"Leave. Now." The expression on Blake's face as he stormed back onto the ward deterred any protests. The low growl rumbling deep within his chest, sent the majority of the nurses skittering out into the corridor. The warrior he'd assigned to Hannah was quick to follow.

Hannah looked between the two men, exhaustion and concern battling one another behind her eyes. What now? she protested silently, too numb to speak the words out loud.

Jenni, wrapping the last bandage around Hannah's torn feet, hesitated. She threw her Alpha a startled look. Her lips parted; whether to ask a question or protest being forced to leave her patient, Hannah wasn't sure.

But Doc's slight shake of his head warned his daughter to think twice, and she remained silent. Bowing her head in respect she reluctantly left the ward, her eyes flitting constantly between Hannah and Blake, worry etched across her pale face.

"You lied to me," Blake accused as soon as the door closed behind her, stalking around the bed towards Hannah.

She looked bewildered. "I - what?"

His voice remained dangerously calm, but his eyes were hard with anger. "I know the truth. I know what you are. A werewolf, for Goddess sake!" The accusation was filled with betrayal. "Why the pretence? Why lead me to believe you were human all this time? What are you hiding?" The questions came spilling out all at once, like powder falling from a bag.

He can't be serious? She let out a sort of half laugh - a disbelieving exhalation of breath: "I'm sorry, you're going to have to repeat that," she said incredulously.

"What. Are. You. Hiding?" he bit out, clearly struggling to maintain his composure.

"No," she reiterated. "The first part. The bit about me being a- a-"

"Werewolf!" He glared at her; his face crinkled up in disbelief. "Don't expect me to believe you can't remember that as well?"

"Believe me, Alpha, I never expect you to believe anything I say," she replied, her face twisting at the disbelief in his voice. "But you're wrong." Blake began to shake his head in denial, and she clenched her teeth, trying hard not to flinch as she stared into his black eyes. "As far as I'm aware I've always been human. This is a mistake."

In fact, it was so utterly ridiculous that it was almost too difficult to deny with a straight face. She wanted to laugh and congratulate them both on a good joke. But the expression on his face told her that he was deadly serious.

Hannah watched him stalk around the bed, looking at her with dark eyes. Dangerous. Unpredictable. Eyes that reminded her of the black irises of the man in black. His wolf was close to the surface, watching her every move with a predatory gaze, but she had no idea what he was thinking, or how in control his wolf might be.

Taking care to move slowly so as not to aggravate him, she pulled herself off the bed. Ignoring the pain that shot through the soles of her bandaged feet, her hands spread in a gesture of honesty. "I swear to you, Blake. I have no idea what you're talking about."

He uttered a low growl of disbelief and, unconsciously, she took a step backwards, the base of her back pressing against the mattress. "It has to be a mistake!" she repeated; this time appealing to the doctor who hovered in the background, clutching a piece of paper in his hand.

"There's no mistake," Blake growled, preventing the Doc from answering. "You're a wolf. It's written there in black and white." He gestured towards the blood test results. He was breathing hard, but somehow, he kept his voice calm; the legendary patience she'd heard so much about showing through.

Still, she had to resist the urge to place the bed between them.

"You're either a rogue. In which case I should have killed you on the spot the first day I found you -" She flinched at the word kill. "- or you belong to another pack that's out there searching for you right now. By law that means I'm effectively guilty of kidnapping you, and keeping you from your Alpha. Either way, your presence here puts my pack in danger."

In danger? Groping for sense, she countered: "I would know if there was a wolf running around in my head. I'm guessing they're a little hard to miss, right?"

Blake raised his eyebrows.

"If there was a wolf talking to me, I think it would probably jog my memory just a little bit, don't you?" She blanched at his unyielding expression, her mind racing. "Believe me-" she continued desperately, "- if there was a voice in my head right now, I'd have told you about it! I'd think I was going crazy! Maybe I am going crazy -"

She broke off, appalled at where her train of thought was leading her. Surely, she wasn't considering believing them? Scrambling for some way of proving their insanity, she dredged up a conversation she'd had with Jenni about Alphas just yesterday. "Isn't your wolf supposed to be able to sense other wolves? Talk to them? Jenni told me an Alpha can make the wolf inside submit to them."

Blake looked uncomfortable, the black in his eyes fading slightly. "Rothan hasn't sensed a wolf in you," he admitted.

"Of course not!" She flung her hands in the air, exasperated. "Because there isn't one! There's no wolf inside my head!" This wasn't happening. After everything that had already happened to her tonight, this wasn't happening.

"This is impossible... you're wrong!" She threw her protest towards Doc, who shook his head in puzzlement. He reminded her of a scientist studying an experiment that wasn't behaving quite as expected.

He approached the bed clutching the test results and - frustrated that neither of them was listening to her - she snatched the sheet of paper from him. Ignoring the sting across her palms, she studied it carefully. There had to have been a mistake.

The official-looking document was full of many scientific phrases, percentages and other numerical readings she didn't understand. An official looking logo in the corner of the sheet told her that the tests had been undertaken by a company with inside knowledge; Lykoscorp.

Lower down the page the traditional white blood count, triglyceride and blood sugar readings were joined by the one phrase that stood out clearly in thick black ink. It read:

'Lupus Verspellis - 99.999% match.'

Latin, of course it had to be in Latin. She squinted, trying to dredge up any memories at all of the dead language. Lupus meant wolf; she knew... Verspellis... to change? Or shape changing?

She blinked.

Languages weren't her best subject, but even an idiot could translate. To put it simply - Werewolf. Holding her hand over her mouth she began to laugh hysterically. This was just ludicrous.

Both men studied her oddly.

Like a dam bursting, the laughter kept coming. Somewhat hysterical, but keeping at bay the panic she'd been fighting for weeks. Clutching at her stomach with a vice-like grip, it tore at her insides, desperate to be unleashed.

"I fail to see the funny side," Blake said stiffly.

She looked at his stubbornly serious face, and the giggle bubbling up inside of her turned into a forlorn hiccup. He was right of course; it wasn't at all funny. But the sheer ridiculousness of the whole situation had left her two options: laugh or cry... and she'd cried enough.

"Of course you don't," she agreed, trying to stop her shoulders from shaking. "You're not over here being accused of... of..." She fought for words. "Whatever it is that you're accusing me of. What is it that you're accusing me of exactly?"

"You lied," he said bluntly. "You deceived us into thinking you were human and you put my pack in harm's way." He jutted his chin out at her aggressively.

She sobered quickly, staring at him, her mouth once again opened in disbelief. But this time, from somewhere deep within, her ire rose. Oh no you don't.

"How have I deceived you?" she burst out, aggravated now despite the clear danger glowing in his eyes. "At what moment did I give you the impression that I was anyone other than what you see before you right now?"

"You -" he started, but didn't get very far.

"First of all," she declared, her temper flaring. "I never told you I was human. You assumed it." She jabbed her finger towards him. "It was easy to do because, I thought I was human. But I never declared it to you one way or the other. Any assumptions you made are yours, not mine."

"Hannah -"

"Second of all," she cut him off again, ignoring the deep growl that was rumbling in his throat, "I have had a very long day. I've been threatened, attacked and accused of duplicity. I am in pain. I am tired and I would appreciate just a tiny bit of consideration on your part at -" She glanced at the clock on the wall. "Three o clock in the morning!"

"That's enou -"

"And finally," she continued recklessly, aware she was pushing it right now, but too tired of all the accusations to care any longer. "Finally. I'm going to repeat this one last time. Regardless of what any blood tests show you, I am telling you. There is no wolf inside my head!"

***

Her outburst was spectacular to behold. He held his breath as she gestured wildly, her red hair whipping around her face, her eyes shining brightly with indignation and her cheeks flushed with anger at his continued accusations.

His rising frustrations were eloquently offset by her obvious indignation, and even his wolf was forced to concede that she appeared as surprised as he was at the results.

Unfortunately, she wouldn't stop interrupting long enough for him to admit it.

Almost shouting her final denial, Hannah pushed away from the bed. In her flare of temper, she appeared to have forgotten the lacerations on her feet; her legs buckled abruptly, she cried out softly as she began to fall.

Instinctively, he stepped forward to catch her. Again.

Time seemed to stand still as they stood quietly together by the side of the hospital bed. His arms wrapped around her trembling body, and his face buried in her hair. Breathing in her unusual scent, it washed over him; the muggy soup of humanity and unexplainable aroma that was beginning to define her.

It was stronger after her outburst and a hint of apple once again seeped through the murk, only to be swallowed up by the cloying mix. Like balm on a burn, it soothed the fire within him.

Rothan whined, and he could feel his wolf's confusion as primal instinct fought against undeniable attraction.

Hannah struggled to pull away for a brief moment, but he tightened his grip. Eventually she gave up the fight and relaxed, leaning against his broad chest. He felt her heart rate slow as his deep, even breathing calm her down.

If anyone had thought to ask him, Blake wouldn't have been able to explain the pull between them or voice the complicated feelings she evoked despite his mistrust. She mumbled something into his chest, and he leaned away so he could hear her properly.

"Pardon?"

"If I'm putting your pack in danger, I'll go. I'll leave right now," she repeated softly.

He growled, soft and low. "Dammit Hannah, that's not what I want"

"Then what do you want, Blake?" she snapped back, her temper flaring again. "Because you keep asking me for answers that I can't give you, reasons that I don't know!"

He didn't answer, but raised one hand and twisted an errant lock of her hair between his fingers. She froze mid-sentence, and her tracked her eyes as they watched his hand intently.

The doctor coughed discreetly, and Blake caught himself, dropping the lock of hair abruptly as though a spell had been broken. Once away from her scent, his head cleared. He was obviously more exhausted than he'd thought.

"It's possible," Doc ventured, in a tone of voice that suggested he was about to drop another bombshell. "Her wolf could be missing, Alpha. I've never heard of amnesia causing this kind of thing before, but - " and now he showed a hint of real interest, " - there's more to the blood work that I think you should take a look at."

Blake raised his head wearily and closed his eyes.

Now he tells us? Rothan paced up and down. He'd calmed somewhat in the wake of Hannah's explosion, but Blake could still feel him, itching to relieve his agitation.

You didn't exactly give him chance before, did you? Blake pointed out.

They attacked us!

I know.

"What is it?" Hannah sniffed, moving carefully along the bed towards the headboard, tendrils of her hair clinging to her pale face. The doctor gave her another curious look and sat down in one of the nearby chairs.

"I found a foreign substance in your blood. A drug of some sort."

Rothan let out a deep growl, that Blake couldn't quite control.

"Again, I wasn't sure it was relevant at first!" Doc explained, defensively. "But now I've broken it down... you ought to know that it's not something she would have taken willingly. There was wolfsbane involved, Alpha."

"She was poisoned?" Blake snarled. His eyes narrowed, flashing black once again.

Doc raised his hands in a pacifying gesture. "I can't analyse all the elements, it's not my area of expertise, but... I believe it may be traces of a suppressant." They shared a look of disgust. Suppressants were used rarely and only in extreme circumstances.

Hannah's eyes widened with confusion. "What's a suppressant?" she asked.

"A drug used to control and repress your wolf," Blake snapped, his mind running through the possibilities. "Keep you docile, prevent you from shifting."

Prisoner, rogue, victim? The options raged around his head. She could be central to any one of half a dozen different scenarios. Exactly how much danger did she represent? To his pack? To him?

His wolf shifted nervously within him. Though he'd be resisting her presence from the very beginning, Rothan didn't like the direction his thoughts were taking them. But as Alpha, they had to consider all the possibilities.

"If her wolf were already suppressed when she received the head injury..." The doctor trailed off, and Blake stopped short as that possibility rolled over him.

"It could have been enough to block it out entirely?" Blake asked doubtfully. "Is that even possible?"

Doc leaned back in his chair and shrugged. "It's not. Or at least, it never has been before, not like this." He rubbed the side of his nose with one long finger and squinted up at the ceiling thoughtfully.

"Explanation." Hannah demanded.

Blake studied her through hooded eyes. She still leaned against the bed precariously, her skin pale, her eyes darting back and forth between them.

"Please?" she added as an afterthought.

She was trying to look assertive and in control, but the fear in her eyes was giving her away. He felt a flicker of admiration, she clearly had a strong will buried behind her memory loss.

She's telling the truth. Admit it. His wolf smirked.

Go away. A pause.

She has a wolf.

Yes.

That changes things.

It doesn't change anything. She's still a danger to the pack. His wolf huffed, but said nothing else.

He forced his thoughts back to the here and now where Doc was attempting to explain their discovery to Hannah in his usual stoic manner.

"I believe your wolf is the key to a very complicated puzzle," he had begun cautiously. "You asked me the other day why you can remember some things but not others?"

She nodded.

"I couldn't give you a very satisfactory answer then, but I think I can now." His eyes flicked to his Alpha. "Do you think our wolves care about our favourite colours and foods? No. Because these things are very much human concerns. Wolves are much more primal in their thinking. People. Places. Pack." He gave her a sympathetic look. "I don't know what happened to you," he admitted. "But what I do know is that you had a drug in your system designed to block out your wolf. At some point you received a head injury serious enough to cause you to lose consciousness and bring about a concussion."

She touched the side of her head gently, a look of dawning understanding on her face.

"When that happened I believe your wolf, already restrained and unable to fight the injury, was somehow blocked out completely." He looked at her with deep sympathy.

"You have lost one whole side of yourself. An essential part of what makes you, you. You can remember your favourite colour because it is a trivial, whimsical thing. A tiny part of your human side that is, technically, unaffected by your memory loss." He leaned forward as he spoke, clenching his hands together on his lap. "But the big things- the things that connect you to who you are, have been lost to you- because right now, you're not you."

Blake rubbed the nape of his neck and grimaced. "I've never heard of it."

"I've only ever witnessed one occasion where a werewolf 'lost' their wolf. Over eighty years ago, when I was just a young boy," Doc reminisced.

Hannah blinked, and Blake saw a flicker of curiosity take over her fear. Werewolves lived longer than the average human. But Doc was timeless. His features had frozen at some point in his life making aging him extremely difficult. Blake guessed his age to be somewhere past a hundred, and Hannah studied the lines on his face with something akin to astonishment.

"What happened to him?" Blake asked tightly, his eyes flickering in the soft light.

"Oh, his case was very different," Doc reassured them matter-of-factly. "He was a prisoner of the Council. A very dangerous murderer deemed too deadly to be allowed freedom, but too powerful to keep controlled in one of the prisons. The usual solution would be execution of course. But if I remember correctly, he was protected politically..." Blake scowled in impatience.

"The short version, Doc!" he snapped, and Hannah touched his arm; an unconscious gesture it appeared, aimed at calming him down.

His eyes widened and he stared at her hand for a long moment before she realised what she'd done and moved it swiftly back onto her lap, twisting her fingers together in silent distress.

He peered at her with an intense interest that brought a rush of colour to her cheeks, but said nothing.

"The solution they came up with," Doc continued, oblivious to the silent exchange, "involved a coven of witches who cast a powerful spell to strip- or effectively- kill his wolf. They left the human part of him behind to live out the remainder of his life as one of them." He nodded at their astounded expressions. "I told you I'd smelt something similar to her scent somewhere before, didn't I?" he smirked. "This is what a werewolf smells like when they have no wolf. It is deeply disturbing to our wolves because it should. Not. Be."

Told you so.

Hush.

"What happened to him? The man with no wolf?" Hannah pressed.