AN; I love to keep track of my progress on my books just to see how far I have come and to avoid discouragement. Right now, I  am at 18 reads and 5 votes. It has been so long since I've been on this platform, so I'm happy with those numbers! Hopefully, I can get to 100 reads in total by the end of this week and 12 votes? Fingers crossed! -Sam
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I gasped as a bolt of energy coursed through my body. I didn't know this man sitting in front of me at all, but I knew I wanted nothing more in this world than to be securely wrapped in his arms. So why was I backing away from him like my life depended on it? Then I snapped back to reality, it was because it did.

"No, no, no," I whispered frantically. I had to get out of this room before he marked me. I began to slowly move towards the door, I didn't want to make any sudden movements that would alert him to my exit plan

Grayson stood from the bed. He was not as tall as Conner, but he still towered over me.

"What is your name?" he asked Then a troubled look abruptly crossed his, he must have finally noticed I was inching towards the wooden oak door.

And suddenly, he was between me and the exit, which caused me to retreat up against the red wallpaper.

"You don't need to be afraid," he grinned. "You are my mate, I'm not going to hurt you."

"I need to go now! I can't be your mate."

The smile dropped from his face, and a look of bewilderment replaced it. He took a few steps towards me. "But you are..."

"I have to go."

He reached out to me, and I took the opportunity to dive under his outstretched arm and race towards the door.

My hand was on the knob when he slammed his hand on the door in front of me. His chest pressed into my back, sandwiching me between him and the door

"Stop," he growled in my ear. He began dragging me back into the room.

Now fully panicked, I threw my body weight into him. We both stumbled back. I flailed my arms while I tried to keep my balance, and elbowed him hard in the face in the process. which caused him to fall back into the frame of the canopy bed. His head slammed off one of the four banisters with a loud thud, he crumpled to the floor.

I stared down at Grayson's seemingly lifeless body. Had I just killed the Alpha's son? I crept closer to him and saw that his chest was still rising and falling.

"Grayson?" I whispered and nudged him with my foot.

He let out a loud moan. Satisfied that meant he was somewhat okay, I went to leave but something stopped me in my tracks.

I returned to Grayson and began to examine his head to check to see if there was any blood. Still not satisfied, I pulled a pillow off the bed and gently placed it under his head, and pulled the sheets off the bed to cover him up.

Once again I went to leave, but again something stopped me before I placed my hand on the doorknob.

It was the unformed mating bond that was keeping me here. I did not want to leave my mate while he was hurt.

No, he was NOT my mate. If I started to think of him like that, my corpse would be in the ground within the week.

Even though all my instincts told me otherwise, I turned the doorknob and stepped into the hallway. Not sure what else I could do, I made my way down the hallway until I reached the black office door.

I stepped through the door and into a large circular room. There was a large desk pushed up against the window, a long table with numerous chairs positioned around it, and two red chairs were positioned in front of a blazing fire.

Three pairs of eyes turned in my direction upon my entrance. I felt relief seeing my fellow Luneras after what had just happened.

Beatrice, dressed in a red silk dress, stood from the table she had been leaning against. Her auburn waves had been pinned half back into a golden clip. She threw her arms around me. "Aurelia, what took you so long to get here?" Beatrice released me and gave me a once over, before letting me go and moving back across the room.

"I was late getting picked up."

Beatrice's blue eyes sparkled as she bent down and retrieved a short dark blue dress from her bag on the floor. I brought that dress you always liked to borrow! You can actually just have it, it doesn't fit me anymore!

"Thanks," I replied with a smile.

Whoever Beatrice's family was in her past life, they still seemed to care about her. They sent her 3 or 4 giant baskets every year, along with a bundle of citronella so their scent could not be detected. Her baskets usually contained soaps and shampoos, makeup, books, candy, jewelry, clothes, along with one or two beautiful dresses that magically always seemed to be in her right size. I'm not sure where her family thought she was going to wear those dresses too, but we often wore them while playing or when we had our little parties.

It wasn't unusual for the Luneras at Pine Ridge to receive these kinds of gifts from the family that had abandoned them. No one received near as many things as Beatrice though, but everyone here had received at least one gift. Everyone except me.

"Caesar, Benedick, no looking!" Aurelia is getting changed. Beatrice called over her shoulder.

It was then I noticed that the table that Beatrice has been leaning on had a tray of sandwiches piled on top of it. Caesar and Benedick, who were currently stuffing as many sandwiches into their faces as possible, sat in chairs around the table. Both boys turned their bodies so that they were facing away from me and continued to eat. I noted how both of them were wearing the same white dress shirt and khaki pants. Each had a tie on, but Caesar had a red tie while Benedick wore a dark blue tie.

Rather than going back over to the boys, Beatrice instead collapsed down into one of the red chairs in front of the fire. She let out a sigh of contentment and propped her feet on a leg rest.

I quickly changed out of my coat and uniform into the blue dress, which hung loosely off my body. I stuffed both items of clothing into Beatrice's red duffle bag. My fingers brushed against a glass bottle and a smile tugged on my lips. Leave it to Beatrice to snatch something from the Alpha's house every chance she got.

Once done, I wandered over to the table where the boys still sat and picked up one of the sandwiches. I had eaten a cheeseburger one of the customers had sent back earlier today, but that was hours ago. I should try to eat something else, but right now my stomach was in turmoil. I placed the sandwich back on the tray.

How long until Grayson woke up? If I was lucky enough, he would have cracked his head so hard that he would have forgotten our whole meeting. With my luck though, he would wake up any second, come find me, find out what I was, and his family would have me quietly and swiftly killed.

"Are you sure you are alright?" I looked over. Caesar has stopped eating and was looking up at me. His thick blonde hair was combed back and his seafoam green eyes were filled with an ample amount of concern. "You never turn down food, none of us do. Spill it what is eating you that is keeping you from eating?"

"I'm just nervous about meeting three Alpha's all at once..."

To be fair, I had been nervous about that less than an hour ago before Grayson...

Caesar immediately stopped chewing. "Thanks for reminding me I almost forgot. Now I'm nervous."

I laughed softly and ruffled his hair, "Sorry," I said

We all jumped when the door abruptly swung open and the red-headed woman from earlier stuck her head inside the door.

"Line up against the desk, all of you! They're coming!" She hissed, and she withdrew from the door a moment later.

The room was filled with the sound of frantic feet, as we all scampered to try to all line up against a desk that wasn't long enough for us all to completely fit across. We stood straight at attention with passive looks on our faces, like we had been taught to do. Moments later, the doors opened and the other Alpha's walked in.

The first to enter was a tall dark man in a suit. He was handsome with blazing blue eyes. He must be the Alpha of Snow Peak, Alpha Damien, based on the picture and description I had been shown of the Alphas of the six-packs.

The second was Alpha Luka. He looked so much like Grayson it was hard for me to look away from him. What would he do to me right now if he knew that I was not only his precious son's mate, but I had also knocked him out and he was laying on the floor a couple of doors down?

The next to enter was a man with a flaming red beard and hair to match. He must be the Alpha of Black Lake, Alpha Christopher.

All three men held wine glasses full of red wine in their hands.

"So there is the Luneras you were talking about?" Christopher asked.

"Yes," Alpha Luka cleared his throat. "We tested all our Lunera's about eight years ago and these three scored highest in both physical fitness and intelligence. And number 23 in the blue dress," he gestures towards me, "has recently begun to study at the local high school with the humans. On top of that, she started working at a human establishment."

Alpha Christopher fixed his piercing brown eyes onto me. "And have you been able to live among the humans 23?"

"I have," I replied. "Without incident."

"Good," he said and took a sip of his drink.

"What about the others?" Alpha Damien asked?

"Numbers 55, 34, and 115 will also be at the high school very soon. We had begun to enroll them all at the local school in town, Schyukill high school."

I didn't dare look at my friends. I was so happy right now. If we looked at each other, we might all lose it. This was the first time I heard that Beatrice, Caesar, and Benedick would also be attending school with me.

"Well Alpha Luka, it appears we have much more to discuss this integration plan of yours," Alpha Christopher placed a hand on Alpha Luka's shoulder. "I want a tour of the place first though. And I will finally get to meet your son, Grayson?"

I held my breath as I waited for his response

"Maybe, he's still pretty jet-lagged, he just came back from China."

I breathed a sigh of relief.

"Will the Luneras be joining the party?" Alphas Damien inquired.

There was a moment of silence and Alpha Christopher and Alpha Luka both burst into a fit of laughter.

"Good one Alpha Damien," Alpha Luka said and all three Alphas went to walk out of the room but paused at the doorway.

"Grayson? What are you doing out here?"