Finding Shadow BOOK ONE

Isabella looked so tiny, hooked up to the monitors, her huge personality muted...

Shadow never left her side. He was wearing borrowed clothes from someone who stopped by, but the faces were all a blur at this point. Dragging his hands along his stubble, Shadow looked on with red-rimmed eyes at his helpless mate, praying she would just wake up.

Once the news spread of the Romano's resurrection from the dead, old pack members that remembered when the family were the pack Beta's started coming by to pay their respects, and the young Alpha was amazed at how many lives little Izzy Romano had touched as a child. They all loved her.

The burial for Tarakona was a solemn one. The pack stood silently, in shock as Shadow set his father's pyre alight, sending his body to the Moon Goddess, but there were no tears from his eldest son, they were all reserved for the tiny girl in the hospital bed.

Mikhail Romano and his two mates arrived a few days ago, and their reunion was bittersweet, with the younger Romano having been more of Lucien's friend than his own. His male mate Ethan confided that Isabella was his only friend from their old pack, and he shed a tear seeing her so devoid of life. Mikhail told him of Isabella's fierce reputation, how ruthless his beloved was in training, and how she earned her name amongst the other trainers. It was so different from the Bella he remembered, and Shadow felt his heart breaking all over again when Mikhail admitted to him that she had locked herself away, grieving for Shadow as much as he had grieved for her, only Isabella hadn't had anything but her memories to keep her warm at night.

After both sides had told their stories, and Mikhail's voice failed to rouse his sister, the decision was made for them to return to their own pack. Shadow learned that Elena was an Alpha elemental, and her blood had triggered the same transformation for both of her mates, so now they were up high in the mountains within a small pack, learning how to control themselves. He was glad Mikhail had found his mates, but it didn't stop the pain from coursing through him when he looked at his own.

Back when they were kids, Isabella always thought he was the strong one, but that was a lie; while he may have been of a higher blood rank, it was Bella's steely determination and unfailing loyalty that always saw them through the rough times.

"Izzy, I need you to wake up." He muttered hoarsely, but like the last hundred times he had begged, there was no change. The monitors still beeped, and the IV continued pumping the liquid through her arm. Isabella's neck was heavily bandaged, and Doctor Packard explained that being attacked by an Alpha hits a lesser wolf's system twice as hard. Right now, Bella's wolf was doing everything she could to heal her. It was just going to take time.

One brief embrace was all they shared before she was brutally torn away, and now he couldn't even reach her in his dreams. How the hell was he supposed to get through this?

CAMILLE

Camille had just about reached the boiling point.

She stomped around her office, next to the Alpha's, and resisted the urge to scream. Things were going so well until stupid little Isabella had to go and ruin everything with her perfect little bond to her perfect childhood friend, and now all the dumb man could do was sit by her bedside and leave Camille with all the Alpha duties. It wasn't fair!

Her father's plan had been perfect, and Camille was fine going along with it. After her mother had left the pack in shame and Camille was put into the orphanage, her father was the only one who came to visit, bringing her little toys and sweet treats, remembering her birthday even though he had another family he went home to at night. Santos Romano had always made his eldest daughter feel loved.

The first time she saw the Alpha's son, he was playing with an orange headed girl and wouldn't let her play as well, even though they were almost the same age.

Camille blamed it on the flame-haired tomboy. She was always hogging Shadow's time, and no one else was allowed to play with them. It was like they played in their own little world, and Camille was always stuck on the sidelines.

As they grew older and school productions became a thing, she learned that the girl she hated more than anything else in the world had a name: Isabella Romano, her younger half-sister.

Papa would always tell her that they had to keep her identity a secret and that one day he would put in place a plan that would take Isabella away from Shadow, and he could finally be hers. She just needed to be patient.

So when the rogues attacked, and Papa told her he was taking his other family and that now was her time, Camille knew what she had to do.

She became the broken-hearted Alpha's new best friend, bringing him his schoolwork when he locked himself away from the world, listening as he mourned the "death" of poor sweet Isabella. She had nursed him through his survivor's guilt and slipped into the role that her little sister vacated.

For her efforts, the little orphan girl was announced Beta when Shadow took over the Alpha duty, and she had unofficially ruled by his side ever since. It was assumed that eventually, he would take her as his chosen since neither of them had met their fated mates. But Camilla hadn't counted on darling little Isabella, the pack's favorite lost child, ever returning, especially not as the head of an escort party and definitely not as Shadow's fated mate! The Moon Goddess must hate her.

A snow globe went flying across the room as the pack Beta thought viciously, 'This is not happening, not if I have anything to say about it.'

So sitting down at her desk, Camilla began to plot.

SHADOW

'BEEP BEEP BEEP!'

The sounds of bells ringing woke Shadow from his slumber as the doctors raced in; he spun around to see Isabella clawing desperately at the tube down her throat, trying to pull it out, before the nurses ushered him over to the side of the room; they knew better than to try and separate an Alpha from his Luna, and they all wanted to return home to their loved ones safely tonight.

Shadow watched with his heart in his throat as her thick eyelashes slowly lifted, revealing those amethyst eyes that he had waited years to lose himself in. The tube was taken out, and after checking vitals, the doctor was satisfied that she had turned a corner and was relieved to give the good news to his Alpha. To be honest, the three weeks that Shadow had camped out by his mate's bedside had given a few nurses PTSD, and some of them were seriously considering another line of work.

As the last member of the medical team left, the young Alpha turned a megawatt smile on Bella, striding to her bedside and enveloping her carefully in his strong arms.

" By the moon Goddess Izzy, don't ever do that to me again! I can't lose you a second time. I wouldn't survive it."

Isabella allowed him a brief moment of comfort before she created some distance between them, and with some confusion, she managed to whisper, "I'm sorry, Alpha, do I know you?"