Anna

The next morning I was woken up by the annoying ringing of my cell phone. I was about to reject the call when I saw it was Aiden and smiled. It had been so long.

'Hello, there. I have been missing you like crazy.' 

'Me too. How are you, mom?' asked Aiden.

I hadn't thought too much of it back in the day when a six-years-old Aiden had asked me to be his mom. He had always been more of a little brother to me, but my wolf had practically adopted his wolf as hers on the spot, so I had just gone with the flow from there.

I couldn't take that away from her. She had never felt a part of Alex's family. Their wolves saw her as a pack member and nothing else. Relationships between wolves and other wolves didn't follow human standards. 

Just as Alex couldn't force his wolf to see mine as his sister, I couldn't force Larentia to not see Aiden's wolf as her pup.

Now, finding out that my mate is just a year older than my adopted son was all sorts of hilarious.

'Mom?'

'I have been better but waking up to your call sure brightens my day.' I chuckled. 'What about you? How was training?'

'It was okay. The training in our pack turned out to be much harder, though. Now I have so much overdue school workload.' He sighed. 'I have been literally doing homework, studying, training, eating and sleeping, in that order, for two weeks straight and I see no sign of improvement.'

I couldn't help but laugh out loud at his suffering. 'Now, you understand what I went through in college and you said that I was overreacting.' 

We talked on the phone for a long while.

There were some crying and arguing coming from downstairs. That was Kaithlyn's voice. Kathlyn had refused to leave her room for more than three weeks for some reason she didn't want to talk about. 

I had been worried sick but decided to give her space. That only after she had thrown a vase at me for refusing to leave her room the fiftieth time she had asked nicely. That had to be mate problems.

I said goodbye to Aiden and hung up.

Curiosity was getting the best of me. I put on a pair of leggings, washed my face and ran my hands through my hair; I walked out of my room. In front of my door, I found a lavender rose and a letter. I put the letter on the nightstand and left my room. 

I followed the noise, sniffing and playing with the rose in my hand, trying to avoid touching the thorns. I was at the bottom of the stairs when furious growl pierced through the entire house. It was strong and full of authority. It couldn't belong to anyone but Caleb. He had never sounded so angry.

Caleb

As on every Sunday, I was having breakfast with Matt, Samuel, Chris and the rest of the younger pack members. Today, though, Chris was the only one with a girl by each side. 

I couldn't think of anything but Anna. Matt and Samuel were in a deep conversation about some TV show they both followed for some reason I would never understand. Matt glared at Chris from time to time, nonetheless. 

They had never been really close. 

In fact, Matt has always avoided being around him as much as possible. After what happened last month, the animosity between the two has only intensified. Matt could barely stand being in the same room where he was, and I understood him.

At the other side of the room, Matt's sister was struggling to hold back her tears. She was also Ana's friend, wasn't she? It had been one month but it seemed that she still couldn't handle seeing him with other girls. That was no surprise. The asshole had promised heaven on Earth to her.

Chris looked at her and smirked. "Hello, there, mate." 

Kathlyn ignored him as she walked toward the kitchen to get some food. Chris growled at her. He probably thought he was being disrespected. Ranks were too important for him.

He was the third in command and Kathlyn was an Omega; She still dared ignore him. Respect should be earned, but Chris would never understand that.

He forcefully grabbed her wrist and pulled her to him. "You don't get to ignore me." He growled again. 

All that growling was getting annoying. She should've accepted the rejection already. Otherwise, it was assumed that they were still mates.

"It hurts. You already rejected me. Let me go," she said in a pleading voice with eyes full of tears. 

"You're still mine," said Chris. 

Matt stood up and Chris' eyes darted to him. 

"Don't you dare, or I'll make it even worse for her." Matt stayed put, his fists clenched, knowing that if he intervened, the repercussions for his sister and himself would be serious. 

He was an omega, but I wasn't. Still, one would hope that the rest of the pack members would help in a situation like this. However, everyone else in the room just watched the scene unfold. Most people agreed that mate problems should be resolved between the two people in question. 

They probably were just cowards.

Even Samuel wasn't confident of his own power to try to stop Chris, or he didn't care. Chris sneered and moved Kathlyn's chin with his other hand until she was facing him. When his face closed to hers, however, she spat on him. 

"I've had enough of you. I, Kathlyn Miller, accept your rejection, Christopher Stieber."

Chris' face turned red from rage. He released her chin and cleaned his face before lifting his hand. She closed her eyes, waiting for the blow. She had given up way too easy. But, Chris had gone too far.

Before Chris could hit Kathlyn I gripped his lifted hand. 

"I think that has been more than enough," I said using Alpha voice. "Let her go, now." 

Chris flinched and let go of the girl's wrist. He recovered swiftly from the shock, though. "With all due respect Alpha, this girl is my mate and a filthy omega. I have every right to put her in place." 

Matt rushed to his sister and pulled her into a hug. 

I narrowed my eyes at him. "She's a member of my pack. I don't recall having any filthy members in my pack, but maybe I do have them. Those who seek to hurt instead of protecting their fellow pack members, for example." 

One thing that I despised even more than being called a kid was having stronger pack members terrorizing the weaker ones. Dad had said that everyone in the pack must be treated with respect.

They should have stood up for a fellow pack member even if I didn't. We were supposed to be family.

"You are siding with a useless omega instead than with your third in command?" Chris growled. 

"That is exactly what I am doing. Seeing that my third in command does not know his place." My growl was louder and stronger. Everyone in the room whined and lowered their heads in response.

Anna walked into the dining room to find everyone with their heads lowered and showing their necks.

"I guess someone is a bit grumpy today."

Nearly everyone gasped and some people gave her pity looks.

I turned to her, my wolf was almost in control. Happiness filled me when I saw her fidgeting with the rose in her hands. I smiled at her, but her eyes fell on the crying Kathlyn in Matt's arms. 

"What happened here?" She asked stepping into the room. 

"What I do with my mate is none of any of your business," said Chris. 

"I am not your mate anymore," said Kathlyn between sobs. 

Anna walked straight to Chris. Her eyes were golden. So, I had seen right that day. 

"I understand you rejected her, so what do you think you are doing now?" she asked.

"Why do you care?" Chris asked, his hands curling into fists. 

I growled at him and stood just behind Anna, glowering at Chris. She probably didn't need me to protect her, but Chris just kept pushing my buttons today.

Chris locked eyes with Anna; He gave her a dark grin. "Always wanting to play the self-righteous hero... Just like him. I guess the apple doesn't fall far from the tree, after all," he sneered and left the room and the packhouse.

What the hell was that about?

Anna ran to her crying friend.  "I did not know you guys were close."

"She is my sister," Matt said. 

"Okay... Kathy. Do you have your car here?" Anna asked. 

Kathy nodded. 

"Let's go to my apartment, then. We need to catch up. I also have something to propose to you." Anna looked at Matt. "To the both of you, actually. I just need to pick up something from my room." 

They nodded. 

"We will be waiting outside," Matt said.

Anna went upstairs to her room. I still needed to talk to her, so I followed her. She left her room and speed-walked without toward the stairs without looking up from the rose in her hand until she almost crashed into me.

"Caleb," she said. 

A torn from the rose she was holding grazed her index finger, drawing out some blood. 

"I am sorry," I said as I took her hand and moved her bloody finger toward my mouth. 

That was what mates do, wasn't it?

Anna immediately pulled away.

I guess no.

"Really, Caleb?" She cocked an eyebrow and pulled a handkerchief from her purse; She cleaned her finger, which had already healed. 

I shrugged and covered my mouth with one hand so she wouldn't see the stupid smile that appeared on my face whenever she said my name or even looked my way. 

"Did you read the letter?"

"I will do it soon." She patted my shoulder and walked away. 

I grabbed her upper arm; Instead of stopping her, I let my fingers brush her arm all the way to her fingertips as she walked away. If I tried to make her stay, I would be no different from Chris. She left, but I was left with a wide smile.

A/N: I reorganized and rewrote this in POV. If there is a mistake, do point it out.