(Flashback)Elizabeth scrapped some of the willow bark and placed it into her basket. She absolutely loved harvest days. Which was probably why she had them twice a week, though her flowers and herbs didn't grow nearly that quickly. She liked checking in on them, too.She plucked some chamomile and lavender, walking through the forest that she often considered her own private, rather large, garden. She kept plenty of herbs and flowers growing for their medicinal benefits. Not that she was a healer, not even close. But she thought she could start learning, even if she had no one to teach her. She could learn from her books, as she tested them on her own little cuts and bruises.She always wore her white dress for harvest picking; she liked wearing the color of the snowdrops she gathered. Even if her dress stained every color afterwards, changing all the shades of the herbs and flowers she gathered.Elizabeth gasped as she came upon the snowdrops, covered with blood. The beautiful st
Elizabeth needed to speak to James. He had left before she could say anything else, and she hadn't seen him for three days at all. She needed to speak to him, to clear things up, to understand what was happening.Her heart pounded every time she heard a knock on her door, every time she left her house, every time she had a patient at the clinic.Each time, thinking it was him. Or hoping.She couldn't stop thinking about the kiss, no matter what she did. Bass's treatment of her had been long forgotten, completely overshadowed by his Alpha. And no matter how much she had cleaned her room, all she could smell was the Alpha.Elizabeth thought she was going insane, since she could smell him at the clinic too. And the last time he had been there had been with her, when she still hadn't known who he was. Yet she could smell him as clearly as if he had just been there.And through all of what she felt, was an intense, overarching guilt. She was supposed to be waiting for Phillip, she was
James walked through Bass's rooms. The Beta, like the Alpha, had both private rooms and a Hall. The Hall was where the Alpha, or Beta, met with whoever of the pack needed to see them.By Law, James could go wherever he liked, even into the private rooms. But he tried his best to respect his pack's privacy, even his Beta's, and only visited him in his Hall.Seeing the distressed look on James' face, Bass sent everyone out, and James had the room to himself."It's her, Bass," James collapsed on one of the benches. "It's Elizabeth."Bass pursed his lips, but didn't respond."But she doesn't remember me," James continued, looking at his friend. "I don't know how, but she doesn't remember me at all. I was so sure she was my mate, but how is that possible if she remembers nothing about me? And now," James continues, "She's been avoiding me for days. I swear it's almost like she doesn't even sense my presence."Bass sighed, walking around restlessly."I know you've been searching for h
Elizabeth moved around her apartment, gathering what belonged to her in the cases she could place them in. She'd been here so little, she still had only the things she'd brought with.She had to go back home. Leaving it at all had been a mistake. She should have waited there, like Phillip had asked her. It was a betrayal enough that she had left to become a Healer, but then she should have gone straight home and waited for him.But she'd wanted to help, and to belong to a pack.Elizabeth shook her head, but she knew the right thing to do now was to go home. Nothing else mattered other than that.She heard a knock on her door, went to answer, and found James standing there.The Alpha strode into her room without concern."Elizabeth, I need your help," James said, then glanced at the state of her house, at the things packed haphazardly. Clothes and her med bag already stashed at the door. He looked at her confused. "What are you doing?""I have to go home, I have a fiancé," Elizab
The sun rose on eight wolves, standing around three trucks, trying to decide how they would divide themselves up.Or, Elizabeth and James were arguing with Kenneth.Kenneth had insisted, very logically if Elizabeth and James had the capacity to think logically at that moment, that they actually did not know these wolves from anyone or anywhere. That they had no reason to trust them. That they could be walking into a trap for all they knew. There could be no sickness, no dying Alpha, no sleeping Luna. This could all be an elaborate trap to kill their Alpha, to steal their territory.Kenneth made very valid points, all things considered.Kenneth was willing to suspend disbelief, to trust in the good nature of these strange wolves he had never met before, and to blindly follow his Alpha's command, believing they were doing the right thing. Believing they had the moon's protection."All I ask," Kenneth stressed, again, as the sun rose. "That you grant me one simple request."Kenneth'
James had asked her a few questions, on the way to the pack, but nothing more than that. Elizabeth hadn't minded answering, and truthfully, she thought it was good for her. And for him.If they both knew the other had a fiancé, if they both spoke about them, they wouldn't focus on each other, and disrespect their vows.They were silent the rest of the drive through.They pulled up to the boundary, and there was no way she would have known that except that the truck in front of them slowed down, and then passed through a thicket of trees, coming out at a clearing, and then stopped.They pulled up next to them, and everyone climbed out of the truck.The Sycamore wolves went first, though there wasn't much to worry about. There were no guard wolves that ran them down. Elizabeth almost stared in confusion. She'd sensed the Moirai wolves all through her passage to her cabin, following her, even though she'd been invited.How had no wolves thought to even glance at three trucks, piled
Elizabeth spent the whole night watching over the sleeping Luna. She wanted to be sure Selene was free from the moon's grip. And when the sun rose, the Luna rose with it, waking properly.James had stayed by her side the entire night, even though Elizabeth had begged him to go sleep. He told her he could stay awake one more night without any harm, but he couldn't leave their only pack healer unattended and without protection in a foreign pack.Kenneth had agreed with him, and tried to stay as well, but he had been awake the entire day before, and most of the previous night. Kenneth didn't have an Alpha's strength, so James had given him an order to sleep.The wolf had pouted and snarled, but an Alpha's Edict couldn't be disobeyed. And in the most blatant and daring display of breaking the Edict but still technically following it, Kenneth had shifted in his wolf form inside the sleeping Luna's tent, and curled up around Elizabeth's chair and gone to sleep.He was, technically, still
{Flashback}Elizabeth spent three days caring for the dying wolf. He hadn't woken up yet, which meant his body was healing itself, or trying to. The wounds hadn't gotten any worse. But they hadn't gotten any better either. Still he was dying, not dead, so Elizabeth continued to care for him. Changing bandages and face clothes as much as she needed to.His fever had left him drenched in sweat, so she'd been forced to bath him at least once a day, and change the bedsheets each time. It was very possible he was sweating out the toxins in his body, and she didn't want those toxins staying around.It was the fourth day after she'd pulled him from the forest that the injured wolf started to stir.Elizabeth darted to the other side of the house, near the front door. He was a strange wolf, still. Dying and injured and desperately in need of help, he was still a strange wolf in her home.She had to be ready to fight or run, if she had to.So she stayed a safe distance away as he slowly st