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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Time seemed to crawl.
The high, thin cloud had swept in again to hide the sun and a kind of leaden chill descended on the forest, engulfing the village with the ominous threat of winter. The heavy drops of rain had turned into a steady drizzle, soaking the village and turning the fallen leaves to sludge.
Out in the waiting room, Alex sat quietly in the corner chair on the far side of the room - his hands firmly clasped around the torn and battered map Marcus always carried with him.
Ophelia and Sophie sat by his side, the little girl dozing fitfully in her mother's arms. Ophelia stared sightlessly out of the window, her every sense focused on her mate in the other room.
Asher had been quickly transferred onto one of the wards where Sky and Sarah anxiously kept watch over his still figure. At Doc's insistence, the other party members had been dispersed to beds of their own, to be examined and patched up by the various nurses on duty.
Once the pack had been given the all clear, the rest of the wolves had drifted slowly out from their hiding places - a low murmur of speculation amongst them and cloak of fear following their journey home. Many gravitated towards the pack hospital equipped with a hundred minor but suddenly urgent ailments - their eyes furtively searching for a glimpse of the returned warriors.
Most were unceremoniously turned away, the nurses expertly diverting the would-be voyeurs back out into the rain with a cheerful "Come back tomorrow!" The more persistent pack members had proven harder to shift, using their rank to bully their way through the heavy oak doors and gather outside the waiting room like a flock of uncontrollable geese.
Despite the combined efforts of the nurses and the two warriors guarding the door, the situation was in danger of getting out of control. It finally came to a head when Doc emerged from the waiting room. He seemed unsurprised to see so many people clogging up his reception and surveyed them with expression verging on boredom.
"Are these the volunteers, nurse?" he asked one of the brunettes trying to control the crowd. She shot him a look of confusion. "Oh, good. We can get started then," he added, not giving the startled she-wolf a chance to squeak out a word.
Jenni slipped into the room behind him, offering the two warriors a shy smile. She cast her eyes across the crowd with more trepidation than her father, a clipboard clasped tightly in her hands.
He glanced down at her and made a show of reading the top sheet of paper carefully. The crowd held its breath in anticipation.
"Thank you, all of you for giving up your time this afternoon." Doc's voice rang clearly around the room, catching the attention of the stragglers at the back that were still murmuring amongst themselves. "I know you all have other places you'd much rather be." The crowd leaned forward eagerly and Doc peered at them over his spectacles.
With an unnecessary flourish he pulled an enormous hypodermic out of his doctor's coat, one so large Jenni wasn't even sure where he'd gotten it from... they didn't stock any that size. It was filled with a vaguely pink liquid and Doc made a big deal out of squirting a drop out of the end so all in the room got a good look at the size of the needle.
