Dylan looked at the car he was sitting in, then at himself. The difference between him and the car was very obvious. The car was very clean and elegant while he was just not. Dylan was very embarrassed that he tried to make a move on the third-in-command of the pack. He wasn’t planning to, but the words just came out of his mouth.

‘Why did I ask her for her number, anyways?’ Dylan asked himself. ‘I don’t even have a phone.’ When he thought of that, he realized how sad his life was. Having a drunkard father, a careless sister, and a very sick mother was a nightmare. But even so, he was still grateful. He was very grateful that he still had one family member and they cared abouteach other. He was grateful that he met Betty and she helped him. Hopefully, his life would be better from then.

“Why the long face, Dylan?” The guy who was driving smiled at him and he couldn’t help but smile back. Dylan recognized him. He was the soon-to-be-alpha of the pack who owned the territory that he lived in. The realization that the alpha knew his name just made him grin wider.

“Hmm…Yup. You’re creepy,” he commented again, waking Dylan up from his thoughts. Normally, Dylan would snap at him, but he knew that he meant it in a joking manner, so he just shrugged.

“Sorry, just zoned out a little.” He wondered if he should call him “alpha,” but he wasn’t exactly a pack member, so he shook the thought away. He was just a human—a simple and normal human.

“No problem. So, I heard you tried to flirt with Betty?” Mason asked, grinning at Dylan when he just rolled his eyes, though his cheeks were aflushed. “Ooh! Dylan is blushing!” heteased. (No, Mason did not turn around to see Dylan’s reaction; he simply saw him from the rear-viewmirror. He couldn’t risk them an accident.)

“I’m blushing because I’m embarrassed that I did something really weird and very unlike me. Look, I don’t even know why I did that. I was going to the pack house to tell you about my situation, then I saw her, and then, boom! Words just came out of my mouth,” Dylan told him. He didn’t want to hear Mason’s teases and all.

“Okay, okay, no need to get angry,” Mason said.

And so the conversation was over and silence overcame them until Mason announced, “We’re here!”

Right when Mason unlocked the door, Dylan opened his door and hopped down. He closed the door as carefully as he could, because it wasn’t every day he got to ride a vehicle like that, and he hoped that if he acted nicely, they’d let him ride it again.

When Dylan saw the mansion in front of him, he was even more surprised. Yeah, he had seen it thousand times before, but the thought that he was going to live there—sleep, eat, or even get inside there—just made him feel like “whoa.” Who wouldn’t? Dylan was even still having trouble processing the things that happened over the last twelve hours inside his head.

He flirted with Betty. He explained to Betty. Betty bought him food. Betty told the soon-to-be-alpha. The soon-to-be-alpha agreed to let him live in the pack house.

He felt like he was going to faint. Everything was happening so fast. He didn’t even have any idea that Betty was the third-in-command. He blushed again, thinking about how lame his flatters were. ‘Ugh. I’m gonna puke if I keep thinking about that,’ he thought, trying to stop his mind from going back to the moment when he flirted with Betty.

The only thing he got was her name.

Well, at least he got her name.

“C’mon,” Mason said, pushing him gently from behind to get him inside the house. He was smiling because the poor guy really looked amazed like the house was some kind of amagic. Well, Mason understood him, though. It would feel like a dream come true if he was in his position.

“Hey, where’s my mother?” Dylan asked when he noticed that his mother had disappeared. He panicked a little, thinking, ‘What if this is a prank? What if this is just Betty trying to give me revenge, and all of this is just a prank? Oh, God, what if that food my mother ate was poisonous?’

“Calm down, Dylan. I told someone to bring her to her room. She needs rest,” Mason assured him. He didn’t want Dylan running away when he was helping him. No, he couldn’t let that happen.

Dylan sighed in relief and his expression really changed. Mason was probably just imagining things, but he swore he saw Dylan’s eye colour change.

Mason shook his head. “I’ll give you a tour.” He smiled, opening the door for the guy. “Ladies first,” he stated.

“What’s that supposed to mean?” Dylan looked offended. He was offended. Did he really look that bad that he looked like a girl?

“That supposed to be a joke, dear Dylan. Don’t take it too seriously. Now, come inside,” Mason told him.

They went inside and Mason showed him around. The living room, the bedrooms, the kitchen, the office—basically the most important rooms in the house. Then, they went to eat.

“So, where’s Betty?” Dylan inquired when they finished eating. He had been asking the same question for a while now, but Mason refused to answer as he ate. He didn’t even say a single word as they were eating.

Mason shrugged. “Probably taking care of some business. She did seem to be in a hurry when she left,” he replied. He gathered the dishes and brought them to the sink,washing them.

Again, Dylan watched in surprise.

“What is it this time?” Mason asked, feeling Dylan’s eyes on him. Mason was starting to get weirded out, though he couldn’t help but smile because the guy always looked so amazed every time Mason did something that seemed pretty normal.

“Nothing. I just thought that you had maids to do those stuffs for you. I mean, washing the clothes, cleaning the house, washing the dishes…” Dylan shrugged.

Mason chuckled. “Geez, Dylan. I’m an alpha, not a king. Please do notice the differences between us.”

“What are the differences?” Dylan asked after thinking for a while. He couldn’t seem to find a difference between the two. All this time, an alpha only seemed like a king in werewolf version.

“Kings are for the other creatures such as vampires and they only care about title, territory and treasure. Of course, some alphas also think like that, but good alphas always put the pack first,” Mason explained.

“And I’m assuming you’re saying that you’re one of those good alphas?” Dylan asked, raising an eyebrow.

“Ah, no. I’m not even an alpha yet. But I do know someone. He’s very amazing. He saved his family and most of the pack by risking his life. No one really died, but there were four people—including him—who were taken away by the evil people,” Mason said.

Dylan knew the story. It was known by everyone who lived in this territory. Even though it had been years, every once in a while, someone would somehow bring the topic up, and it would be the talk of the week again.

Mason hummed as he looked at his watch. “I need to go pick my sisters up. I’ll mindlink Betty to, I don’t know, accompany you or something,” he said.

Dylan quickly shook her head. “No, no. I’ll be fine alone. There are no restricted rooms here, right? I should be fine, then. Besides, you said that Betty needs to take care of some business,” he protested.

“Hmm. Well, I don’t want you to get lost. You don’t know how…tricky it could be travelling around the house alone.” Mason looked up.

Yes, when you came in, it seemed like the house was a modern and normal house, but when you looked up, you would notice the dim light in the ceiling. Then, you noticed the stairs and everything else. Finally, you could see that, in fact, the house was very big and there was a large library in the upper floor.

“I guess I just don’t want to be with her. It’s… embarrassing.” Dylan sighed to himself. He still wanted to punch himself because of his crazy actions.

“Hey, hey, it’s fine. It was just an…accident. It won’t get too awkward, I hope. And besides, I already mindlinked her.” Mason smiled sheepishly. Hearing this, Dylan could only sigh and shrug.

“Alright, I need to go,” he said, grabbing his keys. “Betty will arrive in about five minutes. Make yourself at home, because this will be your home for a long while. Oh, and—remember that we’re all family here.” Then, he disappeared from Dylan’s view as he closed the door.

Dylan wondered what Mason meant by the last sentence, but he just shrugged it off. He probably just said that out of randomness. Besides, he could never be families with them. They were werewolves; he was a human. They were rich; he was not. There were too many differences to be listed.

It seemed what Mason meant by five minutes were actually fifty-four seconds, because just as Dylan was about to turn around to grab some water, Betty slammed the door open and shouted a loud, “Hey!”

“Whoops. Sorry.” Betty chuckled sheepishly before noticing Dylan, and then her expression hardened. Noticing this, Dylan furrowed his eyebrows in confusion. He really wanted to ask, but he was scared to get slapped.

“Hey, Betty, um, I wanna say sorry for flirting with you earlier, because, um…I just wanna say sorry.” In the end, Dylan gave up and shrugged in defeat. The tension was overwhelming and even after he finished that lame apology, the air was still very awkward.

However, Dylan was a bit glad when he saw that Betty smiled softly. “Sure, whatever.”

Dylan smiled a bit, too. “Can we go upstairs to the library?” he asked. Betty just shrugged and started going up the stairs, leaving Dylan to follow after her.

When they reached the top, Dylan took a book that seemed interesting before sitting down. Betty sat down across from him—just watching him, but it seemed he looked confused rather than focused.

“Is something wrong?” Betty asked in concern. 'Was it too foggy? Was the heat too much for him?' she thought.

“Um, yeah, um, I can’t read,” Dylan admitted, blushing.

It took a while, of course. After all, it was surprising news. Betty had to replay it over and over again in her mind. ‘This guy can’t read?’ She managed to hold back her laugh.“Then why would you pick to go to the library?”

“Because I thought, you know, you could teach me how to read?” Dylan blushed again. He really wanted to—as usual—punch his own self right then and there. How did he always get embarrassed in front of Betty like this?

Betty gave a little laugh and for a moment Dylan thought she was cute. “Oh, sure. No problem.”

After a while, around two hours or so, Dylan finally noticed that Mason hadn’t arrived. So, he asked, “What’s taking Mason so long?”

Betty shrugged. “I don’t know. Probably went to McDonald’s or something. You tired?” she asked.

“Yeah, kinda.”

“Let’s grab some snacks, then.”

So they went downstairs to grab some Oreos, and Mason had numerous of those. Dylan was really surprised when Betty opened a cupboard full of only that same stuff.

Then, they went to the library again after done eating.

“So, Betty, I don’t mean to meddle in your business, but I noticed you looked a bit upset this afternoon. May I know why?” Dylan asked.

Betty raised her eyebrow. “And why would you think you have the right to ask me that question?”

“Firstly, I already said that I didn’t mean to meddle in your business. Secondly, Mason said that we’re all family here and as far as I know, family care about each other,” Dylan stated.

“That is in fact very true.” Betty nodded and sighed in defeat. Dylan didn’t expect that to work, but he did not know about the number one rule in the pack house. They were all family. 

“Well, you know how alpha Mason always sends out search groups to find his parents? I’m the one he always assign to ready those groups. But now I’m out of men because he said he wanted each group to have different members. I already told him I ran out of people, but he said it was okay and that it was almost school holidays, so he could search them by himself. I was fine. Then, beta Ron suddenly told him to stop searching, when he was the one who had been supporting alpha Mason all along. Everyone had been telling him to stop sending out those groups. That meant no one really supports alpha Mason, so I want to support him on this. I know how it feels, because my parents were taken, too. But how could I support him if I couldn’t find people to go find his parents?” 

“Wow. Such a long explanation. Well, I think you did your best. After all, there is so much you could do. You had been supporting him more than Ron as you were the one who had been taking care of the groups while Ron only agreed with his ideas. Actions speak louder than words, after all,” Dylan spoke.

Silence overcame them until Dylan inquired, “Hey, does the member have to be a werewolf?”