Kale's POV-

"You are a savage, a true savage," Sam told Lucy loudly making her let out a cute little snort at his assessment. "Honestly, I thought she was going to shit a brick back there!" Lucy rolled her eyes as she put another tray of sandwich meat that she helped prepare out on the bar for lunch that was about to be ready.

"And the way you handled Kale," Sam said unaware that I was listening to the conversation right outside the kitchen door. "...while I don't think that it was completely fair the way you shunned him without listening to an explanation, you have some balls to put him in his place like that! You are a brave little Luna, though a queen is more fitting," Sam concluded excitedly.

Lucy finally turned to Sam after she finished putting the trays out on the bar. "I am not Luna," Lucy said patiently as she looked up to my Beta with a small smile but then it vanished after a few seconds. "And I don't think that what I told Kale was unfair at all. If I had been in my room by myself with an unmated male, he would have lost it, and that's without even having a bond with someone... That just adds a whole other layer to my anger."

She huffed out with her arms crossed. "She has him enchanted. I don't like it, and I'm allowed to be mad about it. No matter what you or he says about it. If this were the other way around, someone would have already wound-up dead. Instead, I'm sitting here playing the good little she-wolf while Kale tries to figure this whole thing out. However, my patience is wearing thin, and if she continues goading me, everyone will find out real quick what happens when my resolve snaps," she enunciated each word perfectly with a wild edge to her voice making a shiver go up my spine.

"Plus, she smells," she said as an after-thought.

Sam let out a loud laugh at her statement.

I walked into the kitchen after that, and she stared at me hard. "I'm sorry," I said quickly with my eyes casted downwards in shame. "She ambushed me. I didn't invite her in there or anything."

"Yes, and she is just soooo much stronger than you so you just couldn't get her out of there," Lucy said sarcastically making me close my eyes even harder in annoyance and lots of more shame.

"I'm sorry," I said meekly again.

"Whatever."

"I made sure that she put your room back together correctly and left the windows open to air the place out since her scent repulses you... Sam was up there with us the whole time," I said trying to placate her.

"Good," she said shortly with a nod.

"Luce," I said exasperatedly trying not to sound pathetic, but I knew I did.

"Kale," she copied my tone with her arms crossed. She then took a breath, and her frown softened. "I'm sorry..." She said and crossed over to me. "This is difficult, I trust that you understand that..."

I grabbed her hands and brought them up to my lips kissing her knuckles softly on each hand. "I do..." I said softly. "I don't like it either... I agree with you; I think she has some sort of enchantments on her that affect me."

Lucy snorted at that and let out a laugh making me raise an eyebrow at her. "Sorry, that's just exactly what you said about me before," she said with a wince.

I looked down ashamed again.

"Come on, let's eat lunch then we can discuss your findings from the interrogation," she bid me and led the way out of the kitchen.

When we entered the dining room, her whole body tensed along with mine. I deeply frowned when I saw the seat that Raven had chosen... the Luna seat. Granted, lunch was a very informal affair, seats were not assigned, but traditionally the Luna spot was always considered the seat on the left side of the Alpha's seat. Lucy looked at me and then back to Raven before storming away from me and to the food. I sighed and rubbed my face; this was all so fucked.

"I am so glad that I am not you right now," Sam said with a pat on my shoulder and walked to the food as well.

I followed and caught up to Lucy just as she was walking away with a plate consisting of only a few chips on it.

"What are you doing?" I asked harshly. I dragged her backwards, back to the bar and took her plate from her. I began making her a bacon sandwich wordlessly.

"I'm not hungry," she tried to protest and take her plate back. I pushed her arm away and continued making the sandwich for her. After her sandwich was done, I didn't give her the plate back and made me a sandwich as well.

I stepped away from the bar with both of our plates in hand, she rolled her eyes and followed me begrudgingly. I sat her plate down at the seat that was meant for Sam to normally sit at, just like with Renee, and pulled the chair out for her. I hadn't even acknowledged Raven's presence yet. Luce folded her arms and eyed me and then Raven, seemingly debating if she wanted to actually sit down or not.

"Hi Kale," Raven said as she eyed mine and Lucy's silent stare-off.

I paid no attention to her as I watched Lucy try and make her decision. I pleaded with my eyes for her to sit. I wasn't sure what she wanted from me, but whatever it was I'd do it for her so long as she'd forgive me and sit down. I wanted her and Raven, both, to understand that my loyalties lay with Lucy and my pack.

Sam came and sat down in the chair next to my offered one as he watched us amused. My sister and Cory soon walked up as well.

"Lucy!" Nat exclaimed and put her food down to embrace Luce excitedly. "I'm so happy that you are okay and out of the hospital," she said and looked over Lucy for injuries, a sign of care and respect in our community. She smiled at the marks on her arms and softly touched them. "These just get more and more beautiful each time I see them," my sister commented.

Lucy smiled at my sister as Nat talked to her while going to sit down in her chair, pulling Lucy into the seat that I had out for her. I smiled and breathed in relief that we didn't have to have a big scene in front of the growing audience in the dining room.

I could feel the curious glances that were directed in Raven's direction. I was unsure of how to broach this situation with my pack, or what to tell them regarding Raven. I wanted to tell them the truth, but I wasn't sure how they would react or how they would take both women that I shared a bond with. It was no secret that they didn't want to accept Lucy as their Luna yet, but I wasn't sure what the reaction to Raven would be. If it were positive, Lucy would be devastated, and I certainly didn't want that. If it was negative, then I wasn't sure what to do either. I didn't like not knowing what to do, especially when it came to big decisions about my pack.

Raven eyed Lucy distastefully as Lucy greeted Yuli and Trevor who had joined our table. It was obvious that she was angry that Lucy already knew so many people from my pack. Of course, it made her mad, it meant that she had a one up on her.

"Is that a tattoo?" Trevor asked, pointing at Lucy's arms.

Lucy looked at me and then shrugged. "Sort of, kind of. It's a bit complicated."

"It's a gift from the Moon Goddess," I answered.

Raven snorted at that. I turned a heated glare at her and she raised her eyebrows at me, "Oh you're serious? I didn't think that you'd be one to believe in that sort of rubbish."

"Rubbish?" Lucy asked with a strained voice.

"Yes rubbish, I didn't realize that packs still believe and worship the Moon Goddess," she answered with an attitude.

"What do you mean? She's the mother, she is who we come from. Of course, we still believe in her. She is a wonderful patron Goddess who is full of love."

"Wow, you're even more delusional than I had thought," Raven patronized her with a smirk.

Sam put a hand on Lucy's shoulder as she growled at the girl. "Kale..." Lucy said heavily with a wide-eyed look at me. She was about to snap.

"Do not disrespect our Mother Moon," I said harshly, angry at her for speaking of our beliefs so rudely. "It is what our pack has always believed in. We draw our power from our Goddess and her lunar loving energy she gives us. If you cannot respect that then you may leave."

Raven whined sharply at my statement and pouted. "I'm sorry, that is just not how we believed in my old pack... Please forgive me for my discrepancies and ignorance."

I nodded once at her apology and glanced at Lucy's still angered face. I was sure that her being in direct contact with the Goddess made Raven's comments sting just a bit more than the rest of us who were also offended. I reached out and squeezed Lucy's and that was resting next to her plate in support. I did not let go once I released the small amount of pressure that I applied for the squeeze.

"Please eat," I asked with pleading eyes. She sighed but picked up the sandwich and took a bite. "Thank you," I said and smiled at Lucy brightly kissing the hand that I was still holding.

Raven glared at us, but I did not let that deter me from showing Lucy affection. I wanted Lucy to know that I was not choosing Raven over her. Lucy was who I wanted, another bond or not, Luce was the perfect girl for me. She understood things in ways that I did not, and I needed that in a Luna. I needed another perspective on things while also having the same goal. I knew not much of Raven, but I knew that the bond that I shared with Lucy was much different than the bond I felt with Raven... much, much different.

"So..." Nat started. "Where do you come from?" I had expected Nat to question the girl, just as she had Lucy. The difference was that Lucy didn't seem put off by it. Raven, however, did.

"I thought I was interrogated last night?"

"I don't know if you noticed, but I wasn't there," Nat snapped making Lucy's spine stiffen.

I knew that if Raven tried something with Nat, she would step in. Which meant that I would have to step in, so I tried to diffuse the situation... Not to mention, Cory would kill the girl. "She is not trying to interrogate you, Raven. She is simply trying to get to know you," I clarified.

"I came from the Smith pack," Raven said shortly.

"That pack perished years ago," Sam commented. "They were the first of The South attacked."

"I know... I was just a little girl when they attacked," Raven said unsteadily. "A few of us escaped and fled even further south. We ended up south of the border and were taken as refugees by one of the packs there."

"So why did you come here?" Nat pressed.

"I had heard about this pack and its mateless leader through the grapevine..."

"And how exactly did you 'know'," Nat put air quotations around the word know, "That you are my brother's supposed mate?"

"Just a hunch, really. I figured it was worth a shot since I hadn't found my mate in my twenty-three years living, and I know I am supposed to be a Luna. I am the daughter of an Alpha after all," she said shrugging. "Maybe it was the Moon Goddess as you believe in."

"It was not the Moon Goddess," Lucy said in an extremely hard and detached voice. "You can't claim to not believe in something and then use it to win sympathy a moment later," she added making Raven growl at her.

"I thought that the Smith pack had no heir when they perished? Especially not a first-born female, which is impossible in an Alpha couple, a male is always born first. Luna Smith had a still-born baby a few years before they were attacked. I remember that clearly; mine and Kale's mothers even went to help out for a few weeks during her recovery. It had been devastating to the whole pack, even ours," Sam said skeptically confirming my questionings that had come to mind the night before. I knew that I was not crazy or misremembering.

"That is incorrect. My parents kept my brother and I, both, hidden. They felt that something was amiss way before the attack. Unfortunately, my whole family died."

"That's not true, the whole pack was famously slaughtered or taken prisoner due to their lack of preparedness. No one believed that there would ever be such a brutal massacre like that. That attack was the catalyst for the way The South works now. The Smith pack was our sister pack, and it was devastating when The North attacked them so harshly. They had no idea that there was going to be an attack. Otherwise, they would have enlisted us for help," Sam argued heatedly.

"I was there; you were not. You do not get to tell me what happened to my own pack when you weren't even there! I watched my family members and pack being slaughtered. You're right, they were unprepared for such a brutal attack. But they were sure to safeguard their children in case of something like that... The only reason why my brother died was because he didn't listen to my parent's orders. I am what is left of my pack... me. Just me."

There were tears spilling out of her eyes and for the first time since she had got there, Lucy looked at Raven with something other than anger or hate. Lucy had sadness and pity in her eyes for the girl.

"What happened to those that you fled with?" Lucy asked softly. "Has anyone been to her pack's land since to make sure that everyone is gone?"

"Don't be daft, it was awful! The whole place was torched, no one and nothing was left. Besides, it was years ago," Raven said. "The sparse few who fled with me slowly disappeared and died. Each time, little pieces of my heart went with them. They're dead."

"Alpha Cory's pack was torched, and he was able to save a lot of his pack, so it doesn't necessarily have to mean that they're all gone. And you'd be surprised at how long a person will hold out for their pack," Lucy defended. "What about those who were taken as prisoners? Has anyone escaped? Have you come across anyone in your attacks in The North?" She asked me.

I sucked in a breath and looked from Lucy to Raven with a sullen look. "Luce, you know we took no prisoners on our raids... I'm sorry, Raven," I said softly.

"You mean you didn't even look?!" Lucy whispered-yelled. "You didn't even see if there were people in the cells or being held captive?" Her eyes were blazing fury. "What if I hadn't of seen you coming? What if you torched the place with me there?!"

"I'm so sorry. I let my rage for the North take over my battle tactics. No, we didn't look." I bowed my head at both women in remorse. "I'm so sorry."

Then I remembered a single man coming to my pack a couple years before... "However, we did have one refugee come to our land and seek asylum with us. He claimed to escape during a raid on one of the territories down here, he said he was a part of the Smith pack. The North forced them to fight for them."

"That's awful," Lucy commented with tears brimming her eyes. "But that's also good! Maybe you can see one of your pack members! You might not be alone!" She told Raven with genuine excitement on her face for the girl.

"Yes, amazing!" But the girl didn't seem nearly as excited as Lucy was for her.

"Maybe we can coordinate a time to go to your old pack's land soon? We can have a look around, just to be sure that there is no one left, and you can have closure," Lucy suggested making me look at her in shock.

This girl was being so nice and helpful to a girl who was literally after her position and mate. I was so awed by her compassion and love. It was so spectacular; she was truly one of a kind. Everyone in our group was shocked and awed by her gracious heart, even Raven.

"Um, yeah... That would be... great," Raven said skeptically. I was sure she was trying to figure out Lucy's game here, but Lucy had no game. She just had a good heart.

I shared a look with Sam and Trevor. While Lucy bought her story, none of us had. We were around the Smith pack before their untimely demise. Her story was completely plausible, but I wasn't going to accept it that quickly. Not when everyone else had such a bad feeling about her and my judgement was clouded by our bond. I wanted to get to the bottom of all this though, so I pretended to buy the story for now. I needed to catch her slipping or something before I confronted her. I needed to know what her agenda was.

We continued eating and Lucy seemed to catch the weird vibe that Raven had given off during the discussion. It was tense as we all sat there. I was sure that we were all trying to connect the dots in our heads to make guesses about where the girl had truly come from when our thoughts were finally interrupted.

"Hello Alpha Kale," Renee said politely coming up to our table hesitantly, making Lucy stiffen up even more than she already was.

"Hello Renee," Lucy said politely as well making the she-wolf frown at her.

"Lucy," she said cordially.

"And who is this, if I may ask?" Renee asked, holding out her hand to Raven. I could tell the whole room was interested in the question with how low the talking had become. Renee was basically asking the question for everyone in the room.

"Raven..." she answered with a small smirk while shaking Renee's hand. There was a small pause, "Kale's mate."

Every single person in the room ceased talking and looked at us with wide eyes.