Chapter 1

It all started with a contest. My favorite author was hosting it to market the release of her latest book. Naturally I took part but never in a million years did I think I would win. And it wasn’t just some small prize either. It was a signed hardcover version of her latest book as well as a personal note from the author- at least, that’s what it was supposed to be. I did not expect to wake up in the world of my favorite novel series.

“Paisley, wake up and get dressed! The alpha’s family is coming for lunch in an hour!” I groaned in response and wet my stinky dry mouth.

Did I mention that it happens to be a werewolf novel? A feel-good romance series where the main female lead is super submissive, the male lead is the alpha of his pack and there’s lots and lots of unnecessary drama?

I know, I know what you’re thinking- but hey, it’s a guilty pleasure of mine. I can’t help myself. Don’t judge me. We don’t pleasure shame here.

Alright, alright, moving on before I say anything else that sounds like a sexual innuendo.

“Coming m-mom!” I forced myself to shout back.

It’s been strange adjusting to this life for the last two weeks. I’ve been thrown into the body of a nineteen year old human who’s just a nameless extra in the books. Barely even mentioned in the latest book- the third in the series, and that’s only because my ‘father’ was one of the first humans who sided with the Alpha’s family when the werewolves decided to reveal themselves to the humans in the town to fight against an army of evil rogues trying to take over the pack. It's a convoluted plot. Don’t worry about it.

Before coming into this world, I was definitely not nineteen and it’s been quite a shock to act like someone’s child again. However, now that it's been two months I’ve started to get used to it.

I made my bed nice and neat once more before getting myself spruced up in excitement. Yes! This would be the first time I would be getting to see the male and female protagonists of the novel up close and in person! This would be a great chance to finally ask some questions I’ve been dying to know since I first read the books.

“Paisley! Come down here and help me get the potato salad ready!” My ‘mother’ shouted at me from the kitchen downstairs. I swore under my breath and ran down the stairs as fast as I could. A couple weeks ago when the woman asked me to help make pancakes with her and I ignored it, she made me clean the entire oven with just a metal wire sponge and some soap. I shivered internally at the thought of what she’d do if I didn’t help out with something this important.

I reached the kitchen island and immediately took over mixing the ingredients for her. The middle aged woman smiled in satisfaction and moved onto another task. “Glad you decided to join us. These past two weeks you’ve really been slacking off but I’m glad you’ve gotten out of your funk now.” She raised a brow.

I nodded and stayed on task, keeping my eyes low. The woman had some scary intuition and it’s been quite the task trying to keep her suspicious gaze off my back. Can you imagine if I told her that I wasn’t actually her daughter but someone from another world who just possessed her body? You can see why I’ve been avoiding her suspicion now, can’t you?

It wasn’t long when my ‘father’ joined us from his office. My father, as a reward for his loyalty, was made the pack’s accountant. He’s in charge of the whole town’s expenses and distribution of funds and what not. Trust me, it’s as boring as it sounds but he likes it, I guess. He’s never told me otherwise.

Not long after that, the doorbell rang. With an excited gasp, my mother practically skipped to the door and welcomed in the four people I’ve been dreaming about meeting for years.

Alpha Damian Lockwood had his signature broody expression that was reserved for the entire world except his mate. His tall muscled figure made him look like he was taking steroids or something else unfair to the rest of the world. But what stood out above all else was his deep jagged scar that started on his right cheek and trailed down to the edge of his jaw. It was given to him by his own father in a tragically abusive backstory only a male lead would have, one that took four entire chapters of the first book just to cover. By the end of the latest book, he’s now thirty-one, married to the female protagonist and the proud father of their two children.

Beside him was the angelic Luna with a face that could stop a parade from passing by. Not only did Grace Lockwood have angelic, blonde, slightly wavy hair, and flawless skin- she had big, beautiful, round, blue eyes. In all honesty, her features made her look several years younger than her twenty-six years of age but she pulled off a sense of maturity in the form of wisdom in her gaze that made you feel at peace in her presence.

Held close to her chest was the oldest of the two children- Dax, the four year old terror. He was a miniature version of his father and clung to his mother with a permanent scowl on his face. Future heart breaker, that one.

However, beside him- hugging her father’s pant leg was little Lucy, just shy of three years. She was shy in everything in all honesty, especially in her voice. The poor girl was practically mute and it certainly didn’t help that her father scared away anyone who so much as looked at her either.

“Alpha and Luna Lockwood, how wonderful for you to join us! Please, come in! Come in!” Mother ushered the highest ranking family of the pack into our home and herded them towards the dining room table (a place we never eat at) all the while chatting up Luna Grace and her son. My father greeted the Alpha with a firm handshake, and a look of mutual respect passed between the two males as they traveled with the group to the dining room. Only shy little Lucy remained hidden in the closed doorway, hands clasped together tightly and face red with anxiety.

Luckily, as an avid reader of this series I knew exactly what was going on. 

“Hey, your name is Lucy right?” I asked politely- even though I knew for a fact her name is Lucy. The shy dark haired girl with blue eyes winced before looking up at me and nodded. I smiled apologetically and continued, “My name’s Paisley. It’s pretty noisy in here, isn’t it?” I smiled softly. Lucy looked around cautiously before subtly nodding. I slowly placed my hands over her ears. “It’s not so loud anymore, right?” I smiled.

Lucy blinked in realization at my words before she smiled up at me with her tiny crooked grin and giggled.

“Sometimes when it's all too much, you have to focus and drown out the noise.” The words I spoke were stolen from a Superman comic but the message still rang true. 

Lucy was the child of prophecy that a mage foreshadowed in the author's latest book. As a consequence, her powers were heightened- which included all five of her senses, particularly her ears. 

“Let’s go meet up with the others.” I smiled and held out my hand to her which she eagerly took. We walked hand in hand down the hall following the sound of laughter as Luna Grace eagerly responded to one of my mother’s jokes. Upon entering the room however, all chatter stopped as the entire group stared at the both of us with unreadable expressions.

“What were you doing with my daughter?” A gruff and accusing voice boomed from across the table. My eyes snapped up from Lucy’s, who was smiling at me to the dark gaze of an angry alpha.

Geez- I know he’s just being an overprotective father but did he have to accuse me right off the bat? He made it seem like I was planning something nefarious rather than just leading his daughter back to the group. Talk about overkill.

“Nothing? Her ears are pretty sensitive so I just thought-”

“How do you know she has sensitive ears?” Luna Grace interrupted with a curious glint in her sparkling blue eyes.

I cursed in my head. I couldn’t very well tell them that I knew she was the child of prophecy. They’d ask too many questions and knowing the Alpha, I’d probably be tortured for being a spy.

“I didn’t know for sure- I just assumed.” Sweat dripped down the back of my neck. “She acted like the noise was hurting her ears so I helped her breathe through it. That’s all.” I wrung my hands together in nervousness, a habit I’ve had since my childhood days in my world. My mother watched closely. Lucy grabbed my hand and tugged a couple times to get my attention before smiling up at me.

“Thank you, Pay-lee.” Lucy’s timid voice barely reached my ears and instantly, my nervousness faded. I crouched down to Lucy’s eye level and placed my hand on the crown of her hair, smiling back.

“Absolutely Lucy. You let me know if you need anything else, okay?”

She nodded and hugged me. “Sit by me?” She asked. I nodded and stood back up, taking her hand in mine.

If everyone looked shocked before, they looked beyond dumbfounded now. Was it really that odd to see Paisley talking with a little kid?

Luna Grace broke the silence by smiling and walking towards us before bending down and saying, “Well it looks like someone made a new friend.” She winked at me before standing upright. “Now I don’t know about you, but that casserole is smelling extremely wonderful right about now and if I don’t feed the little wolf inside me, I think they just might get angry.”

“You’re pregnant?!” My mother and I said and gasped at the same time. We all slowly made our way to sitting at the table while Luna Grace just chuckled and nodded.

Not only was this news to this world, but this was news to me as well! At the end of the latest book, Grace was most certainly not pregnant, and the Alpha was told by the doctors having more children would be unattainable because he-

“It was a surprise to all of us! The moon goddess smiles down on us it seems.” Luna blushed. My mother started tearing up and hugged her, congratulating her. My father gave his to the Alpha as well.

My eyes slowly drifted to the Alpha. His gaze remained unchanged, still hardened to oblivion- but even he softened ever so slightly in pure love. A knot in my stomach loosened at his joy. I must have over-thought it.

Dinner came and went smoothly, my thoughts distracted by my new little buddy with the gorgeous blue eyes copying my every move. Lucy told me all about her favorite things to do and what she learned at preschool recently. It made for good conversation.

“I don’t think I’ve ever seen Lucy take to a stranger that well since Carter and even he can just barely get a smile out of her.” Luna Grace commented as she sipped her water, smiling contentedly at Lucy who shyly hid her face.

“Speaking of Beta Carter, how is his training going?” My father asked. My fork froze halfway to my mouth.

Beta Carter.

During the war against the rogues in the latest book, Carter Lockwood, the younger cousin to Damian Lockwood, childhood best friend to Luna Grace, and heart stopping second male lead was the favorite of almost every reader to the series. When I say there’s more fanfare out there of Carter Lockwood than for the actual book series, I am not exaggerating. He blows up werewolf fan-fiction forums, there’s hundreds of fan-art depictions of him, and some even created media reels on online platforms. Some are pretty panty dropping, if I’m being honest.

"Beta Carter?” I asked hesitantly, trying to appear as if I didn’t know he was recently pronounced as Beta because of his brilliant strategy tactics that practically ended the war against the rogues. My heart started thrumming in nervous excitement. It hadn’t hit me before but, how cool would it be if I got to see what he actually looked like instead of trying to imagine him from the romantic descriptions in the books and fan-art?

“Yes, that’s correct. He displayed an astounding amount of bravery and sacrifice for the pack during the war. For his efforts, he’s been promoted to the pack’s Beta and has been undergoing training with the Redwood pack for the last three months.” Alpha Damian spoke in a professional tone as he sipped his wine. His son beside him, trying to mimic his mannerisms with his juice.

“He’s almost finished and will be coming home tomorrow!” Luna Grace beamed with her perfectly straight angelic smile. A gentle beam of light seemed to just radiate behind her with that smile. It was one that made me almost sigh in contentment. That is- till I processed what she said.

My drink practically spat out of my mouth from my accidental inhalation. “That’s good news!” My father cheered while patting my back as I hacked out my lungs. The rest of the table peered curiously at me.

“Sorry, wrong pipe.” I rasped out in between coughs. The rest of the group nodded and went back to their conversation but my brain was running wildly rampant.

One more day.