Turning the key in the lock, I pushed on the door handle causing it to give in and finally open. My body shivering violently as I stepped into the heated interior of my home.

Having been on vacation for the past two weeks I'd almost forgotten how horribly cold it was back home. The snow was reaching up to my knees and the wind was blowing so hard I'd thought I would blow away even in the short walk from my friend's house to my own. Her brother had offered to drive me home but it had seemed too small a distance to trouble him to drive me when he was already home. But that had been a horrible idea, it was a bad idea to step outside for even a moment with such harsh winds let alone do a fifteen minute walk when you only had a jacket to protect you from the cold. I'd forgotten to pack a hat or gloves since normally one of my own family members would have come to pick me up.

My friends and I had intended to stay for three weeks but two of them had fallen very ill and gotten horribly homesick so I and my other friend had decided we might as well cut our trip short too. I pulled off my boots with horribly stiff fingers, huddling in on myself as I sniffled, my eyes watering so badly I was relying on memory alone to navigate around the house. I made my way through the house, my teeth chattering so loudly I couldn't hear much else.

I clenched my teeth together for a moment, listening closely to try to figure out where my family was, I head my mom's voice from the study and hurried towards there. Letting my teeth chatter as loudly as they pleased as I used my cold hands to wipe the water that had run from my eyes.

I quirked my head to the side as I saw the door closed to the study, perhaps my mom was on the phone. Whoever it was could wait though, I needed to hug my freakishly warm alpha mother before I caught pneumonia.

I threw the door open, wiping my nose against the back of my hand in case that too was dripping before looking up, my eyes widening immediately. Both my parents were sitting behind their desk, chairs side by side and two large men were sitting on the chairs across from them, all of them staring at me intently. As my gaze connected with my mother's I prayed internally that these were just some oversized relatives and not leaders of a visiting pack.

My prayers went unanswered though as I hesitantly looked from my mother to the individual sitting closest to the window, my gaze connecting with unfamiliar dark eyes. I gulped as I realized my parents had pulled the chairs from my older sisters' studies so they were both large chairs but simply looked quite small due to how gigantic the man was. I looked towards the other man only to see that he too was not someone I knew, but at least he wasn't as ridiculously gigantic as the other man.

"Pari, baby what are you doing home?" My mother asked not getting up from her seat confirming my suspicion that the man was an alpha. If it hadn't been my mother would have been around the desk and currently strangling me in a gigantic bear hug. Since it was though it would have seemed disrespectful of my mother to leave the table while another alpha was present to greet someone of lower status.

"Nora and Elliya were sick so we cut our trip short." I replied quietly, my heart drumming harshly in my chest wishing I could just sink into the plush carpet on the floor and disappear forever.

"Alpha Mrow this is our youngest daughter Parisa, our apologies we had not told her of your visit otherwise she would not have barged in." My father said and I bowed my head awkwardly, fully intending to walk out of the room as quick as I could without making it physically look like I was running until I heard a chair being pushed across the floor smoothly.

I watched as the tallest man stood, turning to face me to my horror and walking towards me before coming to a stop right in front of me.

"Pleasure to meet you." The man said, his voice a deep baritone that had my shoulders tensing. He held out a large hand to me, and I placed my own in his without looking up to meet his gaze even though I could feel it digging into me. Some of the tension leaving my body at how warm his hand was, so amazingly warm compared to how ridiculously cold my hands were.

If the man was at all surprised at how cold my hands were he didn't show it, simply giving my hand a gentle shake before allowing me to pull away from his grasp.

"Parisa go change." My mother said and I immediately whirled around fleeing from the room, closing the door behind me without looking back and darting straight for my room.

I closed the door to my room as soon as I was inside, leaning against it panting, feeling my cheeks heat up now that I finally had a moment to think about how embarrassed I was. I should have knocked, I'd embarrassed my parents and revealed that they had an omega child to god knows who. I'd never heard of any Alpha Mrow before but he could have been someone trying to take the pack down and I had just given him a target to aim for, me. The omega child of an alpha and beta couple.

It was uncommon for omegas to be born to alphas because they were the simply put weakest of the three types of wolves, alpha, beta and omega. Anyone with a little bit of alpha in their blood either presented as a beta or alpha, but I was omega through and through. Timid, weak and quiet. It wasn't that I didn't talk at all, I just mostly preferred being silent and listening more than actually speaking. Omegas were only rumoured to be these things, there were many omegas that enjoyed weight-lifting or were extremely charismatic and talkative, I just happened to be the stereotypical old-movie type of omega.

Two of my older siblings were alphas, and one a beta. The eldest, was an alpha, then the sister younger than her a beta and my brother was also an alpha. My sister being both the eldest and the most well-suited to the role was to take over when my mother stepped down. It was preferred that she found a mate before accepting her alpha role, it was seen as a sign of maturity. Although that was also quite stereotypical, there were a few excellent alphas that had separated from their mates and yet been great leaders.

It wasn't shameful to be an omega, omegas were usually the ones that did the bookkeeping for the pack, since they were usually academically inclined. I had just graduated after four gruelling years of double majoring in accounting and literature. It had been extremely difficult, and I had had to take courses over the summer as well because none of the requirements overlapped, but at last I was free and had done something I was proud of.

Omegas were just not as strong as alphas or betas physically so they were the easiest to attack and unfortunately for us omegas, the omega of highest status in the pack was the one killed in order to declare war. So if that meeting went badly, I had just presented my head for them to chop and saved them the research of finding the highest status omega.

I unzipped my jacket, tossing it onto the bed. Dumping everything else I had been wearing into the hamper because planes were disgusting and the smell of humans was starting to irritate me so I needed it bleached out of my clothing.

I hurried into the washroom, turning on the shower to the hottest possible and giving it a moment to heat up before jumping in. I tried to contain any sounds that wanted to burst from my chest as the hot water fell onto my freezing skin. I stood under the water for a few moments allowing the heat to thaw my limbs before reaching for my shampoo and lathering it into my hair, washing that out before rubbing in some conditioner. I kept my head away from the water as I used my loofah to lather myself up with my body wash, scrubbing it against my skin a little unnecessarily harshly as the thoughts of the man sitting a row in front of me on the plane and sneezing without covering his mouth came back to me. Finishing up I let the water wash out all the conditioner and body wash as I quickly spread my facewash all over my face and washed that too.

I had to mentally convince myself to turn the water off after I was sure all the conditioner had come out. Finally turning the water off I reached for my towel, wrapping it around myself, and squeezing the excess water from my hair with my hand before stepping out, grabbing another towel to quickly run it through my hair, wrapping it up as I walked out into my room. Hurrying into my closet and quickly grabbing a white hoodie and grey sweatpants to throw on, along with a pair of cotton panties, not bothering with a bra since my entire body ached already without putting my poor chest through that torture.

I had just finished yanking the hoodie on, having to untangle the towel from it as I hadn't been smart enough to take it off before pulling the hoodie on when my door was thrown open. My eldest sister Nina stood in the doorway, grinning at me widely. I hurried towards her, throwing myself into her arms, letting out a sigh against her, having finally gotten a hug from family after a whole two weeks. She wrapped her arms tightly around me, pressing a kiss to my wet hair, not even bothering to comment on the smell of my shampoo.

Alphas had a stronger sense of smell, so all three of the alphas in my house were always complaining about the fact that I didn't use scent-less toiletries the way most wolves did. After a lot of negotiating they had finally allowed me to use one brand that they said kind of just blended in with my scent so wasn't as bothersome as the rest.

My eyes opened and I tiptoed to see from atop my sister's shoulder, struggling to do so even while she was bending down to hug me since she was 5 inches taller than me at a staggering six foot. The sound of footsteps followed the sound of a door being opened, my eyes widening again as I realized it was the study.

My eyes connecting immediately with that dark pair as he walked out behind my parents, my mother talking about something quietly as they walked towards the stairs. The man not breaking eye contact even as he walked down the stairs, and I looked away, hunching down so I was hidden from view by my sister. Some alphas were a little weird with eye contact, they felt it was submitting to break it first, which was kind of funny because they were just constantly having staring competitions. The man was probably just one of those alphas.

"How are you already back?" My sister asked pulling away. Not getting a chance to hear my answer as her name was called probably to say goodbye to the visitors. For the past few years my mother had been involving my sister in those types of formalities more and more since she would soon take over. Sometimes my sister even sat in on meetings with visitors.

My sister knocked on both my siblings doors as she went and they both came out seconds later, holding headphones in their hands, their eyebrows furrowed as they looked out, before they caught sight of me standing in my doorway. Both of them scrambling to put their phones somewhere before practically galloping into my room to hug me.

Werewolves were tactile creatures, especially with family. Not seeing me for weeks was weird to all of them and it was instinct to want to touch me and get their scents on me as soon as I was back.

I was soon wrapped in another bearhug, one sibling on each side of me, both of them squeezing me so tightly I felt like I couldn't breathe. I was relieved when they were finally forced to pull away when my mother called for them to let her see her youngest child.

They stepped back dutifully, allowing my mother to step forward and wrap me in her embrace. One of her hands immediately going to the nape of my neck to leave her scent there. I inhaled her scent deeply the warm lavender fragrance making me smile. I was eventually transferred into my father's arms who my other two siblings had inherited their too tight to be comfortable hugging styles from. But I let him have his moment without complaint, knowing he too had missed me.

"Nora and Elliya got pretty sick while we were there and they wanted to come back home so Zeenat and I decided to go home too." I explained before any of my siblings could ask.

"We're glad to have you back cherub." My eldest sister said and I smiled at her in response.

"You look about ready to pass out though so lets get some food in you and let you go to sleep." My brother suggested, my mom nodding. She wrapped an arm around me leading me down the stairs, quietly asking how the flight was while my siblings talked about god knows what behind us loudly.

My mom loved us all a lot, giving us more time and attention than most alphas did their children, but it was no secret that I was her favourite. I was the one she had the hardest time saying no to, and the one she hugged first after a particularly hard day. It was mostly because I was an omega, alphas were naturally more protective of the omegas close to them, and my mother was no exception to that rule.

But it was also because I looked a lot like her own mother. The mother she had lost while she was very young. My mother said I had nearly black eyes just like my grandmother. I also had her nose, thin hands and almost black hair. Her mother had been Persian, it wasn't common for couples to be of different packs because wolves hated being away from family, but my grandmother's pack had been attacked, and she one of the few survivors. Having been too scared to stay in the country they had fled, stopping only when across the world in North America. They joined my grandfather's pack, and along with welcoming them into his pack, he also fell in love with my grandmother despite the language barrier, which she quickly overcame. My mother said I also got my studious nature from my grandmother.

"Sit Pari we'll warm up some leftovers for you, the rest of us ate before the Pack Alpha and Pack Beta of Herrington arrived." My mom said and I nodded, sitting down on one of the kitchen table chairs, my siblings all around me as my mom warmed up what smelled like curry and my dad made hot cocoa.

"He's really tall isn't he?" My sister grumbled, a petulant pout on her face making me smile. She was always jealous of how tall male alphas were, not that she wasn't a giant herself, but legend said that werewolf women had been the offense in attack and so they were at perfect level to be hitting someone's vitals. The males were good for defence, big and hulking, it made it easier to block people, keep them out.

"You're very tall too." I reassured and she patted my head with a smile.

"Only to you Par cause you're kind of tiny." My second eldest sister Lola said and my eldest wrapped her arms around me defensively hiding my face from view as she probably glared at Lola.

"She's still taller than most female humans." My brother Micah interjected and I shifted my face to shoot him a thankful grin.

"The important thing is she's cuter than all of you." My mother said making my grin widen as the others groaned in protest. My mother ignoring them completely as she set down a plate in front of me, gently running her hand down my cheek before leaning away so my father could put down his tray of instant hot cocoa. All he did was add extra chocolate to it and some marshmallows but it was so good.

I dunked a big chunk of my naan into the deep red curry, my eyes fluttering shut as the spicy tang of the tomato based curry hit my taste buds. This was definitely my mother's cooking. She rarely cooked because she hated how the smell got into her clothes and around the home, but when she did it was the best thing in the world.

Her mother had died when she was barely 20 so she hadn't learned from her but after her passing my mother had taken cooking classes from a Persian chef and went to Iran for an entire summer where she had gotten even better at cooking the traditional dishes. She could make other stuff too but there was nothing better than curry in winter, and since we lived in Canada it was winter for 7 months out of a year.

"Did you girls eat properly there?" My father asked and I rushed to chew the food I had in my mouth before answering.

"We ate so much. The food was amazing, they had this coconut desert it was a bread like thing, I could never pronounce it but I am not ashamed to say I had that for breakfast every day for the two weeks we were there." I said making my family laugh. I was the only one out of all of them who was perfectly happy eating bakery for breakfast, the rest needed their eggs in the morning.

"Next time bring some back." Micah said and I smiled nodding too occupied with the curry to bother explaining that it would have not survived the flight. Or the fact that I probably wold never go back there, it was a beautiful place but there was so much of the world to see, I had to see much more of it before deciding on a favourite vacation spot. Since my mom was the Pack Alpha the only time we got to travel was when she had to go to another pack which was quite rarely, and even then we could only accompany her if she was sure the pack was an ally and there was no chance of the meeting going badly.

Finishing up with my curry I grabbed my plate, setting it into the sink and washing my hands, too tired to be considerate enough to wash the dishes. I sunk back into my chair as soon as I got back resting my head against it and sipping on the hot cocoa as I listened to my family chatter on about what they had been up to for the past two weeks.

As fun as the vacation had been, absolutely nothing could compare to sitting here with my family all warm and happy around a table talking and laughing, along with the grumbling whenever my mom took one child's side over the others.