There were monsters downstairs. Actual, honest-to-God monsters with beady little eyes and the potential to crush your soul.

Harley rushed to the bathroom and shoved through pill bottles, thermometers, aloe vera, and gauze in the cabinets. Where the heck was it? Will said it'd be right on the bottom near the ibuprofen!

Ah. There. She snatched up the little red container and ran back down the stairs to the basement.

The pack basement was chaos unlike anything she'd seen before. Children shot back and forth, some pattering across on tiny legs, shrieking and trilling with laughter. Others sat near the corner, sorting through the colorful mountain of toys stacked haphazardly into a pile. Will sat with Dylan near the couch, rubbing softly at his back.

Both Will and little Dylan looked up as she strode over. "Here," she handed the inhaler to Will, almost out of breath. Poor Dylan seemed as out of breath as she.

"Okay Dylan, deep breath, ready?" Will placed the plastic inhaler at Dylan's lips. But Dylan, like an eight-year-old pro, grabbed the inhaler from Will, sucked in a breath, and pushed down for the medicine. Pretty quickly, his face lost some of the redness. "Very good," Will said, "promise me next time you tell your mother you have your inhaler, you actually check for it."

"I will. Sorry."

Will ruffled Dylan's hair. "You sir, are lucky your mom thought to keep an extra here."

"I know," Dylan said dejectedly, his head down.

"Go watch TV with the others." Will patted his back.

As Dylan ran off to watch TV with his friends and siblings, Harley urged her heart to solidify. It had gone mushy at Will's easy treatment with Dylan. And all the kids, really. He was super easy-going with all of them, and they all just adored him.

Will watched Dylan relax against the couch as if nothing had happened, his eyes following his dirty blonde mop of hair. "Well, that scared the shit out of me." He murmured.

Harley bit at her lower lip to stop a laugh. "Me too. Does he struggle with his asthma often?"

"No. Only when he gets excited and runs too much. Poor kid wants to play with the others at the same level as them. He's not quite at the age where he knows when to take a step back."

"Does his mother warn him?" Harley asked, crossing her arms and shifting her weight to the side as she surveyed the kids watching TV.

From the corner of her eye, she saw Will shrug. "She does. But the runt of the litter always wants to be just as good as the rest."

Harley smiled. "I know I did."

Will gave her a look. "You were never the runt of the liter. You kept up just fine with the rest of us."

The Willow Creek pack saved the term "runt" for any pup who wasn't quite...at the level of the others. For some, runt was used as a term meaning the wolf had a disability. To Harley, that didn't sound fair. Because oftentimes the youngest pup in the liter ended up with something that held them back, the term runt often coincided with the youngest child.

Although, in her case the term runt would apply both ways. "Yeah," Harley scoffed, "I kept up fine until you jerks shifted without me."

When Will said nothing, Harley glanced over. Will's eyes had softened. "Mathias would've moved mountains for you. It didn't matter if we shifted, he used to slow his pace so you could keep up."

The words were like a stone thrown at her heart. It left a little crack--enough to let the cloud of grief hovering over her to seep in. It never seemed to leave, that grief, but sometimes she was able to build a structure to keep it out.

Harley's gaze went unfocused. "I bet he would've gotten sick of me eventually. No one wants their little sister trailing behind them all the time."

"Mathias' would've."

Something tapped at the back of her thigh. "Hawley," a tiny girl with stubby blond pigtails gazed up at her, "I haf to go potty."

Lily, Natalie's niece, couldn't have been more than three or four. Her mother, Samantha, warned both Harley and Will that she was mostly potty trained. Thinking about it now, she wasn't sure what exactly mostly meant, but she had a feeling that if someone didn't get little Lily to the bathroom soon, they'd have a big issue.

"I'm on it." Will scooped Lily up and rested her against his hip. "Harley, why don't you go sit by the TV and take a breather. I'll go check on Natalie and see if she needs help with all the babies."

Harley nodded. "How come we didn't get the option to babysit the babies? They were all asleep an hour ago."

Will grinned. "Because no one stops Natalie from getting her baby fix."

~

When midnight rolled around, most of the pack had returned from the run. They meandered through the house, collecting their purses, clothes, and children. An easy chatter worked through the room, the relaxed atmosphere spreading from wolf to wolf.

The pack bond was probably glowing gold at this point. After a pack run, spirits ran high as wolves came down from the adrenaline rush of being their wolf and feeling the freedom of racing through the night with the wind in their fur.

Or so she'd been told.

Harley felt a little overwhelmed, sitting at the island in the kitchen, nursing a cup of water, while all the pack around her excitedly shared how their run went. Will leaned against the countertop next to her. The heat from his arm traced along hers. She had to stop herself from leaning closer into the warmth and falling asleep. Somehow she knew Will would be easy to fall asleep next to. He oozed a warm, safe aura that would be perfect for sleeping.

If she had any money, she'd bet he subconsciously sent that feeling down the pack bond. Most of the pack wolves gravitated towards him. When at the pack house, she found he could hardly go anywhere without someone stopping to talk to him.

Will blinked at her, wary amusement entering his expression. "Why are you smiling like that?"

Was she? A corner of her lip just wouldn't go down when she schooled her features. "Nothing, it's just...you mean something to people, you know that?"

Will's eyes softened. "Maybe it's time you went to bed."

"I'm serious! You do." She leaned closer until her mouth rested near his ear. "Look around you," she whispered.

He scanned the room, tracing the people mingling about. A few people, one of them Natalie, met his eyes and smiled.

"Will." Bailey marched over, her expression bright. Her short brown hair stuck up in spikes--windblown. "You missed a good time." She hopped up to sit on the counter near the sink.

"And my point is made." Harley said under her breath.

"No it isn't." Will nudged his shoulder against hers.

Ready to argue further, Harley opened her mouth...only to snap it shut at the look on Bailey's face. Her focus kept hopping between her and Will. "What?"

"Oh nothing." Bailey sang.

From there Will and Bailey kept an easy conversation about the run and the gossip of who ran near who and oh Joey and Carmella disappeared for quite a bit there, but so did Marcel and Paula. Bailey caught a mouse. Cam and Damon took down a deer with the help of Alpha Mark.

Harley listened in with rapt attention. Her old pack never had half the fun that this pack did. Yes, they had the excitement and adrenaline, the eagerness to share, but this pack had comradery. Her old pack would never met up at the pack house afterward and mingle with others. They'd collect their things, share one story or thought and be on their merry way.

This was an after-party. Natalie had set out snacks--plates of vegetables, sausage, pepperoni, cheese--and beers, sodas, and waters. Literally a gathering.

It felt amazing. Warm, comfortable. It was...home.

Home.

For some reason that thought had her chest stinging.

Feeling heavy eyes on her, Harley took her own scan of the room. She passed the table where Alpha Mark and Beta Oliver stood with Natalie and others, continued past the doorway and the couple close together, all the way over to the entrance to the hallway. There, Cam and Ben laughed together, Jamie right behind them.

Jamie stared right at her.

Confused, Harley could only stare back. Instead of being embarrassed at being caught and going back to Cam and Ben's conversation, Jamie narrowed her eyes at Harley.

Harley went rigid. What the hell did she do?

Will's warm shoulder pressed into hers. "You okay?"

She blew it off and went back to the conversation. "Bailey, how did..."

~

Two days later, Harley sat on the front porch and read her newest romance book. Poor Felicity had a secret, one big enough to threaten her relationship with Calvin--one she refused to share. It made her heart ache as Felicity decided it would be better to break it off with Calvin rather than share her secrets.

The pack house had the perfect porch for reading. Painted white, the wood railing wrapped from one corner of the front of the house all the way to the edge where the garage started. A small set of chairs and a mini glass table had been set on one end. On the other, Harley's favorite chair in the whole world--a hanging porch swing. She'd spent a few mornings reading on the swing (when she actually got up at a decent time). Though those mornings were never quite as peaceful as the evening. After the sun set, the porch lights went on. She could sit forever under the comfortable dim lights and, between lines, listen to the gentle audience of crickets. Some nights the wind would tease the corners of her pages. Others, it would be so still she'd forget the outside world and lose herself completely within the novel.

Tonight the wind barely danced along her arms. Because they'd hit summer, Harley welcomed the easy breeze. It chased away the sweat building under her skin.

She'd barely gotten past Felicity and Calvin's big feeling-revealing argument when nearby leaves rustled. Her head shot up, the heart in her chest bashing against her rib cage.

It's the wind. It had to be.

A figure stepped from the trees, light skin flashing against the night. Her body screamed to run until her mind showed her the truth. Jamie. It's Jamie.

Jamie pulled on a shirt and shook out her hair. Her stride long and strong as she marched to the porch. "Of course you're out here."

What did that mean? "Hey Jamie." Harley forced the words past her still tight throat. If only she could pull on composure the same way Jamie did her shirt. "Did you go for a run?"

She must've. Harley recognized the signs of a recent Change: damp skin, energy-filled movements, twigs in hair.

Jamie gave her a face. "What does it look like?" she snapped.

Ouch--obviously not in a good mood. "Sorry."

Jamie had the front door half open when she whirled around. "Okay look, I don't care who you are, but you need to back off."

Harley flinched. She opened her mouth to say...something, but once Jamie started she couldn't stop.

"Your family died. And that sucks. I get it." The Alpha's daughter stepped back from the door and came at Harley, finger pointed. "But you don't get to use that as an excuse. I'm sick of watching you play the oh-woe-is-me game."

"Jamie, I'm not--"

"You are. And quite frankly, a lot of us are tired of it. Your family died. Get over it. Don't use it as an excuse to get sympathy. It's annoying. I'm sick of it and so is Will."

A lot of us are tired of it. Was that what she was doing? Was she playing the victim? Her heart dropped into her stomach. She didn't mean to. This time was supposed to be the opposite. She should be rebuilding her life here. Show people that she could be strong, that she could get past a tragedy.

Instead, it seemed she'd been doing the opposite.

I'm sick of it and so is Will.

"Will." Harley whispered. Will was sick of her inability to get passed it? But--but she thought she'd been doing good. She'd started learning how to fight. She tried not to talk too much about her family, about the past. So maybe, subconsciously, Harley had still played the wounded puppy?

God, she probably looked so stupid.

Something flashed behind Jamie's eyes. Crossing her arms, Jamie snorted. "He told me just the other day. Said you whined too much for his liking."

I'm sick of it and so is Will.

So is Will.

Will.

"Look, I don't mean to be a bitch," Jamie said. "I'm just warning you. No one's said anything yet because they don't want to hurt your feelings. In fact, it's probably best if you lay low for a while. Stay away from the pack members, pull yourself together and all that. Especially Will. Last I talked to him, he said he was exhausted with having to tiptoe around you."

Then Jamie turned and closed the front door behind her with a click.