Chapter 1: Scent

Yara

It’s been too long since I’ve let Annika out to run. With the number of classes that I’m taking and the heavy schedule I’m keeping at the university, there isn’t a lot of time to eat, much less let Annika run. But I have to let her out. She’s becoming more and more restless.

‘School is boring. Humans are boring. I want to do something fun,’ she grumbles in my head.

‘We’re going for a run, Annika. Calm down.’

‘Next time, don’t wait so long.’

It’s been a couple of months since I took her out. She’s right, it’s been too long. But I know how the packs fight, and I haven’t wanted to risk getting in the middle of a battle, or worse, getting caught by Simon.

‘I’m too smart for him to catch us. Besides, he has no idea that we’re still so close to the pack.’

By ‘so close’ she means two hours, but it is too close. A wolf can run nearly as fast as a car, and when that wolf is on the hunt? Goddess forbid anyone gets in their way.

In the past, when I’ve taken Annika out to run, I’ve taken her in the opposite direction of Simon’s pack. Well, technically, it’s not his pack, it’s his father’s pack. Alpha Solomon has been the Alpha of my previous pack for as long as I can remember. His son, Simon, is a nasty piece of work. He loves to fight and he loves to kill. The two of us couldn’t be any more different. I like to heal, and I like to save.

For whatever reason, Simon set his sights on me. I don’t know why. I’m an orphan, I’m not ranked. My parents were warriors and while I can fight, I prefer to use my biggest strength, my brain. Simon much prefers to use his strength, his Alpha strength. He doesn’t have to work for it, being genetically predisposed to being larger and stronger than most wolves in the pack, so he doesn’t appreciate what he has, in my opinion. Me, on the other hand, I’ve had to work for everything I’ve achieved in this life, with the help of Alpha Solomon.

My parents were killed in a pack war when I was young. Alpha Solomon took over as my guardian and made sure that I was cared for all my life. Maybe it’s because he never had a daughter, or maybe it’s because I’m more like him than his own son, but he’s always looked after me, even to the point of sending me away from the pack when he realized that his son had taken an interest in me. He knows Simon is no good, and he didn’t want me to suffer with his son’s infatuation.

When we get to the spot where we like to run, I stop, sniffing the air, making sure there are no other wolves around here.

‘Annika?’ I ask, making sure she’s not smelling something I’m not.

‘No other wolves,’ she says, almost sadly. She misses the companionship of being in a pack. I look around once more, then make my way into the forest before stripping off my clothes and tucking them onto a tree branch, high enough that someone would have to look up to see them. I have a spare set of clothes in the car, just in case anyone steals these. It doesn’t happen often, but it does happen. Rather than assume that someone was being malicious, I choose to believe that they needed the clothes more than I did. They’re only clothes after all.

I let Annika pull the shift, feeling my bones snapping and reshaping after so long of not shifting. It’s more painful than it should be, but soon enough, Annika is shaking out her reddish-brown fur and taking off into the woods.

Even though I’m in the background while Annika runs, I can feel how good it is to stretch her legs, to feel her muscles flexing in her body as she runs. It’s quiet tonight, thankfully, and Annika’s paws on the ground are nearly silent as she runs, giving both of us a chance to enjoy the sounds of the forest around us.

I’m not sure how long she’s been running when we smell it, blood. She slows, lifting her nose in the air.

‘There was fighting nearby,’ she says in our shared mind space.

‘Do you hear anyone?’ I ask.

‘I’m not sure. I hear rustling, what sounds like a wolf in trouble. Do you hear it?’ she asks as she tilts her head from one side to the other.

I do hear it. It does sound like a large animal who is struggling.

‘Annika…’

‘I’ll be careful,’ she says, knowing that, if I can, I will want to help this animal, even if it is a werewolf. It may not be possible, they may not let me get close enough to help. But I’m going to school to become a doctor for a reason. So, I can help wolves in just this type of situation.

Annika slowly and carefully makes her way to the sound of the struggling animal. As we get closer, I can tell that it is a wolf by the soft sounds that it’s making. I can’t figure out what it’s doing though. Maybe it’s caught in a snare of some sort and trying to figure out how to get out. Or maybe it’s just stuck in a hole that one of the packs dug to capture other pack members so they can interrogate them for information.

‘Please be careful, Annika. We can’t afford to get caught.’

“I’ll be careful, Yara.’

When we get close, she begins to belly crawl, slowly making her way closer. When the wind shifts, her whole body goes rigid, the scent of teakwood filling my nose and making my body tingle with unwanted desire.

‘Mate,’ she says softly.

‘WHAT?’

‘That’s our mate, Yara. Our mate is injured.’

This is terrible. This isn’t just an injured animal, it’s our mate. I can’t leave him out here to die, but I also can’t have him trying to take me back to his pack. I have school, and I’m still in hiding from Simon.

It’s takes me a moment too long to realize that the wolf, my mate, has stopped moving around.

Annika barely breathes, waiting to see what he’ll do.

He chuffs at us, letting us know that he knows we’re here. I’m not sure how I know that he’s not going to hurt us, but something in his chuff seems more like a request for help, than a threat of violence.

Annika slowly and carefully makes her way through some bushes until we can see him. SHIT! He’s caught in a bear trap. No wonder he’s still in wolf form. If he shifts, it will rip his leg off.

‘I can’t believe he’s not howling in pain,’ Annika says.

She’s right. His leg, where it’s caught in the trap is shattered, no question.

‘You have to help him, Yara. He’s our mate. You have to,” Annika practically begs me.

‘I know. I will, if he’ll let me.’

As much as I hate the idea of being naked in front of this unknown man, even though he’s my mate, I have no choice if I’m going to talk to him and try to help him.

I pull the shift, standing in front of the midnight black wolf who is watching me with his beautiful, intelligent green eyes.

“Hey, big guy. I see you’re caught in a trap. I want to help you. I know you can’t shift, or you’ll rip that leg off and that looks really painful. Your bones are probably shattered but I want to help you, if you’ll let me,” I say softly, keeping my tone gentle.

I slowly approach the wolf. Mate or no, this wolf must be in terrible pain and he’s going to be feeling vulnerable, unable to escape. I extend my hand, letting him sniff me and see that I mean no harm.

“I’m a doctor. Well, I’m studying to be a doctor, to both humans and wolves. I don’t want to hurt you. Will you let me see if I can help you?”

The wolf sniffs my hand, then nuzzles me. I gently run my hand through his fur, stopping when I come to stiff fur that smells like blood. I don’t want to know what else is in this wolf’s fur, but I can guess that guts and bones are stuck in there as well. He’s obviously been fighting and whether he got separated from his pack, or he was part of a group that intentionally separated out trying to cut off the other pack’s escape, he’s now out here alone without anyone to help him. Well, anyone except me.

I look up, trying to see where the moonlight is so I can get a better look at the trap.

“Okay, big guy, are you able to move to your right a bit? I need the moonlight to help me see how I can spring this trap and set you free.”

He moves to his right, keeping an eye on me as I carefully look over the trap. “Nasty piece of work,” I mumble to myself. “Stupid idiots doing this to each other.”

I look back up at him. “Okay, I think I’ve figured it out. Before I spring this trap, you need to know that when I release this, it’s going to hurt, really bad. But then you’ll be free and I can take a look at how badly your leg is broken,” I tell him. I already know it’s shattered. I can see bone splinters sticking out of his skin from above the trap.

I move my hands in position. I’m going to need Annika’s strength to help me open this trap. “Try not to bite me and if you can, try not to howl. I have no idea if there is anyone else nearby that might hear you, or try to come hurt you,” I tell him. He chuffs at me again, letting me know he understands.

“On three, ready? One… two … three!” I say and push the release with all my strength, Annika pushing with hers as well. I feel the spring give and the trap snaps open. The wolf yelps but it’s quickly cut off as he moves away from the trap, keeping his injured leg off the ground.

He turns, looking at me a moment before his bones begin to snap as he shifts back into his human form, his ridiculously gorgeous, tall, muscular form.

Chapter 2: Mate

Warren

I can’t believe that Arric and I got caught in this bear trap. Fucking Brady! I know he’s the one who set this trap. He knew that he and his pack would retreat this way. I raced around, attempting to cut off their escape route, but I’d ended up caught in the trap.

I know my pack will come back for me, but they’re in a battle and I’ve been waiting for them to find me for hours. When I wasn’t able to cut Brady off, they continued following his pack, hunting them down like the fucking dogs they are.

I knew immediately that I couldn’t shift. While I could use my hands to spring the trap, it was too risky. I wasn’t willing to lose my leg and therefore my rank as Alpha. While the pain is significant, Arric and I are strong Alphas, and I know it's only a matter of time before the pack finds me and gets me out of here.

We’d been struggling with a way to get the damn trap off when we’d smelled her. I’ve been looking for my mate for over ten years and now, here, in the middle of the forest, in the middle of an area covered in blood from a recent battle, I find her. Her cinnamon and nutmeg scent instantly calms Arric.

Her wolf is a beautiful reddish-brown color and she’s obviously a skittish little thing. Through all of her conversation with Arric, she never once gave us her name. So, as soon as she releases the trap, I step back and begin to shift so I can talk to her.

The shift hurts like a fucking bitch, my bones trying to reshape but unable to in my leg because they’re in pieces. I watch her eyes go wide and she scoots back, farther away from me.

“Easy there. You just got me out of a trap. I may be a vicious Alpha when I’m hunting my pack’s attackers, but I’m not the kind of man who kills someone who just helped me,” I say. Because she didn’t give me her name, I’m resistant to giving her mine until I know what pack she’s from.

“You said you’re a doctor?”

“I’m studying to be one,” she says, watching me carefully.

“For humans and wolves?” I ask her. It’s unusual and I’m in desperate need of a good doctor in my pack. My doctor needs to retire. I need someone young, someone intelligent, someone like my little mate here, to take over my pack hospital.

“What pack are you from?” I ask, not sure I care. I’m at war with so many packs that the odds of her being from one of them are highly likely. Of course, she’s out here on her own, not fighting with a pack, which is also unusual.

“I’m not from a pack. I’m a lone wolf. Did you want me to look at your leg?” I notice that she changes the subject away from her. Interesting. Or maybe not, lone wolves are alone for a reason. It makes me wonder what happened to make my mate a lone wolf.

“Yes. I would appreciate your medical assessment,” I say, wanting her closer to me. I know her touch will help with the pain.

She moves closer and her intoxicating scent fills my nose as I take in her beautiful body. She had looked shy but determined when she’d shifted. Her lean body isn’t as muscular as the wolves in my pack, which makes me think she hasn’t been part of the pack wars for a while. However, the softness of her only adds to the allure. My finger twitch with my desire to touch her.

“What’s a lone wolf doing out here all by herself?” I ask.

“Letting my wolf out. It’s not easy when you go to a human university,” she says, not looking up at me. I, on the other hand, can’t look away from her. She’s beautiful. The reddish-brown fur of her wolf is now long reddish-brown hair on the woman. It falls over her shoulder as she looks at my leg and I watch as she distractedly flicks it back over her shoulder and out of her way, as if this is a common occurrence in her daily life.

“You know there are pack wars going on around here,” I say. She may not be mine yet, but I want her safe.

“There are pack wars going on everywhere. If I tried to find someplace where war isn’t happening, I’d have to run in the human areas and risk hunters shooting Annika. You’re going to need surgery on this leg. You have multiple fractures, several being compound fractures,” she says, once again diverting the conversation from herself.

I already knew I was going to need surgery. I could see Arric’s bones sticking out of his leg when we were in the trap.

“Annika? Your wolf’s name means merciful? How appropriate for a doctor,” I say, still studying her. Her fingers on my leg are gentle. She seems to inherently know where to touch so that it only causes minor discomfort.

“Gracious or merciful, yes. And Annika is a wonderful wolf,” she says proudly, still not looking up at me.

I’m about to tell her that Arric agrees when I hear my Beta’s howl.

My mate’s head snaps up and I smell the scent of her fear as her heart rate spikes. However, she doesn’t run. She looks like she’s about to take a protective stance in front of me. A perfect Luna, pushing her own fear aside to help someone in need. I smile. She’s perfect for me.

“Relax, it’s my pack coming back for me,” I tell her.

“Oh, well then, that’s good, you need to get someplace safe. Hopefully, they won’t attack me for helping you.”

“I’ll protect you,” I say, smiling at her discomfort.

My warriors come rushing up, surrounding us as my Beta, Charlie, shifts and snarls at my mate. “Who are you?”

I snarl at him, startling both of them. “She’s the one who got me out of the bear trap I was in. Stand down!” I command. I won’t allow anyone to disrespect my mate.

He looks at her, then turns back to me frowning before crouching to look at my leg.

“How bad is it?”

“Bad.”

“Okay, let’s get you back to the pack,” he says, getting a couple of warriors to help me up. I wrap my arms around their shoulders and lift my bad leg, gritting my teeth against the pain.

“Ready, Alpha?” Charlie asks.

“Yeah, let’s go.”

Charlie shifts, taking point as guard, and the warriors holding me start to move fast.

“Wait!” I say, and everyone stops. “Bring the doctor."

"The doctor?" one of my warriors asks.

"The girl! Bring the girl," I bark, turning to look at her. I can see that she was ready to slink away. I watch her turn and look behind her as if judging whether or not she can make a run for it.

“Don’t even think about it,” I say to her. Charlie’s wolf, Gregor, moves swiftly to her side, nudging her forward with his head. I don’t like how close he is to my naked mate and Arric growls softly.

Her eyes flash up to mine. “I should go,” she says. “Like you said, there are a lot of pack wars going on around here. I probably should get home.”

“Home?” I ask. I know I sound arrogant. The woman is a lone wolf going to school. Where exactly is home for her? I’m not letting her go back to wherever she wants to go. I’ll never see her again. I know from the little I’ve learned about her that she’ll never let her wolf run in these woods again. And, by the time I healed and went to find her at the university, I’m sure she’d have transferred. She’s too skittish to stay where she might get caught.

“School,” she says, clarifying her intended destination.

“Hmm, well, as you just reiterated, it’s not safe out here, especially for a lone wolf. What kind of Alpha would I be if I left you to fend for yourself? No, I think you should come with us,” I say and my voice holds no room for argument.

She presses her lips together and stands, nodding, and reluctantly following behind me.

Chapter 3: Doctor

Warren

Charlie orders two wolves to flank my mate, keeping her safe, but also making sure she follows my order.

‘Alpha?’ Charlie asks in the mind link.

‘She’s my mate.’

‘Oh shit.’

‘Yeah.’

‘Does she know? She doesn’t act like she recognizes you as her mate.’

‘I’m not sure. She’s a lone wolf, but she’s going to school for human and veterinary medicine.’

He turns and looks at her. “Wow. A smart one.’

‘Apparently.’

‘What did she say about your leg?’

‘That I need surgery.’

‘Well, no offense but I could have told you that.’

‘Let’s see what she says when we get to the pack. And find her a shirt. I don’t like her walking around our warriors with no clothes on.’

He takes off, rushing toward our pack lands. When he returns, his wolf carries a shirt to her in his mouth. I watch while she looks up at me.

“We’re about to enter my pack. You’re an unmarked, unknown, young female. I thought you might like a shirt to put on to cover yourself,” I say.

If she says no, I’ll insist, but I’m hoping she’ll choose to put it on without me having to demand it. Thankfully she does, looking almost relieved. Good. She’s not the kind of woman who flaunts her beautiful body for all to see.

When we get back, I’m taken straight to the pack hospital, asking Charlie about other injuries the warriors sustained and what happened to Brady’s pack. He gives me the list of injuries as we walk in, shifting and continuing to talk to me out loud as Dr. Stevens rushes up.

“Alpha, let’s get you into a room so we can look at your leg. You’ll need x-rays,” he says.

“Yes, I will,” I say. “The girl comes too.”

“The girl has a name,” she mumbles. I stop and turn to look at her, her eyes going wide. She obviously hasn’t been around a lot of Alphas or it’s been a long time. She keeps mumbling to herself as if I can’t hear her. It’s kind of cute.

“If you’ll give me your name, I’ll be happy to use it,” I say to her.

“Yara.”

“Yara. I’m Alpha Warren. Come with me,” I say, turning back and letting the warriors help me into the x-ray room.

“Who are you? Get out!” Dr. Stevens barks at her as we walk into the room.

“She’s with me,” I say, ignoring his blustery attitude that a young woman is in the room with us.

She looks at him and I’m pleased when she instinctively moves closer to me.

I get settled onto the table and Dr. Stevens sets up the x-ray machine. While he does, I watch Yara. She has a very expressive face. Now that I can see her in the light, I can tell that she’s a pretty little thing. I’m sure I’d think so even if she weren’t my mate, but based on the glances my warriors keep giving her, she’s a natural beauty. Yep, good thing she’s got that shirt on, or I’d have to rip their eyes from their sockets.

Because I’m watching her, I see her frown, her head tilting to the side as she watches Dr. Stevens. I crook my finger at her beckoning her forward as Dr. Stevens leaves the room.

“What was that look?” I ask, realizing that my mate’s eyes are a grey-green color, almost sage. My eyes are green too, but not as dark as hers.

“What look?”

I just raise an eyebrow at her. Perhaps the pain in my leg is making me less amenable to small talk. I’m trying to ignore it, but it’s not easy and Arric can’t heal me until the bones are set properly. So, I’m not as patient as I might normally be in this situation.

She turns and looks behind her to see if the doctor is there, then leans in, her scent filling my nose.

“Why isn’t he taking side views? He only took a view from the top,” she whispers as Dr. Stevens walks back in. He glares at her but puts the x-ray up on the lightbox.

“Well, Alpha, your leg isn’t salvageable. I’m afraid we’re going to have to remove it,” he says dispassionately, as if he didn’t just tell me that my entire world was about to collapse around me. I feel my stomach clench and my heart skips a beat. At the same time, I hear Yara suck in air.

“Dr. Yara, what do you think?” I ask her. If she has any suggestions for me to save this leg, I’m doing it. I don’t care how much pain it’ll cause me, or how long it will take me to recover. I’ve been an Alpha for twelve years. Before that, I was an Alpha in training. Without my rank, without a pack to lead and protect, I have no idea who I am.

She looks at me, then at Dr. Stevens who is glaring at her again.

“Doctor?” he asks condescendingly. He’s of the old school mindset where women are nurses, meant to be at the beck and call of a male doctor. It’s another reason he has to go. My nurses are constantly complaining and threatening to leave.

“Studying to be, but I would suggest getting x-rays of the sides of the leg before determining if the leg has to be removed,” she says, more confidently than I was expecting. She may not be comfortable around me, or even in the pack, but here, in this hospital room, her confidence is clear.

“You heard her, Dr. Stevens. Side x-rays,” I say, seeing her glance at me appreciatively for supporting her. In truth, I’m thankful she’s giving me an option, any option to save my leg.

“Young lady, what are your credentials?” he demands.

“HER credentials are not in what’s in question, doctor. I gave you the order. Side x-rays! NOW!” I bark.

Yara jumps as I yell, but really, this asshole is going to tell me my leg needs to be removed and think that I’m not going to fight it?

He continues to glare at Yara while he does the x-rays, and when he comes back, he puts them on the lightbox and turns to her with a sneer on his face. I’m about ready to come off this table and rip that look off his smug face.

“What do you think now, doctor?” he asks, as if questioning the truth in her title.

Yara walks to the lightbox, looking closely at first one, then the other x-ray. “Do you have the original?” she asks, turning to Dr. Stevens. He huffs, but hands it to her and she sets it up on the lightbox beside the others.

She stands back, her head tilting from one side to the other.

“Yara?” I ask, unable to stop the flutter of hope in my chest.

“We can salvage the leg,” she says, turning to me and making me sigh in relief.

“You’ve got to be joking!” Dr. Stevens says. “His leg is shattered!”

“Yes, it is. And it will take a lot of time and patience. But Alpha Warren has time, and I have patience,” she says, looking at me.

“Do it,” I tell her, putting my future into this woman’s hands and hoping I won’t regret it.

Chapter 4: No Sedation

Yara

I’m not sure if Alpha Warren brought me here because he recognized me as his mate and he didn’t have the strength to reject me in the woods, or if he knew that his pack doctor was well past his retirement years. Either way, I’m here and since I am, I’ll help this Alpha. This is the reason I chose medicine. He doesn't have to lose his leg. It will take a lot of effort on my part, but I'm excited to finally get to work on a werewolf, an Alpha no less.

“I’m assuming you want to do this now, Alpha?” I ask him.

“Yes, the sooner the better.”

“Okay.” I give him the list of items that I’ll need to get his bones put back together properly. “Oh, and we’ll need to sedate you,” I say, looking around the room to see how they have their hospital rooms set up. “Is this where…”

“No,” Alpha Warren says. I turn to look at him.

“No?”

“No sedation.”

“Okay then, a nerve block, I’ll just need…”

“No,” he says again.

“Alpha, please, I’m going to have to wash the area, scrub it clean, I’m going to cut your leg open, pin your skin and muscle back so that I can get to the bones and then slowly put them back where they belong. The pain will be excruciating. You need the nerve block.”

“No,” he says again, holding my gaze. I finally look away, mumbling about stupid, stubborn Alphas.

When I turn back, he’s watching me with a raised eyebrow as if he heard me. I wasn’t that loud, was I? Crap, I’ve been hanging around humans who can’t hear anything for too long. How much can he hear of my mumbling.

The irritable Dr. Stevens comes in, throwing the things I asked for on the table. I jump when I hear a warning growl, looking up to see Alpha Warren glaring at him.

“Will there be anything else, doctor?” Dr. Stevens asks. He somehow makes my title, which is the same as his, sound like a dirty word.

“No, thank you, doctor. I’ll take it from here.”

I go to the sink and begin scrubbing my hands. I’m nervous for a lot of reasons. First, I’m in an unknown pack with an Alpha who is my mate. I have no idea what to expect from him, or really why I’m here. And almost worse than that, he wants me to operate on him while he’s awake! What the hell kind of crazy Alpha is he?

“You’re thinking so hard that there’s steam coming out of your ears, Yara. What are so worried about?” he asks me.

I turn and look at him over my shoulder. How does he even know I’m worried? Why is he paying so much attention to me? Is this the mate bond? I’ve only had exposure to two Alphas in my life, Alpha Solomon and Alpha Simon. Alpha Solomon is a good Alpha, but he was never this in tune with what I was doing or thinking. And Simon…a shiver of revulsion rolls through me. He was in tune for a whole other reason. The man gave me the creeps.

When I finish scrubbing my hands, I turn back to Alpha Warren. I see he’s waiting for a response to his question. “This is going to be very painful. Can I at least give you a local anesthetic?

“No, I need to be alert so I can protect my pack,” he says.

“You can’t exactly protect your pack with only one leg, Alpha," I snap, my nerves making me bold.

“Warren. Call me Warren, and you said you could save my leg.”

“I can, IF you are under sedation and I’m not worried about you flinching or yanking your leg away while I’m operating.”

“I have a very high tolerance to pain.”

That doesn’t surprise me. He wasn’t even whimpering when Annika and I found him. He also has multiple, very faint scars all over his body. The man has been fighting in the pack wars for a long time. He must have a very strong wolf that is able to heal him, over and over.

“How strong is your wolf right now?” I ask, getting his leg prepped to wash.

“I am very strong, little one,” a deep voice says, and my eyes snap up as Annika begins purring in my head. Warren's wolf is forward, answering for himself.

Warren smiles, once again looking as if he knows the effect his wolf is having on mine. Can he hear Annika purring?

I shake my head, trying to clear it. I need to focus my attention and NOT on Warren’s incredible teakwood scent.

“If I hold the bones in place, one at a time, how long will it take for you to set them?” I ask.

“Not long, little one,” he says but it’s practically a purr. “I am a very strong, powerful Alpha wolf.” The way he says it isn’t bragging, but more like preening. My brain flashes an image of a peacock strutting around flaunting his feathers for his chosen mate.

“Right,” I say, feeling my body responding to the deep tenor of his voice. It feels like his voice is caressing the nerves in my body, making them all light up with a need I’m unused to feeling, especially when I’m about to do surgery.

I look up into the intense, jade green eyes of Alpha Warren. “Are you ready, Alpha?”

“Warren,” he corrects. I nod.

“Are you ready, Warren?”

“Yes, Yara.”

I grit my teeth, hating that I know this is going to hurt him, but if he won’t let me at least numb his leg, I can’t help it.

I begin washing the blood off his leg, laying a wet cloth over the bloody area, careful that I don’t tug on the bones that are still jutting out. His body is covered with caked blood, guts, and bits of bone, just like I thought it would be. Under the teakwood scent, he smells like war and death. It’s good practice for me, learning how to ignore the smell of battle while I work. I don’t get this kind of training at the university.

“Talk to me,” he says through gritted teeth.

“What do you want to talk about?” I ask, not looking up as I begin to scrub the blood from his leg.

“You know what you are to me?” he asks, although it’s more of a statement than a question. My stomach feels like it’s twisting into knots.

"Yes," I say without looking up. "After you have healed, you can reject me. If you do it before, it could impact your healing." I don’t know why the thought of this man rejecting me feels so painful. I don’t even know him. I have no intention of becoming his mate and returning to the packs, at least not until I’m done with school anyway. And this pack is much too close to Simon for my comfort.

"Who says I'm going to reject you?" he asks, sounding offended. Now I do look up at him.

“But I’m a lone wolf.”

“What you are, is my future Luna.”

“You don’t even know me,” I say going back to my work.

“I know that you’re intelligent, you’re compassionate, you’re brave, and I know that you’re lonely,” he says.

The intelligent and compassionate parts I get. That could easily be discerned from me being a doctor and helping him, those two make sense. The brave part I’m not sure about, but the lonely part…

“Why do you say I’m lonely?” I ask him, wiping off the blood and turning to get the scalpel. I lift it up, showing him that I’m about to cut into his leg. He nods and continues.

“The closest university with a medical school is about an hour north of here. Between here and there, there are many areas where a lone wolf could run, if she wanted to. But instead,” he stops, grunting as I carefully slice into his leg. “Instead, you chose to come to an area that is full of wolves.”

He’s partially right. Annika misses being in a pack, she misses the companionship of being with other wolves. Me, I’d be fine living alone the rest of my life, but my wolf likes the smell of the forest and it makes her feel more settled to smell the scent of other wolves.

Warren hisses and I glance up at him, watching him take deep breaths to control his pain.

“How do you do that?” I ask.

“Do what?”

“Manage this level of pain?”

“Mind over matter. Physical pain will break you mentally if you let it. That’s why people get tortured for information. If you can break the body, you can usually break the mind. My mind is stronger than my body and my body is very strong.”

I glance at the scars on his legs again. They're a testament to the accuracy of his words.

“You’ve been fighting for a long time?” I ask, cutting and pulling the muscles away from where his bones have snapped into pieces.

“Since I became an Alpha, nearly twelve years ago.”

“Twelve years?” I exclaim, standing up and looking at him. He’s older than I thought.

That eyebrow shoots up again. It’s an arrogant look, but on Warren, its oh so sexy.

“I took over the pack when I was eighteen, I’m now thirty, that’s twelve years, little wolf.”

“Annika’s not that little,” I say, returning my attention to his leg.

“She is compared to Arric.”

“Well, Arric is an Alpha wolf. Only another Alpha would be larger than an Alpha wolf,” I say, as I carefully pluck out the first bone. I look at it, checking to see where it goes and then I press it against the bone it snapped off of.

“Okay, Arric, let’s see what you’ve got,” I say, carefully holding the bone in place so Arric can begin to heal the fracture. I watch as the bone begins to connect and seal in front of my eyes.

“Cool!” I say, forgetting where I am and who I’m with. I’ve been working with humans for so long that I forgot how quickly wolves can heal, especially Alpha wolves.

“Is it that exciting?” Warren asks me drolly.

I shrug. I know not everyone finds medicine and surgery thrilling, but I do. “It is for me.”

“Then it must be my lucky day,” he says, just as there is a knock at the door.

I look at the door, then at Alpha Warren, wondering who could possibly be knocking.

“I told you I would protect you,” he says smiling. His smile is so beautiful that it nearly takes my breath away. “Come in, Charlie,” he says, not taking his eyes off of me.

“Alpha…what the fuck are you doing in here?” he asks angrily, striding quickly to the table and looking at Alpha Warren’s leg, filleted and open on the table.

Chapter 5: Surprising News

Warren

As much pain as I’m in, I’m enjoying watching and talking to my mate. She’s unlike any woman or she-wolf I’ve ever met. Besides the crazy notion that I would reject her, she’s funny. I love how she’s constantly murmuring to herself, talking to herself as if no one else can hear her. I can hear every word and without being marked, it’s a good second option to knowing what’s going on inside that interesting mind of hers.

Her face is nearly as expressive as her murmurs. She hasn’t learned or doesn’t care about hiding her facial expressions. Once again, I find it refreshing. She isn’t trying to be coy or impress me because I’m an Alpha. On the contrary, it’s almost as if she’s trying to get away from me BECAUSE I’m an Alpha. It's not going to happen. I’ve searched for this little doctor too long to let her go now.

“To answer your question, Charlie, Dr. Yara here is piecing me back together, slowly and painstakingly, which is preferable to Dr. Stevens plan which was to remove my leg,” I say and my Beta’s eyes flash up to mine. He understands the ramifications of what I’ve said. And as my Beta, he’s in line to take over the pack. Thankfully, I trust my Beta and I know that he has no desire to be an Alpha. It’s not an easy job and he makes it easier by being an incredible Beta.

“Are you at least numb?” he asks, his lip curling as he looks at what Yara is doing.

“Utterly ridiculous Alpha,” Yara murmurs, obviously listening in to our conversation and giving her own opinions of me that she thinks we can’t hear.

Charlie looks at me frowning. ‘She knows we can hear her, right?’ he asks in the mind link.

‘Apparently not,’ I say, smiling.

“No, no numbing,” I tell him out loud.

‘I might agree with her,’ he says, scowling at me.

“Give me the run down on Brady. Did you kill him?” I ask, watching my mate.

“Arric, you ready?” she asks softly, all her concentration on her work.

“Yes, mate,” Arric answers and Charlie turns to look at her again, leaning over to watch as Arric heals my bone.

“Oh shit! That’s fucking awesome!” he says.

“I know right,” my mate says, smiling a huge fucking smile at my Beta. Without thinking, I snarl jealously.

Both of them jolt and while it fucking hurts that she tugs on my newly healed bone, it doesn’t break again.

“Sorry, Alpha,” Charlie says, showing his neck.

She looks at Charlie submitting and then at me and her lips press tightly together. She doesn’t approve. I lean forward so she’s sure that I’m talking to her.

“You’re MY mate.”

“What I am is your DOCTOR. Temporarily. And if you don’t want me walking out of here and letting Dr. Stevens take your leg, I’d suggest that you not pull that shit while my hands are in your shattered leg again,” she snaps.

I sit back, having to fight hard not to smile. Damn, I like her spunk.

I turn my head to my Beta, not looking away from Yara. “So what happened with Brady?”

“When you couldn’t cut him off, he made it back to his pack. Since we know it’s booby-trapped, we didn’t pass his borders.”

“Booby-trapped how? Arric, again,” Yara says, still not looking up at us. I tilt my head. Does she think that she’s part of this conversation? I don’t care if she is, I just know that most doctors would pretend to ignore the conversation going on around them. Not my mate, though. She’s not pretending anything. And somehow, she’s multi-tasking, listening to us and still working on my leg, letting Arric know when he needs to start healing a bone.

“Spring-loaded wooden stakes buried in the ground,” Charlie answers her, careful now in the way he interacts with her so he doesn't piss me off.

“Stupid pack wars, killing for no good reason,” she mumbles to herself.

Charlie’s eyes snap back to mine and I smile.

“Anywho,” he says, refocusing on me. “We did get one disturbing piece of information.”

“What’s that?” I ask.

“Alpha Solomon is dead. Simon is Alpha now.” If I hadn’t been so focused on her, I’d have missed it. Her very steady hand slipped. I lift my hand, telling Charlie to stop. I frown as her hand begins to shake.

“I’m sorry, Alpha. I need a break,” she says, stepping away and not waiting for me to release her. She pulls off her gloves and rushes from the room.

“Follow her. Don’t approach, but make sure she doesn’t leave,” I tell Charlie.

“Yes, Alpha.”

When they’re gone, I sit back, thinking, which is hard because my leg is throbbing and laying open on the table in front of me.

The door opens and Dr. Stevens walks in. “I knew she wouldn’t make it Alpha. I mean…” he stops staring at my leg. “Just look at this mess! I’ll get ready to remove the leg.”

“The fuck you will. She’s taking a break and for your information, she’s getting my bones back together. So, get the fuck out of my surgery room, doctor,” I snarl.

“Alpha, I must insist…”

“What you must do is listen to your fucking Alpha. GET OUT!” I shout.

The door opens and Yara rushes back in, seeing Dr. Stevens.

“What the hell is wrong with you? You don’t leave a patient in the middle of surgery!”

“CHARLIE!” I bark.

“Dr. Stevens,” he says much more calmly than I am, holding the door open and gesturing for Dr. Stevens to leave.

Dr. Stevens huffs, but walks out.

“My apologies, Alpha. Dr. Stevens is right. I shouldn’t leave in the middle of surgery.” She’s not looking at me and I look at Charlie who shrugs.

“What did you call me?” I ask, my irritation with Dr. Stevens tainting my tone.

Her head snaps up to mine. “Alpha?”

I crook my finger at her and she walks over to me. “And what did I tell you to call me?” I ask her, forcing my tone to be gentler as I take her chin between my thumb and forefinger, forcing her to hold my gaze.

“Warren,” she says, her dark green eyes nearly making me forget that I’m in a surgical room.

“Warren,” I confirm, reluctantly releasing her. “Continue, Dr. Yara.”

She nods and returns to my leg. I watch her take a deep breath before picking out several more bones until she finds the one she wants.

“Arric?”

“Ready, my mate,” he says, beginning to purr which helps her to steady her hand and her nerves. When she does, I gesture for Charlie to return.

“Any other serious injuries that Dr. Stevens is threatening to do something ridiculously over the top with?” I ask.

“Yours is the worst, Alpha. There are a couple with deep wounds that he’s washing out with alcohol."

Yara sucks in air again and stands up straight looking at us.

“Not the right course of treatment?” I ask her, raising my eyebrow. I'm starting to trust her medical knowledge much more than my current doctor.

“Why wouldn’t he just stitch them up?” she asks.

“He said it would take too long and there are too many injured,” Charlie says, watching her closely. I like my Beta, a lot. But until my mate is wearing my mark, I don’t like all the interest he’s showing in her.

Yara, however, turns to me. “Don’t you have omegas in your packhouse who sew your clothing?”

“Yes,” I say, frowning at her.

“It’s basically the same. Yes, skin feels a bit different, it’s a bit tougher than fabrics, but they could do it and not cause the pain that pouring alcohol into their wounds is causing,” she says.

I look at Charlie. “Call the omegas, get them over here. Tell Dr. Stevens that he can go.”

“But who is going to assess the warriors?” he asks me.

“Have the nurses give a diagnosis and recommended treatment, then bring it in here to ask Dr. Yara’s opinion.”

“My opinion?” she asks me, obviously surprised.

“Yes, Yara. Your opinion. I’m beginning to think that you are the perfect replacement for Dr. Stevens.”

Chapter 6: Brave

Yara

Replacement? I can’t be a replacement. I’m not staying. As soon as Alpha…as soon as Warren’s leg is done, I’m out of here. I glance up at the broody Alpha and wonder if that’s true. Is he going to let me go?

The news about Simon has me worried. If there is a paper trail of his father helping me though medical school…he’ll find me.

“Arric?” I say distractedly, holding the bones together while he heals them.

I have to get my car, my clothes. I have to get back to school, I’m a resident, I can’t just up and leave.

“Tell me where your car is and I’ll have someone go get it. Same with your clothes. As far as your schooling goes, we’ll have to talk about you taking classes online and working your ‘residency’ did you call it, here,” Warren says.

I frown at him. “How did you…?”

“You were talking to yourself. It wasn’t hard to hear you.”

“I can’t leave school, Warren,” I say, looking at him like he’s crazy.

“I didn’t say you’d be leaving school. I said you’d be doing your residency here. You can take classes online,” he says as if that settles it.

“Excuse me? You can’t keep me here!”

He merely raises that damn eyebrow at me again.

“You’re not my Alpha…” I begin.

He leans forward. “What I am is your mate. Tell me truthfully, if I let you go back to school and I come to visit you in say a week’s time, will you still be there?”

I look away, beginning to work on his leg again and refusing to answer him. Even if he wasn’t my mate, knowing that Simon may be able to figure out where I am, would have me transferring immediately.

“That’s what I thought and that, my dear mate, is why I’m not letting you leave.”

He sits back and both of us get lost in our own thoughts again as I let Arric know when I’m ready for him to heal the bones.

“Why did you say I was brave earlier?”

“What?” he asks, and I can tell the pain is getting to him.

“Earlier, you said you knew I was intelligent, compassionate, brave, and lonely. The intelligent and compassionate I understand, the lonely you explained, but why did you say you think I’m brave?” I ask him.

“When you heard my pack, you didn’t run. You could have. You didn’t know they were my pack members. You looked like you were ready to fight, to defend me. For someone who’s not a fighter, that takes guts.”

I look up at him, frowning. “How do you know I’m not a fighter?”

“You’re not built like one,” he says simply.

“Are you saying I’m fat?” I ask, insulted. I work out at the human gym. I know I need to let Annika out more often to run, but I’m not overweight, even by werewolf standards.

“You know you’re not,” he says, watching me. “But I saw you naked. Those of us who have been fighting in pack wars almost daily for years don’t have the softness to their body that you have. And before you go jumping to any conclusions, I find your body very attractive, very sexy.”

I stop what I’m doing, not sure how to respond to that.

“Sexy. That’s not a word that has been used to describe me in the past,” I say, and realize that once again I spoke out loud.

I look up at him and see him smiling at me. “Some people, like myself, find intelligence sexy. But, I’ve been itching to touch you, to run my hands over the softness of your body, since the moment I saw you.”

“Some people, like myself, find it hard to believe that someone caught in a bear trap was ‘itching’ to touch me,” I say, rolling my eyes at him.

“Then that should tell you just how strong the pull of the mate bond is. As much as what you’re doing hurts, just having you touch me helps with the pain. Your scent in this room, which gets stronger the longer you are in here, is helping me manage the pain. As an Alpha, it’s one of the benefits of finding your Luna, your fated mate. You are the other half of my soul, and at the risk of sounding cheesy, you complete me on more than one level. Now, I have a question for you.”

“Okay,” I say, still focusing on his leg.

“Why didn’t you run?”

I stop and look at him like he’s crazy. “You were injured. If they weren’t your pack, they would have killed you.”

That damn eyebrow goes up again. “And they would have killed you too.”

“I didn’t rescue from a bear trap to leave you to die at the hands of the assholes who set it in the first place!” I say.

“Sooo, you’re more stubborn than brave?”

“Call it what you will. I wasn’t going to leave you to die,” I say.

“Thank you.”

I wait for more, and when there isn’t, I look up at him. “For what?”

“For getting me out of that bear trap, for not leaving when I could have been killed, and for not letting Dr. Stevens take my leg.”

“He really needs to retire,” I say.

“Which is why you’re going to replace him,” he says arrogantly.

“I am not going to replace him, Warren. I have school. I have…labs and exams and things like that.

“We can talk to the school and figure out the labs. As I said, and you must know, you’ll get more opportunity to practice your skills here in my pack than you will in some human school’s laboratory. And exams can be taken online. People do it all the time. Any other arguments that I can negate for you?” he asks me.

“So arrogant,” I mutter angrily.

“Confident,” he says.

“What?” I ask, frowning.

“I’m not arrogant, I’m confident. There’s a difference.”

“How do you keep hearing what I’m saying?” I ask him.

“How long have you been living with humans? I think you’ve forgotten how sensitive a werewolf’s hearing is and I’m an Alpha, mine’s more sensitive than most.”

UGH! I’ve been living with humans long enough that I’ve gotten used to muttering to myself without others being able to hear me. Now, I’m going to have to start being careful what I say so I don’t offend anyone.

There’s a knock at the door.

“Come in,” Warren calls out.

“Does no one know that this is a surgery room?” I mutter, already forgetting that he can hear me.

“Uh, excuse me doctor. I have one of the omegas here that sews our clothing, but she says she doesn’t know how to sew up a warrior,” Warren’s Beta, Charlie, says. I turn and see a wide-eyed young woman staring at Warren’s leg on the table.

“Give me a moment, I’ll be right there,” I say, quickly taking a towel and covering his leg. I don’t want to have to smell vomit while I work.

Charlie takes her from the room and I turn back to Warren’s leg. “Okay, I have all the small pieces underneath back in place. There are going to be some slivers that I won’t be able to put back in, but hopefully Arric can work around the small pieces of missing bone.”

“I’m a strong Alpha wolf, mate. I’ll make it work,” he says, once again sounding like he’s strutting proudly for me.

“Right. So, I’m going to put the big bone fragment against the existing bone and let you start healing it while I go check on these other warriors. When I come back, I’ll finish putting the smaller pieces over top and then we can get you sewn up and nearly back to normal, Alpha.”

“Warren, Yara. Call me Warren," he says and I can hear the fatigue in his voice.

I look up into his brownish-green eyes, his very expressive eyes. And right now, those eyes look exhausted. I move closer to him and put my hands on his chest, pushing him back into a lying down position.

“Why don’t you rest while I’m gone?” I say gently. “You’ve had a long day and your body needs to heal.” I watch as his eyes start to drift closed. I know it’s a bad idea, I know I shouldn’t, but my fingers have been itching to touch him since I’ve seen him too. I gently run my fingers through his hair, feeling how soft it is in the places where it isn’t covered in blood.

“Sleep, Warren. I’ll be here when you wake up.”

I’m not sure what makes me do it, but I lean in and press my lips to his, hearing him sigh as his body falls into a deep sleep.

“Sleep well, Warren,” I whisper in his ear, then I cover his leg and step out of the room, letting his Beta know that someone needs to watch the room and protect their Alpha while I go help the nurses and omegas in the hospital.