I honestly didn't know what the fuck I was doing. I didn't. I had been content to never again look at the little female that had been dumped at my feet. She was an unwanted burden, an unwanted order, from my Alpha. I didn't want to bring that sort of complication into my house.

And then that unbearable whelp of a male had come onto my territory and started ordering me around.

I might not have wanted her, I still didn't really want her, but my wolf was still a wolf and he was very territorial. The male was stepping on his territory and ordering him around as if his word was law over the little female. Despite everything, she had been given to us to do with what we wanted. We didn't like the other male barging in on that.

So we had ordered her inside, if to just get her away from the male who was showing far too much ownership over her. He wasn't her protector, he wasn't the head of the family. He had no ability to tell us what to do with her and Stenton had made it clear that neither he or her actual protector had any cares about how she was treated. So we sent her inside.

I wondered if that was just a fit of temporary insanity brought on by everything that had happened. I had been stressed, my head had pounded, and I had been agitated. I had dealt with the omegas barging into my house all week, touching things they had no business touching or cleaning, had Stenton ordering me around, barging in on me as well, and then had to deal with having an unwanted female dropped at my feet.

It was like my wolf had finally had enough of people interfering with his territory and ordered it all away. And as the little female was technically now our property, that meant bringing her inside where no one else could interfere with our territory and property. Unwanted property but property none-the-less.

To be fair the act of having her given away to me made no sense. You did that with useless property, things that had no value, things you deemed worthless. Especially when it came to females. However she was quiet, dutiful, and listened. All things that would have been lauded by members of the pack. Hell I had been surprised by her sensitivity towards Chrissie's things and asking me what she needed to avoid when it came to cleaning.

I hadn't expected that. It had been...nice to have someone acknowledge that Chrissie had lived with me, that her touches were all over the house.

I still didn't want her around and it still agitated me but less on her account and more in general. She was clearly a female who had more worth than what was given to her when she was dropped at my feet. Then again another part of me wondered if that was part of Stenton's plan. Give me a female who is clearly worth more than the worth she had been given to make me feel guilty so I would be more inclined to let her slowly take over the place that Chrissie still had an intense hold on.

I bared my teeth at the thought. A part of me said that the little female was not capable of that level of lie but another part of me knew Stenton would do whatever he wanted to get the outcome he wished. He wanted me to be fit for service for the pack and he would do whatever it took to get me there, even play mind games and manipulate the situation to his own gain.

I rubbed at my face, I didn't know what games and manipulation were being done around me but I was positive there was one going on. No protector would simply give a female away when it was clear she had intrinsic value and worth. She could clean, was calm, quiet, listened better than any male I had trained, and was mindful about duties and asking for duties to perform. I didn't fucking understand it. Sure, I knew that her colouring was a slight against her, something I knew Stenton wouldn't like. Mainly because it went against his 'pure-bred' bloodlines. I didn't give two shits if a shifter was white, brown, purple, or blue. As long as they were a functional member of the pack and did their duties to the best of their abilities, I couldn't care less what they looked like.

Besides, I had been a ranked member long enough to know that some of the lower ranks had a thing for the more 'exotic' looking females, especially when we were out of pack territory borders. It was apparently always more fun to go after what you didn't have often. I wondered about the male, William, who was her father. He had been a top warrior over twenty years ago, before my time as Master-At-Arms, clearly he must have taken a trip with the former Alpha to a Gathering or a Meeting of the Coalition, I didn't fucking know. But clearly he wanted a little bit of coffee mixed with his cream.

I frowned as I stared at the cleaned and perfectly wiped off coffee table that had previously had glasses and magazines and dirty plates strew across it the previous day. I just wondered why the hell the little female was in Sublatus and not with her mother. I couldn't even say when she could have arrived. I didn't particularly care about regular pack members and her father was down from his top position by the time I had become Master-At-Arms. I didn't interact with William at all, he was a non-entity.

I could hear her moving around in the spare bedroom. I had told her she could move her shit into it as I wasn't fucking using it anymore. I was no longer Master-At-Arms and I doubted I would ever take the position again. More than likely Stenton would have words to say to me about it but I was done, I knew I wouldn't be able to care about the position like I had previous. Things had changed for me when Chrissie died, something inside of me had broken and the only reason I was holding on at all was for Maeve.

"Sir," The word had me rubbing my forehead and wishing I had a bottle of whiskey. "Would you like some more advil?" The question was asked on a rather lilting but trembling voice and I exhaled heavily. I wanted her not be in my fucking house or under my protection but now that she was inside, my wolf, despite how agitated he was, didn't want her out where that stupid whelp of a male would bark at him more because of her.

"I want some fucking whiskey is what I want." I gritted it out and glanced over at her. Her skirt looked rumpled and so did her shirt. She had clearly slept in both but I figured that was to be expected, it wasn't like she had been tossed at me with anything but the clothes on her back. Her hands were clasped in front of her and I was once again thrown at just how much she looked like a fucking omega.

"I noticed-" She swallowed hard, her dark eyes darting away from me to the liquor cabinet and then to the floor. Fucking timid little thing. "I noticed you were out but you have some brandy, would...would you like that?" She looked uncomfortable as I turned my head to stare at her fully. She was so fucking small, so dainty.

Chrissie had been tall and elegant, nearly tall enough to look me in the eyes. Her form had been perfectly proportional, curving lines that ran in smooth strokes. This little female had to be no taller than five foot three, meaning my six foot six frame practically towered over her. Then she was waif thin and barely even half my width and that was with me not quite up to my previous shape.

Come to think about it, she was smaller than her brother by a fair amount and even William had been far taller and wider than her. "How the fuck are you William's get?" The words barked out of me and she jolted, her eyes zeroing on the floor as her face seemed to pale. She was the odd one out and I didn't fucking get it. "You don't even look like him." I muttered it out as I looked back at the coffee table. Her brother was fair haired with blue eyes and her father had a sandy type of hair with blue eyes, yet there she stood, dark hair, dark eyes and her honeyed oak coloured skin. The sore thumb, the one thing that wasn't like the others. I bet that went over well when she was growing up.

"I take after my-my mother." She faltered as she said it and I grunted. Made sense. I didn't know who the hell her mother was but clearly she had to be black or close to it going by her skin tone.

"Why are you even out here?" I glanced at her and she tightened her grip on her hands, her knuckles nearly turning white.

"I just..." I watched as she swallowed hard. She was obviously not comfortable talking to males or people in general for that matter. I never really remembered seeing her out but then again in this pack as a not fully white whelp, that made sense. Some people tended to think different colour was a disease.

"Spit it out." I couldn't help the edge my voice took. Chrissie had never been one to falter when she spoke. She was always brash and confident nearly to the point Stenton would call her disrespectful. I had loved that about her.

"The room is your office and I needed to know... to know what not to touch." Her voice was so low it was nearly a whisper it was so hard to hear.

"Why the fuck would I care?" I turned to look at her fully and she hunched her shoulders forward and I was once again reminded of a fucking omega and it struck me as odd. I pinched my lips together. I knew the omegas of the pack and she had never been one of them but the similarities were damn eerie.

"It is your home, sir. I don't want to interrupt you schedule more than I have." Her voice was nearly a silent whisper, just the moving of her mouth as she hunched her shoulders even further forward.

I narrowed my eyes at her words, "Schedule? What fucking schedule?" I got to my feet and I didn't miss how she flinched. That tiny tugging inside of me said to slow down and to take a deep breath and not scare the poor female more than she already was. She opened and closed her mouth but nothing came out of it. "I don't have my position anymore. It's been given to another so what fucking schedule?" My wolf and I wanted to pace, to work out the aggression but I knew we couldn't. We were stuck where we were for the moment.

"It's just... It's your office." Her voice cracked and I gave a harsh bark of unamused laughter.

"A pretty fucking useless one without a fucking position." It was just a reminder of how much time I had spent working when I could have been with my Chrissie. "I don't care about anything in that fucking office. Box it up and toss the shit out. I don't want to fucking look at it." I stared down at her and she just gave a small nod before she turned on her feet and scurried silently away. That tugging in my stomach chastised me for scaring her like I had. The fear was nearly pungent in the air and I rubbed at my face and pushed it away.

She was intruding in my life, I didn't have to be kind when dealing with that. I shook it off and headed for Maeve's room. It was bright and cheery and I could practically see Chrissie as she arranged the stuffed animals on the dresser, her belly big and round as she smiled at me over her shoulder. The memory was sharp with the aching pain it brought me as I moved over to the crib. Maeve was sleeping but I picked her up, shushing her softly as she fussed. I moved over to the rocking chair Chrissie had been so ecstatic over, she had sat in it and rocked her and her pregnant belly nearly daily as she read stories to Maeve so our daughter would know her voice by the time she came into the world.

I blinked rapidly as I sat down in it, holding Maeve to my chest. Maeve would never get to know the vibrant female who had loved her so much that she had inadvertently made a deal with Mene for her survival. She would never get to know the female I loved with my everything and my all. She would grow up without her mother, the bright and confident female I had been envied over by having her at my side.

Maeve would never get to know the mother she lost, that gave her very life for her to survive. I would keep Chrissie alive in memories but that wasn't enough. Maeve would never have her there as she grew, there would never be pictures of them both on the walls like Chrissie had talked about. They would never get to do the things Chrissie talked about because she was gone.

It was unfair.

So bitterly unfair.

I looked down at my daughter and pain lanced my chest as it did every time because Maeve looked just like her mother. I let out a stuttered breath before gently setting the rocking chair to rock. I would keep Chrissie alive as much as I possibly could so Maeve could know her.

It was all I could do.