AN; Thank you so so much for the 83 votes and 376 reads! I just loved writing this story and hope you all are enjoying it too! Without any further delay here is the next chapter! Thanks for reading, Sam!
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The girls both screamed and the tools in my hands fell to the floor with a crash. I grabbed the doorknob, right before the door shut, the boy, that had just emerged from around the side of the house, caught it. He easily pushed the old wooden door back open but made no move to force his way inside. His bright green eyes, which peeked out from under long brown unruly hair,  did not leave me for one second. He stared at me just like the wolf had back in the forest. I quickly shifted my eyes away from his face, to his body. The red and black plaid shirt and the brown pants that he wore looked way too big on him. My eyes traveled further down, and I saw his feet were bare.

In the kitchen behind me, came the sound of feet running up the basement steps, and the bang of a door hitting the wall. I don't dare take my eyes off the boy in front of me though.

"Can I help you, sir?" Marmee asked.

His eyes drifted behind me and I felt Marmee's hand on my shoulder. She gently pulled me back into the kitchen and took my place at the door.

I retreated to the kitchen table that the twins were now cowering under, and where Alice and Theodore now stood. We all exchanged wide-eyed looks with each other.

"I just want to make sure I'm not intruding on pack lands. I was told that these woods were free for anyone to run in."

"You aren't wrong, this house isn't on pack lands, we aren't part of the pack. We are Lunera."

The boy's head abruptly jerked around, beyond him I could see Hucks and Sawyer had come from behind the side of the house. Hucks was holding the ax we used to chop wood. No doubt they had been sharpening the ax on the wet stone at the side of the house and had probably heard the sound of screams from the kitchen.

"It's alright boys, go back to what you were doing!"Marmee called out to them.

The boys did as they were told and returned to the side of the house, but not without some hesitation and a couple of backward glances.

"There are a lot of us that live in this house as you can see. Most of them are outside, and most are within earshot."

The boy turned back to us. "Is everyone that lives here a Lunera?" his eyes drifted to me once again before returning to Marmee.

"Yes, but that doesn't mean we aren't under the Alpha's protection.

"I can smell your fear, I'm not here to hurt anyone."

Marmee crosses her arms over her chest. "Then why didn't you come to the front door and knock? "

The boy let go of the door and took a step back. "Because I saw this one open, sorry I grabbed it out of reflex. Do you mind if I come in for a bit? I just have a couple of questions I would like to ask you about the Pine Ridge pack. I'm not from here."

"I can tell, but I'm afraid if you want to talk to us, you're going to have to go ask the Alpha for permission. Not sure how welcome you would be though, being that you are from the Red Crescent pack. Our Alpha is aware of what your pack likes to do to Luneras."

The stranger narrowed his eyes. "I never said what pack I was from."

"Didn't have to, I can see your tattoo ." The boy took a couple more steps away from the door

For the first time, I also noticed the half-hidden red crescent moon, crossed by a red sword."

The boy pulled the fabric up so the tattoo was once again concealed. "Just so you know, I don't share those same values about Luneras as my pack."

"I'm sure you do," Marmee said and closed the door.

She turned back towards us, and for the first time, I noticed that she was caked completely in flour.

"Why is a member of the Red Crescent pack here?" I asked. I also knew how the Red Crescent pack treated Luneras.

"Not sure. Are you okay?" she asked. "I was in the food cellar with Alice and Theadore when I heard screaming. I dropped my bag of flour and came running."

"Yeah, I'm fine."

The twins crawled out from under the table. They both grabbed at Marmee's flour-coated apron and buried their faces into it. When they lifted their faces to gaze up at her, their entire face was covered in flour. Marmee gently brushed the white powder off their faces.

She places a comforting hand on their backs while she looked around the kitchen. "I'm sure the three of you could clean out the room for the girls in no time, while I start preparing for lunch. That way, Aurelia won't be going outside alone to put things in the shed."

Alice pulled her long blond hair into a ponytail in the back of her head. Her blue eyes jumped at me. "Yeah, not a problem. As long as she helps with lunch."

Theodore bobbed his brown head, "Yeah sure," he said.

We spent the next hour cleaning
Out the room, and took multiple trips to the shed and the basement. Conveniently enough, the room, which had to belong to both Athena and Pip before they left, still had most of its furniture including the two beds.

The twins joined in too and helped carry some of the smaller items out of the room, but they must have been exhausted from the events that transpired because they were practically falling asleep while standing up. We guided them to Marmee's bedroom and laid them down to sleep.

With that done, it was time to complete my end of the bargain and prepare dinner. Tonight's dinner was Rabbit stew with freshly baked bread.

For the next three hours, we helped Marmee finish preparing the dough and left it to rise. While we waited for the bread to rise, we cleaned the kitchen and swept the floor downstairs, and updated the food cellar inventory.

With that done, we prepared the rabbits we retrieved from the freezer in the basement and gathered the herbs and other ingredients needed for the stew from the kitchen cabinets. Anything that was missing, we retrieved from the food cellar in the basement.

"That's the last of them," I said while I slide the last loaf of bread into the oven.

"I'll go ring the bell to let everyone know it's time to come in for lunch, Theodore, come with me."

I turned to the stove and stirred the large pot of rabbit stew that was now simmering on the burner, while Alice returned to the basement to retrieve another clove of garlic from the food cellar.

The sound of the bell ringing filled my ears and so did the sound of unfamiliar voices at the door.

I heard Marmee talking, although I couldn't make out what was being said. The conversation was followed by the sound of footsteps.

"Something smells delicious."

I felt my skin crawl at the voice. No doubt that voice belonged to Conner Crawswall.

I turned away from the stove to find him leaning in the doorway between the living room and the kitchen.

What the hell was he doing here!? Wasn't it enough that I had to see him last night, so why was he now standing in my kitchen?

"Is that rabbit soup, 23? Mind if I have a taste."

I forced a smile sure. "Of course," I retrieve a bowl from the cabinet and filled it with the brown stew with a ladle.

I held it out to him. "Here," I said and held it out to him.

He smirked at me, "Aren't you going to blow on it to cool it off for me?"

"Conner!" another familiar voice barked and my stomach flipped.  I also recognized that voice.

Why was he here!?

"Looks like I'm going to have to take a rain check on that soup he said, and turned and walked back into the living room.

I placed the bowl onto the kitchen counter and followed Conner into the living room. Sure enough, the second I stepped into the room I and Grayson locked eyes.