"Ready, Princess?"

Cole's eyes narrowed as they inspected me from head to toe. I didn't need a mirror to see how exhausted I felt. No amount of makeup hid my puffy red eyes and depressed, dark, semi circles under my eyes.

My late night-reading rendered me sleepless, thrashing and sweat-soaked in bed. Horrid mental images of abusive Alphas reeled in my mind until my own throat felt choked.

Giving up on sleep, my feet padded down to the one place where I blew off steam, the gun range. Eight rounds, numb fingers, and ringing ears provided enough reassurance that, if needed, I could whip out a gun.

"Why are we here?" My tired eyes blinked against the blinding morning sun. With cupped hands, I shaded my forehead and cocked my head sideways.

Cole looked as much out of place as us standing outside the front steps of the house. He shifted his weight between his feet, paced a few steps, then shifted his weight and returned. His fingers curled and flicked, straining his forearm, bicep, and shoulder muscles into definition.

After a few repeated rounds and several eye rolls from me, he stilled. Fixating his eyes behind me, his rock-shaped muscles relaxed and his lips curled up.

I turned around and took in Elena's appearance.

At least, I think that's her?

The meek, scholarly bookworm I knew over the past month now radiated like the sunlight. Her hair, normally hiding her face, was tied back in a ponytail. The tied back curls exposed her round cheeks, delicate neck, and slender shoulders. Tight-fitted running clothes accentuated her feminine curves in silent indication that she joined us for exercise.

Her brown eyes sparkled as brightly as the morning sun, sans glasses, at Cole. They glazed over, momentarily, looking at him as if I was a blade of grass.

Is this what mating does to werewolves?

With a gulp, I tried to push the mental image of them having sex together out of my mind. It was too early for me to comprehend where they were in their relationship status.

"Elena?" I glanced back at Cole, who drooled out the sides of his mouth. "Are you joining us for a run?"

"Not any run." He blinked out of his Elena trance, reached out for her hand, then smiled as she placed her palm against his. "Come on."

We walked to the end of the long driveway with birds chirping as the only sound. Correction: I walked, staring at the ground ahead of my steps. The lovebirds stared at each other, broke their gazes apart, then snuck heart-eyed glances out of the corners of their eyes, and full on stared again.

Rinse, repeat.

I rolled my eyes and sighed.

If I ever turn into this, then I'll put a silver bullet through my own brain.

Lumi was wary of the happy couple by how she shifted in the corner of my mind. She was not the most talkative with me, but she was always present.

Maybe she feels as overwhelmed with these new experiences as I do.

Her only response was her nose lifted and chuffed.

"I think the coast is clear." Cole glanced around once we came to the edge of the property, and pressed a security code through the gate.

Once it opened, I stepped through and took in... the same grassy, secluded scenery that sat inside the walls. Turning back, Cole and Elena removed their clothes.

"Woah guys." My palms flew over my eyes. "Not with me here."

"Not that." Elena grinned, her eyes sparkling like the morning sunlight. "Shift."

I stepped sideways.

She rolled her eyes. "Shift means turn into your wolf form."

"By myself?" My eyebrows lifted because I hadn't attempted to do that yet.

Experiencing Lumi's form once, which had happened on its own, I hadn't attempted a repeat. My bloodbath period from hell stopped two days ago, leaving me tired, lethargic, and anemic.

Cole noticed my lower energy levels during my afternoon workouts and decided to change to an outside morning run. I didn't mind but, before today, I ran solo in human form. My running always made Lumi feel restless in the back of my mind. I think she felt I was slow.

'Too slow.'

That's enough, Lumi.

Another voice present in my head was another adjustment. Initially, Lumi's thoughts made me uncomfortable because she was quite direct. She also shifted between being quiet and blurting words out, also having limited experience expressing ourselves. Pushed back into the shadows for so many years, perhaps she felt more comfortable receding into them.

Despite her blunt snark, her thoughts often echoed ones that I wasn't strong enough to voice myself. In her crass way, she offered slight comfort when hearing her words in my mind.

Either way, we needed to learn to work together. Even someone as ignorant as me knew we were stronger as a team.

Even if she's invaded my mind like a displaced relative mooching off my sofa and eating all my chocolate donuts.

Strain broke my voice into a rambled admission, "I've never, I don't -"

Nerves fluttered my stomach when Cole interrupted. "Elena, show her Sand. Then I'll show her Sable."

I looked away from Cole and watched Elena transform. Her small frame crouched down, she closed her eyes, then after an unpleasant round of cracking and body part distortions, her face changed into a snout, sandy brown ears popped out of her curls, and light tan fur sprouted from her skin. Her wolf stood tall, with her nose almost at my shoulder height, then whimpered and dipped her head at me.

"Hi... Sand." A smile tugged at my lips and I extended one finger to her soft nose.

She licked my finger in a warm, soggy movement. I appreciated her gentleness considering Sand's muzzle came to my shoulder height. My hand traveled over to the side of her head, where my fingers stroked her soft, beautiful tan-colored ears, and smiled as she pushed the side of her head into my palm.

"Thanks for making it look easy," I murmured, threading my fingers through her soft, thick fur, into a lighter-toned undercoat.

Turning to speak to Cole, another wolf nose pointed at mine. Corded with muscles under his medium-brown fur, I looked over his shoulder at the darker brown dorsal stripe and ear tips. His stoic stance, paws pressed down in straight legs, and protruded chest all projected, 'Don't even think about petting me.'

"Sable." He nodded slightly, cobalt blue eyes fixated on me.

I looked back at Sand and noted that hers were the same color. The similarity made me wonder why Lumi's eyes had remained the same as mine, bright, light blue-green.

Realizing, they both now stared at me, I scratched my head about how to proceed. They both shifted as naturally as I breathed air. Sable's ears flattened down as he waited.

Lumi, little help here please?

'Picture you become me.'

My eyes closed and I sighed.

That's not very specific.

'Try first.'

I bent over, like Elena had done, squeezed my eyes closed, and tried to picture Lumi's beautiful white fur sprouting out of my skin, my skin stretching as her long torso erupted from mine, my bones cracking and being replaced with hers.

Nothing happened. Not even a fart.

Well, that's embarrassing.

My nose cringed and I squeezed my eyes tight.

What am I doing wrong, Lumi?

'Trying too hard.'
'Say my name. Picture me.'

Her offer sounded reasonable, so I whispered as if making a wish, "Lumi."

Her crisp white fur and aquamarine eyes came into mind, burning bright as I remembered. The image struck a searing pain into my chest, which spread down into my abdomen. I hunched over as heat spread from my torso, branching outward into my extremities. My head pounded and my ears heard the familiar cracking, bone-shattering sounds.

In inhuman contortions, my body jolted and flinched. Once the last one subsided, I took a few deep breaths and opened my eyes. Standing tall, I was delighted when I saw eye-to-eye with Elena and Cole's wolves. I attempted to put a smile on my face.

Neither seemed as pleased as I felt as I padded my front paws into the dirt. Based on their reactions, I failed miserably.

Instead, both flattened their ears, dipped their heads low, and averted their eyes. I didn't know what the wolf body language for 'Hey, we're cool' was, so instead I brought my paws to stillness and blinked at them.

Now what?

'Run...' 

I looked around, buzzing with heightened awareness from how clearly I saw through her eyes. The world around me magnified into a higher definition, from the flapping wings of mosquitoes, buzzing friction of grasshoppers' wings in flight, plop of morning dew sliding off a mushroom, and the gentle, wavelike sway of grass blades.

My nose twitched and I absorbed the smells.

Oh, the smells.

From the musty, damp moss on the sides of trees, to the sweet nectar in a patch of wild daffodils near my feet to...

Is that Cole and Elena's smell? Or Sable and Sand? This is confusing.

I leaned forward and sniffed at Cole. My nostrils flared, trying to figure out what he smelled like when a warning growl erupted from Elena.

'Run...'

Where?

'Everywhere.'

Lumi's single-word answer was all I needed, so I dug my paws into the ground, sprung forwards, and bumped through Elena and Cole. The earth gripped under my toes and wind whipping in my face brought an instant rush through my body. The new sensations electrified the nerve endings in my brain until they charged with excitement.

My mouth parted as I lengthened my strides. Reaching and retracting all four limbs, I ran openly, freely. For the first time, I felt no sense of confinement and my heart soared.

Lumi's presence grew and she seemed to enjoy this as much as I darted over fallen down trees and ferns tickled my underbelly. Her lungs expanded, drawing in cool air and expending out the heat warming her muscles.

A twitch alerted my attention, a warning snapped in the back of my mind, and I felt a sense of urgency to stop. I planted my paws down into the ground, scraping and sliding a few feet until coming to a complete stop. My nails dug into bedrock, inches away from a cliff edge. Sixty feet down, waves crashed into a rocky area below.

We were on an island.

Only my father double isolates.

He set me free then confined me within a larger cage.

'More...'

Lumi begged me to turn around and pushed for more running. I did, keeping a slower, more guarded pace as I marked the edges of the island to memory. I enjoyed running as Lumi so much that twenty minutes had passed before I realized I was alone.

Well, me and Lumi.

'Back.'

I couldn't argue against her suggestion, since fatigue had crept into this unused body form. I wasn't used to moving these muscles, which weren't conditioned as well as they should have been.

As I turned back to the mansion, a sense of disappointment weighed down my shoulders. My tail drooped and tucked between my legs. Now that I had a taste of Lumi outside, I wanted more.

'Thank you.'

She was pleased, since her emotions flowed through me as if they were my own sense of accomplishment.

Why?

She was pleased, her emotions flowing through me as if they were my own sense of accomplishment.

'Stronger.'

I stopped full force at the edge of the entrance staircase, realizing I didn't have any clothes. The shredded remnants of my sports bra and running shorts weren't a viable option.

Now I know why Elena and Cole removed some of their clothes ahead of time.

I took a deep breath, attempting to shift back into human form. This shift was less taxing this time and quicker. Fortunately, the lower pain level brought me temporary relief, until I was aware that I stood outside the mansion, naked. Six security personnel patrolling the front of the mansion who now cast wide-eyed gazes at me.

Awkward.

Fortunately, one of the security guards removed his coat, wrapping it around me before I fully composed myself.

"Thank you." I wrapped his coat over my shoulders and smiled.

He nodded, averted his eyes, and fixed his gaze away from me.

Looking behind me as we stepped up the stairs, Cole and Elena's clothes were still piled up. I wondered where they were but didn't want to stand around until a breeze exposed me again, so I headed inside.

Catching a shadow of movement above me, I glanced up at the mansion. A blurry figure moved in one of the windows, but in a blink the shadow was gone.

"Wake up," Elena rubbed my shoulders.

Pulling myself out of my now standard comatose-like sleep, I blinked. "What?" I sat up slowly, squinting at her blurry face. "Elena?"

"Don't have all day, Princess." Cole leaned against my desk, his arms crossed over his chest and eyebrows furrowed.

"What are you doing in my room?" I groaned. "Going to toss me on the floor in here too?"

"Tempting." He shook his head, clicking his tongue against his teeth. "But not tonight."

"Tonight..." I glanced at my clock. After this morning's run, I inhaled lunch then napped for about four hours. "What's tonight?"

"Transformation confirmation time." Elena's eyes cast down as she guided my shoulders out of bed. "Come on."

"Should I change?" I looked down at my T-shirt and sweatpants.

"No need to," she whispered, leading me outside my room.

Not two steps into the hallway, Cole extended his hand and traced his fingers up her arm. Her smile radiated out her eyes.

Once we got to my father's office, the heavy wooden door was cracked open.

"So... she is white." Baron's gruff voice vibrated in my ears.

"Yes, Baron." My father's voice replied in his coarse, cold tone. "Pure white as snow. Lumi."

"Is she ready? Based on the unmated warriors' reckless mindlinks, the future alphas won't be able to resist."

Baron was a tall, broad-shouldered warrior aged with experience. While my father was the source of cunning cruelty, Beta Baron was the executioner. Blindly loyal to my father, Baron was responsible for the Central pack's security forces, suppressing all threats whether actual or potential. According to Elena's whispered admission, he relished the role, thriving in it for decades.

"She has no choice." My father replied with the stern expectation that his authority was unchallenged. "You will go with her in charge of security. Take thirty."

"Thirty, Alpha Cassius?" Beta Baron scoffed. "That's -"

"That's my order." My father's unflinching voice exercised his authority. "Thirty-one, including you. I'm not taking any chances with the rogues sniffing around lately, don't think I haven't noticed."

Cole's eyes shot to mine. His expression hung blank, but he placed one index finger to his mouth.

"I'm not a babysitter," Baron groaned. "My place is here, preparing the new warriors. Send Gamma Erik."

The tall, stocky man stood in the office. Gamma Erik was a man of few words, so few that I often overlooked his presence. Like Beta Baron, he was also loyal to my father and executed orders without question.

"Erik has other orders regarding the Southern territory. So, unless she chooses South first, I'm sending you, Beta." As my father stood over Baron, his eyes flashed at how this conversation had continued further. "To ensure my interests in the North and East."

He didn't say West. Interesting.

"Yes, Alpha," Baron replied, suppressing a growl.

"Erik," my father commanded his Gamma, who stepped forward silently, blocking the open doorway. "Before you leave, cancel Zara's pack ceremony."

Elena and Cole's eyes widened and their mouths dropped open at the words, but I frowned.

"You are dismissed," my father announced. "We have an audience outside the door."

Elena and Cole stayed rooted to the spot but I jumped back as Erik flung open the door. His dark eyes narrowed at me before he brushed past me.

Baron's exchange was much less pleasant. His narrowed eyelid slits didn't conceal his icy glare. If looks could kill, then I would've already been six feet under. A sneer pulled back his lips and exposed his canines before he shoved my shoulder.

"Always the charmer." Cole chuckled once Barron was out of earshot.

"Zara, Cole, Elena," my father barked from inside his office.

I hadn't ever been to a school but assumed this situation felt similar to being called into a Principal's office. My shoulders slumped as my palms pushed his door open fully. Cole and Elena trailed in behind me.

My stoic father sat behind his desk, still as a statue as he always presented himself. An older man, tall and lean with gray eyes, stood behind him. His arms held a large, thick, leather book with a worn binding in his hands and his entire demeanor radiated... disappointment?

"Zara, this is William." My father introduced him. "He is the Central territory White Moon pack's elder."

"Hi." I extended one hand, but William dismissed the greeting with a lifted nose.

Instead, he glanced at my father and bristled with disapproval. "Highly unorthodox, Cassius. I discourage -"

"Do it." My father turned his head and glared at him. "Zara, William is here to perform your transformation ceremony."

My eyes flicked back to William's face, wrought with discontent. His fingers tightened against the book's binding.

"Which should be promptly followed by a pack ceremony, Cassius," he replied in a tight voice, strained like he fought to maintain an assumed order of events.

My eyes widened at William's use of my father's first name. He was referred to as "Alpha" now instead of "Sir," at least in my presence. I looked at William, wondering what level of importance he held.

Yet, my father commanded him like any other subordinate. "Do it." he repeated, glaring at William's heated gaze.

Without breaking eye contact, William forced out, "I, William, first order elder of the Central White Moon pack, declare you, Zara Accalia Lykaios, daughter and direct descendant of Cassius Lucian Lykaios... confirmed."

'Yes.'

Lumi shifted inside me. Based on the stoic, old-man formality, I didn't know what any of this meant. Her reaction led me to believe that, whatever these words mean, they were important.

"Umm... thanks?" I choked out, hoping that Elena, or even Lumi, explained the significance of this declaration to me later.

"State your wolf's name." William rasped, as if he spoke in silent protest.

"Lumi."

His white eyebrows drew together. "And do you, witnesses, confirm Zara Accalia Lykaios and Lumi?"

"We confirm," they said unanimously.

Right... Now this is feeling like a strange, Vegas-drive by wedding ceremony.

"Then it is confirmed by witnesses..." William wrote in the book, a look of disdain settling in his eyes as his pen scratched over a page.

"... and recorded." His fingers snapped the book shut.

He cast one more glare at the back of my father's head, and disappeared out of his office. As my eyes followed him, I also noticed that Cole and Elena had departed.

That's it? That's a transformation confirmation ceremony? Some old guy recording us in a book?

This was all incredibly confusing and I hoped Elena and Cole could offer some insight. At this point, I wouldn't even ask my father to offer clarity for his actions.

Unless, maybe...

"So what -" I started when his hand raised.

"You are dismissed."

Of course.

Bidding my father goodbye, I took off behind Elena and Cole's retreating steps.

"Hey!" I jogged up to them, stopping a few steps behind. "Can you explain what that was about?"

"That was the pack's formal recognition of you successfully shifting into wolf form," Elena spoke over her shoulder.

"Is that it?" My eyebrows creased together, certain it meant more because my father permitted the ceremony. "Should it be, I don't... ceremonious?"

"Sorry, it's anticlimactic." The back of her head shook, "If you'll excuse me, I need to record it in your family's book in the library."

"That's not all we're going to do." Cole winked at me, taking Elena's hand in his.

Gross.

My nose wrinkled at the suggestion. Them sharing their bed together was not a mental image I wanted before I went to mine. "But the confirmation thing. Why is it so important?"

"Means that you're open for business," he joked with a smirk, which earned himself Elena's hand tapped on his shoulder.

"What he means..." Elena glared at him, before her expression caved under his stare and her face softened into a smile. "... is that now you're confirmed as a werewolf, you're registered and allowed to participate in werewolf activities within the country. The other territories won't regard you as rogue, now that you're confirmed within White Moon."

I nodded, chewing on my lower lip since most of this information was foreign to me. But fortunately she got to the part that concerned me, "In particular, you are free to seek out your mate within the country. All of the territories will record you as a female wolf in their histories, and the alpha pack houses will make their arrangements for us to travel."

"So... that's the next step, the pack ceremony?" My lips pressed together.

She nodded as we continued down the hall to my bedroom. "Once the pack ceremony is complete, you'll be able to mindlink with us and the pack. Keeping our thoughts private will be helpful once we're within other territories."

"Mindlink?" Stopping in my doorway, I leaned against the frame. "Like wolf telepathy?"

Those Wattpad stories were good for something.

I didn't know how mindlinking worked, but no part of me wanted a direct feed to every thought of every wolf in my father's pack. I was certain most saw me naked because I didn't know that shifting destroyed whatever article of clothing I wore. I didn't even want to be inside Elena and Cole's heads, obsessing over each other. Observing it daily was more than sufficient.

Like right now, these two can't keep their hands off each other.

My eyes narrowed at Cole's fingers drawing soft circles around Elena's elbow and her lips quivering to suppress a smile at him. Their eyes glazed over in a silent conversation passed between them.

"Kind of," Elena answered my question about mindlinking. "More like enhanced communication. You can choose to turn it on and off. It's similar to how you communicate with Lumi."

Honestly, I had no idea how to shut off Lumi's thoughts.

'Same.'

Not funny, Lumi.

I felt her sense of amusement though... if snuffing at me meant she was amused.

I wouldn't be surprised if my mind is dusty though.

'No comment.'

"That's reassuring." I opened my bedroom door, cradling the handle in my palm. "Thanks."

"You're welcome." She offered a smile. "Goodnight, Zara."

Closing the door behind me with a sigh, part of me twinged with envy at their sparks. My lower lip rolled under and I chewed on it.

Other than Cole and a few security guards, I mean warriors, I've never spoken to a boy.

Will I find someone who looks at me as tenderly as Cole looks at Elena?

Will my cheeks blush in reaction to his gentle touches?

Is there... love out there for me?

Guess we'll find out soon.

I meant to keep the thoughts to myself, but Lumi offered her opinion.

'Mate...'

You're no help.