"Yes, you do,

" Greta spoke from the front door.

"You have a mate. Thank the Goddess you remember. We need to find a way to get her back.

"

"I don't understand,

" he replied, a distant look in his eyes as if he were stuck, wheels spinning in his mind trying to retrieve the memories of her.

"I can scent her,

" his lips quirked up into the beginning of a smile.

"But… there is nothing in my memories of her. She actually exists? Are you serious?

"

"Yes,

" Greta chuckled, her eyes watering as she walked forward to grab his face between her hands.

"You have a beautiful, wonderful, kind and generous mate who is the Luna of this pack, brother. I assure you. It is no lie. Everyone here can attest to it.

"

"Luna?

" he repeated, his eyes growing larger.

"What do you mean by that?

"

"I mean you have marked her, you have mated, and everyone in this pack has felt the truth of your union and your divinely appointed leadership. We all felt it… tonight,

" Greta chuckled.

"It was the most beautiful, hopeful thing that this pack has felt in a long time.

"

He swallowed, his mouth having gone dry.

"It is truly Samhain tonight?

"

"Yes, brother,

" she smiled.

"Goddess I'm glad you awoke. I was so worried,

" she pulled him into a hug as Sam and Sylvia came into the room behind her.

"I don't understand what happened then,

" he spoke, trying desperately to wrap his mind around what she was saying.

"How did I end up at the outpost?

"

Greta looked back at her mate and Sylvia, hoping they could help her explain it. How were they going to relay the details of everything that occurred tonight much less over the last several weeks when he couldn't remember any of it? That was such a huge task.

"Are you pregnant, Greta?

" Graeme gasped, pulling back from her to look at the soft but unmistakable swell of her belly.

"You are pregnant! You smell different.

"

Greta giggled.

"Yes. You already knew that.

"

"We are having twins,

" Sam added, walking up next to Greta and putting an arm around her shoulders.

Graeme's mouth hung open before he chuckled.

"Like us?

"

"I doubt you and August are having twins. The genes are carried by females,

" Greta laughed and then caught her mistake, her eyes going wide in realization. Of course Graeme wouldn't remember that his mate was pregnant.

"Oh, you mean like us—like how you and I are twins? Oh… yeah, yeah, yeah,

" she nodded and giggled nervously, somehow thinking that would cover her slip up and he might miss it.

"Wait…

" he took a step back, a deep frown settling over his features. Greta could feel the air around him change, and she gulped.

"My mate is… my mate is pregnant?

"

She could see the moment this news truly came home to him. She could feel it.

Graeme stood frozen, hearing the words that his sister had thoughtlessly said and then hearing in her tone how she regretted saying it. She had let a truth slip that he wasn't prepared for, and now he was left reeling even more so than before.

He had a mate. He had a mate he didn't remember. That in itself was a lot to digest. But he had a child on the way? His true mate—the one whose scent this belonged to—was taken somewhere and was carrying his child? And he couldn't remember any of this?

It was like realizing the most brilliant, inconceivable thing had been given and taken away in the same breath. It stole the air from his lungs.

Why did this feel like some sort of cruel joke? Or why did it feel… like something so appropriate for the pattern of events in his life? He deserved this, didn't he? He left his pack. He failed his pack. And then according to Greta, he was welcomed back with a Luna by his side and a coming heir, surely giving this pack a renewed hope for the future, only to then lose it all? To fail them all over again? And to fail his mate?

"How did I not protect them?

" he asked through gritted teeth.

"You are surely in this state because you tried,

" Sam spoke up from next to his sister.

"It was a vampire.

"

"What?

" he scoffed.

"A vampire?

"

"It is true, son. And it is a long story. Perhaps we should fill you in,

" Sylvia gestured for them all to sit on the couch.

Filling Graeme in on everything that had occurred and all that was revealed about the elders was going to take all night, but it was necessary if he was not able to remember it himself. They needed him. And perhaps the information would help jog his own memory about the events as they unfolded.

Graeme learned about how his mate was actually human and part of the clandestine pandemic experiment that Eliade was participating in. He heard about how she had overpowered Marius and had other impressive alyko abilities—even healing Greta at one point.

Discovering that his mate was alyko was quite the surprise, but it brought him a strange sense of comfort and happiness. She would face a lot of obstacles as an alyko, even more so as an alyko Luna, but it made him proud that his mate—the one the Moon Goddess had chosen for him—was of this very special kind of lycan. In his mind, the alyko were more than just lycans without wolves. They were sacred.

"She marked you as well,

" Greta told him, shocking him from his thoughts.

"Marked… me?

" he repeated.

"At the full moon ritual,

" Greta smirked.

"I participated in a full moon ritual? With my mate? And she marked me?

" He asked each question slowly, his voice getting lower each time as he tried to process the details. This memory was definitely one he wanted back.

He pulled the collar of his shirt to the side, trying to see the mark.. When his fingers ran over it instead, the touch set off a jolt of electricity that he felt in his bones.