Meeting Gideon wasn’t as hard as Alex thought it would be, and she discovered that he was even more down to earth than Galatia was. He had no reproach on his face when he looked at her, and no rejection even when he held her hand in a handshake. All he did was smiled at her and told her that everything was now in the past. Maybe that was true, but getting Gabe to see the same thing was not as easy. He was having nightmares about the incident by the border and that was taking a toll on him. Alex hoped that having his complete family around would help make things go back to normal as soon as possible. She was really glad anyway that he was starting to get out of his room, unlike before, when he would stay cooped up in his room. She was back to cooking and cleaning, but according to Naomi, it was going to be a temporal thing. A new cook would be coming over so that she could focus on the training she would be resuming soon, her words not hers. Even though she had told her she could do

The grandfather clock in the sitting room chimed and Alex wondered what was taking them forever in Gabe’s office. She had woken up this morning to a surprise, disrupting her training session, but she didn’t mind a lot, seeing as she had done that for the most part of yesterday and the day before, so she could do without the running around, baring her teeth trying to control herself with her eyes closed to get her wolf out. The doorbell had sounded as she came down the stairs where she had just been coming from her room only to go to the door to open it and find her parents there. She had stared at them wide-eyed with surprise gleaming back at them as her mother smiled at her and her father looked at her like he had missed her. Oh, for heaven’s sake, she had forgotten about her having two parents, and these ones were not Marilyn and Mason. How did they get here? How did they come to be at Berkeley Moore when they didn’t know the place, but almost immediately as she asked herself th

After her parents left, Alex felt like she could do everything now, including facing Marilyn and Mason if she wanted. According to Gabe, keeping things bottled up would only hurt her even more than the actual thing would. She had learned a very important lesson and it was on that note that she told Gabe to invite them over for dinner, with her siblings. She wanted to get it over with and see where it would end. “That was the best thing to do.” She told herself. She reached the cabinet that was at the top of the counter to grab the board so that she could chop the last bit of the ingredient. She was cooking tonight by herself because she wanted them all to have a feel of what it was like to have her in their lives. Cooking might not exactly do that, but she knew it would do something. She grabbed the knife and then the onions, and she started to dice it up with her eyes squinted almost closed so that she would avoid the peppering sensation as best as she could. As she sliced up the

As she trained, she could start to feel something deep down inside her stir. Today her trainer had made her run about three times into the woods and then back, and even though she told him she was tired, he didn’t allow her to stop. Now, she was doing some kind of weird push-up he had her doing. She had one hand on the ground each time she came down, and that one hand would hoist her back up. She could also feel herself drenched in sweat, and her breath was coming out in quick puffs. “Can't I rest for a few minutes?” she asked as she looked at him, but he was standing in front of her anymore. He was now sitting at the far end of the training field on the bench that was there. “Oh, wow.” She whispered to herself. The trainer felt it was better to work her to death while he took a rest, drinking water meant for the both of them. If she didn’t know any better, she would have concluded that he was just trying to rile her and make her angry. But, she knew this was for her own good. She

The pain was so much even when Alex slept, she was in it, but she was oblivious to everything that was going on around her. Gabe had called together everyone because he knew they had to be here for her like she was for him. They needed to stand by her during this transition. Her wolf was near, but something else was happening, something only his wolf could smell. She was in heat, and she was in pain as well. Their transition wouldn't normally take that long, but this was happening because her wolf had been laying docile for more than two decades. She would have to find her way out in her own way. Singing, he removed the wet towel he placed on her forehead; a towel that was now hot because of how she was burning from a fever, and he put it into the bowl of water beside him, let it soak in for a few seconds before placing it back on her forehead. “What do you think we should do, grandma?” he asked because he was just confused. He had never had to face a case like this before, and h