Twenty Six year old Blake Hunter is the Alpha of the largest pack in the region. Finding his mate is the last thing on his mind.
But, in the midst of dealing with uninvited relations, aspiring future Lunas and increasing rogue attacks on his easter...
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The next few days passed by in a blur of activity, and Blake spent as many seconds as he could spare by Hannah's side. When he was with her, his preoccupation was all consuming, and he could barely remember a time in his life when he had been more happy. When duty called him away, he felt his wolf's need to be close to her constantly, and there were many occasions where he found himself drifting away from the task at hand to seek her out.
It didn't help that everyone around him watched his heightened restlessness with open amusement, the pack-link constantly alive with a steady hum of gossip, all centred around the Alpha and his new Luna-to-be.
But he couldn't help himself. He found himself fretting constantly... Was she happy? Were the pack making her feel welcome? Was she pushing herself too much? Had she eaten yet? A thousand inconsequential worries rolled around his head, impeding his ability to concentrate on anything for very long.
Jeramiah had been right. After surviving for days on little food and less sleep, Hannah had been running on fumes. Her involuntary shift and the calories burned during her time as a wolf had simply pushed her system over the edge. Food, fluids and twelve hours of uninterrupted sleep had fixed the majority of her problems. But not all of them. Her wolf, and her memories remained mostly absent.
“It's not like before,” Hannah reassured her mate. “I can feel her now. I just can't talk to her. It's like I'm feeling two sets of emotions at once – hers and mine.”
“What is she feeling now?”
Hannah thought a moment. “Relief mainly. It must have been very frightening to be alone for so long.”
“For you too.”
“Yes, but that was different.” She frowned, struggling to put the complicated emotions into words. “I didn't know who I was, or what I was missing. She did.”
It was Doc who finally solved the mystery surrounding her wolf's sudden reappearance. Deep in his grief, he continued to perform his duties in his usual stoic manner, tending to the injured Blackridge warriors, and chasing away the hypochondriacs that came in search of gossip.
It was with some difficulty that Hannah had related the events surrounding Jenni's death, carefully distorting the truth to reveal only that they had faced a rogue, and Jenni had saved Hannah's life, losing her own in the process.
When retelling the full story later to Blake, she left nothing out. Even the knowledge that her silence had allowed Simon to steal the weapon that almost killed Marcus. But still she pleaded with Blake to keep it between themselves and allow Doc to grieve in peace.
“What good will it do?” she asked him. “Except to further wound a man who's already lost his daughter, and forever taint his memories of her. She’s dead. Let everyone assume the letters came from the rogues, and let her rest.”
During her last visit, Doc had a confession for them both. “Your uncle came to me to discuss your condition. He asked many questions about your memory and the likelihood of its return. Indeed he went to great lengths to reveal how inconvenient it was that you didn't remember your mate.”
