By the time I crawled back home, the house was dark and quiet. Everybody must have gone to sleep. I shifted back into my human form before collapsing on the bed.

"Did it go well?"

Celine's voice jolted me back up.

"C- Celine?" I scrambled around to face the woman standing by the door. Remembering my current state, I yanked my duvet to cover my bare body. "What- What the hell are you doing in my room?"

"You left so early in the morning and never came back!" Celine folded her hands, adamant in her spot, not even flinching at the fact that I was naked. "I thought the wererabbits ate you up or something."

"Do you really think that lowly of my abilities?"

But I could not blame Celine. Auri and I had ended up talking for way too long. It did not help that the little cave she had built was stocked with food, so there had been no need to leave when it got too late. Except—as my stomach began to growl at this thought—carrots and cabbages were definitely not enough to satisfy me.

"You've never won in a single practice fight," Celine pointed out flatly, and I felt a sharp jab to my heart. "But anyway, how was it?"

I suppressed a sigh. "Well, I talked more with the person in charge of the burrowing..."

"The one you met yesterday, right? And? How did it go?"

Looking at Celine's excited expression, another sigh threatened to escape. "Listen, don't get mad, but um... do you think I could get Father to back down on this?"

Celine's eyebrows twitched. "What?"

"Like, if I had a good reason and a feasible alternate plan, would he change his mind about the task?"

There was a short pause before Celine exploded, "Are you out of your mind, Bodie? Change his mind? Once your father decides on something, he never changes his mind! Ever! Don't you know it's a sign of weakness? He doesn't back down; we, as a pack, don't back down!"

My body slid further into the bed. "So... I take it that if I bring this up to him, he won't be too happy about it?"

"You want to what?" Celine's hands rose into a frantic mess, just like her voice. "Okay, what the heck happened today, Bodie? Spit it out!"

"I- I told you, I talked to the person in charge of the burrowing..."

"And? What did they do to you for you to spout nonsense like this?"

"She didn't do any—"

"She? Oh my god, I get it now." Celine began to pace around the room, her hands buried deep into her hair. "She must be a small, cute wererabbit, and you're soft. You're way too soft for cute girls!"

"I'm not soft..." I mumbled with the softest voice I had ever mumbled.

"Yeah, right." She snorted without even turning to face me. "I know you, Bodie. I've seen the way you act around girls like Hannah, or Daphne, or Kayla. You let cute girls push you around! Heck, you let Amanda's entire gang copy your homework all senior year!"

"That was such a long time ago. I'm not like that anymore."

"You're not like that anymore? Then what is this? You meet a new girl one time and already want to betray your pack for her."

"Celine, come on, it's not like that." I wanted to reach my hand out to calm her anxious parading, but I could not leave the bed. "It just... It just doesn't feel like it'll be the right thing to do, you know? I don't think Father knows anything about the burrowing proj—"

"The right thing to do?" Celine stopped in her tracks and glared at me. "This is not about doing the right thing, Bodie! There is no right or wrong when it comes to making decisions as the Alpha, especially to your father! You just make the best decision you can on the spot, and then you follow through. Your father drilled this into Victor all his life!"

"But what if the decision you make at the start is not right?"

"Nothing you do can ever be fully right. There's always gonna be people badly affected by your decisions. That's what it's like being at the top! "

I frowned. "Shouldn't you at least try to listen, to come up with a better solution?"

"And then what? Take ten years deciding on what to do?"

"It won't take that lo—"

"I know you mean well, Bodie," —Celine cut me off as she continued her anxious pacing— "but this is not how it's done here, alright? I mean, your father, your family, has managed to get us to stay as the ruling wereanimal because of this way of doing things. Strength, efficiency, ensuring obedience. Not compromising at every little thing a cute girl asks you to!"

"I'm not..." I did not even bother finishing the sentence. No matter how much I disagreed with Celine, there was no way I was winning this argument right now.

"Who is she?" Celine demanded.

I sighed. "Her name is Aurelia Broadears, she goes by Auri."

"Bring me to her tomorrow. I need to meet her."

A lump of dread grew in my throat. "N- No, Celine, it's my task—"

"And you're failing at it!" she snapped. "Do you want your father to get an aneurysm or something? Because I'm this close to getting one! You will bring me to her, and I will show you what you're supposed to be doing as the Alpha heir."

She spun sharply on her heels and stormed out of my bedroom.

I rolled over on my back and let out a loud groan. It was definitely not a fun experience being screamed at by my sister-in-law while I was butt-naked in bed. I rolled over again and buried my head into my pillow.

This was bad. This was really bad.