I wake up to the sun's rays burning my face through the curtains.
As I gain consciousness, clattering and movement can be heard and as the waft of food hits my nostrils, I realise what's happening.
Breakfast.
I groan into the pillow before throwing the duvet from my body. My body rolls itself out of bed and I wobble a few steps toward the bathroom before gaining enough control over my body to freshen up.
A knock on the door makes me slightly jump as I finish pulling a shirt over my head.
"Heard you're awake," Xavion's voice states from the other side of the door.
I pull the door open with a smile and greet him with a "Good morning to you too."
He chuckles under his breath and continues to wish me a good morning. "Yes, good morning. Do you want to come down for breakfast?"
"Give me one sec," I hold my hand up before grabbing a pair of shoes and sliding into them.
I nod my head to indicate I'm ready and Xavion takes my hand into his own as he gently starts leading me down the stairs. As we reach the bottom, I spot the usual group moving around.
"Good morning!" Tasia is the first to greet me as we round the corner into the kitchen. She leaves Jay's side, leaving him with the eggs alone, to grab my empty hand and lead me to a seat.
After Xavion let my hand go, his distinctive absence catches me off guard and I can't help but look at him in confusion.
He seems to catch on somehow and retakes the spot next to me as Tasia takes a step back after seeing Xavion personally guide me to a seat.
"Had a good night's sleep?" Imelda slides into the seat on the other side of me while asking.
"Very good, actually," I honestly confess and she replies with a smile. More people take a seat while some of them are carrying a plate full of food to place on the table.
Everyone immediately digs in as soon as the last person takes their seat and before I can reach over to the toast, Xavion has already grabbed the plate and presented it to me.
"Thanks," I whisper while smiling and take two slices.
Taking the butter and jam that's luckily in front of me, I spread it on the toast before taking my first bite.
"Who's joining me for a morning run?" Royce's voice amplifies over the chattering of everyone, making the table go silent.
"I'll go," Jay simply replies first.
"Please," Finian also keeps his reply simple and a few others agree as well.
"I'll join since it's been a while," Xavion calmly gives his answer and the rest of the table turns to look at him.
I unconsciously follow.
"Great," Royce exclaims and I hear him clap his hands together in excitement.
Xavion turns to look at me just before I redirect my attention back to my breakfast.
"Then why don't you join Tasia and meet the pups? It's her turn anyway," Imelda looks directly at me while talking. Assuming that she is talking about the pack's children, I think it over for a second.
"Why not?" I admit and Imelda smiles as Tasia starts joining in the conversation about the children.
I feel a hand brush against my elbow and trail down my arm, making me drop my hand below the table. Xavion's hand clasps mine and a small smile creeps onto my face as I continue eating. His thumb rubbing slightly against my own.
I relish in the warmth of the conversations starting up again as everyone grabs seconds and thirds except for me.
"I wanna see the wolves," I whisper to Xavion after I noticed his questioning look when I walked out of the house.
"You sure? I don't want them to scare you, especially Koray," he whispers back and I give him a questioning look in return.
I've already met Koray.
"It's complicated," Xavion sighs and I can see the worry in his eyes.
I lift my hand to shield my mouth from the onlooking crowd and whisper, "Alright, I'll keep a distance."
Xavion nods with a slight leading look, so I take that as my queue to leave and take a step back and wave.
"See you in a bit," I greet him before turning around and walking towards the porch.
I keep myself rooted to the spot on the porch as the large group of people disappear into the treeline and return as wolves. I can't help but stare in awe as they file in formation and start jogging away. Each and every wolf is unique in terms of colour and size, but Koray stands out with his pitch-black coat and large physique.
"You're drooling," Tasia's teasing voice interrupts my sightseeing and I turn to look at her with a sheepish look.
"I haven't seen anything like it before," I respond, referring to the wolves moving in formation.
"Fair enough," Tasia starts with a smile on her face. "But we have to get you to the nursery before the pups start breakfast."
"Where is the nursery?" I ask out of genuine curiosity. There are a lot of cabins scattered around, some of them further away from the largest one than others.
"It's that building over there," she points to a cabin looking exactly the same as most others, only a tad bit bigger.
After making sure I know where she was pointing, Tasia hops down from the porch without taking the stairs and I run down the three steps to stay close to her. Her strides are long so I have to pick up a light jog to make sure I don't fall behind.
Even though I can see the house clearly, with everyone in the pack already up and about makes it difficult to keep walking on the footpath. I have to step aside into the wild grass every so often for a person or a group. The uneven grass makes me lose my balance and I have to regain my centre before catching up to Tasia again.
She manoeuvres through the morning rush with ease while I stay a few steps behind and we eventually arrive at our destination.
Tasia eyes me with a smirk after turning around, clearly amused by my human speed and my out-of-breath state.
"We're here," she announces while throwing her arms in the air for dramatic effect.
"Great," I respond with a smile and before I can ask what happens next, the front door flies open with great force. I'm surprised the door hasn't fallen off the hinges while I flinch at the sound of the door hitting the wall.
"You're late," an older woman with three grey hairs scowls at Tasia with her arms crossed.
"I brought the Lu- the Alpha's mate to help out with the pups," Tasia gestures to me behind her and recognition overtakes anger on the woman's face. I glance at Tasia, catching that she wanted to call me something else, but leave it for the time being to greet the lady still standing in the doorway.
"Oh, you must be the human," the lady scuffles closer to me and looks me up and down, assessing me for some reason.
"Margaret, that's-" Tasia starts but gets cut off by, I'm assuming, Margaret shushing her and waving her off.
Her eyes don't leave me for a second and she suddenly claps her hands together.
"Call me Maggie. Nice to meet you, sweetie. Come on," Maggie grabs my arm before I can give her my own name and drags me into the house.
She doesn't bother slowing down in front of the children and continues dragging me down a hallway and into a kitchen. She releases my arm and immediately dives into the cabinets before pulling out a crate of plates.
"Here, you can set the table up so long," she instructs while dumping all the plastic plates into my arms.
Maggie looks overly excited at the fact that there is an extra helping hand and urges me out of the kitchen with a bright smile on her face.
I turn around to ask exactly where she wants me to set the plates up, but she is already torso deep in the pantry, rummaging with noise.
"I see you already got plating duty," Tasia's voice makes me jump and I almost let the crate slip from my grip.
"Yeah, uhm, do you know where I should plate these? She didn't exactly specify," I admit sheepishly.
"She never does. Right here next to the kitchen," Tasia gives me a knowing smirk before leading the way.
"Thanks," I thank her while readjusting the crate in my arms, silently begging to put this thing down.