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.
WarrenAs 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
YaraReplacement? 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.
CharlieI can see why our Alpha is intrigued with his mate. She’s a feisty little thing. I am, however, surprised that he’s not putting her in line for all of the things she’s muttering under her breath. On the contrary, he seems to find it amusing.Before Dr. Yara came out and told me that Alpha Warren needed guards on his room, he had mind linked me telling me that I needed to send some people to get her clothes and her car.‘Make sure you scan it for trackers,’ he’d said.When she walks out of Alpha’s room, she looks like she was made to be the head doctor of a pack hospital. She may lack confidence in certain things, but medical knowledge and concern for her patients isn’t one of them.“Dr. Yara, Alpha Warren asked me to get your clothes and your car. If you’d tell me where they are, I’ll be happy to go get them and bring them here.”“That’s not necessary. As soon as I have Warren’s leg put back together, I’ll be leaving.”“I’m afraid I can’t allow that, doctor.”“Excuse me?” she
WarrenI come awake with the scent of cinnamon and nutmeg flooding my nose. My mind is struggling to remember where I am and what happened and then, all of a sudden, it comes flooding back. I met her, my mate. Yara.I jolt, ready to sit up quickly, to make sure she’s still here, but Arric holds me steady.‘Easy, Warren. You’ll wake her up,’ he says, practically purring in my mind.I open my eyes and see her with her head on the edge of my bed, fast asleep. Whether it is Arric or just my instincts, my hand is in her hair, gently rubbing her head while she sleeps.She’s sitting in a chair, leaned over the bed, and she looks terrible uncomfortable. I look down at my leg and realize that she must have finished putting my bones together while I was asleep, having also sewn my leg closed and wrapped it in bandages.‘Thanks, Arric. You’re the best,’ I tell my wolf and it’s true. I’d be dead, hundreds of times over, if it wasn’t for the strength of my wolf.‘You can thank her this time. Being
YaraI’m so tired, but my body is extremely uncomfortable, making it impossible to sleep. I must be in some weird position. Did I fall asleep studying again?When I open my eyes, I remember immediately where I am. I’m in Warren’s pack hospital and I spent more time in one night taking care of injured warriors than I’ve spent in all my days of residency at the hospital.Since my senses are full of Warren’s teakwood scent, I know that I’m laying beside him on the bed. However, I smell Charlie as well. What’s strange to me is that neither of them is talking.I carefully open my eyes and without moving, I look around to see that they are looking at each other. They must be using the mind link. I haven’t used it in years and even before that, I barely used it, not having a family or really a lot of friends since Alpha Solomon adopted me.When I refocus on Warren laying in front of me, I see some mechanical devices laying on his stomach.“What are those?” I ask, pushing myself up and stretc
WarrenDamn that woman! She’s incredible. I can’t remember the last time I’ve had this much fun instigating someone. Probably never.When Charlie follows Yara out of the room, I look down at myself. I realize that I’m still covered in dried blood and gore from the battles earlier today, or maybe it’s yesterday now. I’m pretty sure it’s morning now.While they’re gone, I carefully get out of bed and wrap the sheet around my waist. I couldn’t care less about walking around the pack naked, but I have a mate now. I don’t want her thinking that I’m flaunting myself in front of other she-wolves.I realize quickly that while my leg is mending, I can’t put my full weight on it yet.‘Those missing slivers that our mate mentioned have to be regrown, Warren. That takes time, but I’m working as fast as I can,’ Arric says.‘It’s okay, Buddy. You’re healing me and because of that, we’ll be able to remain Alpha of our pack.’‘And claim Yara as our Luna,’ he says and I can feel his respect and admira
YaraI refuse to ask where the packhouse is. I’m pretty sure that arrogant Alpha, and yes, he’s very arrogant, is back there laughing at me, even after I painstakingly put his leg back together. I have half a mind to break all those bones again and leave him to his own devices.‘Oh, that’s not what half your mind has been focusing on,’ Annika says, sending me images of Warren naked in the forest.‘I was focused on his injury,’ I insist.She changes the focus, expanding the image of Warren’s penis. It’s quite large, even when it’s not erect.‘Gotta love big Alphas,’ Annika purrs.‘You are not helping.’‘Come on, Yara. You know you’re enjoying yourself. When’s the last time someone really challenged you mentally? I like him. He’s….confident,” she smirks.I roll my eyes at my wolf and continue walking.‘Tell me you know where this damn packhouse is,’ I say to her.She lifts her nose again and I catch multiple scents all in close proximity.‘There you go,’ she says.I get to the packhouse
WarrenWhether it’s the exhaustion of the battle, the broken leg that Arric is working hard to heal, or just life in general, I feel exhausted. But no matter how tired I am, I’m not going to miss my mate getting in the shower with me. I’m not even disappointed that she'll leave her shirt on. Humans have wet t-shirt contests for a reason.I stand under the water, letting it loosen the dried blood and gore in my hair. When I look down and see that the water running down the drain is bright red, I wonder how bad I look. Under any other circumstances, I wouldn’t care, but I don’t want my mate to think less of me. She doesn’t seem surprised by the fighting and she seems to understand the need for me to maintain a strong image in front of the pack, but that doesn’t mean that she’s okay with it.“Okay, let’s see what we’ve got,” she says, walking back in and setting the clothes on the counter by the sink before stepping into the shower with me. “You’re pretty tall so I’m going to need you to