Daniel Lawrence, the Alpha who tricked James

I opened the door and saw a man around my age with black hair and an impressive physique. This was Daniel Lawrence, the Alpha that had tricked James. I didn't know much more about him, but since he'd save us, I wouldn't have care dif he turned out to be apart of some cannibalistic cult.

"Hey there, Finn," Daniel greeted me. "I wanted to see how you and your family were doing."

"Hey, Daniel," I replied, trying not to sound as shaken as I still felt. "Everyone's still trying to adjust." Daniel nodded in understanding.

"And how are you doing?" he asked, staring at me intently.

"I'm... okay," I replied with a shaky smile. Daniel nodded again even though he clearly wasn't convinced.

"That's good; your family is going to need someone to stay strong and keep them together. And on that subject, do you think you can take a trip to my house with me? There something we have to discuss." Daniel said this as if it was a friendly suggestion, but his eyes made it clear that this wasn't an option. I didn't like being silently strong-armed into a stranger's house, but Daniel had been going out of his way to help my family settle in, so I wanted to give him the benefit of the doubt until proven wrong.

"Sure thing, I'll be right out." Daniel nodded once more, and I closed the door. After making sure that Monica would look after mom and Florence, I left with Daniel. Our new home was in a small cul-de-sac on the edge of Commodus Fields. It was meant to be private and luxurious; the six houses were basically modest-sized mansions with soundproof walls and tinted windows. I couldn't help but wonder what James did to get us in such a nice place, and I almost didn't want to know. But seeing as how I was in charge of my family's wellbeing, I'd have to look into it later. While the two of us walked to Daniel's house, he told me about the other families that lived on the block.

The Carters were the largest, with nine members living in one house, and he spent the most time filling me in on them. The first patriarch of the family took two wives and had two kids with each: three strong-willed girls and one moronic boy. To make matters more complicated, the two older sisters decided to get married to women rather than men, meaning their new families didn't have an Alpha. Their marriage choices caused a small controversy, but it was ultimately decided that as long as the wives were put under the authority of their brides' Alpha, then it really didn't matter that much. This was the catalyst that pushed the Beta marriage rights that Commodus Fields was famous for. The current Alpha was friendly enough, but he was so pampered that his Alpha title was more honorific than anything since his female relatives took care of everything.

The Sadlers were more or less in the same boat. They had a kind and caring Alpha, but he was well known as a mega-pervert with sex on the brain 24/7. The father was no help, he left the family to pursue his dreams of being a scientist when his son turned 18. Rather than try to curb his behavior, his mother and sister set him up with a total of three wives for him to direct his urges onto them so that they could take care of the family.

The Taylors were the smallest family around. A basic family of an Alpha, his mother-turned-wife, and their daughter. They came here after escaping an abusive father and have been living here happily ever since.

The Griffins were also a pretty standard OZ family, according to Daniel; a family of four with two parents and two kids, one son and one daughter. The son graduated from the police academy and had taken as the family Alpha from his retired father.

Finally, Daniel told me all about his family, the Lawrences. Apparently, Daniel's interest in my family, and James in particular, was due to his father being a similar sort of monster. Kimball Lawrence didn't care about the responsibility of being an Alpha; all he cared about was his own pleasure. He claimed one sister to be his breeding **** while another was **** to sleep with different men to give Kimball more toys to play with. He'd almost feminized Daniel to keep him from becoming an Alpha, but Daniel was able to expose him to the Alpha Council and get his status stripped away. Now he was the Alpha and he took care of the family.

"We're the same, you and me," Daniel said after he told his story. "We're related to crazy people, and we have to deal with the fallout of their antics. I've been down the road your traveling on, and I think I know how to make it easier on you." We reached the Lawrence family home and Daniel ushered me inside.