I felt aware of the surroundings around me as my sleep drifted away. Right, I was sleeping on Lyla's couch, I thought as I opened my eyes.

My body was stiff with pain coursing through me as I moved my injured parts to assess their condition. Better than yesterday for sure, I thought. 

I looked around and took in the decor. The clustered space was decorated sparsely with potted plants, herbs and a few handmade articles. 

It gave peaceful vibes and indicated that the person in charge of all this was gentle and peaceful. I doubted my judgement now after seeing Lyla's ferocity. 

But that wasn't something I disliked again. Every alpha was supposed to have that in them. And if you were leading a pack, it was supposed to be second nature for you to be able to switch over to your commanding voice, your alpha voice. 

My suspicions about her true nature got confirmed as I slowly walked towards the window and saw the ruckus outside. 

The pups were playing around and one of them jumped onto Lyla who was in her human form. She gave out a hearty laugh as she pushed them away playfully. 

I stared at her, baffled at how pretty her smile was. This being the first time I had gotten the chance to see it. 

I wonder what it would take for her to smile at me like that, I thought in the back of my head. 

Immediately I frowned at myself and shook my thoughts away. What was I even thinking? I needed to get back as soon as possible. Yes, that was my top priority.

The laughter outside died down and I saw them all looking at me, now that they had sensed my presence. 

The smile on Lyla's face was no more as she looked up at me, reminding me of the entire situation with the questions yesterday. Why did she react like that when I told her about the shifters in my pack? I pondered with a frown. 

...

It was around lunch and I was looking at her in disbelief. " How do you not have a phone? " I asked. She looked at me, clearly annoyed, " Not everyone has the need to own a phone. " She said as she tried to focus on her food. 

Since we obviously did not have any handy pockets in our fur, we only used the landlines at home and so I had asked her if I could make a call to my packmates and tell them that I was fine. And it was her response that she didn't have one that made me blink in confusion.

" How do you maintain your house then, if you have to get something fixed? Or when you go to work, how do you call someone? " I rambled off, shooting questions from the top of my head.

There was a lot about this pack that bugged me. And even the simple things were weird here.

" I fix everything on my own. And as for work I... " She hesitated like she was afraid she was telling me too much. 

" I work as a teacher and I only do work when I'm there. If there's anything I need to inform them, I go down to the town and tell them. " She said as she played around with her food with a frown, her eyes never leaving the plate. 

She must have taken a week's leave then, I thought as I got reminded that she had never left the pack's side ever since I had gotten here. Or maybe she did for the first few days when I was knocked out.

" What about your family? How do you call them? " I asked casually as I continued eating. 

I assumed that her pack had divisions. Some others that I had encountered did that, the ones that preferred staying with the other humans often split the pack but maintained communication. 

That was the only feasible conclusion I arrived at when I first saw that Lyla was the only shifter in the pack. She couldn't possibly be the only one. 

Her eyes immediately darkened as she stopped chewing her food and looked up at me. Realising that I hit a sore spot, I watched her face as I tried to read her emotions. 

Looking straight into her eyes, I saw the mixture of sadness, anger and pain take over, even though she tried to remain calm. 

With a deep breath, she looked away and out of the window. I followed her pained gaze outside, where the rest of the wolves were. 

" They... are my only family. " She said.