The next afternoon Nathan received a text from an unknown number.

Meet me at the old lumber mill on the east side of town. We're going hiking.

Paige?

Who else would text from an unknown number asking you to go hiking?

That wasn't an ask. That was a demand.

So you have your answer then.
20 minutes. Or I'm leaving with out you.

Nathan smiled. He was going to see her, he was going to talk to her from more than a couple of minutes. He was apprehensive but ready. This was a long time coming. He ran into Patrick on the way out of the pack house. "Where are you going?"

"Hiking."
"Since when do you go hiking?"
"Since my mate asked me too."
"You're going hiking alone with her?"
"Yes."
"I'm coming." He set the sandwich he was about to eat down.
"Patrick-"
"Nate, I don't want to hear it. She's a risk to your safety, I don't want you alone with her."
"I'm pretty sure I can take her."
"Can you? Yes. Will you? No, not if it hurts her. You're too compromised." He grabbed his keys.
"You're not even dressed for hiking. And I don't have time to wait for you."
"Then we'd better go."

Nathan looked at his Beta and knew nothing he would say right now would move him from his course. He shook his head and followed him to the garage. They drove to the edge of town and pulled up to the mill. She was nowhere to be found but the 20 minutes weren't up yet. She should be here. He sent her a text.

I'm here.
Where are you?

Round the back.

They drove to the back of the mill. She was sitting in the front seat of an old Jeep J10, door open, legs hanging out the side. She jumped down as they pulled closer. She looked like a vision. Wearing a pair of brown hiking pants, t-shirt and vest, she looked like could be photographed for an LL Bean catalogue. She had tamed her curls back into a braid and covered them with a baseball hat. This was the Paige he remembered. Adventurous, daring, comfortable in her own skin.

She scowled when she saw Patrick in the driver seat. As Nathan got out she said, "He's not invited."
"He's fine, he's just over protective is all."
"That's fine, but he can be over protective from here or we can all go home."

Nathan turned back to Patrick, who still hadn't gotten out of the car. "It's fine Patrick, you can go."
"Nate."
"I said it's fine." He scowled but relented. "If you're not back by nightfall..."
"Yes, mother." Patrick pulled away and Nathan turned to Paige.

"So is there a reason we're meeting in the back, you afraid to be seen with me or something?" He joked. When she didn't say anything, "Oh shit, Paige, no. You have nothing to worry about."

"The bandage on my head and a concussion say otherwise." He immediately started looking her over.

"Bandage? Where? I thought you were okay." Anger was spreading through him. Malcom was yelling at him. He was going to kill Holly.

"I am. My head got cut when she pulled me down, it's not that bad. My hair is covering it. But it's not me I'm worried about. What will the pack say when I leave? A pack is only as strong as it's Alpha. You told me something like that once. A pack has to trust it's Alpha to make sound decisions. An affair with a human isn't a sound decision."
"You were drunk off you ass then. How do you remember that?"

She smirked and headed back to the Jeep. "I wasn't that drunk. And I couldn't forget about you if I tried." The fact that she probably had tried to forget about him was left unsaid. "Get in. There's an old logging road we'll take as far as we can before we start the climb."

"Are we going to Moon Mist peak? That's where Micah thought..." he trailed off.
"Where he thought I went after I punched you?" He nodded. "Yeah, I did go there. But most wolves can't go up the way I do, they have to take the long way around but it's too late in the day for that. Besides that's a thinking peak. We're going to a talking peak."

The 'road' turned out to be little more than a barely maintained path up the mountain. They were bouncing around too much to do much talking. Nathan was holding on to the 'oh shit' handle for dear life but Paige seemed fine. By the time they stopped Nathan felt like he spent a week working the jackhammer. They got out and headed up the trail.

The 'trail' turned out to be little more than loose collection of animal trails and obscured or missing trail markers.

"How the hell do you know where we're going?"
"Why Alpha? You afraid I'm leading you to your death." Though she was faced away from him, he could hear the teasing tone in her voice.
"No, I know I could take you," he replied with his own teasing tone. "I'm just worried for you. Once I shift I would know right where I am and how to get home. You on the other hand..."

She laughed at him and he thought he would die of happiness. It had been so long since he heard that sound. He didn't realize how much he had missed it until he had heard it again the night before.

"When I was young I spent a lot of time in the mountains. It was, easier. This was one of my favorite trails, although it looks like it hasn't been maintained in a few years."

They continued up the mountain, talking with out really saying anything. They both knew they had a lot to talk about but they were just enjoying each others company. It had been so long since they just existed with each other. Nathan was happy to be near her. He didn't want to bring up the topics that could make her run away again.

The last push to the summit had them both gasping for breath. They sat down as the took in the view. "So beautiful." Paige said through her heavy breathing.

"Everything makes sense on the top of a mountain," Nathan huffed back with a smile. Paige returned his smile and the words she had said to him on top of a mountain in the South Pacific. As they sat and caught their breath, the last five years caught up with them too.

"Paige," he started. She held up her hand.

"I understand why you left. I really do. Dorothea told me about your brother and then Allen told me about them coming and finding you in Bali, but what I don't get is why you stayed away. Why didn't you tell me? Why did you send me that email? Why did you leave me with no way to contact you?" He heard the pain in her voice and decided that there wasn't going to be any beating around the bush. The best way out is through. They had to get through this so they could move on.

"I was afraid that if I spoke to you I would leave my pack. I had decided to go rouge. My father made it clear that if I didn't return home he would declare me as such and I was ready to do it, for you. When you told me you were raised with wolves, it shocked me but it also gave me hope that it could work. That we could work. You already knew the eccentricities of living with a werewolf, so I knew you could handle it. I could follow you to London, I could be a house-husband and support you while you followed your dreams. I was going to tell you I was a wolf that next morning, but then..."

"Patrick and Allen showed up."

"Yeah, I didn't think, I just left. By the time I got home, he was gone. The rouge problem had become a full fledged war in the time I was away and with my brother gone, my father and my pack needed me. I was going to become Alpha, I had a responsibility and I had to make a choice. I chose my pack. I convinced myself that a clean break was best for both of us, but really I was afraid that if I spoke to you, if I saw you, I'd leave everything for you." He waited for her to say something, when she didn't, he continued, "My dad died about six months later and I became Alpha. I had barely reached maturity and I was an alpha fighting a war. I had to focus. By the time the war was over, I thought it had been too long. I figured you had moved on and forgot about me."

He watched her watch the landscape. She was quiet but he knew the look on her face. She was considering everything he said and trying to see how it stacked up to her feelings. "Paige, I have never regretted anything as much as I regret leaving you. The worst thing I have ever done is what I did to you. I am so sorry. I don't know if you'll ever forgive me and I know I don't deserve to even ask you for your forgiveness, but please believe how sorry I am." He waited.

"I believe you." She said eventually. He let out a breath, whether he knew he was holding it or not is irrelevant. "I don't know if I forgive you but I believe your sincerity." She looked over at him, with tears in her eyes. "Thank you for telling me. It helps."

"Helps what?"

"It helps me close this chapter. It helps me let go and allow this to end. It gives me closure. I can go back to London and move on."

"No!" Malcolm screamed in his mind. "She can't leave! She is our mate."

"Paige, I don't want you to leave."

"Nathan, that's a bad idea and you know it. You need to move on, we both do. You need to find your mate. A wolf who will be your Luna, you don't need me hanging around. Besides I don't think I could bear it, watching you find your mate and fall in love with her. I'll be happy for you, of course, but I could never watch it happen. No, it's best for me to go." She sounded like she was convincing herself of it.

"What if I didn't have a mate? What then?"

"What do you mean?"

"Would you stay?" He tried to be nonchalant about it. He tried not to care but he couldn't help the slight pleading enter his voice.

"I still wouldn't have a wolf, so its a moot point."

"But if you did." He turned his body towards her and took her hand. "If all the reasons you have for staying away weren't a problem anymore, would you stay with me?" He was practically begging now.

"Oh Nathan," She reached up and put her hand on his cheek. "If the world was perfect..." He waited for her to say that she would, to say that she still wanted him, but instead, "The world's not perfect. We can't change the way things are, no matter how much we wish them to be." Her face was full of care and concern. "You will stay here, you will find your mate, you will have lots of pups and you will be the most magnificent Alpha." She sighed deeply, "And I will go back to London, I will graduate, I will do the work I love, and maybe, one day I will find someone who is as good as you. We will both find happiness, but it won't be with each other."

"Paige, I have found my mate." A look of horror crossed her face. "It's you. You're my mate."