Willow and Lapu romped around the house as the two couples discussed the backstory, options, plans, and goals. It was well into the night when they stopped. Lydia and Darryl had joined them and had a say in the final decision.

“Alright, so with the plan to get her established enough to learn about her kind, we can expect daily contact, regular visits and a commitment that Lydia can choose to break and return at any time.” Her dad recounted.

Terrance was nodding as Lydia was getting a lecture about good behavior and modesty and reporting and never forgetting who she is and don’t compromise any values she has - from her mother. Lydia gave Robin a long, appreciative, tight squeeze before moving over to her dad to say goodbye. There were plans for her to go with Terrance and collect her clothes as soon as possible, they were just waiting to decide a precise time until after arrangements were made to meet with the Beta via Cory.

~

“Doesn’t this kinda work in our favor?” Lydia was asking as she donned some more of Sara’s clothes.

“How do you figure?” she asked.

“Makes a good reason for me to smell like my family, without having to actually be family,” Lydia used air quotes for emphasis.

“That’s a good point,” she remarked with a clap as the two of them headed downstairs to meet the boys.

Darryl was sitting dejectedly at the table, obviously unsuccessful at convincing Terrance into let him attend the introduction. Lydia did a bit of an anxious fidget, let out a deep breath and stilled, ready to go.

~

Lydia was appropriately demure when they entered the Pack House. She was lead past a few curious individuals on her way to the Beta’s office.

The interesting smells had Willow curious, though she was still very sluggish. However, when the door opened, she mentally bolted upright. ‘I-’ she started to say but Lydia shut her out, now was not the time for distractions. There was a small obliging whimper, but Willow didn’t fight.

Lydia kept her eyes down as Terrance did the talking, she was having an increasingly difficult time concentrating, what with the dark oppressive aura coming from ahead of her, the sickly-sweet smell that she swore she could taste on the roof of her mouth coming from the left side of the first miasma, and lastly the restlessness of her internal companion.

There was a light touch against her arm, and she realized that she had entirely lost track of the conversation. Her cheeks flushed in embarrassment; however, Terrance just gave her a reassuring nod as he tilted his head towards the brooding man ahead of her.

“Lydia, if you would introduce yourself to Beta Gregory-” her brother prompted.

“Why yes!” She gave a slightly squeaky noise as she cleared her dry throat to recite, “My name is Lydia, I have come here to find shelter and learn about my heritage. If you would let me stay, I promise to do whatever I can to better the Cedar Glade Pack,” Lydia put every ounce of honestly and sincerity into her statement. None of it was false, even if she wanted to better it in a way that he couldn’t guess.

Lydia suddenly realized, as Terrance gave her arm a tiny squeeze on its way back down to his side, that she needed to look away, to do nothing to draw out his dominate personality. A moment after she looked down Gregory glanced in the direction of the other individual opening his mouth to speak, but it soon drew into a hard line.

“Son,” he measured.

Terrance’s head snapped to the side, taking in the Beta’s son. Lydia risked a sideways glance at the unknown individual when she realized how much attention he drew. He was standing, legs shoulder width apart, chair shoved back behind him. His hands splayed out across the far edge of his desk as he leaned forward, upper lip drawn as he seemed to be breathing as if he just ran into the room full tilt.

“Son,” Gregory cut in again when no response was seen, the man turned his head toward his father, chords of his neck taunt. That is when Lydia realized his eyes were on her, even as he slowly turned towards his Father.

“I can’t say I agree with this,” Dominic ground out in a voice coarser than felt natural. “Something isn’t right here,” Lydia swore she saw his nostrils flare and lips curl up and quickly looked away. Willow was now turning circles in her mind, rubbing against the sticky chords in her space, pulling more than she should causing a headache to form. Lydia regularly handled such behavior in limited amounts and did not have much difficulty turning her gaze to the beta and using her sweetest voice.

“Beta Sir. I have been kept from my kind, I just wish to repay my thanks to Terrance, and learn more about Spiritdancers so I can help out.”

“I know this is highly irregular-” Terrance started, his eyes peeling away from Dominic to rest on the beta.

Gregory waved his hand in a dismissing manner.

“Terrance, I will trust your judgement, but on a probationary basis.”

Lydia felt the man’s burning eyes on her the whole walk to the door and heard him call out to his father in exasperation as the door clicked shut. The sound abruptly cutting short, ‘There must be some sort of soundproofing.’ thought Lydia as she carefully followed her brother back out of the Pack House.

~

“You alright?” Terrance questioned, gesturing at her nose. Lydia paused and realized that she had it caught between her fingers and was massaging that whole section of her face.

“Sorry, I-” she paused, hands dropping for a moment before coming right back up to her nose as she let out a violent sneeze. “The smell was just so strong in there.” She said helplessly when she regained her wits.

“Strong? I suppose you aren’t used to the pheromones as humans don’t have them, but it shouldn’t have been too strong,” Terrence got quiet as he watched her drag her tongue across the roof of her mouth and outward, as if she was thirsty or trying to scrape a taste off. He opened his mouth to speak, coming to a stop, but she responded first.

“You guys smell so much more pleasant than that, that was a sweet smell, like kettle corn. But not like you want to eat it, like you’re stuck in a factory, and it permeates your every sense.” Lydia gave a strange violent sneeze that came more from her palette than her nose. She stuck her hand out briefly for balance. Her head was spinning after Willow’s antics. Air was sucked up weird over her pallet and then violently discharged as her body did a weird breathing thing. Her hand flung out wide to steady herself on Terrance.  She quickly jumped back, apologizing, the look on his face was rigid and stern.

Grabbing her by her shoulders and pulling her face in close he asked her disparagingly, “Who was the smell coming from? Was Willow reacting too?”

Lydia pressed her fingers to her forehead, “She’s still spinning loops, even with all the tar.” She gave a severe shake of the head and everything righted itself.

“I’m fine really,” she took a step away from Terrance, eyes darting to a figure leaving the building next to them. Terrance realized where they were, plastered a smile on his face and tossed a nonchalant wave in their direction before steering her away.

“Who was it?” Terrance interrogated the split second the door of their house shut behind him. Lydia started to feel a static bolt of dread wedge its way into her spine, something wasn’t right. Her eyes darted around, and she started to train them on Darryl for support. Terrance was beginning to scare her, and she tried to inch towards Darryl. Terrance roughly grabbed her chin and pulled her back to him, forcing eye contact.

“Was it Dominic?” he pressed, his voice hard like the first time she met him, eyes dark and grip sharp.

“Dom-?” she started to question, “Oh!” her mind lit up, “The son? Yes, it was him. Why?” Lydia felt his grip go slack and saw the color drain from his face, her heart began to flutter in panic at his dramatic response.

Lydia didn’t have a chance to form a question before she was torn from one brother’s grip and pulled tight against the other, she felt a rumbling growl echoing in his chest, so low it couldn’t be heard. She tried to pull back to see his face, but his arms were wrapped around her so protectively that all she could see was his neck and the shoulder her nose was touching. His Earthy scent was just as reassuring as usual, and she felt her heart settling despite the situation.

“Sis,” Terrance’s voice was hollow and quiet. “Did you feel any inclination to approach? Any need or draw?”

Trying to turn to him, but failing to gain any slack in Darryl’s arms, Lydia sighed and responded, lips rubbing on the shirt making her voice muffled, “Willow tried to climb her way out of my head, but me myself? No, nothing. I was just trying to shut her down so I could finish my task in there.”

“Wait-” Terrance said, she could imagine him lifting his open palm in protest and confusion by the sound of his voice, and the slight protective twitch in Darryl’s body, “Your and hers emotions are not intertwined?”

“What?” Lydia asked, squirming again, Still gaining no room she patted helplessly at her captors back, but that only lessened the bone deep vibrations, if anything he tightened around her further. Sighing Lydia continued struggling to enunciate through the cloth, “We’ve always been completely separate entities, even before the medications, aren’t you?”

“Yes,” the dulcet voice said from under her neck, his head shifting and blowing the words over her ear. “But we are so intertwined that our likes and feelings become a tangled mess and our hearts end up longing for the same things,”

“Oh,” She said simply, losing herself in the thought, probing at Willow mentally so she could ignore the physical heat on her ear. She gave her head a micro-shake and gave two swift pats to Darryl’s lower back, the highest place she could reach, he finally released her, not making eye-contact as he pulled back.

“What’s this about?” Sara’s voice came from across the room.

Terrance looked at his wife, his eyes and voice as cold as steel. “Lydia met her mate.”