"Isabella, what are you doing?"

Turning around, I see Caroline standing in the doorway. "Oh, just enjoying the morning."

She rolls her eyes and takes a seat at the counter. "Marina should be here soon."

We relax until the doorbell rings. Thinking it is Marina, I hurry to answer it, but instead I see Sebastian waiting. It was him; he knows that I followed him into the woods. "Why were you in the forest?" He asks calmly.

I motion for him to come in but he counters my action by telling me to come outside. Standing on the porch, I begin to feel nervous. "I saw the rogue."

"So you decided to go after it?"

Swallowing, I nod. "I wanted to know where it came from, so maybe I could help Eric," I lie.

He sighs. "If you see one again, don't go after it. You could have been killed, and I'm sure my son would not like to come home to a dead mate," Sebastian says as he makes his way down the steps.

"Wait, why were you in the forest?"

He turns around and continues on his way. Refusing to stop the conversation there, I hurry after him. "Why were you in the forest?"

Sebastian stops and turns to me. "I go for morning runs, not that it is any of your business."

"I haven't seen you run by the pack house before."

"Maybe I needed a change of scenery. Are you finished interrogating me now?"

With a raised brow, I watch him walk away until Caroline calls me back inside, asking who it was and why I was gone for so long. I brush it off and tell her we were ding-dong ditched, and that I went looking for the prankster. "Ding-dong ditched?" She repeats. "That's weird; the kids don't usually come over here. They must know Eric is gone."

"Possibly."

Caroline sits back down on the stool. "You know how I told you about my mom and Eric's thoughts on her and whatnot?"

Not seeing the connection between pranks and that, I lean forward a bit. "Yes, why?"

"What do you think about it?"

"What do you mean?"

She sighs. "Could you believe it, that she has some sort of connection to the moon goddess, that she can talk to her?"

I shrug. "Well, I don't know. It sounds similar to a psychic or something, so maybe. Why do you ask?"

"I was just wondering. It just popped into my head."

The doorbell rings again, but this time Caroline fetches it. After she joins me in the kitchen with Marina, I tell them that I will be upstairs taking a shower. The time alone and relaxing sensations of hot water hitting my back always takes my mind off things, which only leads to extremely long showers. Afterward, my skin is clean and pink.

The mirror is fogged over, blocking me from myself. Wandering into the bedroom, I sit on the edge of the bed and adjust the towel around my body.

Not having Eric here is odd and lonely. It was hard enough to fall asleep, and now I am left to question his father on my own, though Eric would have a biased opinion. All this talk about the moon goddess and his mother is making me question their sanity. Surely the possibility of communicating with a goddess is crazy to consider, but Caroline is my friend and somewhat family, and she seems to believe in her mother.

Maybe I can talk to Eric about it when he gets back. I hope he is alright out there, not hurt or provoking any trouble. It is a dangerous situation to be in, searching for rogue camps, but I cannot help but wish to be with him.

A sudden crashing noise pulls me downstairs, but when I come into the kitchen, I find Marina picking up pieces of a once useful plate. "What happened?"

"Caroline accidentally knocked it off the table when she was on the phone with her mate. Those phone calls excite her too much, and she hops around running into everything," Marina explains.

"Where is she now?"

"I told her to take the call outside, so she does not step on glass. She's just outside the back door."

I nod and hurry out to find her leaning against the house with her phone pressed religiously against her ear. A sweet smile and soft blush rest on her face. She spots me and moves the phone from her ear, holding it to her chest. "Oh, Isabella! Lucas said he is coming to visit tomorrow!" Caroline cheers.

My eyes watch the woods. "Wow, that's great. I cannot wait to officially meet him. What time will he be here?"

With the phone back to her ear she mumbles, "What time will you be here again?" Then she peers back to me. "Around noon."

I smile. "Alright, I can't wait."

I tell Marina to keep an eye on her after heading back inside.

The next morning is a busy one, as Caroline cannot stop cleaning around the house, even with Marinas help nothing seems to be neat enough. Marina tries to calm her down, but her nerves and excitement to see her mate has her bouncing off the walls. It is a weird mixture of anxious behavior and utter happiness.

"Caroline, for the hundredth time, everything looks wonderful," Evangeline grabs onto her and tells her while looking into her eyes. "If you keep running around the house like a maniac then you'll get sweaty. You don't want that now, do you?"

Caroline's face turns pale before she begins to fan her cheeks and head off upstairs to put on cooler clothing. "You sure know how to stop her," I say to Evangeline as she sits in the chair across from me in the living room.

"Well, she is my daughter," she leans back, relaxing before Lucas arrives. "Eric will be home tomorrow, does he know about our visitor? He did not seem too enthusiastic about the poor guy."

"I don't know. I haven't told him. I want to make sure he is in the best mood possible while on the search. The last thing he needs is to worry about his sisters mate."

Evangeline agrees. "I hope Lucas has enough energy to deal with my Caroline. She can sure be a handful. I can only pray that the guy knows a thing or two in the kitchen. She can hardly boil an egg."

"They're mates; they have to be good for each other in some way."

Her eyes find mine. "Okay. Tell me, how is Eric good for you? All I know is that my son took you away from your younger sister."

"He did, but that doesn't mean he isn't good for me. There are a lot of things that I need him for."

Evangeline nods and crosses her arms. "You know, I was locked in a cell before Sebastian, and I even met. Under his rules, long ago, rogues on his land were captured if causing trouble."

"You were a rogue?" I ask, intrigued.

"Well, not technically. I lived with my grandmother who was once part of a pack, but she decided to move out on her own with her mate. I grew up with her, and I found myself stumbling onto Tate Pack land one day. Like Caroline, I could not stop venturing off, and look where it got me."

"But how did you cause trouble on the land?"

"Sebastian's Beta at the time, Olivia's father, found me and tried to figure out what I was doing. I was confused and frightened, didn't know what to do. He took me, locked me up, and I discovered that Sebastian and I were mates when I went in for questioning."

I fall back against the couch and let out a short laugh. "Evangeline, that is crazy."

"A lot of crazy things have happened in my life. I'll have to tell you more stories sometime."

Caroline comes rushing down the stairs in a casual dress. "How does this look?" She asks, and Evangeline tells her she looks lovely. Lucas should be here any minute, and Caroline finally takes and minute or two to collect herself. "What were you guys talking about?"

"Oh nothing," Evangeline brushes it off. "Just chatter until Lucas arrives. We are excited to meet him."

"Oh, I know you guys will love him. He is selfless and kind and caring, such a gentleman." She rambles. "Right when he told me that he could visit today I practically had a heart attack."

"I know," I tell her. "I saw the plate you broke."