Chapter 4

Gannon had lost his shit as soon as Tyler had stepped through the door to the CICU. “MATE, MATE, MATE!” He was rolling around in Tyler’s head with his tongue hanging out of the side of his mouth like a damn puppy and not the Alpha of the largest pack this side of the mountain range, hell the northern hemisphere.

Tyler felt it as soon as they entered the hospital but knew pack business could be handled quickly, then he would search for his mate. He quietly mused to himself how funny it would be if it were Lorrianna. The charge nurse on the phone sounded like the kind of feisty he needed in his life. Though she was feisty, you could tell her staff were important to her when she automatically agreed to take on a THIRD shift so the other nurses could get some rest. Luna vibes for days and that was what he was hoping for. The feeling grew as they got closer to the CICU and he was sending prayers to the Moon Goddess; it was her. He would be happy even if it wasn’t her, but something about her struck him as intriguing. Not just her looks but her intelligence. Finishing high school at 12?! How was she not a doctor, surgeon, or scientist? Her employee file alone screamed Luna material. Strong mate material. Leader material. Alpha material.

His feelings were confirmed when he entered the CICU and was drawn like a moth to a flame to the nurse’s station. He could sense her, smell her, and hear her. Under the desk? He could only see the top of a short, curvy woman’s dark auburn hair with her shirt half lifted. Attempting to apply deodorant hastily while squatting as best she could under the counter. Her full breasts and thick hips were not well hidden in the scrubs, and Gannon was all for it. “She is perfect, she is ours. MATE!!”

When she looked up at his comment regarding the partridge in a pear tree, Tyler grinned like a teenage boy. It was Lorrianna. Her dark auburn hair was braided in a fishbone style with loose hairs flowing out gracefully surrounding her face like it was intentional. Judging by the fact that she looked like she hadn’t slept well in the last month, Tyler assumed they just happened to fall perfectly because she was their mate and she was perfection. She smelled like vanilla with a touch of warm chocolate chip cookies and he wanted to eat her up. Her large, dark chocolate eyes only made her appear more innocent than the confident charge nurse he had heard on the phone. He noticed a slight shimmer to her eyes that didn’t appear to be a trick of the light. When she stood to her full height of about 5’ 7”, it took the strength of the Moon Goddess to subdue himself and Gannon from jumping over the counter and marking her. She was thick with a slight stomach that he wanted to nuzzle and use as a pillow. Her hips and thighs made him painfully aware that he was going to have to have her sooner rather than later.

Gannon was beside himself with joy to the point of exhaustion. “Mark her. Take her. Make her ours. She is ours. Our perfect mate." Gannon did have a point. Her full lips looked softer than the photo and Tyler was thankful for the fact that he had his leather jacket draped in front of his stomach hiding his uncomfortable arousal that Lorrianna incited in him. Her skin was creamy with just a hint of rosiness to her cheeks that Tyler knew was her normal and not just an outward expression of the embarrassment she was feeling.

When Tyler had leaned in to complete the introduction while holding her hand, he was struggling to maintain his composure. The way she hid her breathy sigh mixed with the scent of her arousal at his touch and voice had him ready to place her on the nurse station counter and show her why he was an Alpha. Her alpha. Why was she not reacting in the manner he was accustomed to seeing when one finds their fated mate? Strange indeed. He could sense a wolf. Deep within the recesses of her soul, he knew one lingered. Had she not shifted? Was she unaware of what she was? How was that possible?!

As if on cue, Dr. Atwood emerged from the break room and froze in the doorway. I mind linked him to act as if he didn’t know me, but his look of shock at my presence may not help.

“Alpha! What are you doing here?! Is Elizabeth okay? I didn’t feel anything through the bond. Are the pups alright?!” Bruce Atwood pushed out through the link and almost seemed to relax at sensing his mate and 3 pups settling in for dinner safe and sound.

“Yes, Bruce, they are fine. I have acquired this hospital for the pack and came for an inspection. This young lady. This perfect Moon Goddess-blessed nurse is my mate apparently. Though she is obviously attracted to me, she has a wolf, but I can’t quite sense her the way I can others.” Tyler inquired, looking at Bruce to see if he was aware of why.

“Alpha, I sensed her wolf when I was hired here, but she seems to almost not realize it is there. I am not certain she pulled her first shift.”

Interesting.