Kiara walked down the stairs Saturday morning to find Matt sitting with their uncles and Misha at the breakfast table.

"You are up!" He grinned through a mouthful of whatever food he was gulping down "Get dressed. We need to leave in fifteen minutes"

"Leave where?" she looked down at her t-shirt and pajama bottoms before looking back at Matt. He did look freshly showered and semi-casually dressed.

"Dad's office. You promised to help. Remember?"

"Today?" she raised a brow "We just spoke last n.....evening. I thought..."

"The sooner we begin. The better. We have so much to do together"

"Have some breakfast, Kia" Henry sighed, rolling his eyes at his nephew "Then you can help him with whatever he is up to"

"I made pancakes" Misha declared.

"They are delicious" Matt nodded with another mouthful.

"Really?" Kiara walked to the table and sat beside Jasper "I wouldn't know. She never made us any before"

Jasper snickered from next to her as Misha huffed "I was busy with school. I have some time now. Auntie Jane has volunteered to teach me"

"That's good, Misha" Jasper smiled "I'm so glad you are mingling with the family. We thought you will find Bluewood awfully boring"

"Which is okay" Matt assured Misha hurriedly "Bluewood is a small boring town and you don't have to force yourself to bond with the family if you don't want to. Enjoy your vacation" Kiara could only stare at him dumbfounded.

"Oh, it's no trouble" Misha said "I love Bluewood and I like spending time with auntie Jane. In fact, she is taking me to visit her workplace today. She said she only has a few paperworks to do and then we could tour that place"

"You are going to the Hospital?" Matt's asked sharply.

"Yeah! After lunch actually"

"Maybe Kiara and I could accompany you" he offered

"I thought we were going to work" Kiara narrowed her eyes. The guy was getting more and more suspicious.

"But we are free after lunch"

"We are?"

"Yeah! We aren't going to work all day. It's Saturday"

"I thought you have a lot to do to conquer the world and the galaxy eventually" she challenged.

"Ha ha" he replied "You make me laugh" with a straight face "But seriously, we can take a break after lunch and then continue with our research if you want. Now, excuse me, I need to make a call"

"If I want" Kiara gritted out as soon as he was out of sight "It doesn't seem like anyone gets a lot of what they want with his highness around. I'll go get dressed to do as that little brat says"

"Kia" Henry followed her as she climbed the stairs "Look, I know the way he behaves gets irritating sometimes. Alphas have this tendency to take charge of every situation they are in. It's in their nature" they stopped at her door. "It gets better with age and stability, I promise"

"Well I sure hope it does. Or the people of Bluewood are in for a nightmare. What's his deal with Misha anyway?"

Henry sighed "He just wants to protect her just like you do"

"Yeah! She's my sister. What's she to him?"

"His sister or someone he considers one" Kiara looked at him disbelieving just as realization struck him "Oh! you think.....No, he's not interested in her that way. She's not his mate"

"And that means I can be a hundred percent sure that the possessiveness he showed downstairs is not romantically motivated?"

"Never towards Misha, I promise"

"That's a relief. Thanks for clarifying that. I'll go get dressed"

That makes him even crazier in Kiara's books but she didn't want to tell Henry that. Love makes young men do stupid things, that's normal. But if there's a different reason for Matt's behavior, Kiara would have to be careful.

"Also, Kia" Henry stopped her "Thank you for helping us. Dan told me of your plans and this would mean so much to Jas"

"Does uncle Jasper know?"

"Not yet. I don't want to raise his hopes only for Dan to quash it. He didn't seem very enthusiastic about it. He only told me because Matt needs to take a few days off work to sort this out. And Dan wants me to reject his leave application"

"Oh my God! He's evil" Kiara's eyes widened "What did you say?"

"I told him where he can shove his opinion in. And of course I gave Matt the leave he needs even though it means more work for Jason and I"

"Poor Jason" Kiara nodded before adding "And you of course"

"Yeah! it's been hard since mom retired" Henry said "But Matt's temporary anyways. So we need to make do without him"

"So Jason's gonna run the business and Matt get's the town" Kiara noted.

"Jason and Flynn, when he's done with college, I hope. That kid has no ambition. But I will drag him into this if I have to. All of Ethan's kids are in the medicine business so I am kind of short staffed here until Rose and Lily grow up"

"Aww!" she reached out to hug Henry but could only reach around his middle so she made do with that "Or when you get one of those tiny furry puppies for yourself. You could put bow ties around them and take them to work with you"

"Kiara, are you really imagining your future cousins as little furry puppies with bowties?"

"Ummm....yes" she moved away with an embarrassed smile.

"Okay! I need to talk to Jas right now. I can't get the image out of my head. We need to bring home little pups we can dress up in party suits and bow ties" He grinned walking away.

__

"So, where do we start?" Matt dragged the first word unhurriedly as he placed a hot cup of coffee next to Kiara. He took the seat opposite to her.

The Alpha office was empty except for the three guards stationed at the entrance. Matt showed Kiara around, pointing out the empty cabins and cubicles. Kiara could only recognize Dan and Ethan from the names Matt pointed out. He then took her downstairs to the archive so they could look up the old laws and traditions followed since the beginning of human-werewolf interaction.

"We start with the laws that are effective presently. And then get the historical perspective. Combine them with the modern challenges and come up with an airtight argument"

"Sounds like a win" Matt grinned walking up to the rows of files lined up against the walls chronologically. Kiara's eyes widened when he reached the year that read 1930 "Don't worry. Everything here was digitized during grandpa's time" He pulled a heavy looking file and then a binded book that could knock Kiara out in a single blow and brought them to the table they were sharing.

"That's not what I am worried about. No Alpha since 1930 thought about improving their relationship with their human neighbors?"

"Well, grandpa told me the other day that he tried but his beta told him that he should leave all the issues relating to humans to the future Alphas and only think about wolves"

"That's rude"

"No, that was actually really good advice if you know my grandpa's history" he hesitated "My grandpa...."

"You don't have to tell me if it's a family thing"

"Everyone in the werewolf world knows about it. Nothing stays a secret in our world. So I might as well tell you before someone else does" He smiled tightly "Let me give you a brief history of Bluewood and its resident leaders to begin with. This will, I suppose in a certain manner, help you understand the land and its laws better.

Weres have existed alongside humans and other creatures since the evolution of the planet. No matter how much they tell you about the eternal love of a demigod of the forest and a human princess giving birth to the first were-creature under the protection of the Moon Goddess, I don't believe that happened. It was evolution.

Weres make up about one percent of the population if you group us with the humans...."

"You keep saying things like that, making me think you don't consider yourself human" Kiara interrupted.

"It will be unfair to both humans and us to club us with humans. We have our similarities but we also have our differences. We are stronger and faster. They are more adaptable and intelligent. We look similar on the outside, we love and laugh similarly. Although my dad would argue that our love is better than theirs because ours is forever....."

"What about you? Do you agree with your father?"

"I hope a human loves with as much intensity as we do. Who wouldn't hope for their mate to love them as much as they do?"

"Oh!"

"Yeah!"

"Well, watching uncle Jasper and Henry must make you happy then" she smiled kindly.

"Very much" he nodded, smiling back.

"Go on"

"Okay! So, in conclusion, I do think we are something similar to humans but also something different. We have treaties with human governments but they are very basic at ground level. They don't encroach our territories, we don't encroach theirs. Although with businesses blooming between us, the interactions have increased. Which we definitely don't like but endure as a necessary evil.

Now, Bluewood in particular didn't have much need to interact with the humans. We have a pretty broad border separating us from humans. There are wolftowns living very close to human establishments, not us, our ancestors made sure that there remain enough constraints for the humans to try and overcome.

My ancestors, up until my great grandparents, saw no need to increase our interactions. My grandpa though..." he huffed "He had different ideas. He got fascinated with humans when he went off to college. He spoke of the constraints of being a wolf, of the loss of free will. He didn't want to be controlled by an animal, didn't want to be told by fate who to love. Needless to say, he fell in love with a human of his own 'free will'" he airquoted the last words.

Kiara was invested. She was rooting for Matt's grandpa's love story even though Matt sounded anything but happy about it.

"It was a scandal. It would have been a bigger one had everyone not assumed that grandpa's mate was already dead. Spoiler alert, she wasn't. She popped up on the day of his engagement" He chuckled.

"Can you just get to how it ended? I can't deal with this car crash that's about to happen. Did he choose the one he loved or the one popping out of nowhere?" Kiara winched.

"Well, he was stubborn. He stuck to the one he thought he loved...."

"Thought?"

"She wasn't his mate" Matt shrugged, like it was obvious.

"Yeah but he chose to love her"

"He forced himself to love the idea of free will. He wanted to set an example. He wanted to prove that wolves could love outside the mating bond. He actively pursued her because he had a point to prove"

"You can't help who you fall in love with" Kiara argued.

"To force yourself to love someone else when you know that your perfect love is waiting for you somewhere out there. You should stop yourself from giving in to such temptations"

"So, you are agreeing with your father. You too think that werewolves love is better than human love"

"No. I am saying that werewolf love is for werewolves and human love is for humans. I love to the extremes of my kind of love, you love to the extremes of yours. Both different, both equal. To know what you are is to know your limits. When you know your limits, respect your boundaries, you live a happy life"

Kiara nodded "I can see your point but I think more like your grandpa. If I am to love someone, I wouldn't want fate or even other people pulling the strings of my love story"

"Even if it's better than anything you could have without fate? Even if it's perfect for you?"

"If I didn't choose it consciously, how is it perfect for me? Have you ever considered it? What makes the one that fate has chosen for you perfect? You didn't even compare your temperaments, nor your love for adventures. How do you know they are perfect if you didn't even see what other options you have?"

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To Be Continued.....

Hate to leave it here but the conversation is a long one. Happy reading:))