down to it she is pure hearted and holds high standards for herself. She is, after all, a gypsy healer.

By the time we finish getting ready the clock reads 7:25. Once we give ourselves one last look in the mirror we head downstairs.

"Ow-ow!" Caroline whistles as we come into view. She was wearing a deep blue dress that was tight fitting and very short.

"You guys look hot," a guy I didn't recognize says. He had slightly tan skin, green eyes, and wavy black hair. Maggie wasn't lying when she said these boys were hot. "I'm Mason, by the way."

"I'm Meredith, and this is Maggie." I smile.

"I know," He grins.

Katherine, a tall brunette with brown eyes that I had met earlier, is here as well, looking no less as stunning as the others. I also recognize Jeremy and Dillan, who was giving me daggers.

"You know how much trouble I'm going to be in when Brian finds out I let his mate run around at a club in that?" Dillan whispers in my ear.

I glare at him. "Good thing he won't find out, then."

"Okay I think you've had enough to drink," I giggle to a very drunk Caroline.

"Nah, whatt? Ya think Icantholf my liquor!" she slurs.

"You're one to talk!" Maggie, who hasn't even finished her first beer, says beside me.

Alright, so maybe I was a little tipsy, but at least I could still focus to see who I was dancing with. A few guys have tried to come up to me, but thanks to Dillan they all learned quickly that I was to not be touched, much to my relief. Guys make me really uncomfortable sometimes, and this is definitely one of those time..

It's close to 10:30 p.m. and everyone has been having a blast. Dillan, who stopped watching my every move with disapproval when I threatened to chop of certain body parts, cuts loose and even dances with me after a while.

"Ray, make sure you don't give either one of them anything else." Maggie says to Ray, a curly blond every bit as attractive as the rest of the males in the pack.

"I've been giving them sprite for a while now, I swear!" He holds up his hands in surrender and we all laugh.

I look around the club and noticed a very worried Mason talking to a very tense Dillan. I brush my hair back behind my ear and tune in my wolf hearing, trying to make out what they were saying.

"...they know she's here. He just called and said they're on their way. We've got to go now."

"What are we suppose to tell them?"

"Won't be hard, just follow my lead."

Wait, who knows who is here? Maybe they were talking about Maggie, since she's a healer and very so valuable.

"I think it's time for us to head back," Dillan says. I hadn't even noticed they walked up.

"Yeah both of you are gonna have one hell of a headache tomorrow." Mason chimes in.

I eye them both suspiciously, and decide to Dillan what they were talking about when we get back.

"Fine." I shrug, allowing Caroline to lean on me so that her wobbly legs wouldn't give. Maggie slowly gets up, but she could tell something wasn't right.

Just then the doors fly open and three very tall, enraged men appear.

"Shit." Mason curses, and Dillan rubs his temple for a moment.

"Okay, I need you guys to be very quiet and follow me. If I say run, take off and run like you've never run before and don't look back." Dillan orders in a low voice. Something must be really wrong.

Fear flashes through Maggie's eyes while confusion masks Caroline's. I, on the other hand, want to stay. These men are obviously a threat and I don't want to be a coward. I wanted to fight.

We silently slip our way to the back exit, but an ear splitting screech stops us from going any further.

The largest man of the three, who I presume to be an Alpha based on the power he is radiating, has grabbed a petite blonde and is holding her by the neck. He glares daggers at everyone in the room.

"Hand her over, or the girl dies." He growls in a low voice, his eyes glowing gold.

Dillan steps forward, fists balled up and his green eyes glowing as well.

"No."

Mason turns to us and whispers, "Run!"

"What? Hell no! This girl is about to die unless he gets to whichever one of us he wants! We can't let that happen!" I snarl. I can't believe how heartless they are acting towards this girl, acting like her life doesn't matter.

"Come on Dillan, you know who I work for. Even if you don't hand her over now, he'll find you. Save some lives and time and let's just settle this now." .

Dillan takes another step forward. By now everyone has stopped what they were doing to witness the two werewolves' predicament.

"I'll say it again since you seem to be having trouble understanding, no. N-O, as in no, not gonna happen, never in a million years. So how about you save yourself some lives and time and get the hell out of my pack's territory." Dillan's nails lengthen and his incisors are showing as he growls man looks taken aback, and I don't blame him. Dillan is scaring me at this point.

"Come on," Mason nudges us out of the door.

"But what about Dillan?" I say.

"He'll handle this and then catch a ride with Ray after his shift ends. We've got to go." He replies hurriedly.

I follow him out to the car, looking back once more just in time to see the innocent blonde's neck being snapped.