Standing in front of the Alpha's office door, I take a long, deep breath through my nose and out my mouth as an attempt to settle my nerves. It doesn't work.

I had left school early today to, for one, get my mind off how worried I am about Kai, and two, to finally speak to my father about my mate. I know him, I know he won't care whether my mate is human, male, or a freaking starfish for crying out loud! Yet here I am, my stomach in a raged turmoil.

Raising a shaky hand to the oak door, I gingerly knock four times before relaxing my arm by my side once again. After only a few seconds, I get a response.

"Come on in, Trenton." My father's gruff voice can be heard beyond the door. He has long since memorized my scent by now.

I tenderly open the door and peer my head slowly inside, peeking into the crowded space that is my father's office. Let's just say my dad is not the most organized wolf here.

"Hey, Dad. Are you busy right now?" I ask tentatively, a small part of me hoping he is so I can postpone this conversation for longer.

"No, Son. I'll always make time for you. What do you need?"

Sigh...

"Well..." I start, walking into the office and taking a seat opposite my father, setting my elbows on the desk, resting my chin in my left palm, "I may or may not have... met my mate..."

I was expecting my father's eyes to pop out of his head while his jaw hits the floor after hearing this news. What I did not expect, however, was the reaction I received.

"Ah... well, I kind of figured that one out already, my boy." My father replies, a smirk playing on his lips.

Now I sit here, across from my father's smirking face, with my eyes popping out of my head and jaw touching the carpeted floor below us.

"You... what? How do you...?" I trail off, scratching the back of my head in a measly attempt to figure out how my father already knows about the mate I never mentioned to anyone other than Roni.

"Did Roni tell you?" I decide to voice my thoughts.

"Ren! You underestimate me. I was your age once." My father starts, a gleam in his eye as he recalls his younger years, I assume.

"When I first laid my eyes on Tully, my whole world changed for the better. She became my world. I was so shocked that I could be so lucky to have her as a mate that she had to approach me first. You know what the first thing she said to me was?"

My father rarely speaks of Mom. I know it hurts to speak of her when she isn't here to hit us upside the head or pinch our cheeks in that loving mother way she always did whenever we complimented her. She was easily flustered.

"What did she say, Dad?"

"She said 'You're my mate? I'm expecting a full three course dinner and you're paying if you want me to give you the time of day.' Ha... she was something else." He chuckles.

I laugh with him. That sounds like something Mom would say, she was such a foodie.

A comfortable silence ensues after the laughter dies out just to reminisce the way our lives were brighter with my mom around, before my father breaks it.

"What I'm getting at, Son, is that I could see the signs. Your eyes, although nowadays are clouded with worry, have a certain sparkle in them that only wolves who've met their mate have. I'm happy for you, Ren." Dad smiles, sincerity obvious in his shining blue eyes, the eyes we share.

"Thanks, Dad." I tell him, beginning to stand before he stops me.

"Now wait a minute, Trenton. Tell me about your mate." My father says firmly, yet I can hear the teasing undertone in his voice.

The nerves come tumbling back once I realize that I still haven't told my father the most important part of my mate.

"Oh... right. Um, well... My mate is a human male." I tentatively tell him, my voice becoming smaller the more I say.

My father didn't even flinch. He simply smiles at me reassuringly.

"I want to meet him soon, Trenton." Is all that my father says, as if I didn't just present him with a rare case for a mate.

I gawk at the Alpha of Cherry Blossom Pack for about 30 seconds before regaining my composure.

"Will do, Dad. Thank you." I smile so brightly at my father that my face begins to hurt.

We bid our goodbyes and I turn around and head for the office door to take my leave. Before I take even one step further, however, the door slams open and in comes a fuming Brett Lockman. Brett Lockman is the head warrior of Cherry Blossom Pack and has yet to find his mate. The wolves say he can be a bit brutal during training and I can't say I disagree. I've experienced his brutality firsthand, after all. What I don't understand, though, is why Brett just barged into my father's office with his grey eyes squinted in rage and his squarely shaped face red from anger. His reddish-brown hair is sprawled over his eyebrows, but considering his clenched fists, I'd say the last thing on his mind is adjusting the mess on his head.

"Brad? What's going on, Son?" My dad hurriedly asks him, his tone laced with concern for his most trusted warrior.

"Tommy, let me speak with Trenton." Brett grits out, looking me dead in the eyes, "Privately."

My dad and I exchange a look before he gives me a curt nod, signifying that Brett is a trustworthy man and that this must be important for him to be so worked up like this.

"Sure, Brett. Let's go out in the hall." I give him a smile, raising my right hand to shake his.

Brett accepts the handshake, but rather than it being a simple handshake, Brett grabs a hold of my hand in a death like grip, fiercely beginning to tighten his hold on me. I give Brett a questioning look, but he just smirks back at me.

The next thing I know, I wince from the abrupt pain coursing through my hand and up my arm, clenching my eyes shut tightly as the sound of bones crunching reverberates throughout the office.

I register my father intake a shocked gasp before a fist lands to the left side of my face, causing me to stumble back.

Raising my left hand up to my face, I wipe the blood dripping from my lip and glare at Brett.

"What the hell, Man? You just broke my hand!" I yell my questions at him, wondering what on Earth is going through his thick skull.

"Your mate is a disgusting, filthy human. I refuse to accept a human as my future Luna. Tommy! How are you okay with this?" Brett yells furiously, his angry aura back once again with a vengeance.

From everything happening so quickly I didn't get a chance to see what my dad was thinking. I slowly turn around in his direction to gouge his reaction. What I see makes me sick to my stomach.

My father is frozen in shock with tears welling up in his eyes as he looks on at Brett with confusion and betrayal written on his face. My dad has always believed that we should never question why the Moon Goddess gave us our mates, we should just be grateful we have one, because not everyone does. Dad always used to say, "Son, when you find your true, Goddess given mate, treasure them, for the Goddess has given them to you for a reason." I know my father must be heartbroken that such a trusted friend like Brett would attack his own son simply because his mate is human. I, myself, am having issues just holding back my anger at what he called my mate.

Whatever daze my father was in, he quickly snaps out of it and his heartbroken expression turns to one of pure rage.

"Don't you dare talk about my son-in-law like that! He will be Luna of Cherry Blossom Pack and there isn't a thing you can do about it!" My father yells out, his brows furrowing as his rage grows, "And if you have such a problem, then you can leave this pack and never come back! I'm sure it won't be hard to find a replacement for your position as Head Warrior. In fact, Sylvia has already shown characteristics that prove she would be an amazing Head Warrior. Your choice, Brett."

Brett looks between my father and I a few times, an unreadable expression on his face. At first, I think Brett is going to listen to my father like he's done for all the years they've known each other. What I didn't anticipate him to do, however, is for his unreadable expression to revert back to the rage filled hatred as he lunges at me.

This time when he attacks, I am more prepared and can see where he's aiming. Right for my throat. Ignoring the throbbing pain in my hand, I push against Brett's chest with such a force he falls to the ground on his back. Then, I lean over him, push him over so he's laying on his stomach, and set my knee on his back with my left hand holding onto both of his wrists so he has no chance of escaping. As Brett squirms and struggles to get out of my grasp, I turn my attention to my father.

"Dad, mind link the other warriors so they can place Brett in a holding cell." I command him, knowing my father is too much in shambles to figure out what he should do in this situation.

Only the Alpha werewolves can mind link members of their pack, and us the Alpha. Members of a pack can't mind link each other so our cellphones definitely come in handy. Once I become the Alpha of Cherry Blossom Pack, I'll be able to freely mind link anyone in my pack whenever I please and whenever is necessary. The Luna of the pack also has a mind link with all the members so they can provide verbal support whenever it's needed and the Luna can't physically be there for those in need of that support, but since we no longer have a current Luna, the only one with a mind link connected to the pack at the moment is my dad.

My dad gives a curt nod in my direction as his eyes glaze over, mind linking the warriors. Everything moves smoothly from then on.

The warriors come in, quickly getting over their initial shock of the Head Warrior's betrayal, and take him to one of the holding cells we have in the basement. Whenever something like this happens, we place the wolf in a holding cell to give us time to decide if that wolf should be sent to a werewolf prison, or if we should just simply ban them from the pack. We are against killing nowadays if it isn't necessary.

The warriors run to Brett and I and I gently hand him over, mad about what he's done but also not wanting to harm him. The warriors then take him out of the Alpha's office and make their way down to the holding cell.

I heave a sigh of relief and turn to my father. Walking up to him, I give him a hug and after a few seconds, he hugs me back.

"I'm sorry, Dad. He must have overheard our conversation." I say, pulling away from his embrace. My father and I aren't afraid to show emotion, something I've always admired about my dad.

"Son, it's not your fault. He would have found out eventually, anyway. Better now than later, possibly in front of your mate. Who knows what Brett would've done if your mate was here when Brett found out he's human."

My whole body tenses up at the thought of Brett potentially harming my mate all because he's human. Human mates are rare, but usually werewolves get more aggressive like Brett because they're homophobic, not whatever Brett was. Personphobic? Humanphobic? Humanphobic.

I take a deep breath to calm the rage simmering below my skin and wince as the adrenaline finally wears off and the pain in my face and hand increase tenfold.

My dad sees me wincing from the pain and grabs my hand, inspecting it.

"We should take you to the pack doctor." My dad says, concern evident in his voice.

"Dad, we don't have a pack doctor, remember?" I remind him. Our previous pack doctor found her mate at a counsel meeting involving packs from all over the world. Her mate just so happened to be the Beta of a pack somewhere from England, so she decided to move to England with him and be a pack doctor there so she could stay with her mate.

"Right! Just go sit down in the pack doctor's office and I'll try to find someone quickly. I'll also mind link Roni and let her know you're there." My dad said, quickly running out of his office on his quest to find a replacement pack doctor before I could even tell him this whole ordeal is completely unnecessary.

Sighing, I make my way to the pack doctor's office.

~

The white walls in the pack doctor's office are blinding. I've been waiting here now for about half an hour for the replacement doctor when all I want to do is take some pain meds and sleep.

A few minutes later, the sound of combat boots hurriedly pattering on the floor outside the pack doctor's office can be heard where I sit. Before she even gets close enough to the door for me to smell her scent, I already know that it's Roni.

My thought is proven correct when Roni barges through the door of the doctor's office and comes running in my direction with a fear-stricken face.

"Oh, my Goddess! Renny! Are you okay?" She asks frantically, circling the bed I sit on to inspect me for injuries. Her gaze falls on my bruised and weirdly twisted hand and I watch as her eyes widen.

"Ren, who did this? All your father told me through the mind link was that you were in the pack doctor's office without a 'why' or 'how'!"

"Roni, I'm okay. Brett overheard me telling Dad about Kai and didn't like the fact that his future Luna is human and went all crazy on me." I tell Roni tentatively, knowing good and well if Brett weren't already in a holding cell by now, Roni would be kicking his ass.

"Brett?! But he's like, your dad's most trusted warrior!" Roni screeches, her eyes widening even further, if that's possible.

I reiterate everything that happened today to Roni and watch as her expressions vary from shock, to awe at how I took Brett down, then finally land on rage at how Brett betrayed us.

"UGH! I always knew that something was up with him! I've overheard the other warriors in the pack saying how cruel he is to them. Brett apparently had made the warriors train ten hours the other day with no breaks in between. They mentioned that they were going to speak to Uncle Tommy about it, but I guess Brett got himself kicked out of the position before Tommy could even find out how horrible of a Head Warrior he was. Is there anything I can do to help you, Renny?" Roni rants, giving me a sympathetic smile.

"Thanks, Roni but all I really want right now is my mate."

"That can be arranged." Roni winks, and before I can question her any further, she's out the door, making her way to Goddess only knows where.

This girl. . .