I'm finally home!

Although I couldn't say no to Cathy's request to sleep with her tonight, the tiredness on my face was noticed by Abbey. She refused Cathy's request for me and took me to the room on the far right of the corridor on the third floor.

This was the room I lived in before I got married. It was a 10-meter square room with a bed placed against one wall, and the opposite was a floor-to-ceiling bay window. I liked to sit there when I'm bored, as I could pick up a book to read or study. Sometimes, I would love to enjoy the warmth of the sun showering my body, looking out the window and saying hello to the passersby.

Next to the bay window was a desk, which was full of gadgets I put on before I left. There was a lamp in the shape of a cherry tree, a pen holder in the shape of a villa, and a group photo of the family. The books on the table were still neatly arranged according to my needs. There were even a few more crystal balls with their perspective holder.

"These crystal balls were bought by your father at the market that day." Abbey stroked my long hair as before and said in a loving voice, "He said you always like to collect some cute accessories. When you come back, you can take it with you if you like it."

I used to hope to had a home that was entirely my own, and I was looking forward to it after I got married.

But it was only now that I realized that I had a home. I didn't realize it before as it had been blinded by my inner prejudice.

Aaron, Abbey, Moore and Cathy, they were my family! We were a family!

I was moved to tears.

"Thank you, Abbey, I thought when I got married..." I wouldn't be part of the family anymore.

But obviously, there was always room for me in this home.

Abbey gently wiped my tears, "We'll always be there with you."

For a split second, I wanted to tell her the grievances I had suffered on Hale's side. I couldn't control my sadness and wanted to fall into her arms and cry.

At this moment, Cathy's loud voice came from the stairwell, "Irene!! Come down and eat! It's dinner time!"

"Cathy!" Moore's annoying voice sounded after, "The whole pack can hear your voice even if you didn't transform to your werewolf form!"

"Boohoo! By the way, I'm going to sit next to Irene later!"

"Sorry but no sorry as Irene is going to sit with me! She was close to me!"

"Not you, me!"

The bickering downstairs kept going along with Aaron's shushing sound mixed in between, but it was useless. The sound had moved from downstairs to the courtyard. Through the bay window, Cathy could be seen chading Moore all over the courtyard, just like before.

"Your soon to be Alpha brother was still childish." Abbey was ill-at-ease by her children's playfulness, but her eyes were full of love.

I suddenly realized that this was a warm and happy reunion and that I shouldn't bring up unhappy things to make them sad.

"Irene?" Abbey called my name, "Did you just want to say something?"

"No." I shook my head quickly, trying to forget those things and convince myself to just enjoy the moment.

In any case, I had now left that place and come to my family.

"Then let's go down to eat."

Abbey was so understanding, which was why I loved her so much. She was the mood reader of the family who always stopped the conversation at the right time, which made us feel at ease. This lets the others feel comfortable too.

I was most grateful to her.

The table at the kitchen was already full of various delicacies, such as ceviche, charcoal-grilled pork trotters, smoked steak, Italian pasta and more, all of which I love to eat.

Even though I was the one who cooked at Hale's side, the smell of the kitchen fumes made me lose my appetite every time.

It had been a long time since I sat quietly at the table and waited for someone to cook for me.

What's more, Aaron cooks by himself. The pack was busy enough for him to run, which meant he managed to find time to cook for me.

My eyes started to get wet again.

But I didn't want to be too provocative to ruin the mood. I quietly wiped the tears from the corners of my eyes and raised the biggest smile. When I saw Aaron holding a bowl of mushroom soup, I wanted to take over when Aaron stopped me.

"No!" When Aaron raised his face, he was dignified, "This soup is too hot, it is dangerous for you to hold."

"That's right!" Moore ran up beside me and took over the hot mushroom soup and placed it on the table in one rush. His fingers were burnt to red, but Moore showed no sign of painfulness. Instead, he showed me his five fingers.

"Look! Isn't it hot!"

Like before, I took his hand and blew twice on the scalded area, "Is this not so hot?"

Moore let out a cute laugh.

Cathy rolled her eyes from the side, "Hmph, hypocritical."

Seeing that they were about to quarrel again, I had to stop it, "Let's start eating."

Abbey followed my words too, "We should. Enough, both of you."

The atmosphere at the dinner table was the same as before. Cathy, who talked a lot, talked about the interesting things about the pack when I was away. For example, the boy next door wanted to show her his adult physique, but he tore his clothes when he turned into a werewolf. When he went back, he was beaten by his mother; Or, her good friend Amy who lived in the east seems to had a boyfriend, and she was ignored by her recently; Or recently, Cathy wanted to learn to draw and was pestering Abbey to sign her up for a drawing class.

Moore laughed at her as always when it came to this, but this time Cathy decided to ignore him because of my presence, and keep joking with me.

We all laughed when we saw Cathy's smug smile.

After dinner, Abbey insisted on letting me rest on the side, but I wanted to stay and clean up the dishes, so she gave up and went to the kitchen with the bowls.

Aaron walked up to me at this point he was eyeing me throughout dinner time.

Although I put up a good act, I was afraid I still couldn't hide my true self from him.

"Irene." Now he finally found the opportunity to ask me, "You seem to had lost a lot of weight."

"Is it?" I deliberately pretended to be natural, and nipped a little flesh on my arm, "I weighed it before I set off, turns out I gained two pounds!"

"How was your time at the Gemini pack? Are you  used to it?"

Look how wise the Alpha of the Cancer pack was. He asked questions so well. I've been married for two years I should get used to it, but he was questioning me as if it was the first day of my marriage, and his tone was full of distress and reluctance.

I didn't dare to look at him, so I could only secretly wipe out my tears before they fell out by holding a plate to cover, "Of course, the environment over there is not much different from here."

"Then why didn't Hale come with you?" Aaron's tone dropped a few degrees when it came to the point, obviously dissatisfied with Hale.

But I didn't want him to find out about my stressful life, and I didn't want him to be unhappy with my mate.

"He wanted to come, but there's been an art exhibition going on recently, and he's too busy to deal with it. By the way, he did ask me to bring you some of the paintings he painted by himself, but... I'm sorry Aaron, I forgot. I went to bed late and forgot to bring it."

Honestly, I felt very nervous when I made up the lie, and I kept clutching the corner of my clothes, trying to calm my rapid heartbeat.

Aaron looked at me silently for a long time, his poker face made me confused whether he believed my poor acting skills, but finally, he stopped questioning me.

"If you're not happy there, remember to tell me as I won't let anyone bully you." He said.

With tears in my eyes, I nodded vigorously.

Moore suddenly came in and grabbed my hand and ran out, "Irene, come on, let's have a wolf race!"

"Hey, no intense exercise after dinner! Rest awhile first!"

Aaron shouted from the back, but the kids were excited and didn't care what the elders said. Moore dragged me to the forest, and Cathy was already waiting there.

It was night time when the sky was already dark, and the cold moonlight shone through the gaps in the leaves and showering the avenue which was covered with golden fallen leaves, like a layer of silver light, and the breeze passed through the forest, making people feel comfortable.

But Moore wasn't impressed by the scenery.

He drew a white line on the ground and said, "Let's start here and see who runs to the birch tree on the edge of the canyon five kilometres away first!"

"Sister, I beat him in the last wolf race!" Cathy raised her chin and said proudly.

"That doesn't count! I was sick that day though! I won't lose to you this time!"

This was a game we played when we were young. When the werewolf inside us was not awaHaleed, we ran in human form. After the werewolves awaHaleed in their respective bodies, we transformed into them and played with them as a sort of bonding activity.

So much so that when Moore mentions it, Editha throbbed inside of me.

"Wow! It's been a long time since I ran happily in the woods! I want to play too!"

As soon as she finished speaking, I saw my hands begin to grow slender claws, my bones started to displace, and my body began to lengthen.

Moore immediately called out from the side, "Sister fouled! She wanted to sneak away."

He immediately got down on the ground and arched his back. His eyes turned red in an instant, letting out a long howl under the night sky.

Cathy completed her transformation in the blink of an eye and was ready to go.

I did the countdown, "3, 2..."

At the moment when I shouted "1", three wolf shadows were like an arrow shot into the sky, so fast that even the shadow was like an afterimage, and the alarming leaves swirled in the air, accusing the rudeness of these werewolves.

The surrounding scenery seemed to had accelerated a thousand times and kept moving backwards. All I could hear was the whirring of the wind and the constant howling of Editha because she was too excited.

Five kilometres distance was as short as 500 meters distance for a werewolf to go, which made me couldn't fully enjoy the thrill of the gallop.

We all stopped by the canyon after the run. Moore and Cathy were arguing about who was the first. I looked at the endless canyon in front of me. The moonlight fell below. Knowing how deep the canyon is, I shouted down, listening to the echo swaying and reverberating.

This was the voice of freedom.

Werewolves should live in the vast land, running between the trees and basking in the comfort of the wind, where the moonlight brought by the Statue of Liberty, instead of being confined to the small grocery store, doing handicrafts and worrying about their livelihood.

Once again I would like to thank the Goddess of the Moon for her love and relief from my breathless life.

Even if it was only for a while, I was completely healed.

On the way back, Moore and Cathy were too tired to argue anymore. When we got home and Abbey saw the three of us were dirty, she felt distressed and helpless and quickly drove us to take a shower.

I took a long-lost flower bath, sat in front of my desk and wiped my hair, remembering the funny things from the past, and couldn't help but smile. When I inadvertently glanced at the phone screen, the smile stiffened.

It showed that Hale had called me over twenty calls.

Thanks to the Moon Goddess for not letting me bring my phone, so as not to spoil the good mood just now.