Alex skimmed her fingertips over the faces in the shaking picture.

Her mother, as carefree as she'd ever been, was laughing at the two girls caked with mud at her side. She could vividly remember the dare that made her fall into the muddy pond, and her sister's laugh that had Alex pulling her in with her.

Her father was somewhere in-between shaking his head in exasperation, and smiling proudly down at them. They would always call them childish for their little acts, considering their age, but she and her sister could always see the small smile that crept on their faces. The happiness.

She didn't know how she ended up with green eyes, both her parents had the warmest of brown. That extended to her sister, but Alex had taken after someone from their line. They would always tell her how beautiful they were, and her sister never stopped threatening to gauge them out so they could switch. She never told her how much more she envied hers. For the boring simplicity, as she called it, that always soothed her. Brightened her day.

It had always felt like a black line. Differentiating her from them, adding more to an already long list. She would have traded that deep green they seemed to love so much in a heartbeat if it meant being able to feel a little closer to them. In hindsight, those were juvenile troubles. Things she shouldn't even have been considering with hunters that close to their trail. But it seemed like she hadn't bothered with a lot of things back then.

She wouldn't make the same mistakes twice. She kept telling herself that, even though reality had proven it wrong time and time again.

Her finger caught on the jagged edge of the picture, a sloppily made cut that took away the face of one of the sisters — her face. It seemed ridiculous now, preposterous even; to see herself laughing with all of them so happily, carefree; like nothing was wrong with the world.

It took every ounce of her self-control to close that small box. It was all that was left of her, all that truly mattered. That, along with the ring she began swirling around her finger. An empty space had taken hold of her heart now, and as much as she tried to fill it, the wounds were too deep, too open — all the happiness just constantly drained out of her, leaving all but an empty shell behind. Gritting her teeth, Alex steeled her spine.

She barely registered the moving of her feet as she walked, straight to an old, splintered bench.

"Morning," she chirped, forcing a wide grin on her face. Val mirrored her, and for a second, it wasn't her smiling, it was her sister; happy and warm and alive. They looked so much alike... She shook her head. "Do we know today's schedule?"

"You mean besides Feinman?" Damian grumbled, and Erik chuckled, constantly tapping his fingers on the wood and moving his feet around from under him. It was a full moon; only a month until their first shift. They were jumpy; not that she'd blame them, a restless wolf in her head was not something she'd want to deal with either.

"I think he's taking us to the woods again," Sam hummed, tilting her head. "Wider space for you to bleed at, Moon." Ian showed the barest of grins and Alex smiled. He seemed a little better now — more content, somehow.

*****

Alex jumped over a small rock and grinned back at Samantha, who was grumbling and stretching her arms. Zack had started them off with a good ole run, no surprise there. "I thought you liked the training," she mocked, "gets rid of the itch, right?" Damian laughed from her side, mocking their fidgeting. As much as it helped to take the edge off, it always riled them up first. She remembered Erik talking about how it felt like his skin crawled. It wasn't something she ever wanted to experience either.

"Easy for you vampires to talk from up your high coffins." Her lip curled slightly, showing teeth. "Go suck someone else's blood for today, will you?"

They took the insult in stride; their bad mood wasn't anything new. It was entertaining actually. Val huffed her agreement from the front.

She seemed to be struggling the most, clenching and unclenching her fists constantly. Erik kept throwing her concerned glances and — to her surprise — so did Damian. For all his first talk about Val being an annoying little human — minus the human, apparently — he seemed to have understood that she wasn't going anywhere. That sent a strange jolt of happiness into her, too.

They settled into the rings sketched on the forest floor, large circles of short-trimmed blades of grass that never grew out. Witches made sure of that.

"Getting distracted, Thomson?" Erik called with a snap of his fingers, catching her attention.

"In your dreams, buttcheeks," Val snorted from the ring at her right, a small smile playing on her lips as she and Damian started circling each other and throwing mock punches. She struggled not to think about her sister as she watched. The way her body moved fluently, even in constrict frustration. Like the ripples of water, calm and precise. Zack had been teaching her well.

"I think I might start using that from now on, it's growing on me." She laughed, and Alex sent a wicked grin to Damian. His eyes widened in silent exasperation but she spoke up before he could cut her off.

"Call him butterfingers, then." She smirked. Val threw her head back and laughed, barely dodging a blow to her ribs. She could faintly hear him grumbling his explanation about where the nickname came from; of a kid, much smaller than his current build, who couldn't play dodgeball to save his life. And of all the colorful balls that just kept slipping from his fingers. She chuckled lowly but chose to block them out, keeping her eyes on the male that was now watching her with a raised brow.

"You're not one to wait for the first blow, Erik. Getting soft on me?" She raised a mocking brow of her own.

"And you're not one to be so chirpy at practice," he said pointedly, "mocking, sure, chirpy just pisses you off."

"Didn't know you noticed." She grinned. He only frowned.

"Alex..."

She sent a barrage of quick jabs his way, shutting their conversation off. She wasn't going to talk about it now. And she wouldn't put any more weight on any of her friend's shoulders.

Bloody and bruised, after a long while, Zack called their practice to an end, saving a poor guy's face from being pummeled by a blonde's fist. Robin.

It was a relief, seeing her up and running again. If the arm bothered her, she showed no signs of it. There was no hiding the angry scars that were left behind though, the torn flesh wasn't easy to heal. A chain of jagged rips circled her arm and shoulder, following the sharp row of teeth from the rogue. She tried to shake the gruesome flash of her kneeling form from her mind. For an injury like that to heal so fast, Zack must have called in more than the pack doctor. Derek was good, but he had his limitations.

She noticed Val stealing worried glances at her as well.

The Beta turned off his phone with a curse and stared in Val's direction. She didn't notice, brushing her pants off from the dirt. "The Alpha is on his way here," he called, catching everyone's attention. "I expect you to act accordingly." There were nods and low words of agreement — he wasn't pleased. Instead, he watched Val as she made her way to Alex's side, throwing her a warning look. Val just grinned at him. Practice had calmed her down a little, it seemed.

"So..." she hummed, "I finally get to meet this oh-so-popular Alpha of yours, huh?" Her expression was soft, humorous even, but her voice had a bite in it that made her frown. Maybe she hadn't calmed down as much as she thought.

"Oh, you're going to love him," Alex returned drily. "He's everything you'd expect him to be."

~~~~~

Val huffed out a laugh and shook her head in amusement. She opened her mouth to speak, but a foreign scent made her halt. She sniffed the air, furrowing her brows. A muscle feathered in Zack's jaw as he locked it. He looked like he was trying really hard not to grind his teeth.

She doubted he'd ever tell his Alpha off about all the work he'd been piling up on him, but he wouldn't look happy about it either. It wasn't his job to run the pack, that Alpha of theirs seemed to be reaping all the profits of his position without doing any of the sowing.

A man finally formed from in-between the tree barks, two more silently following at his back.

"Zack!" He gave a friendly pat on his shoulder when he finally reached them, and with a wide grin, he stepped in front of him, facing them all. Val had the sense of biting back the small rumble that threatened to leave her lips. That was an Alpha — her soon-to-be Alpha — and growling at him didn't seem like that much of a good idea, even for those resulting few seconds of utter satisfaction. At that point, even his face made her angry.

But he had just brushed past the sole person that kept this whole place running, and he did so with an air of superiority that had her skin crawl.

He didn't deserve his position; walking so casually toward them while another was left back to face all the work, exhausted and drained. And that part of her that desperately wanted to come out, the one that constantly clawed in her mind, returned the sentiment. She scratched at her arm furiously, seeing him up close might not have been such a good idea. Especially with a full moon. Which was apparently the only day he'd been bothering to show up to.

He didn't deserve all that power, he didn't deserve to be above Zack; and as she watched that easy smile on his face, making it clear about all the responsibilities he'd been shying away from, she decided that the coward didn't deserve to be above her.

She took a step forward, lips curling back with a silent threat. A hand clutched around her wrist and pulled her back quickly.

"Control yourself," Alex hissed. Zack was talking with the two wolves at their Alpha's back. He threw Val a pointed glare. Don't do anything stupid, his eyes seemed to say.

She pulled her hand free and huffed in irritation. Would the growing impulse to rip his head off be qualified as stupid?

The others joined them at her side, answering her silent question with their shielded placing.

"Breathe," Erik whispered from her back. Her head pounded, her teeth hurt, and she could almost feel the blood pumping in her veins boil. She gulped down generous amounts of oxygen in her lungs, only then noticing how much she needed the air to help clear her head. She was on fire — everything was on fire. "Breathe," he whispered again, if only more urgently.

The Alpha stepped in front of them, clutching Ian on his shoulder. He was tall, and a little paler than she expected. Training around the pack grounds had given them all a slight tan, but she supposed he wasn't there getting his Vitamin D along with the rest.

She saw her friends tilting their heads slightly to the side, submitting. "Nice to see you again, kid." He laughed, and a breeze ruffled his dark brown hair. "I heard business is going great nowadays. Your family's hard work is very much appreciated." Ian managed a small smile but refrained from anything further. He locked his jaw. Val's fists clenched and unclenched as she tried to calm herself — breathe.

"I heard there was a new addition to the pack," he said, turning to her. "You're Daphne's pup, right? We were good friends back in the day, I hope this place feels like home to you, too." He smiled, and Val had to keep herself from growling out: It is my home!

It was where her parents lived, so that made it her home, too. Coming back later than she would have liked didn't mean anything. She hated the open invitation in his words, as if allowing her to stay in her parent's hometown was a gift, as if he could take all that back if he wanted to. Because he was Alpha.

She forced a smile instead, though it felt more like a showing of her teeth. The Alpha had a different air around him than any other wolf she'd ever met. It screamed of authority, pressured down on her shoulders in a natural, practiced way.

"I'm Marcus." He offered a hand, and she took it, putting a little more strength behind the shake than she'd intended to.

Breathe.

"Val," she clipped. His smile dropped for a second and his eyes flashed; but he didn't frown, didn't show any sign of disdain.

"I'm happy to have you here, Val." He tilted his head, studying her as she pulled her hand back. There it was again, all that authority he so much liked to exercise. He was letting her be there. Letting.

Breathe—

Damian swung an arm around her shoulders in a lazy manner just when Sam stepped forward from her other side, successfully putting themselves between her and Marcus. She would have snapped at him if her eyes weren't still trained on the Alpha — and if their presence didn't help her wolf slightly calm down.

"You don't have to worry about anything, Alpha." Damian grinned, flinching as the skin on his jaw pulled at a fresh bruise. "I'm training her myself, she'll fit right in." Marcus gave a satisfactory nod but he still watched her — scrutinized her.

He was waiting for her to submit — she realized with growing fury.

Her eyes caught Zack's figure walking toward them slowly, glowering at her stubbornness. She almost did it then, almost, if only to satisfy him and maybe take some of that crashing weight off his shoulders.

But her wolf wouldn't allow that. They were not part of his pack yet.

He was not their Alpha.

"I see you've met our new addition to the town," Zack said in a somewhat friendly way, like he hadn't been listening in on every single word that left their lips.

She had never seen Zack look so small next to someone. Not by built, he towered over him in both height and muscle. Something else — intangible. She sensed that he was doing it on purpose.

Marcus pulled his upper lip slightly back, annoyed at their interruption, but then Zack's eyes glazed over. He was mind-linking.

"We have some news..." he mattered slowly and the Alpha sighed.

"Of course we do." With a last glance in her direction, he turned on his heels and ran toward the forest, shifting into his wolf mid-jump. She stared after his light brown fur as the two men followed him along with Zack.

Sam grabbed her shoulders and fixed her with a glare. "What was that?"

"I get nervous when I talk to boys." She forced a grin, even though her hand was still scratching at her arm. The skin was bright red there, a little more and she might draw blood. Acting as if nothing happened seemed stupid, they knew about her wolf, knew about everything, and yet hiding behind humor and sarcasm offered a small sense of relief. She just wanted to calm her wolf down.

Ian frowned and stopped her hand, pinning it to her side. "He didn't make a move now because you haven't been officially welcomed into the pack yet — you don't share the bond. But he's an Alpha, if you act that way around him again his wolf might want to put you in your place..." His words softened in the end, and she could see their eyes hardening. Did they know from experience, or had they just watched him before?

She sighed. "I know... I just can't get her under control. She's getting wilder, and she really disliked his face."

"Have you talked to Zack about it lately? He can see it happening, you know, but he won't force you to talk if you don't want to. Not unless he has to." Alex rubbed a soothing hand on her shoulder. She felt the tension lift from there, just a tiny bit. Her wolf was calming down when she was around them.

She nodded. "I'll talk to him again. I just wanted to — I don't know..." She rubbed her face with a dirty hand. "I just wanted to deal with this alone. He has been helping me all this time and all I've ever been was just another weight on his shoulders. You see him yourselves, he always looks so tired..."

Sam licked her thumb and rubbed at a muddy spot she no-doubt spread with her hand earlier at her temple, all the while trying to reign in her laughter as she squinted at her. Val smelled the blood before she saw it caked on her shirt. Her wounds weren't deep, barely more than scratches, and they continued to heal.

"He won't mind, you know." They all nodded while watching, amusement slowly creeping back into their previous urgency. "If I've learned one thing about him, it's that he likes to stick his nose in our business if it's to help us. He won't feel burdened by you, I doubt he ever did. So talk to him. No more excuses." She patted the spot she'd been rubbing annoyingly and stepped back to survey her.

Val could only nod.