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“You are always worrying about me,” she says.

“That’s because you work too much.”

“You’re one to talk.” She chuckles. She turns to me now. “I can’t wait for you to take over your pack,” she says. “Another reigning female alpha will make my work so much easier.”

“Come, let’s go and meet the others,” Marius says, taking her hand.

Celine agrees and leads us to a huge hall, which Liam and Annie have turned into an impressive ballroom for today. I see a lot of familiar faces… friends, acquaintances, and allies. There are many high-ranking members of different packs here, and I already know it will be quite a busy day, full of networking.

We bump into Finn and Freya, who are catching up with Liam and Annie. It’s so amazing to celebrate this with all my siblings. In a way, I can understand Mom’s overexcitement. We all chat for a while until Finn and Freya leave us to greet their friends, the future twin alphas of Emerald Moon. Finn’s gamma, Emmanuel, and his mate Matthew join them. Matthew is an old friend of the twins and seems happy to catch up with them.

After greeting each other, Annie takes Celine’s arm and gestures towards her human friend, Dave. He recently found a werewolf mate and joined her pack. “Look, Dave is here,” she says.

Celine gazes through the room curiously. “Oh, I am so happy he was able to join your pack.” She turns to look at Liam. “What did Alpha Elden say?”

“Not much,” Liam says. “He didn’t vote against me when I suggested Dave as an advisor for the Council.”

“He would never vote against you,” I say. Dad doesn’t like humans much due to his history with them, but he has learned to respect Dave for who he is, and he would never sabotage one of us in their work. This project was important to Liam, and bringing a human into the lycan council as an advisor was a challenging task he had at hand. Dad would have never worked against him.

“Oh, oh, oh!” Celine takes Annie’s hand. “Is that him? Dave’s mate?”

“Yes,” Annie exclaims, subtly gesturing towards a tall, bulky guy standing next to Dave with his arm around his waist.

“He is actually kinda cute,” Celine says with a chuckle.

“Hopefully not as cute as I am?” Marius wants to know.

Celine snorts, reaching out her hand to touch his neck. “Obviously, you are the cutest.”

“See, when I tell Liam he is cute, he always complains.” Annie laughs. “But he can’t help it. When he cradles my baby girls, it’s just the sweetest.”

Indeed, Liam narrows his eyes to glare. He is very similar to our father. Strong, tall, and a bit stern. He is a bit more stoic than Dad, though, and a tad bit more serious. Eye to eye with Annie, he faces no chance, and soon his annoyed expression melts away, and he smiles. He hugs her and kisses the top of her head. “I can’t help it either,” he says. “With my three beautiful girls surrounding me, I am putty in their hands.”

“Pity the girls are too small to celebrate with us,” I say. “Aunt Aurelia wants to see her nieces.”

Annie smiles. “There are way too many people for them. But you will see them for Christmas.”

“Awesome,” I say. “I hope you are aware that we all tried to outdo each other with our Christmas gifts for them?”

“She is right,” Marius snorts. “It’s going to be crazy. Better brace yourself.”

“So, none of you listened to our request not to overstimulate them,” Liam says. “I wish I could say I am surprised.”

“I bet it’s going to be similar with my family,” Annie says. “Someone else needs to get a baby soon.”

“Well, some of our siblings have found their mates,” Liam agrees. “Here’s hoping for some baby action soon.”

“Or maybe you can toss in a third,” Marius suggests.

“How about you do your part first?” Liam retorts.

Marius blinks innocently while Celine glares at her mate for even shifting the topic towards them. “I need a drink,” he says.

“I will help you.” I chuckle.

The rest of the night is as magical as I expected. I make sure to spend some time with my family and friends before Dad and Liam both take me along to meet some of their business partners and allied alphas. Finn mingles on his own as his pack is in a different part of the country. But, since Dad wants me to take over in a few years, it’s time the allied alphas get used to seeing me around. I am, in fact, enjoying socializing, having fun with meeting new people, and making new contacts. I know not all of them will be excited to deal with a female alpha, but I am a lycan princess, to my advantage, and with both Liam and Dad having my back, no one would even dare to make a shallow comment.

Eventually, though, I want them to let me stand up for myself. I hope Dad will let me handle some meetings on my own, in the future.