Nyuto Onsen, Akita, Japan

Scott's POV

Home. Once upon a time, home for me was an isolated mansion deep in Beacon Hills Preserve in which I lived and made it warm and home with my immediate blood pack, the Hale Pack, consisting of my mother Talia, my older sister Laura, my older brother Derek and my fraternal twin sister Cora. Oh, and the regularly visiting extended blood packmates and nonblood packmates.

More often than not, for humans, stories that began with 'once upon a time' ended with 'happily ever after'. Fortunately, I wasn't human, and neither was my pack, well, some were human, but majority was not, hence unfortunately, our 'once upon a time' story didn't end with 'happily ever after', it ended with our entire pack, blood and nonblood, burning and suffocating to death inside our home one Wolf Moon, instead.

There was a six-year-old rumor going around the werewolf community that the Argent Clan of humans, with generations upon generations of werewolf hunting, used the full moon eclipse of that fateful night against our pack and used the supernatural repellent mountain ash to trap us inside the house and set the house on fire to burn and suffocate us to death while we were de-powered of our werewolf abilities by the moon eclipse.

For as long as I could remember, my maternal uncle Peter, who I affectionately called Uncle P, warmed us regularly, especially mother, who was the Alpha of the Hale Pack, about the Argent Clan coming for us and destroying our pack if she didn't take action against them first because of her favoring diplomacy and reacting over using force and initiating action.

I didn't know if any of the rumors going around about the Argent Clan being responsible for the arson were true, but I did know that everything else was true. The moon eclipse was used against us during an annual Wolf Moon ritual and mountain ash was used to trap us inside the house while we burned and chocked to death on smoke.

I could never forget the searing heat and flames on my skin, nor the smoke that filled my lunges and suffocated me or the smell of my own flesh burning, but most of all, I could never forget the pained haunting howls of my pack's, my mother's, my brother's, my sisters', my cousins' and my uncles and aunts' cries and screams that slowly and yet quickly turned to gasps and coughing that grew faint until all that I could hear were the anguished cries in my head that I couldn't voice because my lunges were filled with smoke.

The last thing that I remembered seeing on the corner of my eye while crawling towards and reaching for Cora, who was also crawling towards me, reaching for me with a bloody burned hand, her hair on fire and her face puffy and teary and dirty and yet so beautiful, reminding me of our mother who was in another room somewhere in the giant mansion, burning to death like us, was Uncle P on fire and yet struggling to drag my cousin Malia towards a wall in the recreational room.

I didn't know if the Argent Clan was responsible for the heinous crime against my pack and the nightmares that woke me up sometimes, including this morning, I didn't trust the rumors because none of the many packs my mother allied with our pack came to our rescue or pursued a vendetta in our honor, but I did trust Uncle P's instincts and the Argent Clan was at the top of my suspect list, along with our so-called allay packs in Beacon Hills.

Speaking of allies, I heard faint pair of footsteps with a familiar footstep pattern heading towards the Shoji doors to the hot spring I was currently in before they stopped outside, and a moment later, the Shoji doors were opened and in came their owner.

"Sanka shite mo īdesu ka? (May I join you?)" A soft feminine voice that didn't belong to the person inquired after a pause in which the Shoji doors were closed.

"Mochiron, Noshiko-sensei, (Of course, Noshiko-teacher,)" I replied with my eyes closed, relaxed in the hot spring I booked for the afternoon, anticipating my return to the United States of America tomorrow, but most importantly and two years in the making, my reunion with the last of my pack who survived with me and were very much alive despite the popular belief that the Hale Pack was wiped out entirely six years ago. "Shikashi, gensō o otoshite kudasai. (But drop the illusion.)

"Kira-chan ga Tōkyō ni ite, Ken-sensei ga watashi no saru pātī no junbi o shite iru no o shitte imasu. (I know Kira-chan is in Tokyo with Ken-sensei preparing my going away party.)"

I didn't have to open my eyes and look at the almost nine hundred years old Celestial kitsune by the name Noshiko Yukimura as she dropped the illusion that made her appear as though she was her teenage Thunder kitsune daughter Kira-chan, and I was sure she was as intrigued, and annoyed, by my ability to tell the difference as she was the first time I did.

"Watashi wa anata ga chigai o dono yō ni miwakeru koto ga dekiru ka o watashi ni hanasu koto o kyohi suru koto ni unzari shimashita, (I've grown tired of your refusal to tell me how you can tell the difference,)" Noshiko-sensei said, her annoyance audible and clear on her face and pheromones as she took off her towel and joined me in the hot spring. "Ima oshiete kurenai nonara... (If you don't tell me right now... [She threatened, and I could feel her eyes on me.])"

"Sensei, watashitachi wa anata ga nani mo shinai koto o shitte imasu. Anata wa nazo o itoshi sugite imasu, (We both know that you are not going to do anything, teacher,)" I responded, unaffected by her threat, and proved it by remaining close-eyed even as I felt her settle beside me. "Tatoe sore ga anata no torikkusutā no seishitsu o nayama sete iru to shite mo, sore wa watashi ga ōkami otokodearu nimokakawarazu anata ga watashi o gakusei to shite tsurete itta riyū no 1tsudesu. (You love the mystery too much, even if it annoys your trickster nature, it is one of the reasons you took me as a student even though I am a werewolf.)

"Masutāken ga watashi o totemo aishite iru riyū no hitotsu demo arimasu. Kira-chan mo. (It is also one of the reasons Ken-sensei loves me so much. Kira-chan too.)"

"You're lucky that you've earned my trust, or else I would kill you before I let you go, kabu (cub)."

My eyes snapped open in surprise, and I slowly turned to look at her, for it was the first time that Noshiko Yukimura spoke English when addressing me instead of Japanese or Korean like usual, and I was greeted by her vulpine grin and mischievous eyes.

"Ken-kun and Kira-chan aren't just preparing your going away party, watashi no gakusei, (my student,)" Noshiko-sensei informed me, her grin turning into a soft proud smile. "Besides my daughter, you are the first student I've taken under my wing in two hundred and seventy years, and you've exceeded my expectations and proved yourself worthy of being a member of the Yukimura Kazoku (family) and Yuki-kai.

"But an old friend of mine has been following your journey since you entered our world five years ago, and she contacted me four months after I took you as my student and requested that I prepare you to take over her organization when she retires. She retires tonight and if you accept and participate in a sake-sharing ceremony with her tonight, you'll officially be the Kumicho of her organization immediately after you complete your coming of age ritual tomorrow."

I couldn't help but stare at Noshiko-sensei in shock, a big part of me waiting for her to burst out laughing and say that she was kidding, but she wasn't one to joke about as serious a matter as this one, despite how much her trickster nature wanted her to, and the look she gave told me that she was serious.

In disbelief, I continued to stare at her without saying a word, my mind full of half finished thoughts as I struggled to process the shocking revelation and news. Trying to make sense of things, my mind began building a puzzle, putting things in order.

"If I didn't know better, I would say that my mother knows about us and she's mentoring you to help me run the family business," I recalled Kira-chan say one midnight during our mission to South Korea for our biggest solo, well, duo, arms deal.

Instead of her mother mentoring me to help Kira-chan run their family business one day, she was mentoring me to take over her old friend's organization and become a Kumicho at the unknown woman's request in one day. Speaking of...

"Who is she?" I asked, finally finding my voice.

"Satomi Ito-san," Noshiko-sensei answered, and for some reason, the name sounded familiar. "She is rumored to be the oldest bitten Alpha werewolf in California."

I didn't believe in coincidences.

"What are the chances that she is the same Alpha Ito who Kincaid admires so much that he 'hunted down' every single work and possession of hers he could find detailing werewolf mythology, including her personal Alpha journal, and gave them all to me?" I inquired, already knowing the answer.

"I know that's a rhetorical question," Noshiko-sensei said, and she was right.

"Why would she - wait," I remembered something. "I think I've heard the name Satomi before."

"I am sure you have," Noshiko-sensei assured me, and didn't leave me to figure it all out on my own like usual. "Satomi-san was your mother's partner in crime. While she handled the darker side of things, your mother handled the lighter side, and together, they protected Beacon County. I know that you have questions, but I don't have their answers. If I did, I would give them to you."

I nodded in acknowledgement, inhaled deeply and then submerged in the hot spring, eyes closed and mind racing, processing.

I had the opportunity to become not only the Kumicho of the organization that belonged to a rumored oldest bitten Alpha werewolf in California, but to also become the youngest Kumicho in history at sixteen years old. I couldn't help but entertain the idea of accepting the offer and having all that influence and power.

I never chose to become an Alpha, I didn't have a choice in that, and neither did Cora, but I did have a choice now, and I could choose to become a Kumicho. But at what cost? The sake-sharing ceremony had a strict condition, and I wasn't willing to meet it, not when I would have to cut all ties to my blood pack, so as I resurfaced, I reached a conclusion.

"If I become Alpha Ito-san's Kobun, I will be required to cut all ties with my blood pack, and I'm not willing to do that," I said without looking at Noshiko-sensei, giving up influence and power that could help me find my pack's killers faster. "For that reason, I decli..."

"You decline nothing," an unfamiliar feminine voice interrupted me from behind Noshiko-sensei and me, and I couldn't turn around faster than I did, my human eyes shifting to their Alpha werewolf red, and they found a similarly red-eyed older woman wearing a kimono with her hair in a bun, a proud smile on her face as her eyes took on their human form. "It wasn't a real offer, it was a test to determine if you are worthy of your pack name and being my successor.

"Your mother would be as proud of you as I am, maybe more, for proving me right in choosing you as my successor.

"Here is the real offer, young Alpha: I, Alpha Satomi Ito of the Ito Pack and Kumicho of the Gokudō Bīkon, offer you, Alpha Scott Hale of the Hale Pack, my organization Gokudō Bīkon to lead as you see fit as its Kumicho with the conditions of joseki for me and my pack being granted special protection without it or my Betas being affiliated with the organization.

"I expect your answer immediately after you complete your coming of age ritual tomorrow. In the meantime, may I join you? It's been a while since I visited this particular onsen."

"It's been a while since you set foot in Japan," Noshiko-sensei said.

"To avoid stepping on toes and igniting war," Alpha Ito-san gave her reasons.

"Speaking of stepping on toes, Scott-kun reserved the onsen for the afternoon for some alone time, so I'm only a guest, he calls the shots," Noshiko-sensei clarified, and they both looked at me and I wondered why until I remembered that Satomi asked to join us.

"Oh, you may join us, Alpha Ito-san," I gave the go ahead with a bow, and then proceeded to stare at her, trying to comprehend how she could just give away her organization just like that, all that influence and power.

And she had to have underlings she could have chosen to succeed her, like her second-in-command, but no, she chose a sixteen years old boy, me.

"Why me?" I asked as she undressed, and I didn't try to hide my confusion. "I know that I've built a bit of a reputation in the last five years, but not the kind that's Kumicho at sixteen. You don't just suddenly give a sixteen years old kid this kind of power."

Alpha Ito-san silently finished undressing, folded her clothes and then put them aside before joining us, and I waited, quite used to Noshiko-sensei making me wait, testing my patience.

"None of this is sudden, Scott," she finally responded rather calmly. "And I am not just suddenly offering a sixteen years old kid the kind of power that helped rebuild Japan, the kind of power that grown men do unspeakable things to get, keep and maintain.

"This all began the moment I discovered that you were alive and that Kincaid was not only mentoring you but also taking you to his gigs. And when I learned that you were not the only Hale who survived the fire, I approached Kincaid and had him set up a meeting with your aunt Corinne and the last five years were carefully planned out.

"Your sister was too set on doing what your mother would have wanted, rebuilding what was taken away from you, and so we paved a path for her to take to get what she wanted. Your cousin wanted nothing but to do exactly what her father would have done if he survived, she wanted to hunt and put down those responsible for the tragedy and Corinne introduced Malia to the Etoyoc family's profession which she retired from when she was pregnant with her.

"You, you wanted to help them achieve their goals, but more than that, you wanted to protect them and ensure that the past doesn't repeat itself, and so when you found out what Kincaid did for a living, you looked up to him and wanted to follow in his footsteps. He didn't want that, so he took you to a meeting Katashi had with an invading Italian gang, knowing that it was an ambush and hoping the experience would scare you away from his side of the underworld.

"You had your first kill that night. You killed two men, actually, one of whom you killed to save Katashi's life, and you never looked back. How could you look back when Katashi owed his life to you and offered you anything you wanted on top of becoming his bodyguard-in-training with pay? It's interesting how you haven't called in the favor Katashi owes you."

Oh, it wasn't interesting, it was wise, and it made me proud of ten/eleven-year-old me.

"When you realized what that one deed did for you, you were hooked and Corinne and Kincaid didn't have any other choice than to up your training at home," Alpha Ito-san continued as though this was her favorite story. "By the time I found out that you were all alive, you were Katashi's secret weapon, and he took you everywhere he went, with Corinne's permission with the condition that you continue home school on the road.

"You chose the gokudō way, the extreme path, to provide for your pack and protect it, and you excelled at it, so when I had Kincaid arrange a meeting with Corinne for me, I knew that we would be here.

"I am not just suddenly offering 'a sixteen years old kid this kind of power', I am offering a sixteen-year-old kid that I prepared over a five-year-period all the power and tools he'll need to not only find and destroy the people who brought his pack extremely close to extinction, but to also ensure his survival and that of his remaining packmates.

"I prepared you for this, Scott Hale, you just didn't know it, it's how a Kuromaku works as a behind-the-scenes fixer. I taught you, Malia and Cora through Corinne and Kincaid to ensure that you wouldn't be a burden to each other, and Kincaid and Katashi took care of your gokudō lessons until you somehow got a certain kitsune to take you under her wing."

She looked at Noshiko-sensei and me curiously, head tilted to the side a little, questioning.