The pack filtered into the basement and took their places. A few pulled chairs to sit on, while some stood at the back as they watched the stage in anticipation. Declan made his way through the crowd, with Noelle and Maria both standing at the side of the stage.

Declan took his old position in the center of the stage and raised his hand. “I know the past few months have thrown you all into a pit of turmoil, and much of that was down to me having to leave for a while. I had good reason because I wasn’t in a fit condition to lead the pack.” His voice boomed over the pack and into the darkness that sat behind them. “I’m back, so I hope things can get back to normal, and for what you’ve all been put through I'm personally, very sorry.”

A few mixed mutters rose from the pack members as they jostled themselves. Declan could see that a few were apprehensive and unsettled. “How do we know you're fit to be the alpha now; you don’t have a mate?” he heard a loud voice yell from the rear of the crowd.

“This is very true, and most of you know that Cassidy left us all early, God rest her soul. Having a mate shouldn’t affect my ability as Alpha. At the same time though, it’s something I'm working on,” he replied.

“Are you gonna choose one of us?” he heard a female voice shout out.

Declan paused for a moment as he considered the question posed to him. He hadn’t even thought of choosing one of the female pack members as an alpha mate. And, if any asked for the truth, he wasn’t taken with any of the pack members that were there.

A dark-haired girl stepped forward. Declan remembered her from before, yet he wasn’t sure of her name or of her background. “Yes miss,” he asked. “You have a question?”

“Yeah! A few of us have noticed you're pretty close to her,” she said pointing at Noelle. “Are you considering her as your mate, and if so, why? After all, she is a HUNTER.”

“I want to set the record straight regarding Noelle. Indeed, she was a hunter, and she came from a long line of hunters. This was until she found out that she was a hybrid-wolf. The ones we’ve heard of, but never seen. She was betrayed as much as the rest of us, and I might add, she was betrayed in a way that’s much worse than most of us. Her inner wolf was taken from her and she was taken back to being a full human,” Declan said as a few boos rose from amidst the pack. “Not only that, she was dumped in the middle of the Arapaho forest and left for dead. She survived, and was taken in by a lone wolf from that region, and he never had a problem with her, so none of us should have a problem, either.”

“I know you're the alpha, but we don’t know if this lone wolf is alive or dead. Have you seen him, or are you just going on her story? What if she’s sneaking her way into the pack to inform the hunters of our preparations for war?” Declan heard a few cheers coming from her questioning.

“You're correct. And I need to apologize. I don’t know your name,” he said as she introduced herself as Tandy. “I’m going on information given to me by Noelle, and that is for one reason (and one reason only) —I trust her.”

Tandy tutted and waved her hand at Declan before she pushed her way back into the middle of the crowd. She was unimpressed but knew her place, all the same.

“Does anyone have anything else to add?” Declan asked the silent pack. “Good. Now, Maria’s going to take you in teams —starting on Tuesday. You’ll be going to the area where we will face off against the hunters. I’m not going to let them attack here, that would be the end of us all.”

“What about silver?” he heard a voice yell.

“Good question; that’s something Maria’s looking into. We might not be able to prevent the full effects of being hit by a silver bullet, but we might be able to lessen the impact a little. At the moment, we aren’t sure if it’ll work. A couple of days and we should be able to give you more information.”

“As long as we don’t die,” a voice yelled to loud cheers coming from the pack.

“As a final note, I know Gabriel had kept you here as prisoners in effect. You're now free to do as you always did. You can work, roam around, and hunt —as long as you keep clear of any known places the hunters visited. Noelle has a list of places that are safe,” Declan said.

Noelle turned to Maria and whispered. “I don’t have a list of areas that are safe.” Maria giggled as she leaned to Noelle.

“It’s time for you to write one up then, especially if they’re gonna trust you, this is a good way to earn that trust,” Maria replied.

Noelle still had a puzzled expression on her face. “And why do I get the feeling all this talk of alpha mate is directed at me? I can’t be an alpha mate.”

Maria rested her hand on Noelle's shoulder. “It’s a strange world, many things have happened —and can happen. Fate will decide the future for all of us.” Noelle listened to what Maria had to say and nodded.

“Pack meeting is over,” Declan yelled. “And let’s be careful out there.” He walked to the side of the stage where Noelle and Maria stood. He smiled as he stepped off the stage. “Well, how was my first speech back, as Alpha?” he asked.

Maria put her fingers in her mouth and pretended to whistle. “Bravo —Bravo,” she pretended to yell.

Noelle laughed, yet she could see that Declan and Maria had a close connection. She also felt it was something that Declan and she were lacking right now. They had a connection in other ways, but was it as meaningful as that, or was it only sex? Hmm! That’s given you something to work on Noelle.

Declan started to stack the chairs back at the side of the basement. It made a change to have it back to normal with no chemistry equipment. All of that was now pushed against the far wall and out of sight, and no blood-covered plastic sheeting that hung from the walls were there, either. The mess from the fights Gabriel had organized were untraceable now.

Declan stacked the last chair and paused for a moment. I wonder how Gabriel’s coping as a human? He snapped out of the thought and asked Maria and Noelle if they were ready to leave. The time had ticked by, and they all had a big day to start off the week. Maria had planned to pay all the bills and check on her silver supplements, and Noelle would soon find out they were going to see her parents.

As it stood, Declan had no idea what their reaction would be. Was it right that Edmund had wiped all of her family’s memory, and would they be able to remember anything at all?

Maria walked ahead of them up the hallway to the stairs. Noelle walked at the side of Declan and he wondered why she hadn’t linked her arm through his —like she did on every other occasion.

He picked up her arm and linked it through his and pulled her closer to him. “Don’t you think it feels better when we are together?” he asked.

Noelle smiled, and Declan looked deep into her eyes. “Yeah, it does feel better.”

“Good. Tomorrow we’ll see what your parents think about it all.”

Noelle had a tear run down her cheek. “What, we are going to see my parents?”

“We are indeed. Soon.”

“Holy crap!”

* * *

“Geez, Maria, you’re up early,” Declan said as he walked into his office.

Maria looked up from the computer. She screwed her mouth up until a fine red line appeared where her lips were. “I was thinking about what I said about this silver thing. I've been doing some searching. Cure for silver doesn’t bring up many results in a search. But when I check for heavy metal poisoning I've found two things that can, or should I say, I hope they can help,” she explained in detail. “I found natural ways to help remove heavy metals and toxins, and it seems the best are modified citrus pectin, alpha lipoic acid, vitamin C, and two other natural ingredients. Dandelion leaf and milk thistle, too.”

“Damn, that’s a lot to take in, and we have to take all of them?” Declan asked.

“No, these are some of the best. I reckon we stick with just three. The alpha lipoic acid, the citrus pectin, and the vitamin C. All of these I can get easily, although, I might have to go to Colorado Springs,” Maria said.

Declan stared at the computer screen as he leaned on his desk. Maria closed her eyes as the musk from his inner wolf wafted over her. Her mind flashed back to when they had their close encounter by the river, and how Declan had taken her into his arms. Maria would have to hold onto that memory, because that would be all it could ever be. Just a memory.

“What about testing, how do we do that?” Declan asked.

Maria lifted her head and grimaced. “I’ve volunteered myself as lab rat. I think what we’ll have to do is get some silver and then I'll touch it,” Maria explained to the shocked Declan. “Then I’ll dose myself up on these supplements and touch it again and see what happens. If there's a difference, we can get the pack a bottle each and we can all take them. If it doesn’t work, I’m gonna have some seriously sore fingers for a long while.”

“This all seems rather drastic.”

“It’s better than the other option —hopefully,” she replied. “I choose to be sore over dead, any damn day of the week.”

“I shouldn’t let you test it on yourself. I do know, since the witch and Dustin changed me back, I have a little bit of immunity toward silver. I wish I knew how much, especially coming up to wartime.”

“Nothing’s stopping you from taking them. It might give you a bit more of an advantage,” Maria said.

“I would love to say, ‘I wish Edmund were still alive,’ so he could make up some more elixir. He couldn’t be trusted though, and he would (more than likely) slip us the one that makes us human,” Declan said as he stood up from his desk. “We could’ve given you a lift into Colorado Springs, but we are off to see Noelle’s parents. Oh, the joy of uncertainty!”

“Declan, you make it sound like all doom and gloom?”

Declan laughed as he heard a sound outside the office door. He walked over and pulled the door open. Noelle had bent over to tie the lace on her boot. “Were you listening?” Declan asked, now with a grin on his face.

“Of course not! Can’t you see I was tying my laces?” Noelle tutted as she walked into the office.

“If I didn’t trust you, I’d think you were a little jealous,” Declan added.

“Huh? Jealous of what? I know Maria’s a close friend, that’s nothing to be jealous of. Geez Declan, why would you think I was jealous?” Noelle asked in a willful tone. “Jealous my ass, that’s for kids. Being jealous, I don’t know but you are being… ridiculous.” Noelle shook her head and walked over to the couch that used to be a bright orange. It now had a checkered throw-over, which covered it. She sat and clasped her hands together and looked as both Maria and Declan stared at her.

“What!”

“Nothing at all,” Declan said.

Noelle looked over at Maria. “You think these supplements will work?” she asked.

“So, you were listening?” Declan asked.

“Declan, I have ears. I can’t help it if the door’s thin and sound comes through it,” Noelle said as her face started to go a pinkish hue.

“If you say so.”

“So… Dec, what time are we going to see my parents?” Noelle asked in a happier tone.

Declan looked at the clock on the wall. He saw it was time for the coffee shop to open and if they grabbed a cup for the trip, they could be at her parents before ten.

“We can go anytime from now. Maria is going to pay the bills and to Colorado Springs to the health shop,” Declan said.

“Where are you gonna get some silver from?” Noelle asked.

Declan looked at Maria. They'd not considered that fact. Maria couldn’t exactly go to the jeweler and ask for some silver —and then not touch it. “We hadn’t thought about it,” Declan replied.

“Don’t panic. I’ve got plenty at home,” Noelle said with a smile.

“Yeah, but if it’s true that Edmund wiped all traces of you from home, don’t you think he would’ve emptied your room?” Declan asked.

“Edmund was book smart, you don’t think I left stuff lying around, do you? I’m not the tidiest girl in the world, you must know that, or you should if you’ve been paying attention to me,” Noelle replied.

Declan was becoming annoyed at Noelle’s constant attempts to make waves, but he didn’t react. “That's you're department, I’ll leave it up to you.”

“Come on, let’s get our asses into gear and get moving,” Noelle said as she stood up from the couch and stretched her arms backward.

Declan looked at her chest. He put his hands to his eyes and rubbed. He dropped them and shook his head. “I think you need a bra, I’m not sure your parents would take too kindly to your nipples being pointed at them,” he made a point of mentioning.

Maria giggled as Noelle looked down and saw her nipples pointing through her t-shirt like bullets. “I’ve got a bra upstairs you can have. I think we are around the same size,” Maria said.

Noelle had a cheeky grin on her face. “Are we Declan? Are Maria and I the same size in that department?” she replied, holding her breasts and shaking them up and down.

“Jesus Noelle, have you no shame?”

Maria stood from behind the desk with the large bunch of bills and money. She placed them in a small canvas bag and started to walk from the office. She looked at Noelle. “Okay, come upstairs with me and we’ll see what we can find for you,” she said. “Oh, and Declan, do me a favor and write down those three supplements I have to ask for while I’m out.

Declan nodded as he sat at his desk and grabbed a pen and paper. Noelle turned from the office doorway and put her hands on her breasts again. She plumped them as she stared at Declan.

“Don’t move, we’ll be back in ten minutes.”

“I’m not going anywhere.”

Declan scribbled on the paper and then rested his head on his hands. He sat deep in thought and wondered what would happen if his destiny (or fate) as Maria put it, truly led him to have Noelle as a mate. It was unheard of. A female alpha mate hybrid. Jesus, can my life get any more complicated?

“How you react emotionally is a choice —in any situation.”