Chapter 3: Beautiful Strangers

Lisa

The pack was on high alert when we got back to the den. Greyson was afraid to leave mine and the pups' side. We could all sense the danger even if we didn't quite understand what it was that made these creatures so dangerous.

We just knew that they weren't human and they weren't like us either. Our main priority was keeping the pups safe.

While I laid there I couldn't help but wonder what other mythical creatures were out there. Learning about the existence of werewolves had been enough for a lifetime.

Wolves had always been my favorite animal ever since I could remember. I'd been told on more than one occasion that wolves were my spirit animal. I laughed as I thought of that now.

However loving wolves and suddenly turning into one were two totally different things. I was surprised by just how similar we were to normal wolves. We had a hierarchy. Greyson and I being the alpha couple and the rest of the pack followed us. Almost like a real pack. The only real difference being that unlike normal wolves our subordinate pack mates weren't our children, apart from our pups of course.

Our wolf instincts were nearly impossible to ignore. Like when I'd gone into heat and drove all the males in our pack crazy. Greyson was the only who had mated with me. The others knew better than to even try. We all still had our human rationale after all. I'd be lying if I said our desire to breed had come from pure instinct alone. I, the human, wanted it as much as my wolf did.

There were other wolf instincts that had emerged when the wolf did. For example normal male wolves peed to mark their territory. This let other wolves know that the territory had been claimed. Well Greyson must have marked every tree within a twenty mile radius. Sometimes it seemed like the whole place reeked of wolf urine.

There was also the instinct to hunt. We could also sense danger. Though up until this point we hadn't considered the possibility that there might be someone or something that was even more dangerous than we were.

Now it was all our minds could think about. I guess it was foolish to think that werewolves were the only supernatural creature in existence. It made us all wonder what else was out there. Vampires? Aliens? Unicorns? Witches? Wizards?

I would probably die of shock Harry Potter came up to me and said that the books were in fact, factual. Greyson snickered.

"Something tells me that would make you very happy rather than die of shock," he licked my face affectionately. I'm obsession with Harry Potter wasn't exactly a secret.

"You're right instead I'd be pissed because I didn't get a letter when I was twelve,"

"What's a Harry Potter?" one of my sons asked me. We really needed to name the pups.

"It's one of my favorite books,"

"What's a book?" all of my pups asked at the same time earning a chuckle from the entire pack. My pups stared at me curiously.

It occured to me then that they'd had no experience with the human world. It wasn't something I'd really given much thought to before now. For the first time I also wondered if my pups could change back and forth between wolf and human.

"I'm sure they can since we both can do it," Greyson nuzzled me gently trying to erase my worries.

There was still so much that we didn't know about all of this. It would've been nice to have someone that could explain all of this to us. Maybe our biology parents were werewolves. I couldn't recall being bitten and neither could the others. Hereditary gene was the only other logical thing that we could think of to explain this.

Then why would werewolves decide to give up their children for adoption and let humans raise them? I felt like their was an important piece of information that I was missing here.

I missed how things were before. I missed being me. A normal human girl whose only concerned about what college I was going to get into. I missed how'd I spend all weekend with my friends. I missed the alone time I'd spend with Greyson. I remembered how much I wanted him to ask me to be his girlfriend. It had gotten to the point where I'd considered asking him instead.

"I was working up to it," he said.

My head whipped in his direction. "You were?"

"Yes but I was afraid you'd say no and then our friendship would be ruined," he hung his head low in embarrassment.

"Well who would've thought we'd end up as an alpha couple of a pack of wolves," I laughed.

"Alpha couple," he liked how that sounded as did I. Who knew we'd end up in charge of five other teenage wolves and seven pups.

I closed my eyes. My pups and my mate curled up right next to me. For all that I had lost I had also gained a lot. I fell asleep happy.

"Danger!" the word tore through my mind so quickly that it startled me into wakefulness. Delilah was the one who had sounded the alarm. A pungent odor like the one I'd come across yesterday burned my nose. Danger was close.

I stopped just outside of the den. There were only three of them and they were not the same people we'd come across. This time it was two males and one female. The blond male was dressed up like a doctor that worked in a hospital. It seemed odd to me.

I poised myself ready to attack. Greyson standing on my right did the same.

"Get ready to attack," I ordered. Nobody was getting near my pups.

"Seven of them. Amazing," the blonde male said. "All seven of them,"

"It has to be them," the woman whispered though we could still hear her with our sensitive hearing.

"If I didn't know any better I would could swear that was Jacob," he said pointing at me "and that one looks almost exactly like Leah," he then pointed to Greyson.

They started walking toward us and we all collectively growled in warning. Teeth bared. Hackles raised ready for a fight.

"Emmett go get Jasper and Edward. Now," he ordered the big muscular guy.

I noticed how he pushed the woman behind her as if he were ready to protect her at a seconds notice.

I stayed where I was ready to attack and defend my pups.