I stared at the dead animal lying at my feet. "That is really gross."

Titus laugh as his claws formed at the end of his fingers. "Sorry. I should have cut it up before you got here."

"Yeah, that would have been an amazing idea," I replied. "I'm so glad you thought of it now."

He just gave me a cheesy smirk. "That's what mates are for."

A couple other dominants entered the food chamber. Darius was among them with Storm on his arm, both in human form. He went to help his brother while Storm sat beside me.

"Looks good," said Darius.

Titus nudged him. "Yeah, thanks for helping catch it."

The red haired man eyed him. "Do you really think I wanted to go with dad. Politics are boring."

"Well, dad is sure you're going to replace him, so get use to it."

"I can only hope you're my beta." Darius slapped his brother on the back.

"Knock it off." Titus shook him off and slit the deer open.

Its guts filled out, and I felt sick. Covering my mouth, I jumped to my feet. "Excuse me."

I ran out of the room and sat down on a rock near the entrance. My face felt hot. This was getting a little too real for me. I was barely getting used to the raw meat idea. I didn't need to see exactly where the meat was coming from.

Closing my eyes, I took deep breaths.

"Aden," called Storm. She spotted me and gave me a small smile. "Are you feeling okay?"

"I'll live," I replied, trying to sound convincing. My stomach was still turning, though.

She sat beside me. "That's probably a rare sight for a human."

I nodded. "First time actually."

Placing her hand on top of mine, she gave it a squeeze. "We'll just have the boys butcher it before we get there. How about that?"

"Butcher," I rubbed my forehead. "That's such a horrible word."

She laughed and pulled me to my feet. "I told them to hurry. They should be done by now."

"Let's hope."

***

Titus held my hand as we exited the food chamber. I glanced around at the werewolf scattered about the entrance waiting to enter. Pack feasts were a rare occasion, and I doubt we'd eat together any time soon. I noticed the group of werewolf who were all around my height standing in the far corner. They were quite skinny compared to everyone else in the pack.

"Hey." Titus yanked me over to him, before I slammed into a rock. "Quit daydreaming, before you hurt yourself," he chuckled.

"Hmmm..." I muttered. "You're too funny."

We went back to the room and lounge on the bed. Since arriving at the pack, I liked this time of night, when it was just us two. It was peaceful.

I rested my head on his shoulder. "Is what Darius said true?"

Titus glanced over at me. "Depends on what he said, but in most cases, no."

"True." I turned toward him. "The alpha, beta thing."

Titus shrugged. "I don't know. I'm pretty sure Darius is the next alpha just by the way people act around him, but I don't think I'm the beta. Rupert more likely to get the position than me."

I sat up. "So do you guys battle it out?"

"No," he said plainly.

"Wrestling match?" I offered. "Arm wrestling maybe," I wiggled my eyebrows while running a finger across his bicep. "Oh I know you do like a muscle man competition. You oil each other and pose for the pack." I demonstrated for him.

"Come here, you little ass." He snatched me and squeezed me to his chest.

"Titus, I can't breath." I pushed on his shoulder.

He released me just enough, so my ribs didn't feel like they were going to snap.

"So?" I ran my hand down his chest. "How do you decide?"

Titus scratched beneath his chin. "You're born with it. Every generation has an alpha, and one beta, sometimes two."

"I know that. I already passed werewolf 101," I breathed. Rolling off him, I moved to the edge of the bed.

My mate pushed up behind me. "Well there's not that much too it, Aden. We won't know until someone starts showing the signs. A hormone is released, and when that happens, you'll be able to sense it."

I rolled to my back. "I've notice it. Your dad and Jericho there's something different about them."

He pushed my hair away from my face. "When Darius goes through the switch, and his alpha hormone is released, please don't be sarcastic with him until he gets it under control."

My eyebrows pinched together. "Should I be scared?"

"For a week or two, they're a little overly aggressive. Quick tempered, is what Rose called it when she talks about when my dad went through it," he laughed. "She says it was two weeks of hell. She paid him back once everything calmed down though pretty good."

"Oh great," I exclaimed, "Darius will be even more annoying than usual. I'm so excited."

Titus chuckled. "Basically. Just give him a couple weeks, and he'll get it under control than you can let him have it."

I sighed and cupped his cheek. "What about you? What am I going to do if it turns out there's a beta somewhere in there." I peered into his deep brown eyes. "Should I be worried?"

He smiled and kissed my hand. "You're my mate, Aden. You have nothing to worry about."

***

Laundry day, it was heaven sent, and if I didn't hurry up, I was going to miss it. I cursed under my breath and shoved the last piece of Titus's sweaty shorts into the bag. I was ready for winter. Werewolf form was so much less maintenance. I scanned the room looking for a marker. Running to the desk, I pulled open all the drawers. Titus had been in them. Everything was thrown about.

"Aden," called Peter. "Are you coming?"

"Just give me a second." I pulled out the pen draw. That man, he never put things back where they belong.

Peter tapped me on the shoulder.

"Hey, do you happen-" I turned around to see him holding a black marker. "Thank you." I quickly scribbled my name on the outside of the white bags. "Titus is constantly moving stuff. I can never find anything."

"I have a no touch drawer in our room," Peter laughed.

I groaned. "That would never work with Titus. He's almost twenty-four and still acts like a pup. His curiosity would drive him mad, and then he'd rip through it."

He shrugged. "I guess you're out of luck."

"Well aware," I breathed. "Alright, let's go." I gave him back the marker and dragged the bags into the hall.

"You're adjusting really fast," said Peter.

"Really?" I smiled to myself.

He nodded. "You fit right in."

"Well, I usually spend my summer sitting in my room messing around on the internet, so I guess there's not much difference here."

"I guess," he laughed.

We tossed our bags into the pile outside. WIR agents had already arrived and had loaded most of it into the trailer attached to an ATV.

"We made it in time." I held up my hand.

Peter stared at it, until he realized I wanted a high five. He slapped it.

"Sub power." I fist bumped him.

He just looked confused by it and gave me a nervous smile.

Laughing to myself, I put my arm around his neck. "Come on. I think I need to humanize you more. These werewolves have gotten to your head." I messed up his hair.

He squeezed his head free. "Thanks, I'm fine how I am."

"I'm sure Rupert would love an exotic flair to his mate," I teased.

"I don't," he replied nervously.

Laughing, I looked over my shoulder at him. "He might regret letting you hang out with me."

Peter took a deep breath. "I'm starting to think so too."

"Well I need to straight up the disaster Titus left behind this morning."

"Was he late again for the hunting party?"

I nodded. "Darius came by and yelled at him twice. Having a mate has turned him into an old man that wants to sleep in until noon."

Peter peeked over at me. "We do share a wall."

"Oh my god," I burst out laughing. "Sorry. Wow," I wiped my eye. "I didn't expect that from you."

Bowing his head, he bit his lip to stop from smiling. "Do you want to come swimming with me later?"

"Sure." I reached my room. "Let me know when you're going."

"Alright, bye." He gave me a wave and disappeared into his cave.

I stood at the doorway to mine and sighed. Even with the laundry gone, this place was still a mess, and honestly, I couldn't blame it all on Titus. I started in the corner and worked my way around. I found all our pens and markers stashed in my art supplies. I had forgotten that I was the one that had used them last. Good thing Titus hadn't been around to hear me complaining this morning.

"Aden." Peter parted the curtains. "Are you ready? I can come back if you're not."

"Nope, I'm good. I can do the rest later." There was still half the room to go, but it looked good enough. I grabbed my shower bag and a towel, and we headed for the hot pools.

They weren't too crowded. I figured most were using the river as it was pretty hot outside. Only a couple werewolves were lounging about. Peter dropped his bag and slid off his shorts and shirt. He shifted and hopped into the water.

"You're going to die of heat."

I undressed and held a rag over myself as I climb in.

Peter shrugged. "I want to wash my fur."

"I'll settle for just doing my hair," I laughed. I grabbed a bottle of shampoo and squeezed some in my hand. I worked it through my hair and watched as Peter started on his legs. That was going to take forever. He probably didn't care, it wasn't like we had anything else to do today.

Finishing up, I put away my things and floated out into the deeper area. "Hey Peter, I'm going to swim around a bit."

"'kay." He still hadn't finished scrubbing his legs. The man took a little too much pride in his fur. It probably explained how he kept it such a pristine white.

I could hear a lot of noise coming from where the river and the hot pools met. Swimming up behind a rock, I peeked over it. It looked like a lot of middle ranks. Maybe a few dominants with them. A couple women were also chatting as their pups played. I smiled at the pair. It was so strange to see little werewolves. To bad they'd grow up and would no longer be cute.

Kicking off the side, I leisurely swam upstream. I wonder what Titus looked like as a puppy. A little black fluffy ball, he was probably really cute. A little werewolf pup, I hoped someone had a picture.

I heard someone cry out and popped up. My feet touched the bottom, and I scanned the area. A werewolf with a light golden colored fur was slowly dipping his leg into the water between two boulders. The blood dripped from a cut.

I slowly approached. "Hey, are you okay?"

The wolf jumped and nearly fell into the water.

"Whoops," I laughed hesitantly. "Sorry about that."

He collected himself and leaned back against a boulder.

"Ouch, that looks like it hurts."

The boy didn't move as I touched his foot.

"Why isn't it healing? It doesn't look too deep."

The werewolf bowed his head.

"Did a higher rank do this?"

He didn't respond.

"I could fix it for you?" I offered. I got nothing in return from him. "It would work better if you shifted though."

The fur pulled back, and an ugly purple bruise showed on his skin. I glanced up at his face. He wasn't that bad looking of a guy, a little on the scrawny side, but so was I. I prepared myself for the next step.

"I never done this before, so sorry if it's super awkward." I noticed a rag with blood stains on it. "Can I use this?"

He nodded.

It felt wrong in every way, but I spat on it. I pressed it to his leg and relief filled his face. His eyes closed, and he let out a deep breath.

"Better?"

The boy nodded.

I pulled back the rag to see the cut was starting to pull together and some of the bruising was fading. I didn't one more round and held the cloth there until the wound completely sealed. "There good as new." I handed him the rag.

"Thank you," he whispered. He flashed me a small smile.

"What's your name?"

He chewed on his bottom lip. "River."

I held out my hand. "I'm Aden."

He nodded. "I know."

"Aden!"

Turning around, I spotted Titus, standing with Rupert. Peter was still working on his fur.

"I have to go, see you-" I looked back, but River was gone. "Okay." I swam across the pond and climbed out.

My mate met me with a kiss. "How's your day been?"

"I got the laundry out, so we'll survive another week."

He laughed. "Good work."

I pulled on my shorts and gathered my things. Titus put his arm around my shoulder, and we headed back to the room. I glanced back at the pools, but the golden wolf was nowhere to be seen. His leg was on the mend, so he'd be okay on his own as long as the higher ups didn't hurt him again.