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 room was not large.
High windows stretched across one wall and solid-looking oak doors leading both to the wards and the waiting room. The centre of the room was filled by a single hospital bed used for most of the doctor's examinations. Wolves, blessed with advanced immune systems, very rarely got sick. Most minor injuries healed within hours of receiving them so, most visits to the consultation room were of a more serious nature.
Tucked into the corner was a small plastic armchair for worried relatives to perch, flanked by clever storage units that sat inside the walls themselves, maximising the available space. They were filled with all the medical supplies you'd need in an emergency. The chair had been occupied most of the morning by Jenni, Doc's daughter; her sharp, brown eyes never missing a thing that happened in her hospital. She was small for a wolf, with short hair, dyed a brilliant red.
She wasn't born to the Blackridge pack. Born a hundred miles south here, she’d grown up amongst some of the lowest-ranking wolves. When the rogue wars began her parents had been amongst the first to fall, leaving her to fend for herself. It had been assumed that she would take the rank of Omega when she shifted at sixteen, being so weak and placid in nature.
That may have been the end of her story if Doc hadn't visited one winter and been forced to stay longer than intended by a raging blizzard. He'd discovered that her sharp mind had an extraordinary aptitude for medicine and decided to adopt her and bring her back with him to study and train. She owed him everything.
As the afternoon grew old, she felt weariness drag at her eyes. She closed them a moment waiting for the ache to drain away, then lifted her book and forced herself to read some more. Before she had finished the page, she found herself looking at the sleeping girl again.
She hadn't moved, lying as still now as she had when the Alpha had carried her in several hours ago. Her strange scent filled the room but oddly, she found that the longer she was around it, the less it disturbed her wolf - becoming an unusual characteristic rather than a veiled threat.
Maybe she doesn't know she smells, her wolf suggested helpfully.
What?
You know, like that halito-whatsit...
Halitosis? A pause. You think her scent has bad breath?
Why not? It's as good an explanation as any right now.
Doc had chosen to keep the girl in the examination room until she woke up so he could be in close proximity if needed. He’d firmly declined the presence of a guard in the room despite the protests of every wolf in the waiting room. How he found the courage to defy such high-powered wolves, was a mystery Jenni had yet to explain. Though the small nurse did not share their concerns either, she kept an eye on her patient all the same, just in case.
She took another look at the girl lying in perfect stillness on the bed. The curls of her hair lay spread out across the pillow – a natural red unlike her own vibrant shade, and long, as though it rarely ever saw a pair of scissors. Jenni's own pixie cut suited her small frame.
