"We will be doing something a little different today." Dr. Lee walked into the patient room in her doctor's jacket.

I've only seen her in the therapy room, but today she looked every bit like a doctor. Hunter sat in the chair next to me. He hasn't left my side, but he has said nothing regarding yesterday's event.

Dr. Lee glanced at Hunter and, for a moment, they made eye contact. It felt like they passed a silent message between them. When Hunter nodded his head, she walked up to me.

"I'm going to show you some images. Whatever you feel, you must use words to express it. Normally, I would do this one on one with my patients. However, I'll make an exception with you, given that Alpha is your mate. He'll want to be here as support. Are you okay with this?"

Last night, after Hunter had left, Liam had talked to me. He told me I needed to try. That he knows how strong I was, but I still needed a protector. Coming from a seven-year-old pup, I couldn't help but feel like I had failed him somehow. Then there was Hunter. Even if I wanted to deny the truth, he has been very patient. We've been here for almost a month now and this pack reminded me of my old pack.

I nodded my head in agreement. Dr. Lee smiled, happy that I had agreed. Hunter stood up and walked closer. His nearness helped ease the tension in my body.

The first picture she showed me was a family playing in the open fields.

"Happiness," I said hesitantly.

Dr. Lee nodded before continuing. She flipped through the picture. I continued like this for the next few images. They weren't so bad. It actually brought back a lot of wonderful memories.

When she stopped at the next image, it was a picture of two couples. They were about my parent's age. They stood next to each other. The man had one arm around her shoulder.

"Do you want to try your new camera, Katya? Want mommy and daddy to pose for you?"

I giggled and ran over to my new camera, that was on the blanket lying on the grass. I grabbed it and rushed over to them.

"Put your arms around mommy, daddy!"

My parents looked at each other and chuckled before my dad threw his arms around my mom's shoulder.

"There! That's perfect!"

Hunter touched my shoulder. "Katya?"

I didn't realize I was crying until he moved to cradle my cheek and wiped my fallen tear with his thumb.

"Parents," I whispered, anguish filling my voice.

Hunter's eyes softened, and he moved to sit next to me. One of his arms secured around my body and the other resting on my arm nearest to him. Dr. Lee looked at Hunter again before flipping through the picture.

It was a picture of a woman in a white hospital gown. She was strapped down to a cot. A man hovered over her body. In his hands, he held a syringe.

"My dear Katya, don't you worry. This won't help you a bit." Alpha held a large syringe filled with clear liquid. He tapped the syringe with his finger.

"Please," I begged weakly. My eyes were heavy. I couldn't keep them open. Every muscle in my body felt heavy, like someone had put lead inside my body.

He leaned over and I could smell cigarettes on his breath. His mustache tickled my cheeks.

My hands tightened on the blanket. I started hyperventilating. Hunter rubbed my arms up and down.

"Breathe, Katya. Nothing can hurt you. You are completely safe here."

Breathe.

I inhaled deeply and looked at Hunter. His light blue eyes never strayed from me.

"Tell us what you feel."

"Hunter, I don't-"

"You can do it. You just have to let go and trust me."

I nodded and took another deep breath.

"I smell the smell of cigarettes. His mustache would tickle my cheeks when he leaned in to talk to me."

Hunter's jaw clenched.

"Who is he?" Dr. Lee asked.

I began shaking my head. Tearing my eyes away from Hunter. I pulled up on my knees and tugged at the roots of my tousled, tangled hair. Shaking my head, I tried to shake Hunter off.

"Katya, you are safe. I promise." Hunter tried pulling me into a hug.

"No. No, I'm not safe. He's still alive. He'll come after me. I have to go or else he'll catch up. He'll come get me. He told me I can never escape him."

"Who is he, Katya?" Hunter pressed.

"I don't know. I don't know him! We called him Alpha. Alpha. Alpha." I pushed Hunter away from me. He grabbed my arms and pulled me closer.

"Alpha, don't force her."

"I thought I killed him. He should've been dead. He should've been dead," I mumbled, still shaking my head and tugging at my hair.

"Look at me, Katya."

Hunter grabbed my cheeks, but I pushed him away. Finally, he wrapped his arms around me, hoisted me up and placed me over his lap. He buried his face into my neck, but my internal battle seemed to waver back and forth.

"Okay, okay. You're okay. We'll stop. Come back to me, little wolf," Hunter murmured. "Think about what makes you happy. All the wonderful memories."

I thought about him. The first night I met him and thought I died and went to heaven. I have never met a man that beautiful. I thought about the first time I've seen him smile and laugh.

It didn't take long before I relaxed.

"That's my girl." I relaxed visibly.

"You did wonderful today, Katya. Let's try again another day." Dr. Lee didn't press further.

She turned and left the room. I sat wrapped up in Hunter's arms. We were silent for a while before Hunter spoke, and I knew he had questions. I couldn't blame him.

"Katya-"

"I'm trying," I interrupted him.

Hunter's hand moved to cradle my face and turned me to look down at him.

"I know you are. I'm not blaming you, sweetheart. I just want to protect you."

I don't know what to say to him, but I hoped to soothe him the same way he soothed me. I turned in his lap to look at him.

"Do you know what I thought about just now?" I asked.

"What?"

"I thought about you." I lift my hand and traced his lips with my finger. "I thought about your smile and your laugh."

My eyes flew up and found he was already looking at me.

"I thought about your eyes and how they reminded me of blue skies and sunny days."

The door opened and entered Ace and Judah. Their eyes moved from Hunter to me and then back to Hunter. The trio were friends, but were different in many ways. Judah wore a black plain t-shirt and black skinny jeans. A silver-colored dog tag hung low around his neck. Ace and he were about the same size. Almost equal in heights and muscles. They both had darker hair color than Hunter. Instead of a dog tag, Ace had a lip piercing on his lower lip.

"Ah, it seems our timing is still impeccable, don't you think so, Jude?" Ace smirked and earned himself a hard shove from Judah. I couldn't help but feel that Ace had walked in on more than one of them.

"What do you two want?" Hunter asked, trying not to sound annoyed with them.

"Oh, you know, Judah told me that the border patrols reported last night a wild chase. We just came to check on you." he shoved his hands into his pants pocket and rocked back and forth on his feet.

Changing subject, Ace walked up to me. He put a hand out between us.

"I don't think we have formally met. My name is Ace. I'm Beta to this pack and one of your mate's best friends," he grinned.

I eyed his hand for a minute before I slipped mine into his.

"Katya. My name is Katya," I replied, before turning to look at Judah. "And you're Judah. Rosemary's mate."

At the mention of Judah's mate, he relaxed and nodded his head.

"I'm the Gamma of the pack."

"What are you two really doing here?" Hunter questioned.

Ace and Judah looked at each other before Judah spoke.

"So you know, word spread and pack members are talking about your mate—our Luna."

"What are they saying?" Hunter stiffened from his spot.

"Luna Katya is losing herself to her wolf."

Hunter growled angrily and I couldn't help but feel that I had brought more trouble than I expected to Hunter. He has been protecting me all this time.

"Before you get angry at the pack, they have reason to feel this way. Luna Katya is a rogue, Hunter. We all know how it's like to want to protect our mate, but we also have a duty to the pack. Every one of us has a role," Ace said.

"Catalina mentioned something about living outside of a pack. It can cause one wolf to take over sometimes in order to survive. I thought about it and it is like wolves who are in a pack. In order to keep order and sanity in our pack, we implement physical routines and exercises. This allows us to improve our concentration, muscle and eye coordination, and even our mental health." Judah shrugged his shoulders and waved a hand in our direction. "It might work with Katya."

"That is true. Regular physical activity could reduce stress and keep anxiety and depression away. At the same time, it could help Katya learn to control her wolf. She needed to be stronger in order to be stronger than her wolf. That much makes sense," Hunter murmured, turning to look at me.

"We could start Liam on a regimen and Katya could start training with the rest of the pack warriors," Judah offered.

I wasn't sure if I was ready for a party of werewolves to surround me. However, I agree that this seemed like a good idea.

"Do you want to try it?" Hunter asked me.

I nodded my head. "I would like to try, but maybe instead of a large group of werewolves, we could keep it to a minimum."

If we keep it to a few, I would be able to read their expressions. It would be easier on me, and my wolf would feel at ease.

"But I don't know how I would react or if I could control my wolf," I warned.

"Should we start this activity outside in case of a shift?" Ace inquired.

"Or we could just use the packhouse gym," Judah shrugged. "It's large enough for several people and secure in case of a shift."

"Ok, packhouse gym. Let's start tomorrow," Hunter nodded.

"Uh, so Rosemary might want to join. She wants to see Katya again." Judah rubbed the back of his neck.

"You mean, your mate and you aren't exactly on good terms, so you want to use my mate as an excuse for you two to be together in the same room." Hunter shot back.

Ace chuckled and earned himself another shove by Judah. The three continued to banter back and forth for a bit. Their voices faded while I felt slightly excited about training. It has been a long while. Last time I remembered was when I lived in a pack and still had my parents.