chapter 2

It had been an entire 10 days since the meeting with Azarious, Dante and the rest had been completely thrown into work,

taking extra measures and precautions to make sure there were no loopholes in the contract they had been given, the deal was good,

too good to be true as Abel commented, there were no taking chances with celestial beings, they were very competent in their dealings and they weren't taking their chances.

'i agree, he's been terribly stressed and is always agitated,' Sophia mumbled, doing a fishtail braid for Athena who sat in front of her on the floor,

'Gabriel already had a problem with the patrol situation towards the east border it seems like it's all piling up really,' James commented, sipping on his tea,

Venus sighed, the last week and a half had been such hap hazard for all of them, no one was free, everyone had to run around and do one thing or the other, she missed Dante terribly and just wished this entire situation got solved quickly,

'mum is so distraught over dad these days, she's worried he'll work himself to his grave,' Athena whispered to Grace who sat beside her on the floor while she painted her nails,

'damn do you think we'll be like them too one day?' grace whispered, as they both looked at their uncle James who was completely zoned out, the cup of tea in his hands long forgotten, then to Venus who had a pretty frown on her face as she tapped away on her phone,

no doubt another pack matter, she was the luna after all, and then they both craned their neck up to look at Sophia who was humming while finishing up Athena's braid,

'god forbid,' Athena mumbled, and earned a swat to her head from her aunt Sophia,

'i heard that,' she said, and grace giggled who also earned herself a swat to the head,

'ow mom, what did I do?' grace asked frowning, rubbing her head

'oh nothing as of right now but you probably deserved it anyways,' Sophia said, and grace rolled her eyes,

'Venus can you pass me the tissues,' James asked which earned him a glare from the luna,

'James I swear if you spilled tea again on my sofa I will wring your neck,' she threatened, as James gasped dramatically,

'What on earth makes you think I did?'

'because last time, you sat in the EXACT same spot and spilled tea all over my new sofa and you had the audacity to ask me for TISSUES to clean up a TEA STAIN,' Venus whisper yelled, glaring at her best friend,

'goodness relax it's not like its a Versace couch anyways,' James dismissed with a wave of his hand which earned him a scoff followed by an 'unbelievable' from Venus,

while Sophia and the girls watched the entire words-play with amusement, giggling to themselves.

2 in the morning and Athena was tossing and turning, sleep refused to come, but that was nothing new for her as the past week she had trouble sleeping and her lycan Sage had been on edge, she'd been restless and extremely cranky as well, she'd shift at least twice a day to go for a run but that didn't comfort sage either, it was very unlike her to act this way, she made a mental note to ask her dad first thing in the morning if this was normal and what was causing her lycan such unrest.

After another hour of restlessness, with a groan Athena threw off her covers and grabbed her shoes to go out for a run, she opened the doors to her balcony and looked out at the night sky, the moon was full and there was a soft breeze,

the perfect weather for a run Athena thought, since she was a lycan she had double the strength of a normal werewolf, being cautious to not make any noises she jumped over the balcony and landed in the grass with a soft thud, smiling she looked back at the house and then got up to make her way towards the forest.

Their pack territory was huge, they were the biggest and the most well equipped and that was all because her father worked day and night along with his loyal accomplices to make sure everything was in order, always.

Athena shifted after a little jog into the woods and started her run, jumping through fallen logs and running at full speed, the wind brushing past her soft light brown fur gave her a thrill, like she had nothing but the night ahead of her.

Stopping by a little waterfall area she discovered a few years ago she stretched and dipped her paws in it, just as she was about to dip her snout in she heard rustling in the bushes on her right,

her ears perked up and she bent down, slowly crawling towards the place she heard the noise from, just when she was about to take a leap something jumped right in her direction, startled she fell back and quickly scurried up to get at the intruder only to find a little baby rabbit scratching itself behind the ear,

cooing at it but it sounded more like a growl since she was in her lycan form, she scared off the bunny, huffing in annoyance she turned and finally made her way back home where she tiredly got into bed and finally drifted off to sleep.

The next morning Athena got out of bed and went to freshen up, remembering she had to ask her dad about the sage, she went down and straight into the kitchen hoping for some warm pancakes but instead was horrified at the sight she found, shrieking loudly she covered her eyes and turned around.

Behind her a beet root Venus quickly got off the counter and fixed her blouse and stared at a grinning Dante whose hair was tousled and suspiciously the front two buttons of his shirt were messily opened, Athena wanted to throw up,

'damn it rooms exist for a reason,' Athena growled, earning her a laugh from her father followed by a slapping sound, no doubt her mother swatting her dad and telling him to behave,

'you can turn around love,' Venus said, and after a little hesitation Athena turned around, eyes still covered, slowly she peeked an eye open through two fingers, seeing the sight was clear she heaved a sigh of relief and sat on the counter chairs,

after a few minutes, her mom slid a warm plate of pancakes in front of her and she dug right in, a while later a neatly dressed Abel walked down followed by a sleepy Corbin who made a beeline for the fridge and went straight for the left over pizza from last night,

Venus gave both her boys a kiss on the cheek and snatched the pizza from Corbin who started immediately whining,

'young man, you are NOT to have any more junk food am I clear?' Venus said sternly,

'About damn time,' Dante mumbled, taking a sip from his coffee,

while a sulking Corbin got presented a fresh plate of warm eggs and toast with some juice to have, the kid lived off bad food, he seemed like an addict stealing snacks 1 at night from the pantry.

Abel munched on his bacon while Dante sipped on his coffee reading something on his phone as he absently rubbed Venus's waist as she discussed some missing homework with Corbin his teacher called her about.

'dad I wanted to ask you something about sage,' Athena started, finishing the last of her breakfast, as Dante hummed in reply,

'i don't know but it's been a few days she's been really restless I guess, on edge and before u ask me about shifting I shift at least twice a day now,

I barely get any sleep either these days, I'm really not sure am I doing something wrong or...' she trailed off,

this had Dantes full attention, the last time his lycan felt this way was when he was at a very dark time in his life when he almost lost Venus, but why was his daughters lycan acting this way? he thought, was she going through something?

'maybe something is bothering you,' Abel piped in,

'no-no I thought about that too but it's nothing really, just uni work what else would I stress about it's nothing new,' Athena said,

'that's very odd,' Venus commented,

'I'll talk to elder Braham and ask him,' Dante said, getting up to give Venus a deep kiss which had all three kids dramatically making ewww, and gagging sounds.

rolling his eyes at his kids he picked up his phone and paper to go kiss Corbin on the forehead and then Athena, as Abel made way to his mother and kissed her on the cheek and left stealing a pancake, as both father and son walked out ready for business.