Being the only werewolf in a cafe full of wererabbits was as awkward as I thought it would be.

I tried to hide in the corner, but I was too big to go unnoticed. The ceiling was dangerously low, the chairs were too small for me to sit on, and the table only reached my knee. I had no choice but to crouch down on the floor, with my back hunching over and my knees jutting out into the table. This must be the weirdest sitting position ever.

As every customer cast me a weird glance before placing their order, I gulped my embarrassment down with a sip of my drink: the matcha latte Auri had recommended yesterday.

However awkward this situation was, it was still better than the gloomy hell that was home. Everywhere I walked, whatever I did, the uncomfortable stares had followed me. From the betas working with my father to the gammas and deltas in the other offices, and even the pups I saw on the streets—they had all looked at me with a strange tinge of... fear that I was not used to. As if they were afraid of the prospects of me becoming the next Alpha. Not that I could blame them.

I was not happy with that prospect either.

Worst of all, my father had assigned Max and Celine as my overseers, for some reason. The trusted beta had woken me up early in the morning for training, while Celine had been bugging me to tell her about yesterday. Wanting to avoid them, I had escaped my territory and arrived at this cafe earlier than Auri and I had planned to.

Stifling a yawn, I adjusted my sitting position. With Max and Celine pestering me, I did not have much time to think about how I should approach the situation today. I needed to consider my game plan. I needed to get Auri to slow down on the burrowing. She had to agree.

I imagined my brother and how he would have acted. He would have been firm and relentless. He would have stared down at the small wererabbit, and demanded her to listen. He would not have even left the room yesterday without an agreement from her.

"There can be no apologies, no compromise, and no backing down, Bodie. That's your problem, you compromise too much. Repeat after me."

"No apologies. No compromise. No backing down," I repeated Victor's mantra under my breath. "No apologies—"

"Apologize for what?"

The matcha latte fell out of my hands as I let out a small yelp. The cup bounced around my flailing arms, splashing bits of green liquid all over my shirt.

"A- Auri," I said when I managed to get a hold of my drink again. "H- Hey."

"Hey, Bodie!" Auri gave me a smile as large as her glistening eyes. She was wearing a light pastel dress today, ombré coloring the flares of the skirt. Her eyebrows raised in amusement when she spotted my cup. "I see you've ordered the drink already! How is it? Good, right?"

"Y- Yeah. It's very good. Uh, sorry I didn't wait for you..."

"No, it's okay. And thanks for grabbing a table first. I'm gonna go order something now."

With that, she hopped towards the cashier, her two ponytails bouncing along with her dress.

I felt my back slide down the wall behind me. This was bad. So, so bad. I had forgotten how adorable Auri looked, and how difficult it would be for me to do this.

I closed my eyes as shame and guilt washed over me. How did someone like me end up as the heir to the pack? Why was I so different from Victor?

Auri's light footsteps approached. "I decided to try something new today!" she said cheerfully. "They have this carrot drink that I've been meaning to try."

My eyes flickered open to see Auri's wide smile. It was like an embodiment of sunshine; I could not help but smile too. But I quickly pursed my lips. No. I couldn't get distracted.

I had to get back on track.

"So, about the burrowing," I started, sitting up and clearing my throat. "Have you looked through the notes I gave you? What are your thoughts?"

Auri's smile faltered. "We're going straight into business, huh? Alright."

My heart clenched up as if it had been gnawed by a werebear, but I kept my lips pursed.

Leaning back on her chair, Auri continued, "I stayed up last night reading through all the reports. The complaints are valid. I see where they are coming from. But we have our own issues here, too, Bodie."

She gestured at the window next to her. "You've walked around, right? You've seen what it's like. The amount of people out there, the wererabbits, it's insane! I mean, it takes me an hour to get through all this traffic and to get to work every day. Our population at the burrows has increased way too much over the years."

I did not need to look outside the window to know what she meant. It had not been fun waddling through a street full of wererabbits again this morning. Some old lady had been so angry she had thrown a piece of carrot at me.

Auri took a sip of her drink and sighed. "I'm building this underground structure for many reasons, and one of them is space. We desperately need more space, and it's unfair to tell us to stop this project without an alternative solution, you know?"

My head was heavy. It really was an unfair request. Swallowing the cold lump in my throat, I offered, "You could build upwards instead? Build taller buildings, live on trees?"

"You really think the weremonkeys would be happy with that? They'll make an even bigger fuss if we do that. Also, we can't live that high up. Our animal form prefers going down than up. It's not a viable solution for us."

There was a pause as Auri drank her juice in silence, letting the information sink into me. I was reminded of the reason I had avoided any potential Alpha responsibilities—politics was so, so difficult. You couldn't please everyone, but you had to make decisions that would affect everyone.

Letting out a sigh, I asked, "Is there no other alternative solution we can pursue?"

"Oh, there is." Auri put her cup down, leaned forward, and folded her arms. "I think the best solution is to solve the root problem."

"The root problem? What is it?"

"Funding the birth control department."