"What is wrong with you two?" Melloni scolded, looking as though she was going to hit me.

We were back at the daycare. I was sitting at the table I was sitting at when I first got to the pack, the first time I met Melloni and Iris.

Iris closed her eyes and folded her hands together, her elbows resting on the table.

I was silent. I normally liked the silence, but now? Now... I hated it. I hated the weight on my shoulders.

"Two of our people were burned alive. Their children are scared. The pack is scared. Shoot, I'm scared." Melloni rubbed her face and pointed a harsh finger at me. "Jonah just told me what you are. A human. You come into this world and—"

"I didn't decide that, OKAY!?" I stand up, the action so quick that my chair fell behind me in an embarrassing crash. "I didn't decide to be here!" My chest was rising and falling to my heavy breathing. "I begged Arlis to let me go home but he—"

"You come into this world and act like you're not meant to be here." Melloni looked me dead in the eyes as she said this, her persona burning with anger. "Arlis is... he's a great person. He will risk his life to help people he doesn't even know. But he isn't right all the time. You should tell the pack because they deserve to know. Nobody would think any different about you. We don't think differently about Gracie."

Iris calmly picked my chair back up and patted it lightly with her left hand. "Sit down sweetheart. We need to have a talk"

I did as I was told. I sat down, feeling smaller than I ever had before. Nothing good ever came out of Iris's little "talks".

Melloni snapped her eyes to Iris before leaning forward, her arms clenching the side of the table. "You and Arlis were arguing at that terrible time. I get you don't want to be Luna, but human or not, you can't deny that you're meant to be here. I've known something was wrong with you the moment I met you. And I finally found it, you can't accept that you're supposed to be here so you're awkward and cling to Arlis."

I gulped and sunk in my chair, not meeting her eyes. Who was I fooling? Apparently nobody but myself. I was a human. I was a weak human in a werewolves' world.

"Why don't you be Luna?" I ask, looking up at her. "You say it's because you don't want to be but obviously you do. You're good at it. Jonah wants to be Alpha. How come you don't take the job?" I was asking because maybe I can work off her answer. "Because you don't want to be? Exactly. You think I wanted to leave my life behind and become... this?"

Iris began crying softly, her thumbs covering her eyes. Soft tears caressed her faced and fell onto the table, creating little drops of sadness.

Melloni took a step back and put her hands behind her head. She gestured to the room we were in, and spun in a circle. She dropped her hands, a look of hurt on her face. "Lunas have to be able to bear a child. Beta wives do to. That's why Jonah isn't Beta and we never took the position from Arlis. At times Jonah thought of doing it anyways and adopting a small child after being away for like... ten months. But I said no, because I believe in blood lines to the Alpha's throne. I—" her voice broke. "I love kids. And that's why I work here. It is an honor to be Luna. And to see you and Arlis desecrate that position... it hurts. You haven't told the Pack the truth. Ninety percent of them didn't even know Konrad was back. You don't know anything about werewolves or how we run. To see you toss the Luna's position in the dirt because you think you weren't supposed to be here is painful."

I looked over at Iris, who was giving me a sad look. "She's right, Kadelyn."

I felt ashamed but also defensive. I knew they were right in some ways, but they had to look at this from my point of view. "How am I desecrating it? I'm trying, I really am. It's not my fault I don't know anything." So why did I feel so bad? Why are her words hitting me where it hurt?

"Have you attempted to learn? Have you seeked out help to teach you? Dalia. Arlis. Shoot, even Jonas?" I had to shake my head. I didn't. I've had days go by where nothing happened and I didn't even take that time to learn. "What are you?" Melloni asked, taking a step to me.

I shrugged. "A human."

"No. That's what you were." She responded, her eyes hard. But I could tell she cared. If she didn't care, she wouldn't be helping. "Who are you?"

"Kadelyn Summers." I answered.

"Wrong. That's who you were." She was stern, strict. She should've been Luna. But how was I wrong? That's my name isn't it? "What do you do?"

Nothing. But as I thought this, it clicked with me. "Run a pack?"

She shook her head. "No. Not if your Kadelyn Summers the Human. What are you?" She asked again.

"A werewolf." I responded, taking a deep breath. Something in me was shifting, I felt bolder. I felt better.

"Who are you?" Melloni asked, and tides moved in my veins.

"Luna Kadelyn Barron." My heart hammered nicely in my chest, beating like a drum. A drum with its own rhythm.

"What do you do?" She was close enough now that I could make out the tiniest specks of gold in her brown eyes. I could see the nearly invisible freckles that dotted her caramel skin. "What does Luna Kadelyn Barron, do?"

"Run the pack." I answered and stood up. "But what have I done wrong?" I challenged her, half of me screaming at myself for being an idiot and the other half confused. "No problems have come my way that I can fix."

She smirked at me. "You haven't accepted who you are until now. You let Arlis tell you what to do. Never let a man argue with you like that in public. Especially when you're the Luna. That's like the President and the First Lady arguing on stage during a crisis, only you're the President and he's the First Lady."

I chuckled despite the tense setting. "So what do I do? Go out and learn, defeat Konrad, believe in myself like a magical fairy princess?"

Melloni went to, most likely, scream at me, but Iris intercepted her."Accept who who you are, and get Arlis to stop acting weak. He's been holding himself up in that house, he never does that. Bring back my Arlis who, in case of that situation earlier, would have tackled Konrad to the ground." Iris stood up and looked at me with respect. "Arlis is so strong, but Konrad broke him down that first time and he's doing it again. You will be strong, you just need to learn that you aren't the old you anymore. Argue with Arlis, push him to his limits. Surely his wolf doesn't like it when Arlis doesn't stand up to Konrad. Do what we did to you, make you really question yourself and who you are."

I didn't know about the wolf, but I was sure Arlis didn't like being looked down upon by Konrad either. "Argue with him? About what? Didn't I just get told to not do that."

Iris shook her head. "In your home is okay, even needed sometimes. We're upset because you couldn't handle your ground. Instead of coming with valid arguments you played off his pain. Instead of owning him, he made you feel bad, didn't he?"

I looked to the door and closed my eyes. "I don't even know where Arlis is. It doesn't matter." I didn't want to argue with him. How would that help anything? Anything at all? All I ever cause here are issues and arguments.

Iris and Melloni looked like they were going to kill me. Bury me somewhere foreign. "Don't let that stop you. You're his mate. Feel him. Where is he?"

"She has to learn to werewolf on her own. She has to learn to Luna with us, Iris. Arlis isn't teaching her about anything and she's apparently not asking." Melloni rolled her eyes. "Feel the pull between you and Arlis. Find him." Melloni spun me around and pushed me to the door. "Be the person who you wish you were." She pushed me out the door and slammed it shut, locking it.

***

This was ridiculous. I was confused. A couple things they said made sense, but the rest was just garble.

I understood when they said I had to forget who I was and be who I am now. I'm not a human anymore, I'm a werewolf. I'm not Kadelyn Summers, I'm Luna Kadelyn Barron.

But being a bad Luna? I didn't... I didn't understand how I could be so bad. I haven't even done anything.

I kicked a pile of snow as I walked back to the house. Feel him. How was I supposed to feel him? Why should I argue with him?

"Make his wolf come out." I scoffed to myself, shivering as a particular breeze blew through my jacket. "Every time I do that I think I'm going to die." I was lucky it was still day outside, the sun high and shining.

I walked onto the porch and put my hand on the cold handle. I didn't open the door.

I closed my eyes, being as calm as I could. I touched the door and tried to picture Arlis behind it, tried to find the sparks of electricity I felt every time he touched me.

"This is so stupid." I muttered again, turning away from the house. "I'm going to freeze to death out here."

I walked back the way I came. I may not be a human anymore, but the terms humans used were simpler. I had to follow my gut, listen to my heart not my head. Instincts.

I looked to the woods where a path etched into the tree line. My "gut" pulled over there and I decided to follow it.

I continued walking lightly in the snow, scared to make a sound. Arlis could be miles from here. Even if I am going the right direction towards him, I could die of hypothermia before I even reached him.

The trees around me started casting shadows in my direction as the sun sat overhead, its rays no longer providing their limited warmth through the branches.

It stopped snowing, but the ground was already covered in a white blanket. I wasn't prepared for a long walk like this.

"Just feel it, Kate." But I felt stupid just thinking it. People don't just feel where someone is. I threw my hands up. "This is ridiculous I'm going back to the house." Chance is probably there wanting to know what happened.

I stepped into the snow a little too harshly and felt something crack beneath me. I screamed shortly as my leg fell into a frozen pond. I pulled it out and more ice cracked beneath me.

I stayed still. I was... frozen. I would've smiled at my pun but I feared to even twitch a muscle on my face.

I moved my hand and brushed the snow next to me away. I saw ice. And under the ice, was a pond deep enough for the bottom to not be seen.

"Arlis!" I yelled, my body trying not to shake but failing.

I tried to stand but more cracked beneath me. How did I even get in this position? I felt my way over her and now I was going to feel my death as I froze.

My wet pant leg was already starting to freeze.

"Kate? KATE!" I looked up and Arlis was coming from over a hill into the clearing where I was. He slid down and stopped, rubbing his temples stressfully. "Hold on. I'm— I'm coming to get you."

I breathed a sigh of relief and shuddered. "Don't. The ice is going to break." I whispered, scared that even my voice would send the ground to shatters.

Arlis stopped ten feet away from me. "Kate, just... don't move."

"Really now!?" I yelled. "I thought I'd do the Macarena!" I argued. I brushed more snow away, creating a window to the pond beneath me. The bottom had no end. It was like ink, forever descending.

My hands were cold. They weren't in my pockets anymore and I knew... I had to get them somewhere warm before I suffered the consequences. Frost bite was no joke.

"Do you trust me?" Arlis asked.

"That's a hard question there Arlis. I don't know, should I trust you?" I asked, closing my eyes. "I'm sorry. For what I said earlier. I'm sorry I started an argument. I trust you."

"I'm sorry too. I love you and I can't lose you." He held a hand out. "Stand up. Walk as close to me as you can."

I tried to stand but the ice creaked and my body trembled. "Arlis I can't."

"You got yourself there, you can get yourself back. Walk slowly, lightly." His eyes looked around us.

"I cracked it so the whole top might crack. Like glass. I can't just go back." Falling in this water would be deadly. It's cold enough outside to make my body stiffen and I'm sure I could float under the ice, get myself stuck.

"Okay. Then trust me." Arlis took steps back and then ran to me, running on the ice. It cracked and fell beneath him, but he was running just fast enough to stay on top.

He reached me, grabbed my arm, and tossed me off to the side. He slipped, falling onto the ground and landed in the water.

The snow on the ground cushioned my fall and by some miracle I was off the ice. I stood up and looked wildly around for Arlis. His head bobbed out of the water, his skin paler and his lips turning a shade of blue.

"Fuck I can feel it it's so cold." Bones broke and popped until his wolf was swimming towards me limply, weakly.

He strutted out of the water, stopped, backed up from me, and shook his fur out. Ice was already starting to form in his coat like millions of crystals.

He ran forward, nudging me lightly. I got onto his soggy, wet-dog smelling, back and we ran back towards the house.
***
"So you're not completely immune to the cold?" I asked, my hands resting in a bowl of warm water. This was my ice breaker question. Pun intended.

Arlis sat across from me, a blanket over his shoulders, like me, his hands also resting in warm water.

He looked up from his blank stare, surprised that I talked. He cleared his throat and sat straighter. "I run really hotly. If a nurse took my temperature it'd be a 113. Everything being warm makes our shifts easier. But everything has its limits."

The house felt like a million degrees. But somehow, our conversation was still cold.

"How cold is too cold?" I asked, curious. I liked anatomy, and genetics, and science. Plus, I needed to hear his voice.

He looked up to me, his brown eyes tired. "Take Siberian Huskies for example. They're large dogs, very close to wolves. They can stand up to negative 75 and still perform labor. Now tiny Pomeranians, they shouldn't be under negative 20. I'm a big wolf, a wolf that's adapted to Montana and Canadian climates. If I went to Antarctica I'd be wanting a blanket, maybe two. That's negative 100. Here, negative 30 is nothing. You're getting closer to your wolf, the weather is affecting you less and less. Size is everything. My human body doesn't work like a human body. Plus being born differently effects you too."

I tilted my head. "Can I have context?" I smirked. "How were you born?"

He smiled, a blessed look that entangled me in his very being. "Well you see, my mom and my dad—"

"I'm serious, Arlis!" I laughed. "How are you born differently?"

He licked his lips. "Besides being part dog?" He smirked and I gave him a frustratingly blank look. "There are different breeds of wolves, yes?"

I nodded. "Well yeah."

"It depends where you were raised and your parents. Melloni... she's a Lobo wolf. A.K.A the Mexican Wolf. She's really fast, does good in hotter climates. This cold... while she's resistant to it... she walks around in a hoodie. That's how she was born. Me? I'm technically only second generation American. My grandma was technically an immigrant from Scotland who snuck on board Godspeed with my English Grandfather is 1607. They're both Eurasian wolves, descended from long long ago immigrants from Russia. Russia... cold place... thick wolves. But no matter what wolf you are, you're bound to be a little bigger. Don't ask why, my only answer is Magic." He shrugged, scooting closer to me in his chair. "So, to answer your question. For me, I can do very cold temperatures. But I have limits. Packs in places like Australia... not so much. But put me somewhere hot and oof, not going to be good."

I wondered what kind of wolf I would be.

"Alpha Rylee is a Dire wolf. Sure they're extinct but... he is one." Arlis laughed as my mouth dropped.

"Arent they like... REALLY BIG!?" I gasped, faintly thinking of Game of Thrones. "Like really big?"

He shook his head. "They were the size of a regular grey wolf, maybe an inch or two bigger. Not that big." He shrugged. "My wolf is bigger than his."

I deflated. "How did werewolves even... come to be?"

He shrugged. "Who knows. I've asked Seymour before and he said things in the past are best left in the past." Arlis took his hands from his bowl and wiped them on the blanket. "I don't think he actually knows. After his mate died... Seymour stopped believing God and everything in between."

I slumped forward. "What are you? Christian? Catholic? Mormon? Jewish?"

He licked his lips, the conversation now awkward. This is the perfect conversation to have after a near death experience. "None. I'm a Lundanist. So are practically all supernaturals."

I tilted my head. "I'm sorry... a what?"

He pondered over how to answer my question for a moment before taking a large breath. "We have no bible, we simply have our history and reason. We believe that the sun and moon were once beings, Gods. And the moon created the Pures. The pures were Salem Of The Old Witches, Weepers, Werewolves, Fae, and Mermaids. The sun became jealous of his lover's creations and made Vampires, Humans, and Necromancers from his hatred. Bound to an eternal war, the two cursed each other to the skies where they will forever chase each other bringing light and darkness. You've heard that light only shines in darkness. Well darkness can only appear in times of light. So the day became attributed to monsters and the night became elegant. And of course you know the rest. Hunters came from Salem Witches, the war of the species, all that gunk." Arlis gave me an embarrassed look. "We don't have any proof, but I mean... the moon owns us and she gives us mates so, she's alright in my book." Arlis ran a nervous hand through his hair. "You don't care, this is boring."

I reached over and grabbed his hand to stop him from getting up from the table. "This is really cool. I like learning about my future heritage." I like hearing his voice more though.

He smiled me, a flushed looking creeping up on his neck. "I don't think you're working for Konrad. I just want to know why you called him husband in my vision." He admitted.

I let go of his hand. "I swear I have no idea."

Arlis reached out and grabbed my arms, calming me with a single electric touch. "I believe you. That doesn't stop me from questioning what makes you special to him."

"I want to do something. For the people who died today. The people deserve to know what has been happening. And that... I'm not entirely who I say I am." It was off topic, but I was taking Melloni's advice. I wasn't going to be desecrating the Luna position any longer. "Melloni told me to argue with you, bring out your wolf, but if I'm Luna the last thing I'm going to do is listen to someone else's instructions."

Arlis scratched behind his ear, wincing. "She mind linked me about that."

I was still confused as to what that was but I didn't let it affect my moral. "I'm not gunna argue with you."

"Good. I don't want to argue. Kate... you're important to me. And I know this is new to you, and you should still be mad at me for what I said, but for what it's worth... I'm sorry." He stood up and swallowed. "Everly said something big is going down on Christmas, and I want to make sure you're okay with being here tomorrow."

I nodded. "Of course. Why wouldn't I be?"

He switched his gaze from me to the floor, the hollowness filling the space between us. "Because I'm dangerous. Today was just the beginning for Konrad. He won't stop until I'm dead or working for him. And guess what, I'll never do the latter. "

"Why didn't he just kill you?" It was a hard question to ask, but it needed to be there. I wanted to understand.

He stepped close to me, wrapping me up in his arms tightly. His scent coaxed me to relax, even though his stance told me to be ready to be ripped from him. "I think it has something to do with you being my mate. That... or he's just trying to make my life hell so I beg for death."

I looked up. "Would Becker know?"

Arlis nodded. "Probably. Why?"

I tapped my foot anxiously on the ground. "What if we get Becker to come back here?"

Arlis didn't understand the full plan, but he already seemed to be on board. At least partly anyways. "How so?"

That's the part I didn't get to. "I don't know. How would we get him over here?" He's not my best friend. I didn't know how to get him back.

Arlis looked up. "I know how. Wait here." Arlis ran up the stairs, leaving me to wonder what the heck he was up to.