Chapter 5

'Well, she'd gotten the arrow out' Raphael thought as he lay on the ground waiting for the pain to subside.

He had growled when it came out, and was afraid he'd scared her. "I'm sorry." She had said once she'd pulled it out. He had reassured her that he was fine.

He could hear her, his mate, standing on the ground a few feet from him. Raph had heard her move for something then stop. Now she wasn't moving. Just standing there. He was tempted to look but didn't, he was waiting for his wound to be mostly healed.

"Would you. Do you-" She stuttered, "Would you like to go in the house?"

Raphael was surprised that she'd let him into her home, but he wasn't going to object, he could tell that the wound was nearly gone, she was lucky that she'd gotten the arrow's head out or else he would've been in trouble.

"Sure, wanna help me up?" He asked.

She sighed. "Okay." She'd mumbled but he could hear her just fine.

She reached her hand down and he stretched his out. They touched for the first time, skin on skin contact. His wolf howled with happiness, Raph couldn't help but smile.

He walked toward her house slowly, slightly limping, as it still kinda hurt to breathe. She walked behind him, he didn't really like that fact, all of his instincts told him to protect her and stand behind her and guard her, 'but I guess she does have the weapons' he thought.

When they were around twenty metres from her house, he heard her trip on a log, and a small yelp escape her lips. He turned around afraid of what he might see, to his surprise he saw her standing with a look of shock on her face, he was still worried.

She looked at him and said, "I'm alright." With a nervous smile on her face, he saw that she had a dimple on her right cheek, 'trying to reassure me'. It made his heart swell, though he didn't show it on his face he just turned and kept walking upset with himself that he hadn't been there to catch her and steady her.

He arrived at the door first, while he waited for her to come and open her door, he smelled something weird. This house. Was not her house. If it was it would've reeked of her scent (in a good way) this house didn't. Her scent was there, but there was also a male's, a female's and a babies. He had to swallow back a growl at the males presence.

She opened the door silently and walked in, he followed getting more and more suspicious by the second. 'Who were these people, they weren't her family, if they were their scents would be mixed with hers, we're they friends of hers, but who was the boy?' He asked himself. 'Okay, one thing at a time Raph. What's her name, he didn't even know his mate's name.

"What's your name?" She'd seemed deep in thought and it took her a second to answer.

"Brooke." She said with a slight hesitation.

He smiled "Brooke." He repeated out loud. Brooke, he loved it, he looked at her to see that she had smiled back. A genuine smile, not a nervous one.

"My name is Raphael." He said.

~~~~~~~~~~

Brooke smiled again with a dazed look in her eyes, it warmed his heart to see that she had liked his name.

She turned suddenly and said, "Would you like some water?" She asked.

Raphael nodded and said yes. She led him to a kitchen and said, "You can sit here. If you like."

Her voice trembled slightly on that last word. He grew slightly worried, maybe this had been too much, he probably should've broken this to her a little more gently.

He sat down, and he saw a baby's high chair and remembered that this wasn't her house, what was she doing here? Did she need help? Had she been kidnapped and was being held against her will?!

All these thoughts made him angry, he clenched his fist under the table and tried to remain calm, he raised his eyes and saw Brooke walking to the table with two glasses of water in her hands. She put them down and he saw her hands shake a bit. She quickly hid them under the table.

He wanted to comfort her and hold her, but he refrained. He knew it would probably just make things more confusing, and he didn't want her confused. So he asked the first thing on his mind.

"Who's the boy?" He asked with a slight accusatory ring to his voice. 'Shit' he said in his head he wasn't angry with her.

"The boy?" She asked confused, "Oh you mean Paul. Um, he's— I'm his nanny." She said nervously, avoiding his eyes. Her stuttering and hesitancy would've seemed cute to Raphael if he wasn't so worried about her mental well-being at that moment.

"Hmm." He hummed. He was relieved to hear that she was a nanny to the boy. That just meant that she worked here. Her eyebrows scrunched together in confusion at his answer.

He decided that he would let her ask all the questions and refrain from asking any.

"So." He started, "You probably have some questions." He looked at her as he spoke.

"Well I asked most of them already." She said with a sweet, little smile, "But I'll re-ask one, what's a Beta doing all the way out here, so far away from your pack?"

"Well," he paused for awhile to gather his thoughts, he wasn't sure if she could handle knowing that there were wolves on her island. So he went with a safe-ish route. "My Alpha has some business in Victoria and he told me to go with a couple scouts and do some recon to check up on things here." He finished with a smile, that faded slightly when he noticed the confusion on her face.

"Why? I mean is this your territory?" She asked.

"Yes." He was still smiling. Proud to see how quickly his mate put things together. He was going to need to tell her about the whole mate thing. 'Later' he told himself.

She gave a nervous laugh. Then straightened and asked, "What's with your necklace?"

"Oh, this?" He saw where she was pointing, and held his magical chain up.

She nodded.

"This helps to keep my clothes on when I shift." He said, smiling. He couldn't help but think about her naked body and his intwined together.

She made a weird squeaky sound, but before he could react, Thomas (his gamma) mind linked him.

-Hey, pal I don't know what's gotten into you but I have some bad news.-

-What is it?- Raphael replied frustratedly.

-Well, don't freak out, but I followed you.- he stopped, feeling Raph's anger through their link.

-Yeah, I know, I got James to track you. Now I don't care what you're doing in that house but Alpha needs us to get to the west coast now because we're leaving tomorrow.- Raphael shot out of his seat and bumped the table

-Tomorrow!- he yelled at his Gamma.

He turned around so he was facing Brooke to see that she was holding his cup that had nearly fallen and was placing it back on the table. He was amazed at his mates reflexes, and everything about her. He'd only known her for ten minutes and he knew that she was intelligent, kind, beautiful, and that she could see him in wolf form. He was still curious about that last one but it would have to wait.

"What?" Her voice brought him out of his thoughts. He didn't know how to tell her that they were mates. Fated to be with one another.

"Nothing." He replied with a smile. She laughed nervously at that, He laughed, he couldn't help it, she was adorable. Her eyes went wide. Then she smiled and bit her lip, he wanted to kiss her soft, pink lips. But he couldn't he had a job to do.

"Well, I'll go then." He said. Frustrated with the situation.

"Oh, um okay then. Y-you can head out the way you came in." Brooke told him. He turned to leave.

"Raphael!"