Keys jangling. That's what I heard when I woke up out of a very fitful sleep. Of all the insane noises I thought bounced through this cell, that was the one I heard the most, hoping to get out of here. But since it wasn't real, I quit looking up to see who it was. If someone was there, they'd have to do more than make noise to get my attention.

I felt hot and nasty. It was even harder to hear than the last time I was awake.

"I have you." A familiar voice. My arms must have fallen asleep, I couldn't feel anything but pins and needles where I was grabbed. It sounded like someone kicked a puppy because I heard something whining. I guess it was me, as I hurt too much to keep it to myself.

I didn't have the energy to respond and didn't even move until he picked me up. I struggled to get free from these damn hands. "Rachael, it's me. I'm going to take you to Dr. Marion, get you and the baby checked out, alright?"

I blearily opened my eyes, noticed the familiar face, and stopped struggling.

"Sleep, for now."

I fell back under, secure that I was back with my boys. I could stop straining to hear salvation in a deafening world.

~~~

I woke up to an IV in my arm. I stared at it, trying to figure out why the hell it was there.

"Please don't pull the damn thing out, again," Stephen muttered.

I rubbed my forehead, remembering that I meant to call him in the morning...but plans had changed. "How long have I been out?"

"We found you in that cell 3 days ago. You had been missing for about that much longer."

"The baby?"

"She lives, as the angel promised."

"Nathaniel?"

"He knows, and will be in to see you...ah...he's on his way up."

I stared at him, feeling my guilt tear at me for a bit. "I should have called you."

I didn't say it out loud, more mouthed it than gave it sound, but a wolf hears everything.

"Rachael, we all have guilt over the way things went." He clenched his jaw, and pulled his eyes off me, letting his feelings blind him for a second. "I honored my move in rank, I honored your wishes, but I kept something from my best friend that would have changed everything. He's not blind to that. I should have told him from the start, and we'd not be here. Goddess knows there's enough blame to go around."

It was the first time that he ever told me what Nathaniel meant to him. I knew they grew up together and were rivals. But it made so much more sense about why Nate wanted to back off anything Stephen claimed, in the beginning. The relationship between Rick and Nathan had been more obvious: nothing but one-way support.

This news wasn't enough of a distraction, and I couldn't say more to it because he was right. That and I didn't want to place the burden of their fathers on Stephen. Those two wolves weren't responsible for my father...my uncle's foolishness, either—not that I wanted to claim him.

I turned antsy at the thought of seeing Nathaniel after being in that cell. No idea how I looked, although why I would care when I'd not bothered with that much before now?

"Quit worrying so much, Luna," Stephen smirked tiredly as he called me that cursed title. "Amancia braided your hair this morning, and a nurse was in to bathe you not long after."

"It's nice to see they didn't drown me, then." I hid behind my normal waspishness.

"It was a sponge bath," Nathaniel said as he stepped in. He looked fairly ragged, with mild smudges under his eyes. He wasn't one to go full raccoon no matter how much sleep he lost. So jealous. "Thanks, Stephen."

"No problem, Alpha."

"Cut it out, Beta."

"Suck it, Alpha."

That got a snort out of Nate. "Get out, go see if you can annoy our Gamma."

"Yes sir."

I wasn't surprised that I was left alone with my baby's father. But I couldn't help the nerves. I figured I'd get the worst of it out of the way. "I'm sorry."

His laugh was mirthless. "You've got nothing to apologize for. I gave you no reason to trust me."

"I never tried to take that risk, either. And if I had, maybe I'd not be missing 6 days of my life."

He frowned, but there really wasn't anything to say to that. Instead of arguing, he sat down beside me and picked up the hand with a tube sticking out of it. Yep, still tiny in his...

My breath hitched. Sparks, tingles, whatever this feeling is likened to, its not accurate enough. My nerves were hyper-aware of the man in front of me like each one begged me to pay attention to him. It funneled down into one word: mate.

Nathaniel Hall is my mate.

"I couldn't be trusted to save you if I was one of the people hurting you," he shrugged as he traced his fingers over mine. "I don't want this decision to be about you picking the lesser of two evils like it's been this whole time. It's going to be a risk because I have nothing that proves I can change, but I don't want you placed in danger because of me, ever again. Everything I do from here on out needs to focus on that, or I'm not worthy of this gift."

If I'll take the risk and accept him. I pulled my hand back. The chill of the cell filled my mind for a moment. "Wait..."

"You're not my sister." My Alpha blurted this out without letting go of me. "They were already running that bloodwork before we found you. After I watched the, uhm... thing, the first thing I did was get on them about testing. They were right—you weren't raised by your parents but the speculation that you're a child of this pack? Everyone's DNA is registered, and your father—whoever he is—is not one of ours, although he might be a werewolf too."

I stilled, listening to his somewhat awkward explanation. Surprised me that I was almost...hopeful. I hid from my feelings by being as dry as possible, "Then that offer still stands?"

"As soon as you're cleared, you're mine," Nathan said this with a firm conviction, but it was softly spoken. This was nothing like the brash boy I knew. Perhaps Stephen was right. The man forced to grow up was nothing like the boy I remembered. "Sleep, for now."

I don't know anything further than his command. I did sleep better than I had the whole week.

~~~

"I'm going to take your IV out now, Rachael." I groggily woke up to Dr. Marion's face.

"How's the baby?"

"Doing fine, still on track for a 7-month term. You're feeling that little one move around?"

"I assume pups don't stay still?" My face felt like it had a clay mask on, so I rubbed it as I spoke with my doctor.

"Yes, though it should feel more like butterflies, at this stage."

"I thought it was butterflies." Such a dumb response to that, but I was half asleep. Good to know that I have more than an attack of nerves going on.

She smiled. "It's a nice confusion to have. You are free to do anything as long as you are comfortable. The minute you feel distressed, back off, alright?"

I nodded as Amancia stepped in to greet us. "I've got her, doc, whenever you are ready."

"Thanks, Gamma. I will be listening if you need me, and I expect our young Luna to make an appointment in a week."

I took my time sitting up, pulling my knees to me so I had a place to rest my arms. "So, you found your mate?

She smiled, "We're seriously thinking you're some sort of precog."

"Precog?" Are they going to start telling me all the slang of the pack? My eyes almost crossed at the thought of more classes.

"Precognition is the ability to recognize likely outcomes based upon given data. And you're doing it on very limited and outdated information."

"Huh." I shook my head. "That's not all that special. I mean, that's the whole point of making up a study. I bet you can even find papers with that word on it."

Amancia's eyes lit up, "Hold on!" She whipped out her phone tapped around for a second, and then turned the screen towards me.

"PREdiction of clinical Outcomes of Genomics...PrECOG, cancer research, Precog the analysis tool, then a definition, sheesh, more used than I expected."

"But you suspected. I'd only ever used it to separate those who reach a view of the future through reason from those that do it without reasoning."

"That doesn't mean I have any fancy abilities, Mahn," I found myself yawning and in need of a good stretch before I got up, so I used that as an excuse to argue. "I didn't predict me being with Nathaniel. I didn't predict any of how I wound up in this predicament. I hoped Rick would get his chance. That's not special."

"Girl, you're special because you're you. But yeah, we'd have to do some testing to prove any weird abilities. Those with wolf ancestry are already insane and off the charts, so one more bit of crazy is rather normal for us. Now, we need to get you up and ready. If you can care for yourself, I'll leave you to do it, but otherwise, I'm here to help." She held out her hands to help pull me upright. I allowed her to.

I pulled my hands away to stretch again. Feeling my spine pop caused me to speak through clenched teeth, "You still didn't tell me who he is."

That brought out a laugh. "I kind of did. You told him who he is." She waited while I stared at her blankly. I'm not a mind-reader. "Rick shifted after we mated. Hell, all but our youngest three shifted this week."

"They were all waiting on you?" I had to smile at that. All this after Rick was certain a girl wouldn't get the position, and that they didn't fight enough to be together.

"Yeah, and a good third of them have found their mates, too."

"That's a bit rapid a change. Is all unholy hell about to break loose that so many of you aren't human, like usual?"

"Well, that's why I'm getting you into the shower, now go, girl."

I was a bit wobbly as I started to walk, but it gave me time to give a parting shot. "I'm really not anything special, Amancia. Never wanted to be, either."

Our Gamma waved me off to the bathroom, ignoring my doubts for her own fantasies about me. I hobbled in like an old lady but managed the shower just fine, as well as getting clothing on all by myself.

Of course, Amancia refused to let me do my own hair. "I love how your hair gets a little red at the roots, but is more like buttery blonde towards the end."

Blondes aren't pretty. They often fade away. "It does that on its own." I couldn't think of what else to say about it. I didn't like my hair color. But I also knew not to complain about it, either. Lets people inside your head.

But it was dry, wavy, and half up—better than I managed to do, quite often. "I know you weren't made Gamma for your hair styling skills, but you have a knack for it."

She laughed at that. "I thought about opening a hair salon, but the paperwork is enough for two Gammas. I suspect I was the chosen one of me and Rick because he'd sacrifice everything to keep me out of work so I could follow my dreams. You know how conscientious he can be. He's better at dealing with all the papers. I'll enjoy escaping to do everyone's hair."

I very much doubted that was the reason why, but couldn't voice what I thought the truth was. I didn't miss what she slipped up on, either. "So, you're already doing the work?"

"Look, if Nate knows I said up to even that much, he'll have my throat. He wants to be the one to tell you what happened while you were out of it."

I had to shake my head at that, almost causing her to jab me with the last bobby pin. "So, I'm good to go, get this over with?"

"Sure thing, Luna." Her smile was cheeky, if anything.

"Why does he get called Nate and I get stuck with Luna?!"

"Come on, let's go ask him that, aye?"

She led me out of the room and up a couple flights of stairs to a door that had a brass plaque that said HALL on it. It looked like it came straight from the early 80s and had not been changed in the 4 decades since.

Quicker than I could process, she shoved me inside, shut the door behind me, and was gone. I looked around and was surprised to see that the room was an absolute mess, with stacks of paper everywhere. Nathan sat at the desk, glasses perched on his nose, and one massive hand practically gripping the hair on his scalp from frustration.

And he looked magnificent. Blondes aren't pretty. "Why are you wearing glasses?"

He looked up at me, giving me the sweetest smile ever. I wasn't this sappy before, but he's not giving a smug or self-absorbed reaction, like he won a possession. I couldn't be sure of too much, but the attitude change was a surprise. It melted a lot of my fear of facing him. I don't think he knew how much that meant to me, after the hell of being alone.

"Because someone decided that documents should be written in size 2 font. Seriously, there's an old typewriter in here that has minuscule keys, too tiny for my hands to fit."

"Why don't you scan it in as a PDF and read it at whatever size you want on the computer? Turn them into documents and change their font to something more rational, save yourself the headache."

There's something about an Alpha's temper that is like a train wreck to watch. He flung the glasses off his face so hard that they embedded themselves in the drywall, cursing fluently under his breath before speaking up. "Come here."

"Uh, you're not in the best of moods so I'm going go to sit..."

"Now."

It was a simple word, not a lot of emotion behind it, but I found myself dipping my head and flinging myself into his lap. Not even a moment later, his face was pressed into my neck. His left hand was messing up my hair while his right braced me hard enough against him to make breathing difficult.

"Nate." I meant it as a warning, but instead, it came out more like I was begging. Damn him, I don't beg, but oh God.

Teeth. No straining for him to reach his fangs, this time. He trailed them over my shoulder, snagging them gently on my lace top.

He pulled back. I was so close and the fucker pulled back. It pissed me off as he shifted my weight from straddling him to something a bit more casual. "You're fucking gorgeous when you pout."

"I thought it was when I was wet."

His laughter softly rumbled in his chest...my left ear was against him. "I can hear that."

"Good, it means your eardrum is self-repairing. The infection that ruptured it cleared up yesterday."

"I caught the infection because it was already blown, Nate. My father hit me across my face. His hand must have sealed against my ear and the force was strong enough to bounce me back off the wall."

"I thought my dad was the one who hit you." His breath left him in a soft huff of displeasure. If he had been human, it would have been a normal grunt—the sound startled me, as I wasn't used to him sounding inhuman.

"No, he just trashed my bus."

"That's not all he did. I saw the surveillance footage for your cell."

I had to sigh. "He didn't act all that out of character, given what the other bastard told me.'

"Who? Reuben?"

"Is that Stephen's father?"

"Yes. He's the one that brought both me and his son in." It relieved me a little that he heeded my warning about these two—not that I was ready to forgive him. He could have let me out, brought me to the guys, and incurred the wrath of his own Alpha. So hard for these damn mutts to do what's right when facing their Alphas.

"So, how did this put you in this office? Isn't your dad the Alpha, still?"

My mate took his time to think before he responded. "Maverick's been stubbornly running this pack on his own, without the help offered by various elders, and meeting with you caused him to snap."

I would have shaken my head, but it was resting comfortably against his chest. "If you think he's lost it, then I don't think he was all there in the first place."

"I'm going to have to start somewhat further back than your time in that cell, you know."

"Yay...storytime," I said it as dryly as I could, although I was interested.