Beauty and the Were~Beast

Settling In

"WHAT IS SHE DOING HERE?!" Brett bellowed, his voice echoing through the manors halls. Lillium Rose stood imapassively off to the side watching as the Alpha laid into his Beta and Gamma.

"She is your mate." The Beta stated factually. She was still trying to wrap her brain around being the mate of a werewolf but put her issues on the back burner in order to help her friends. If being here and playing house with the beast meant she could help this pack, then she would do it. She was not particularly brave, but having grown up around the pack there were a few assurances that she could rely on. One being that noone, unless they wanted to suffer, would ever harm their own mate. The second thing, under no circumstances would her mate allow any harm to come to her. As the mate of the Alpha, she theoretically, was the safest member of the pack.

"What? How?..." His voice trailed off and his eyes lost focus as he thought about what they said. You could almost see the gears turning in his head. He clearly already knew all the answers he wanted but was facing an ironclad case of denial.

"Well, you could always reject her." Gamma Lewis answered far to cheerfully. He clearly was enjoying pushing his Alphas buttons. How he managed to get away with it alluded her. His survival mystified her even more when the Alpha Brett turned the full force of his anger filled gaze on him.

"I gave you a direct order not to say anything." He said softly. It was not the warm kind of soft spoken, but the sinister, send chills up and down your spine soft. At least it woud have if Rose did not find herself curiously unaffected by his mood.

"Not to be disrespectful Alpha, but your orders were not to say anything to the Beta, not your mate." Bretts face froze in shock, but only momentarily before he whipped around to face Beta Callan.

"My orders were no humans on pack territory, why did you let him go against my orders?" His demands were met with an unreadable expression on his Betas side.

"Alpha, I can not possibly talk him out of something that he was forbidden to tell me about." Bretts' face was turning red. He was clearly frustrated to the point where he was no longer seeing reason. Now he was acting like an entitled *ss. This is why he needed a Luna. He needed someone that would temper his extremes and protect his pack from him if necessary.

"That and you can not banish your mate. At least, not until you reject her." Esther stated as she walked into the room, followed by another female. From the look Lewis had on his face, she must be his mate, Felice.

"You're here to?!" Brett yelled. "What is this? Mutiny?"

"More like an intervention." Esther replied, even though his last question was strictly rhetorical.

"That is not what I am asking! How did you get past all the patrols? How are you here without the guards trying to drag you out!" Rose could see how this would confuse him. An Alphas orders were absolute in a pack. Seeing that she alone was able to defy and nullify every order he gave, was slowly making her realize the power she weilded over him, over the pack. The full weight of what that meant bore down on her. The well being of the entire pack was literally resting on her shoulders and her ability to make their Alpha see reason. That was all the proof she needed to act boldly. Bold for her at least.

"Because I am your mate. At least I am until you reject me and I accept. In the mean time, I have been given a room. Esther is my guest and will continue to be until I see fit to dismiss her.' She turned to Esther. 'Esther, you said there was a library here? Care to show it to me?"

Esthers face broke out into a large, satisfied smile as she nodded and gestured towards the door. "Right this way.... LU-NA."

She emphasized, LUNA, to make a point. The last they saw of Alpha Brett was him standing there jaw flapping open like a fish, speechless. They were only hafway down the hall when they heard glass shattering. This would either be a long, tiring climb to success, or a very short and unpleasant visit. Preferably she would succeed, if only for the sake of her friend. Succeeding would present a conundrum for her. Did she want to be his mate? She did not know much about Alpha Brett, but he certainly had a short temper.

Walking through the halls behind Esther provided her with a moment to really look around. She had never seen the inside of the Pack house before. She did not know what to expect but if she had to guess, it would not have been this. The floors were tile, the walls were painted conservative colors, and even the art on the walls were reserved. Overall, she thought the place lacked personality. Then again, she was on the floor that was open to the entire pack. Perhaps that was the reason everything was so neutral.

"Here we are." Esther declared as she opened a glass door to a surpisingly modern looking library.

"Wow. It's so... clean." Esther burst out laughing at my comment.

"The Alpha does value education quite a bit. So he had it renovated a few years ago. Even before he took over the pack he would make improvements around the territory." I nodded and stepped inside. The gray carpeting muffled any sound our feet would have made. On the other end of the library there were tall, two story, floor to ceiling windows. Outside them a few workers were applying something to the glass.

"What are they doing?" I asked Esther.

"They are applying a UV filter, to prevent fading and some other stuff." I watched for a few minutes longer. Motion in the corner of my eye caught my attention. A woman pushing a book cart was carefully placing books back on the shelf. She looked up at me curiously, saw that Esther was with me and her expression changed from curious to confused.

"Beta Esther?" She asked.

"Hello Grace." Grace abandoned her cart and walked over to us.

"How?" She stood with one hand on her hip and the other in her brown hair.

"Well, that is a long story, but the short version is Rose here." Esther gestured towards me. Which just confused poor Grace even more when she realized I was human. I felt odd telling her I was the Alphas mate, but Esther took care of that for me.

"The Alpha can ban humans from the territory, but his mate, doesn't have to follow his orders." Graces blue eyes turned wide as saucers as she stared slack jawed.

"We have a Luna?" She whispered in disbelief. Then the gravity of the situation hit her as she slapped her hands over her mouth to contain a fit of laughter. "He has a human mate... Oh, this is perfect. Mysterious ways...."

"Do you have a section for Pack Laws?" I asked, desperate for her to change topic.

"We do." She bowed slightly. "This way Luna."

I wanted to object but Esther gave me a look. So, I kept quiet and followed Grace between the stacks of books. The shelves were wood and the books were well kept. Each binding was facing out proudly displaying their library stickers. I couldn't help but run an appreciative finger along their spines as we passed through them.

"You don't seem to have any visitors in the library today." The library was noticably empty.

"Other than those who work or live in the Manor, have been avoiding this place altogether recently." She explained. Esther and I exchanged a look.

"And here we are." She walked straight to a section and started running her hands along the shelf as she read the titles off quietly to herself until stopping at one in particular.

"I recommend starting with this one." The book she held out had the title 'Introduction to Pack Law' on the cover.

"We'll set her account up later, for now, can you just put it under my name?" Esther asked.

"Of course Beta." Grace walked back to the main area of the library with book in hand. She stepped behind the counter and fussed around with the computer mouse trying to wake it up. A few clicks, a scan and a stamp later, the book was handed to me.

"Do you want to read it here? Or do you want to see your rooms now?" Esther asked. "Either way, until I know the Alpha won't command me away, I am staying with you. Just in case."

"Rooms?"

"Yes. The guest rooms are more like guest suites, mini apartments or long term stay hotels."

"This place has everything, doesn't it?" Esther nodded.

"It even has a movie theater, bowling alley, two smaller gyms and one main training gym, a cafeteria, A few Ballrooms, countless offices and conference rooms... the list goes on." At a loss for words I just shook my head.

"Lets see the rooms then."

"This way...Luna." Esther chuckled as she added Luna. Shaking my head I followed her. We went to a side hall that had elevators, making me feel like I was indeed in a fancy hotel or specialized vacation resort. She pressed 6 and up we went. When we reached the desired floor the doors opened silently. It was strange to me that there was no tell tale 'ding' when the elevator reached the 6th floor and opened up.

"I feel like this IS a hotel and not a home." I muttered, not sure if I was actually looking for an answer. Esther chose to remain quiet. On this level the halls were carpeted and not tiled. There were a few people milling about. A couple of maids and a maintenance man. They all stopped and nodded to Esther and said 'Beta' with respectful tones. I could feel their eyes boring holes into my back as we continued down the hall. They could smell that I was human and were probably just as confused as their Alpha as to how we managed to be here.

"This must be it. The door is propped open and the keys are on the entry table." Esther walked in without hesitation. Following her I took a hard look around. She was not kidding when she said they were more like apartments. The entry door opened into a Foyer with a table and a coat closet. Straight ahead was a common area or living room, kitchen and dining area. To the left was a set of french doors and to the right was a small hall with three doors. I was more curious about the view. Like the library, the main room had floor to ceiling windows. From this angle you could see the wooded mountain area that was a part of the pack territory. I do not know how long I stood there, but at some point a maid returned with a cart filled with household supplies such as shampoos, soaps, paper towels, snacks, drinks and a lot of groceries to stockpile in the fridge. Right behind her a butler entered with another cart with food that smelled amazing. Without a word he set the table, bowed and left. The maid finished with the kitchen and grabbed the bathroom supplies and swung the french doors open.

The master suite boasted a large king size bed, two night stands, an armoire, a dresser, a television and an ensuite master bath with both a shower and seperate soaking tub. The bed was made with clean white sheets and blanket. It was very much like a high end hotel you would see in the movies.

"I will be staying in one of the other bedrooms on the other side." Esther startled me. I did not hear her walk up behind me. I turned and saw she had the door open to one of the other rooms.

"Esther? are you in here?" Beta Callans voice came from the entrance.

"In here!" She replied. Beta Callan walked in carrying my bag and set it down on the bed.

"Sophie?" Callan called and the maid stepped out of the bathroom.

"I was just finishing up in here Beta." She bowed slightly.

"I need to stay on call here. use the third bedroom. Make sure my mate and Alpha Bretts mate.... Don't need anything." The maids eyes widened in shock as she stared at me.

"My apologies Luna." She spoke so fast she almost stuttered as she bowed low enough to touch her toes if she had the mind to.

"You're fine. Just call me Rose." I stopped her before she could protest. "I insist."

"Yes Miss Rose." I could tell she was already torn by not being allowed to call me Luna so I let her address me as Miss, for now.

"Sophie, go get what you will need to stay in the guestroom and send someone up to take her measurements." Callan gestured towards me as he gave her intructions.

"I don't need more clothes." He put his hand up to stop me. Sophie bowed out of the room and left the apartment.

"You do. You did not pack nearly enough. We have no idea how long this will take or if it will even work. What if he doesn't talk to you for a month or more?" A month or more? I really did not think this through. How long would it be before my father burned the house down trying to cook for himself? Would he choose to starve? Survive on take out?

"I won't let him ignore me. I will hunt him down and follow him until he talks to me if I have to." I didn't like being the bad guy, but if that is what it took to give Esther her family back, then I would do exactly that.

"I wish you luck in chasing a WEREWOLF around, but in the meantime, humor me." He kissed Esther on the cheek. "And I brought you some of your clothes as well. The boys want to stop buy for dinner tonight if that is okay with the two of you."

"Absolutely!" Esther and Callan both laughed at my enthusiasm.

"Very well. Dinner it is then. We will be here at 5." Callan kissed Esther on the cheek before heading back out to do what ever it is that Betas do.

"Well then, shall we unpack?" Esther asked with a huge smile on her face.