Finding Home

Chapter Twenty One-Nathan

"Okay wait, I have a question." Allen said as they all ate together in Nathan's office. After the intense morning they had yesterday the Doctor/Healer team came back and did some more tests. Paige had been reserved and quiet and Nathan was worried about her. Some of his fears were quieted after spending the morning with her, though they weren't gone entirely. Paige was becoming her old self again but part of it seemed forced. Like she wanted to be who she was when they were traveling but she couldn't  do it all the time. Sometimes he found her staring off into space with a sad look on her face. When he'd get her attention her smile would pop right back into place. He didn't know if it was intentional or a reflex when people spoke to her. It broke his heart.

"Okay shoot." She said, giving Allen a smile. Nathan had to hold back a growl. He knew it was nothing. He knew Allen was mated. He knew she was only being friendly. But none of that knowledge helped him control his emotion. He wanted her to be his and only his.

"You said you knew Nathan was a wolf. Like the whole time right?" She nodded, "How? You don't have the ability to scent the way we do, you can't mind-link, your vision isn't as good."

"You're really building myself esteem here coach."

"Coach?" Nathan asked, jealously creeping into his tone.

"He was trying to get me to give you a chance," Paige looked at him, "He said some psycho-babble shit and I asked if he was a life coach as well as a gamma." Nathan laughed and Patrick tried to hold back a smile. Patrick still wasn't comfortable with Paige. He saw her as a threat to Nathan and therefore a threat to the pack.

"I pity anyone who hires Allen as a life-coach. That's just begging the goddess for trouble." He turned to Patrick, "Do you remember that time he was convinced Katie Lexington was in love with you and tried to get you to ask her out."

"And when I did, she slapped me and told me never to speak to her again?" Patrick said. "Yes I remember. Last time I ever took his advice. Especially about love."

"Okay," Allen looked at Nathan, "One: that was just rude. Two" he looked at Patrick, "We were 15, how was I supposed to be able to tell looks of love from looks of contempt. Also I'm the only one of us who's mated so you can stick that where the sun don't shine. And three:" he turned back to Paige. "Can we get back to the original question?"

"Which was?" Paige said as she let out a chuckle.

"How did you know Nathan was a wolf when you met him in Sydney?"

"Oh." Her eyebrows rose fractionally before she contorted her expression into one of nonchalance. "I'm a super hero." She shrugged and looked back at her lunch, taking another bite. Allen rolled his eyes.

"Really? A super hero? You can't come up with anything more original?"

Paige laughed again as she finished chewing her bite. "I can't really explain it. It's almost like a sixth sense but enhanced by keen observation skills."

"Observation skills?" Patrick asked.

"My therapist said it's trauma-induced, but I think it's just from growing up in a wolf pack." She shifted in her seat. "There are subtle things a werewolf does that humans don't, thing's that you wouldn't notice if you hadn't grown up around them."

"What type of things?"

"Just different little things; your reaction to different scents, like when you smell something the rest of us can't, your nose flares a little bit more, eyes get shifty. Your human ears move slightly like an animals would. When I first entered the human world I thought I was going crazy. I would notice these things all the time but I could never understand why. It wasn't until I took a class on wolf-human relations that I realized what it was I was noticing."