The rest of the ride was calmer and Rose parked her suv in the mansion garage. Everyone got out of the suv and Eunji noticed Eva standing at the door into the mansion from the garage.

“Rose, mother wishes to be updated.” Eva said in a very neutral tune and Rose walked over Eva without question. Eva looked to Eunji and Maria, gave them a small nod and left with Rose into the mansion.

Maria gently slapped the side of Eunji’s arm, “Follow me,” She said and Eunji got the feeling Maria knew that would happen. Eunji followed Maria into the mansion and led her to a set of stairs going down.

The stairs lead to a heavy wooden door and Maria opened it up to lead Eunji into the room. Eunji’s eyes brighten to see a large room with a music stage and a bunch of instruments on the stage. Looking around Eunji could see the room had a bunch of sound proofing and instrument cases hidden in corners.

Maria jumped up onto the stage, “Welcome to my second bedroom, the music room.” Maria spun around and grabbed a bass guitar with a deep maroon base. “I wan-”

“Maria, why were you upset when you heard Lucy’s parents kicked her out?” Eunji asked without thinking about it. It was bothering her since the start of the car ride but didn’t know when to ask about it.

Eunji saw Maria freeze up from the question and put the bass back down finally. “You saw that, huh? Jeez, you really are a natural at reading people…or maybe I’m easy to read…” The last part was almost a whisper as if Maria was trying not to say it. 

“S-Sorry if I over st-” Eunji stopped when Maria held up a hand before picking up a very old wood guitar. Maria was over to the edge of the stage and sat down with legs hanging off the edge. Eunji moved to sit beside Maria and Maria started to tune the guitar slowly.

“I was kicked out of my family and excommunicated from my village in Greece…because I knocked out a corrupted bishop.” Maria kept tuning the instrument in her lap with such care and gentleness. “A thousand years ago that was a very bad thing for a young girl at the age of sixteen. I did what I had to do to survive and became a traveling gypsy.”

Eunji stayed quiet and watched Maria very closely. Her words were true and I could feel she was holding back the whole story but she let it go. Maria stopped tuning the guitar and rubbed her arm, the arm that Eunji remembered Maria’s tattoo was on.

“Five years on the road and on a full moon we were attacked by a masked assiassan…” Maria said as gripped her arm before letting go and touching her chest scar. “I was left half dead to be found by Juno…did you know I’m first turn in Juno’s pack after she got lighter on one side?”

Eunji paused to think about it, “I think it was mentioned but your age was never brought up.” Eunji said and Maria chuckled as she returned tuning.

“Anyways after I finished my change…I tracked down that assassin, it was easy with my new nose.” Maria chuckled but Eunji could hear a bit of spite in her chuckle. “I followed him back to who hired him too and I took an eye for eye…than took more because they took my ba-” 

Eunji leaned back seeing and feeling murder rage bubbling just under the surface of Maria’s smile. If it wasn’t for Rose appearing out of nowhere and touching Maria’s hand with a soft whisper, “Amor mío, you are scaring our little sister.”

Maria froze before looking at Eunji's face and Eunji could see the regret on Maria’s face. The rage she had seen boiling disappeared and Eunji relaxed in seeing the rage disappear.

“I’m sorry for bringing up such painful memories.” Eunji quickly said before Maria could apologize and Eunji hugged Maria. Maria was quiet before she patted Eunji’s back and let out a sigh.

“It’s alright…” Maria quietly whispered and Eunji let go of Maria once she knew Maria would not apologize. Eunji smiled before turning bright red from her stomach growl loudly and made Maria and Rose chuckle “Maybe training your ears can wait.”

“Yes, we can train your nose instead, with you helping me in the kitchen.” Rose clapped and looked at Maria. “You can join in too if you wish~”

“Nope, I’m not going to get in your way…I almost lost a hand that way.” Maria said and limply waved her left hand. Rose gave Maria a smirk before grabbing Maria’s leather collar and pulled her down for a deep and passionate kiss.

Eunji turned bright red upon seeing it and looked away while jumping down from the stage. “Remember no sex in public pack spaces.” Eunji commented before leaving the room and went straight into the kitchen.

Eunji had helped Rose with cooking and both her and Starlight felt nervous in eating food they didn’t see being made or help make. Rose explained to her it was a trauma of the change and before Eunji didn’t fully understand why until today.

Eunji grabbed the apron she often used and it was a blue apron with a small chibi fox on the pocket. “Toss me my apron,” Rose said as walked into the kitchen and Eunji grabbed Rose’s black apron to toss.

Eunji moved to take out a cutting board as Rose started to take out ingredients for the meal. She put a bundle of green onions on Eunji’s cutting board. Rose started to unwrap some kind of meat from some white packaging paper and buncher’s twine.

“So what kind of meat is that?” Eunji asked and it smelt sweet to her nose. She was still weirded out that fresh meat smells so sweet to her now and to distract herself from it, she started to clean the green onions.

“Elk meat, Alina has a connection on the reserve.” Rose said as slapped it before putting it on her own cutting board. “I find that meat with gamey taste is tastier to Lycans.” 

Eunji started to chop the green onions before stopping to glance at Rose, “Rose…do you remember your parents?” Eunji figures Rose is the same age as Maria and they have been lovers even longer.

Rose stopped in chopping the meat and Eunji could see Rose was caught off by the question. She could also see the wheels in Rose’s head turn before shrugging, “In short, I never knew my rapist father, my blood Adlet mother was killed by cult leader step-mother just after I was born.” Rose non-chantilly said. 

Eunji felt her jaw drop from how non-chantilly with that information and she put down her knife. Eunji felt like her brain was blanking and the only thing that came out of her was, “I-I…wai-no..”

“Don’t worry, I escaped my step-mother’s clutches at age sixteen and ran into Juno four years later. In which, she helped me tear down my step-mother’s cult and kill my step-mother.” Rose returned chopping up the meat. “Can you pull out my large skillet for me?” 

Eunji was just staring at Rose before shaking her head, “Ya sure,” Eunji finally said and turned but stopped once she pulled out the skillet. “Rose, are you as old as Maria?”

Rose burst out laughing and it trailed off seeing Eunji's serious face, “I guess that is a fair question since we Lycan stop aging at twenty-five.” Rose used her butcher knife to point to the oven and Eunji put the skillet on it. “I am just over hundred fifty years old and when I turned hundred is when Maria and I hooked up.”

Eunji paused after putting the skill down and looked at Rose and it was true she didn’t look over twenty-five. She kept staring and found herself looking at Rose’s eyes and she didn’t understand it herself but Eunji could now see all of Rose’s age within her eyes.

“Eunji, a piece of advice, do not cling too much to the past and regrets with it,” Rose was looking out of the corner of her eyes and Eunji slightly jumped as she was embarrassed from her staring. “Or it will drive you insane and…let's say you won’t have a good ending.”

“Right.” Eunji said nervously before returning to chopping green onions and the silence filled the room. Rose started to go home and Eunji started to think back before looking at Rose, “If all Lycans stop aging at twenty-five, why did Haku look older?”

“A small and simple magic to make himself look older. Actually he normally goes older when his human wife was alive, to match her age.” Rose explained and waved her knife as she did. “Lycans gain odd quirks as they age, like Haku’s age magic or when Juno changes her name it connected to mythical mother being, or -”

“Alina’s fake Russian accent?” Eunji interjected and Rose froze when she mentioned Alina’s accent. “The old man that lived next to my old apartment was a Russian that just got off the plane.”

As if Eunji had summoned her, Alina walked into the kitchen through the dining room door and looked straight at Eunji. “Juno told me to teach our malen'kaya lisa about ozer volves’ territories…” Alina trailed off as Rose gestured to cut it off and Alina raised her brow.

“I have a feeling the fake accent isn’t a personality quirk and something else now.” Eunji said as put down her knife and glanced between the two ladies. “Is it a prank or…”

“A hazing bet, we see how long it takes newcomers to figure out my accent was fake.” Alina said perfectly in English with a hint of Russian accent. “So what tipped you off, malen'kaya lisa?”

“My neighbor in my old apartment was fresh from Russia and your grammar, too clean.” Eunji said as she took off her apron and hung it back up. “But I just figured it out because Rose was explaining Haku’s quirk in making himself look older.”

Alina huffed before shaking her head, “Anyways join me in the dining room,” Alina as she walked back through the dining room door and Eunji followed her.

On the dining table was a large map of the city and smaller pictures of other areas around the country. The large map had an area circled in different colors and Eunji noticed where the mansion was located was in a gold circle. 

“As you probably already figured out, the gold areas belong to the Olympia pack and these smaller areas are where our branch packs live.” Alina pointed out smaller golden circles around the city. “Branch pack members live here because of job or family reasons.”

Eunji looked at the map and her fingers tranced over the gold line of the main territory. “There are a lot more gold areas than the others.” Eunji muttered but knew Alina could easily hear her. “Does that mean the Olympia pack is the strongest and most influential of the packs in the city?”

“Country, and a bit of both yes and no. There are lots of branch packs because Juno wants our pack to integrate with human society, instead of being isolated from it.” Alina explained and paused as looked at the dark blue circle. “This attitude has made the pack popular to join and gaining its power and influence among the other packs.”

“What about that one?” Eunji asked as she noticed Alina gentle touch to the dark blue territory, which was biggest on the large map. “That pack territory is all of Moon Crest Lake and Wolftail Reserve, they must be as strong and powerful as Olympia pack to hold that much land."

“Officially it’s called the Wolftail pack territory but unofficially not much of a pack if there is only one member to it.” Alina sighed before waving her hand away. “It’s Lycan politics going on there.”

“So confusing and just a big headache to explain at the moment?” Eunji sarcastically joked and Alina patted her head gently. “So what about this one?” Eunji pointed to the purple territory on the west side of the city and the fifth of areas but no branch pack territories.

“Once called the Sword pack, but now the Gevaudan pack, led by Claude Monet, though he shouldn’t be leading them.” Alina snarled and crossed her arms. “He only got that position because he was second hand to the previous pack leader. The previous leader was a good man…he walked into the river after his human mate and young daughter died in a car accident. He may have been fine if it was just one of them that died but that those two were his whole life.”

Eunji paused at the information and covered her mouth, remembering most Lycans couldn’t swim. “That is just…tragic…” Alina nodded to Eunji’s words and let out a large sigh.

“By the time any of us knew he got the backing of the rest of his pack and we couldn’t remove him or there would have been a lot of blood shed.” Alina tapped her finger on her arm as she spoke. “Under his leadership the Gevaudan pack has been shrinking and becoming less powerful among the packs.”

“Is that why he wanted us after we were turning?” Eunji asked and Alina tilted her head from her question. “Maria and I met him in the hospital when I first woke up…he was a very unpleasant man.”

“Yes but everyone knew it would be a bad idea with his low successful turn rate.” Alina snarled while looking at the territory but simmered down as pointed to green territory in the north and fourth biggest. “This is the Yuki pack and led by Monobe Haku.”

Eunji could see some branch pack territories belonging to Yuki pack but most of them were on the smaller maps, “What about this pack?” Eunji asked as she pointed to grey territory and third biggest while bumping into Yuki territory.

Alina made a smirk, “The Ghost pack, they are led by Diana Dmitriev and where the three boys were placed.” Eunji traced the grey line as they trailed eastwards in the city. “Both the Ghost and Yuki pack follow a similar mind set with our pack about humans.”

Eunji stopped her finger, “Tell me more about Diana.” Eunji said and looked into Alina’s eyes. Alina's deep blue eyes flicked towards Eunji’s eyes and Eunji felt a deep chill down her back as if a ghost walked through her. 

Alina paused before a mischievous grin formed on her face, “Diana is the youngest of the main pack leaders, and they are from Russia like me but more city folk, while I was further in sticks.” Alina stated and tapped the side of her jaw. “Your boys are in safe hands with Diana…also probably having a good high if they like cannabis. Diana’s mate grows special cannabis that can affect a Lycan.”

Eunji sighed in relief then raised her brow, “Does that mean normal cannabis and alcohol have not affected us? Does someone make special alcohol like this special cannabis?” Eunji shot off and Alina simply shook her head as no. “So drinking alcohol is more for the taste if anything?”

“Yes, I myself prefer rum though, I know I’m a bad Russian.” Alina chuckled and Rose poked her head out of the kitchen. Eunji noticed they seemed to have a silent conversation between the two before Alina looked back at Eunji. “Go help Rose by setting the table while I pack these maps away.”

“Alright,” Eunji walked to the door but stopped to look back at Alina. “Thank you, Alina.” Eunji could hear Alina let out a small chuckle with the same mischievous grin before Eunji entered the kitchen.