"Your mate has PTSD. It is a psychiatric disorder that normally appears in people who experienced traumatic events. I based my diagnosis on her abrupt detachment to reality when she is confronted with something even close to her past and strong negative reactions to anything triggering."

Dr. Lee stood at the opposite end of my office desk. She had in front of her a folder.

"Do you know what happened to her yet?" That is one question I needed an answer to. It was easy to understand that my mate had a traumatic past.

"No, she's pretty closed off. However, I found out that she lived in a pack before things started going down south. It sounds like her pack was attacked and she lost both her parents."

"There are hundreds of packs out there. And attacks aren't rare. It happens frequently in our world," I growled.

Dr. Lee sighed before snapping her folder closed. "There isn't much I could do to speed up this process. The patient has to talk about her past in order for me to be able to help. We structure these talk sessions in a way that will help the patient become aware of their problems and issues and then resolve them in a healthy but effective manner."

It wasn't because I wasn't patient with Katya and wanted to hurry along our mating. It was the look in Katya's eyes the other day that had me feeling disgusted with myself. She was terrified, and I couldn't even touch her to soothe her. Just the memory caused an ache to form in my chest. I rubbed a hand over my face before threading it through my hair in frustration.

"We could try high doses of antidepressant. These may help suppress those negative emotions."

I shook my head. "No, no medication. Katya would protest."

Dr. Lee raised a questioning eyebrow.

"The night we brought her back. She attacked the medical staff when they tried to tranquilize her. This would only trigger her disorder."

"That is interesting..." She opened her notebook and began scribbling things down.

"What do you mean?" I stood up from my seat. Suddenly wanting to see what she had written, but there was no need because Dr. Lee snapped her notebook shut a second later.

"She reacted to medication and when you touched her. Could it be that someone drugged your mate before and possibly..." her voice dropped when she saw a thunderous look cloud my expression.

That was a possibility. My mate's reaction to me the other day made it obvious. She looked like she saw a ghost. Her entire body shook, and she moved away quicker than I could blink.

But I didn't want to believe it, because if I did, I would have to kill the fucker who touched her. It wouldn't be a slow death, either. I would tear that motherfucker limb for limb and even enjoy it.

I recalled what Judah had told me when he went with me to rescue Bethany. Bethany was a pack member of ours that recently was raped and injected with poison. Judah had said, what if it was your mate? What would you do? And the dominant beast inside of me wanted bloodshed.

"We won't know yet, Alpha. Let me try a few more sessions with her. It looks like she wants help. She just doesn't know how to yet."

"What can I do?" I whispered hoarsely. Feeling helpless.

"You are doing everything you can. You are giving her the support system she needs. You gave her a home and hope already. Just continue to be there for her when she needs it most. Even if she doesn't realize it, the mate bond is already strengthening. Soon, she wouldn't be avoid her feelings and destiny. You just have to be patient with her."

After Dr. Lee left, I stood by my office window and looked out blankly. My mind was whirling about thoughts of what may had happened to my mate.

It wasn't until a few hours passed by that I broke away from the horrifying thoughts and walked out of my office. I didn't need to think of where I wanted to go. With one foot after another, I managed to walk myself to my mate's door. Yet when I made it to her door, I couldn't bring myself to knock.

Her terrified look was still imprinted in my mind.

While I was having an internal battle, Katya's whimpers made me whip open the door. I located her on the bed fast asleep. She was tossing and turning. When I got to her side, I noticed sweat soaked her entire body. She looked hot but cold to the touch. I grabbed her shoulders.

"Katya." I shook her.

"No! Don't touch him. He's just a baby. Please, don't touch mama!" she screamed and thrashed.

"Katya!" I wanted to break her out of her nightmare. It was making me frantic, but I failed to pull her out of her nightmare.

Instead, Katya's eyes flew open, and they glowed yellow. Those were not her normal eye colors and even if she shifted, her wolf should still carry her eye color. She growled and shifted in front of me into a large gray wolf. Her eyes held no recognition of me. Instead, she attacked me. I grabbed her around her neck to stop her from attacking me. Her paws swiped and clawed at my arms. I threw her on the floor and tried to pin her down, but got up and ran.

I watched her bound out the bedroom door and disappeared. Growling, I shifted and chased after her. I heard pack members shouting for people to get out of the way. Katya attacked a pack member that opened the entrance door, swiping at him with her clawed paws. Luckily, the pack member pivoted away from the attack.

A second later, their eyes found me chasing after Katya. I was hot on her tail. She didn't even look back.

I howled into the skies to warn my border patrols. In response, a unified howl echoed in the woods. Soon, it wasn't just me chasing. It was my border patrols chasing after her. They were behind me, but close enough to catch up if I slowed down.

Right when Katya hit the border and the rest of the border patrol surrounded her, she stopped. Snarling, she stood tall in front of everyone. She was as big as me and that was almost not normal. An average werewolf, even if they were warriors, would be slightly smaller. The power that radiated from her would temporarily confuse any werewolf. She extruded Alpha power.

I moved closer to her, and her gold eyes snapped to me. Saliva dripped from her canines. She looked almost rabid, and that was dangerous.

I walked around her, and she followed my movement with matching movements of hers. It was clear that we weren't going to let her go.

Then she launched at me again. Her mouth snapping around my throat. I felt her bite down. Pain shot through my left shoulder. I turned my head to bite her back and luckily that threw her off me. She bounded back. This time, I didn't give her time to think of her next attack. I jumped her. We rolled around on the ground and slammed into trees.

I have to admit; she was extremely strong. I could already feel exhaustion settle into my muscles. However, we were both huffing and puffing. Most of the time, I avoided her attack and only focused on draining her energy.

When we finally broke apart, it was dark outside already. Katya's legs buckled, and she huffed. Saliva dripped like crazy down her jaw. She was still snarling and growling as I approached her. When I got close enough, she even tried to attack me again, but she was too weak.

I bit down on the back of her neck where I knew she would lose consciousness. As soon as I hit it, she collapsed in front of me in her wolf form. Using my head, I lifted her large form up and over my back. Growling an order for my border patrols to return to their post, I bounded back to the packhouse.

Hours later, Katya was in the medical wing, sleeping on a hospital bed in her human form. Liam was snuggled up to Katya's side. The medical staff had patched up my injured left shoulder while the doctor tended to my mate. Now, I looked at her sleeping form and thought about what the doctor had revealed to me.

I had asked him to test her blood again after we forced her to shift back to her human form. Those gold eyes were still glowing in my mind. When he came back, he told me her blood was something he had never seen before. It wasn't normal. She wasn't normal.

There was talk among the werewolf government about illegal drug testing on werewolves. These drugs were supposed to mutate our DNA into a stronger race. When presented to the government, they ruled it unethical to test it on our species and put a stop to it.

That didn't stop a few rebellious packs. They put words and letters out to all Alphas to monitor their territory for any suspicious activity, but that was years ago.

But to imagine that Katya was used as a test subject? I couldn't believe it, even when I knew it was a possibility.

My eyes traveled from her face down her body to her stomach and the doctor's words echoed in my mind.

"Alpha, there is something else..." he hesitated to tell me. "I ran Luna Katya's blood for any abnormalities and found that her reproductive hormones are lower than an average female werewolf."

"What does that mean?" I asked.

He looked uncomfortable. "She may have trouble conceiving or may not be able to conceive at all."

No pup? I haven't thought about that, but to lie that I haven't thought about it? I have. I have imagined a future where I had little pups running around. I imagine my mate round with my pup.

I slid a hand down my face and covered my mouth. This was a lot to take in and the hold I had on my emotions was slipping. I took in a shuddering breath and closed my eyes.

"Katya saved me." Liam suddenly talking broke me out of my stupor.

I opened my eyes and looked at him. He kept stroking Katya's arm with his tiny hands.

"She took me away from the bad Alpha. She almost died that night from bleeding out too much."

Liam's brown eyes met mine. "I heard you called her your mate."

I nodded my head. "She's my mate."

"Then you would protect her like how our dad protected us."

Something about what he said broke me. I felt immense pain. I forced a smile onto my face and nodded. There was no doubt about that. I would trade my life for hers.

"I will protect you and her with my life," I promised.

"Then I will trust that you will save her. She's strong, but when she thinks I'm not looking, she would look tired and lost. We were kids when we were taken. She's my sister, but she acts like my mom, you know?" Liam continued.

"Don't worry."

"I heard what that doctor told you."

He shouldn't have heard that since we weren't even in the room, but I wasn't surprised. Liam and Katya had secrets, and I promised to expose every one slowly. They will put their trust in me.

I nodded my head.

"Are you scared of us?" He looked nervous. "Will you kick us out now?"

I shook my head.

"It will take more than a bite for your sister to push me away."

Author's Note:

Hunter is quickly catching onto his mate's traumatic past and the startling news of her ability conceive! Tell me you aren't as anxious as me! lol.