"You're my mate."

She stared at him in shock. She was trying to make sense of what he just said. Werewolves believed that their mate was specially chosen for them by the goddess. She paired up two werewolves that would complete each other. A soulmate. The one person in the would that could match them in every way. A human couldn't physically match a werewolf so they were never fated mates with humans. It just wasn't done. It was impossible. Sure they could choose to be in a relationship with one but to be fated together was impossible.

Paige couldn't make it make sense. Nathan was an honest wolf, she thought, he wouldn't say something like that just to get me to stay. And It couldn't be a joke, he wasn't that cruel.

"Paige?" he asked hesitantly. He sounded worried. She didn't know how to respond to him. She opened and closed her mouth trying to find what to say.

"How...I... can't be... What?"

"I know, it's a lot. But when I saw you in the pack house Malcolm immediately recognized you."

"Nathan," She spoke low, like she was to keep the person in front of her from losing it. "That's impossible. I'm human, I don't have a wolf. There's no way I could be your mate."

"Half-human," he said, "Malcolm says-"

"Malcolm?"

"My wolf. He says your wolf is dormant. He wouldn't have been able to recognize you as our mate if you didn't have a wolf."

"This is.. no." She stood and looked back at him. "This is too much, I can't." She walked away from him.

"Paige wait." He scrambled to stand and follow her but she had stopped. "Paige this is a good thing."

"A good thing?" She asked, shocked at his assessment.

"Yes, it means we can be together. You don't have to leave." He was pleading again, but she couldn't hear him.

"That's-" She lifted her hands in front of her face. "That's what your focusing on?!? I..." She paced away from him.

"Paige, what's the problem? We've been researching this, we're trying to find a way wake your wolf." She turned back to him.

"We?"

"Patrick and I, we've been researching it since I recognized you."

"And in all this research, did you think that maybe it was something you should tell me?" She looked at him incredulously. She couldn't believe him. He had known for almost a week and he hadn't told her.

"Why are you so upset?" he asked.

"YOU DIDN'T TELL ME!! YOU'VE KNOWN FOR A WEEK AND YOU DIDN'T TELL ME!" She stalked away again.

"You were so mad at me, you wouldn't talk to me. I didn't think you'd want to hear that were mates." She turned on him.

"You think THAT'S what I upset about? That we're mates?" She walked towards him.

"Well aren't you?" He looked scared, like she was going to reject him. A twinge of regret pinged her heart but it was quickly overcome with her anger again.

"Oh my god, you are such a fucking idiot." She paced away to try and get some control back. Turning back to look at him, "I am angry, because you didn't tell me that I'm a wolf. I have lived everyday of the last ten years learning to be okay, to be comfortable with who I am, with being human. And you just come in here and drop this bomb that I actually am a werewolf. That my wolf is dormant and it's all okay because you think there's a way to wake her up! GODS!" She threw her hands up in the air, "Your arrogance is truly astounding.

"Did you ever think once, what this information would mean to me? How it's going to change my life? Did you ever think that maybe I don't want to be a wolf? That maybe I am happy in the human world? I have a life there Nathan. I have friends, I have my work. I have found meaning and purpose that was beyond this hellhole." Tears started to fall down her cheeks in her anger.

"You were so focused on me being your mate that completely ignored the larger scope of this. What did you expect me to do? Jump up for joy? Leave behind everything I have done, everything I have worked for and come back to a place that has nothing but miserable memories?"

"So, you don't want to stay here?" He asked hesitantly, "You don't want me?" His voice cracked slightly on the last word. It hurt her to see him so sad. His face looked like his heart was breaking.

She took a deep breath. "Nathan, I have wanted you every day for the last five years. Even when-" she cut herself off. There were things he didn't need to know. She took another deep breath, "I told you I loved you in Bali and I never stopped loving you. But this- this is big. This is about more than me and you. I have responsibilities in the human world. I have people counting on me. This changes everything."

"So, what are you saying?"

"I'm saying I need sometime. Accepting that I'm a werewolf, trying to wake my wolf up. It's bigger than me and you. I can't just jump into this head first. I need some time."

"Okay." She grabbed her backpack and started back down the mountain. They said nothing on their descent and nothing when they made it to the car. When they got back to town she asked him where he wanted to be dropped off and took him to the pack house when he answered.

"You'll call me?" He asked getting out of the car.

"Yeah Nathan. I'll call you."

When she got home she showered and changed into some comfortable clothes. Not wanting to be alone with her thoughts she went downstairs to help her mother with dinner. Since they were still recovering from the binding ceremony, they decided to keep it simple. Paige threw together a salad while her mom cooked the frozen meatballs. Meatball subs were simple and always a hit. Paige and her mother worked in comfortable silence. And while she was hoping not to, she began to get lost in her thoughts. Her mother had to call her name three times before she responded.

"Where are you today?" Her mom asked.

"I'm sorry, I just got lost in some memories."

"Memories of the Alpha?" her mother could always tell when something was bothering her.

"Yes." She replied, looking down at the cucumber she was dicing.

"You two were dancing pretty close last night."

"Yeah, that was a mistake." She put the cucumbers in the salad and grabbed an onion.

"You looked," she paused as if deciding whether or not she wanted to say what she was thinking. "You seemed happy, dancing with him. Happier than I've seen you in a long time." Paige didn't say anything to that. She wanted to refute it, to say it wasn't true but she couldn't lie to her mother. She decided on a half truth.

"I'm happy enough." She fought back tears. "Last night was just happy memories is all."

"If they're so happy why are you crying?"

"It's the onion."

"Paige," at the concern in her mothers voice she broke down, again. She had cried more times in the past week than she had in the last four and a half years. Her mother gathered her up in her arms.

"My darling girl."

"I don't know what I'm going to do." She said through her tears. Her mother gently guided her to the table and they sat down. "He wants me to stay here, to stay with him. But I have a life in London, I have a job lined up for after graduation, I have friends and people that count on me. How can I give that all up to come back... here?"

Her mother was quiet, considering her next words carefully. "When you were young, I tried everything I could to help you feel at home here, to help you feel as though you belonged. I knew those kids were bullying you and I tried my best to make home a place where you felt at peace. I don't know if I ever succeeded."

"No mom, don't say that. You gave me everything. It was a good life, a good childhood."

"So good you ran away at the first opportunity."

"It was never anything you did, it was-"

"I know. I was hoping you were going to come home after you finished up in Boston but then that dinner..." Her words trailed off, as she remembered that awful dinner. She cleared her throat before continuing, "We had that dinner and you ran even further away." Her mother had tears in her eyes. Paige looked down, feeling guilty. She didn't intend to cut off her family but it was difficult to talk to them. Because she was traveling she could get by with emails and a phone call once every few weeks. She knew it must have been hard on her mother.

"But I realized last night, when I saw you dancing with him, that you were never running away from us. You were running towards something, you just didn't know what it was yet. You were running towards him." She let the words settle. "I know it wouldn't be easy, but if he wants you and you want him, then what's stopping you?"

"I have a life in London. A good life, it's become-" she was about to say home. She wanted it to be home, she had done all the things to make it her home but if she was honest with herself it never was. The only time she ever felt like she was home was when she was in his arms.

"He thinks I'm his mate mom." She said it so softly it was barely above a whisper, as if saying it out loud would make it true. "He says his wolf recognized me. That my wolf is dormant but it can be woke. He wants me to try and wake it and stay and become his Luna."

"Would that be such a bad thing?" Her mom asked just as soft. Paige huffed out a laugh.

"I have spent the first two-thirds of my life as the human in the wolf pack. And the last third as a human who wasn't like other humans but could never really say why. I've never felt like I fit in in either place. What if I do this, I make this big change and I still don't feel like I belong? What if I do this and my wolf wakes and I still feel like a fish out of water but now I'm stuck here? I'll be caged in, again."

"And you don't feel caged in London?" Paige gave her mother a look.

"I'm not caged there, I have my freedom. I can do what I want, when I want."

"Honey, I've seen you in London and I've seen you here. They didn't look all that different to me."

"I don't know what that means."

"Yes you do." Paige didn't want to admit it but it was true. Just as she had in the pack, she felt hidden in London. Like she couldn't be her complete self, if people knew she was raised in a wolf pack she would be, at best, looked at as an oddity, at worst, be constantly harassed about it, just like she was in the pack.

"Let me ask you this, where have you not felt caged?"

"Traveling." Paige said without thought. "I could go where I wanted, when I wanted. It didn't matter what I was or if I told anyone because I never stayed anywhere long enough for it to matter."

"Even when you started traveling with the Alpha?" Paige pursed her lips. She didn't want to say it but traveling with Nathan was when she felt the most free. They were together and she knew he had her back just as she had his. It was them against the world. There was nothing they couldn't do together.

"If you don't want to try because you honestly think your life is better out there, then that's fine. I respect that. But if you don't want to try because you're scared, well, goddess Paige, I don't even want to know you." Paige snorted as her mom quoted one of her favorite lines. "And, I raised you better than that."