Beamish
(adj.) Bright, cheerful, and optimistic.

The first thing I did when I got to the pack house, was take a shower. I wanted to wash all traces of being in that prison off of my body. The hot water ran brown with bits of dried blood coming off my wrists. It took a while to wash off all that grime and detangle the knots in my overgrown hair.

Soon enough though, I was clean and ready to face the world. My only problem was that I didn't have any clothes of my own to change into. I had to resort to wearing the borrowed clothes from the hospital once again.

If I was expected to be the acting Luna, I would need more than one outfit.

I brushed it off for now, noting it for later. As of right now, my stomach was demanding food, so I left my room, padding barefoot around the pack house and to the kitchen.

It was empty so I went to the fridge, finding several deli meats to make a hearty sandwich. As I was taking a seat at the kitchen island, I heard small footsteps quickly approaching.

I turned to the entrance, watching a young pup try to hide under the barstools. He was quite small, only looking to be about three or four. He must not have noticed me because his eyes were glued to the door he just came in from, barely holding back giggles.

He was most probably hiding from someone as he scooted backwards under the barstools, until he bumped into my legs and the barstool I sat at.

He jumped, letting out a squeak as he fell to the floor, knocking over the other empty barstools. His mouth hung open as he started up at me from the floor.

"Hey, you okay down there?" He only blinked up at me with his dark eyes, glancing across the room as if hoping he could run away.

"Do you need help getting up?" I stood up from my chair, moving the barstools away from him to give him some space. He sprung up, as if broken out of a trance.

"Mrs Luna, I am so sorry for disrupting you. Please forgive me," He looked down, as if waiting for some kind of punishment and it only made me frown.

"What's your name?" I asked.

"Vincent," He murmured, still looking down and bracing himself.

"It's alright Vincent, you didn't do anything wrong. Just maybe watch where you're going so you don't hurt yourself yeah?" He peeked up at me, still tense, as if unsure if I was being sincere or not. I paused, deciding to change the topic.

"Are you hungry Vincent?" He didn't respond immediately, his lips pursed, but he eventually gave me the tiniest nod. I grabbed one of the slices of my sandwich, handing it over to him.

He stared at it, seemingly debating if he should take it or not.

"It has chicken and turkey in it."

That seemed to be all the convincing he needed because he took it gingerly, sniffing it before taking the smallest bites out of it. I took a bite of my own and for a while, we just chewed in silence. Until I heard more small footsteps run across the hall and into the kitchen, that it.

"Found you Vincent!" Two kids, similar in age as the boy in front of me came in to the kitchen running, skidding to a halt and gaping at me. It took them a second before they both ran back out of the kitchen, both calling out for their mother.

"Looks like you didn't win hide and seek Vincent. Sorry about distracting you with the sandwich," I chuckled at the boy who had crumbs all over his hands and face.

I handed him a napkin to wipe his face.

"It's okay. I was hungry anyways," He shrugged, talking around a mouthful food with puffy chipmunk cheeks. I laughed at him and helped wipe off all the crumbs from his face and shirt.

"Vincent! What are you doing?" A woman came in, her voice sounding alarmed as she addressed who I assumed to be her son. Her dark eyes looked up at me, looking fearful as she grabbed her son and pushed him behind her.

"Luna I apologise. It's my fault, my son didn't know what he was doing," She bowed her head and the display of submission was quite unsettling.

"It's okay. He didn't do anything, there's really nothing to apologise for," I assured her.

"It won't happen again, I promise you." She rushed, pushing her son out of the kitchen. Before I could even respond, they had both left the kitchen and I was left confused about the whole interaction.

This pack was incredibly strange.

I brushed it off, putting my plate in the sink and getting ready to head back to my room. As I moved towards the door however, I was intercepted by a short dark skinned woman smiling up at me.

"Luna, it is so wonderful to finally meet you! I'm Genevieve, Beta Female, your new personal advisor and friend," She spoke fast, having said it all in one breath. She held a hand out in front of her which I shook.

"Artemis," Was all I said.

"I'm here to make sure you're up to date with all the pack dynamics and events and settle into your role as Luna perfectly," She continued. "There is a formal pack dinner next week and we need to make sure you're ready to meet all the pack officials,"

"Before any of that, I need clothes," I gestured to my current attire, which didn't fit me well and she looked down at me.

"Of course! We need to go shopping immediately, how about now?"

"Yeah that's fine," I agreed.

"Great! Let's go."

I was a little unsure about the shorter woman at first, her cheery and bright disposition such a contrast to everyone I had met in this pack so far, with the exception of Apollo, who she explained was her older brother.

But she seemed to know what she was doing as she expertly lead me in and out of all the stores in the mall. We had gone as far as venturing into the nearest human city so it was quite busy and crowded, which wasn't something I was used to.

"And this is applied over foundation to define your bone structure,"

"You said they had to match my skin. This is way darker than my skin," I said, frowning at the stick of dark cosmetic.

"It's called contouring. It is supposed to be darker to create shadows that define your face," She explained patiently. I sighed, putting it down.

"I don't care for this, can we move on?" I pleaded.

We were currently at a makeup store and Gen had decided to explain to me all the different types of cosmetics. I was quite lost unfortunately and had grown bored quickly.

"Never mind, can you bag this all up please and we'll checkout." Gen smiled at the sales assistant.

Needless to say, I was more than exhausted by the time we got back home. I barely managed to put all my items away before I promptly fell asleep, calling it a much needed early night.