Human cheers rose into the sky as wolves from the crowd transformed back, and Thann's lips finally parted from mine. I beamed around the area and even some of the kidnapped women were trying to smile.

"Behold. Your Queen." Thann knelt to me and the gathered men followed. Women, unsure of what else to do, and embarrassed at their states of dress, sank to their knees as well.

"You guys need to help them, not to bow to me," I tittered nervously, looking over the desolate women.

Thann's loving eyes gazed up to me. His face sparkled with joy, like he was tasting a delectable dessert. "Yes Eleanor. We do. You are the most precious jewel to this world. We will protect you as the most magnificent treasure you are."

I waved a hand out over the crowd. "But there's lots of women here."

He grinned following my wave and stood. "Earth women," he called in the voice of radiance. "You will no longer be treated as possessions. You are the royalty of this world. You will be protected even as my queen will be." His eyes pointed on the guards that had kept the women in chains. "Find them garments and food. Now."

Their eyes widened with the underlying threat and ran inside to complete the order. Thann then trained on other guards standing by. "And dispose of the previous King's body." He softened to the crowd. "My pack, you are dismissed."

Feet began shuffling every which way.

"Girls," I called out. "You are welcome inside with your mates."

Some women smiled and instead walked toward homes, but others took my offer inside, led away by a man or two.

"You can have two mates?" I spoke shocked, watching a set retreat after an African beauty.

Her second man with wide shoulders, turned and winked. "Nah, but I'm her protector."

"What do you mean?"

He stopped before going inside. "Bisa is my brother's mate. I won't let anything happen to either of them."

I smiled, but it turned into a frown. "How did she get caught by Maza?"

His shoulders slumped. "The King had been searching for all the women. We were commanded to let her go. We did."

"You didn't fight for her?" I asked bewildered and annoyed.

Thann grabbed my hand and offered softly. "Of course they wanted to fight for her. They were commanded El. They couldn't disobey."

"What do you mean?" I searched Thann's face.

"An Alpha Command is uncontestable. If your Alpha gives an order, you must follow."

"You must follow?" My eyes widened with realization, and I gasped. "When he forced me to walk to the stage."

Thann nodded.

"That was an alpha command?"

"Yes."

"That's horrible."

Thann's brow pushed together not recognizing why it would be. "It is life."

"Life? Well, what about free agency?"

"What is free agency?" He looked equally confused.

"On Earth, we can choose to follow the command or not. We have rules. We have rulers. But each person must decide to follow them or to suffer the consequence. But it is still a choice."

The other man slipped away into the mansion following his brother as Thann and I spoke to each other.

"What is the consequence?" He asked, a thousand more questions darting through his eyes.

I shrugged. "Depends on the violation. A slap on the wrist, to prison, to death."

He nodded and then as another thought passed, he grinned taking me into his arms and pushing me against his chest. "Free agency," he tested the words, "was given to you to choose me as your mate."

I tried to bite the smile away. "Exactly. I chose my own future."

"Doesn't that go against Moon Goddess's path for us?" He hesitated in some act of blasphemy.

Slipping my arms around his shoulders, I shrugged. "Didn't you say that your Moon Goddess was the one that chose me? The one that brought me here? Maybe this is the reason. We need to let the people choose. To let them have their agency."

He grinned a wide smile and kissed my forehead.

"Alpha King Thann," a jovial male voice sung from the thinning crowd.

We turned to see Mathe guiding a small group towards the steps. Mathe was the heaviest muscled guy I'd ever seen before and I grinned at his thick eyebrows and wide nose. The Rock had nothing on him. His returning smile flashed a pointed canine.

He was guiding his group. Molly was now wearing a dress of leather and carrying a toddler girl with dirty blonde pigtails on her hip. A beautiful red headed woman with pixie cut short hair in a similar dress followed. She was holding a toddler boy. A tall lanky man with a softly toned build and curled dark hair had a hand to her back. And Cane trailed the end, guiding a small Earth beagle on a leash.

"Oh my gosh! A dog!"

I raced over to it, being so excited to see a precious pet and it started barking up a storm.

Thann grabbed my hips and held me back before I got too close. "El, be careful."

I fought back his hold, but he kept tight. "Thann, you can't be serious. It's a puppy!" My eyes trained on the dog with near tears of delight sparkling in them. I missed my dog so much.

The red headed woman chuckled nervously. I assumed she was Lissette. "His name is Oscar. He got transported with me when we were on a walk. He's usually pretty friendly."

Kayo eyed me with the brightest hazel eyes I'd ever seen, the first on the planet to have a different color than the dark browns and blacks I'd usually seen. They were mesmerizing. "He's usually friendly to humans, Lis. She's not."

"What?" Lissette hushed the dog's barks and gazed me over. "What do you mean she's not?"

He knelt down and bowed himself to me. "Alpha Queen El is a werewolf."

"What!" She cried and set the boy down to play with the dog and stared me over. "There's no wolf women. You already said so. Cane said she was human."

Cane let the toddler take the leash. "I did. She was."

"I don't understand."

I chuckled. "Remember our werewolf stories? I had Cane here turn me." I held my shirt collar to the side to show the pair of crescent scars on my shoulder.

She twisted to Kayo and hit him. "That's a possibility!? Why didn't you tell me?"

He laughed and tried to defend himself. "I'm learning this with you."

I shrugged. "It was an emergency. We guessed."

Mathe cut in, rubbing at Molly's back. "We are glad it worked out if you were able to save my mate. This is Molly. And my children. Andla and Sara." He looked at his family with such adoration I swooned for Molly.

And then I realized I recognized her.

"Molly Martin!" I cried out.

Yes, the platinum blonde dyed hair showing dirty blonde roots, the average build that hid a Hollywood skinny body. The vibrant blue eyes and wide lashes, thick botox lips.

She let down little Sara, who immediately clung to her leg, and held a hand out to me. "I take it you've seen one of my movies?"

I nodded, a little star struck and shook her hand. "Wow. Yeah. You've been in like the last four MCU's. You're famous!"

She released my hand with a smirk. "Well, I may be on Earth. But it seems like you're the famous one here. Queen Owesifazane Wokuduma."

"Oh," I blushed. "I...I guess."

"That was quite an entrance. You can imagine how angry the king was when I wasn't showing him my magic powers."

My head bobbed as my eyes searched over her multicolored bruises. "I bet."

She stood back into Mathe's arms. "So did the country go crazy when I disappeared?"

Thinking back, I nodded. "Yeah. It was all over the internet. They were guessing you got kidnapped and murdered."

She laughed. "Well, not murdered, but kidnapped to some other worldly werewolf planet."

"Wow. So a movie star," I commented almost to myself. Then I looked at her. "That's why Thann knew the word movie? I guess with all the English words he knew, I took you to be a teacher."

She shrugged. "I carried my translator in my purse for a few days not knowing what it was and we just learned by repetition until we ran into Lis and she had hers on. Then the boys wanted to know a bunch of English words and we just taught them for fun. Lis is French. So they know some French too."

"Oh. Chien," I recollected and looked at Oscar. That's what Thann called my dog when he saw the picture. I grinned at the young Andla playing with the sweet puppy.

But as I watched the boy, I started counting the timeline. I had been on this planet for just about six weeks. Newscasts of the missing Molly Martin were only a month or two before my transport here. "How long have you been here?" I gazed at the small children.

Children. Toddler aged children.

She hummed. "Uh, I guess three months? I've stopped keeping track."

"What?" I cried. "But..." Three months? I stared at the obvious mini Mathe in two year old form.

She chuckled and grabbed Sara back up in her arms. "You mean, how do I have toddlers?"

I nodded.

The group laughed as if I was out of some joke.

She finished and hugged against the girl. "Well," she pointed a thumb at Mathe. "Look at him. He's all one hundred percent man candy. I took that man to bed before the sun went down my first day. And out popped these two a month and a half later and they're still growing like crazy."

"A month and a half!" I nearly choked, face surely going white.

A month left.

I'd have a baby in a month.

I nearly passed out.

Her brow tightened and then a knowing smirk came over her when she looked at my covered belly. "How far along are you?"

I held my hands across myself and Thann's hand rested on my belly answering for me. "Seventeen days."

I stared back shocked to him. "You have it by days?"

He kissed my cheek. "Of course."

It made my stomach tighten with a butterfly's flight. I grinned at him in happiness. It felt exactly like how having a soulmate should feel.

I leaned up to kiss him.

I had very nearly forgotten we were surrounded by his friends, his pack, when Lissette snickered. "You two are sluts."

"Excuse me?" I objected, eyes striking on her.

I saw Kayo's hand tighten on her shoulder, glancing to the face beside me. "Lis, no."

Her glance followed his and she backtracked, "oh no! I didn't mean!..."

I turned to see what was going on and Thann was baring his teeth. I smacked him before he could punch her like he's hit Cane.

She continued nervous and looked to the ground like a submission. "I just meant that it's barely been weeks you two knew your mates. I'm sorry."

"It's okay Lissette. I guess it was a bit soon," I forgave. "Big Guy here is just a bit touchy about his new wifey."

He twisted to me, insult forgotten. "Wifey?"

I shrugged, "Matey sounded too pirate."

Just the girls chuckled.

Thann's face was all confusion so I winked. "I'll tell you later."

"Speaking of," Thann grinned. "Do you still have your cellphone with you?"

"Oh, uh," I tapped my pouch. "Yeah? But the charger is still back in the cave. There's not much juice left."

"Let me see it," he held his hands out.

"You have a charger!" Molly squealed.

I nodded and dug the cell out of my pouch, unlocked it, and placed it in Thann's open palm. "I only have an iphone adapter, but you're welcome to use it if you have one."

"Oh thank you!" She leapt at me and squeezed me in a hug.

Lissette stepped forward and touched my shoulder. "Can I use it too? I want to see a picture of my mom."

I grinned. "Of course. It's solar so it doesn't charge fast, but we can all use it."

"Here it is," Thann grinned and handed me back the cell.

I chuckled at the starting picture of the video he'd seen so many times the last couple weeks. "Your war stories?"

"War stories?" he asked with a confused smirk. He pointed and pressed the play button. "Just watch."

Video Thann started his monologue into the camera. This time it wasn't gibberish.

"El. Female. When you are finally able to understand this,
know that it was fate that brought us together.
You do not know yet that no females of my kind are left,
But the fates have shown kindness to me.
For the moment I saw you fighting the dragon
I knew you were meant to be mine.
Your beauty and strength are exquisite.
Your ingenuity astounds me.
Know this, I will do anything to make you mine.
El, Will you be my wife?"

I turned to him, my mind rolling with the charming, recorded words and he dropped to one knee and grabbed my hands around the cell.

"Eleanor Kay Stevens. My mate. My queen. I want you to always be mine. Will you be my wife?"

I nodded, eyes glossy, and leapt into his arms.

"Yes."