Liam Oliver met me in the hall, presumably back from a run. I nodded briefly to him. He was a good alpha, but still far from my favorite person. He fell in step beside me. “Lya has a dog,” he said abruptly. “She doesn’t know it’s a familiar.” I looked over at him quizzically, curious as to why he would do something like that. “I can’t be with her all the time,” he sighed. “It helps her when she gets panicky alone.” I grunted in approval, at least appreciating that he was trying to do something to help her. “Why didn’t you tell me my sister was still struggling?” He glared over at me. “No offense, man, but she doesn’t even know you. Right now, you’re just the jerk who's screwing over her best friend.” I ignored the comment, hearing the familiar announce our presence to its possessor. When Lya opened the door, a little black mutt puppy immediately went for my arm, dragging at the sleeve of my jacket right where Rose’s mark was. “Hello, Henry,” I grumbled. Familiars made me unc

Liam I watched in agony for hours as Rose shopped. What I thought would be a simple grocery run and picking up a few chairs was turning into an all day endeavor. I had initially thought there was no way we would need Cody up here for a few days before we took over at the training grounds, but it seemed setting up the house would take every spare second we would have. “Watch this be a short assignment,” she sighed. “We could just spend all this money, and get sent home tomorrow.” I didn’t voice the idea that just maybe we’d like playing house and decide to make it permanent. I wasn’t even sure if I would like it. I didn’t think she believed me when I said I’d choose her. Maybe it was the mark working some sort of mate bond magic, but the more I thought of no longer having her as my mate, the more I was willing to completely excommunicate myself from the Wulvers, not just accept a different position. So I let her spend too much time and money selecting a couch, pretended to care

Liam Everyone filtered out slowly, Brandon being the last to leave. He was curious about the Wulver Pack, and I could tell he had questions about Rose and I as mates. Questions I carefully skirted around, however. When he finally left, I got up as well and headed to the kitchen. Rose started to make her way to the bedroom, but I stopped her. “Rose, wait,” I requested. She stopped and turned. “Sit.” I made my way to the living room, setting a new beer and a refilled glass of wine down on the coffee table. She followed suit, stiffly sitting on the couch across from the chair I was in. We just stared at each other for a moment. I knew what I wanted to say, but had no idea how to say it. “What do you want from me?” I finally blurted. She had been so distant when we were out of public view. I understood why, but I had no idea how to fix it. I knew full well it was my fault things were this way, and what I was doing to try and get back in her good graces was clearly not working. “W

LiamI stared at the door Rose had walked out of for a good fifteen minutes, enough time to ensure she wouldn’t be turning around and coming back. She had enough time to come back after training to rant, eat, and shower before heading out for patrols. Our patrol shifts were overlapping the usual shift changes in the evening and morning, making longer nights. That upset me because Rose had worked all day, was going to be out all night, then would work all day again tomorrow. I had offered to take this shift for her, but she quickly refused. I tried to convince her, on the premise that it sounded like she needed a drink after her first day, but that didn’t convince her, either. I was cautiously optimistic about Rose completely taking over the scout training up here. It was maintenance training, not true training, but she was still only a year out of her actual training. She was so quiet and reserved this could only go one of two ways - they would walk all over her, or she would bloo

Liam I felt like I knew Rose well enough to know she was changing. We both were. I just didn’t know her well enough to have any idea what she would change into. Rose’s stunt today was another thing I couldn’t have expected from her. It was a perfect callback to times back in training, and showed the best things never change. Just like when I was in training, this battle wrapped up before any legitimate damage could take place. But, it was only the start of the war. I wasn’t sure if Rose intentionally rewound the clock to bring them back to their training days, but these events served a purpose. For the participants, they learned how to work as a team and the importance of each member. The trainers got to see what each trainee was made of - who the natural born leaders were, hidden strengths, and who didn’t need to be there. For a group of career warriors and scouts who needed to hit the reset button, it was perfect. The fact that it was necessary was a fault, but I, for one, wa