Chapter 7: The Blood and Bones of Questions without Answers

"Ah!" Jamie gritted her teeth as Andy poked and prodded the area around her shoulder and collarbone, also pressing against her ribs.

Valerie had left her to the pack medic's tender mercies, but he sure as hell wasn't tender.

"I have to say, that punch was impressive."

Jamie did a double take, looking at Andy, waiting for the rage, but he lacked anything of the sort. All he seemed was amused.

"I punched your alpha."

"Yeah, and it was glorious. He hasn't had anyone challenge him in a while. He was starting to get cocky, so good on you for putting him in his place."

Jamie blinked, staring as Andy bustled about for a few more tools, shuffling through bottles of medicine.

Now that the anger wasn't so front and center, she was able to think more clearly, and this was not usually how a fight with the alpha went down afterwards.

"Why are you helping me? I thought you were the pack beta."

"Uh, yeah? And the medic? It's kind of my job?"

"I mean, usually the pack beta's on the alpha's side, their right hand."

"Oh, that," Andy hummed, coming over with a tray of things that did not look like they were for her shoulder. "I mean, yeah I'm the beta, but I like to think I'm Logan's friend first. He's not always the sharpest, if you know what I mean," he joked, coming back with a sling and a bottle of pills and a tray of tools.

Jamie really hoped she didn't have to go under for a surgery.

"Alright, good news! None of your ribs are broken, just heavily bruised. Even more good news, despite taking a hit to the head from Logan of all people you don't have a concussion. Bad news, you have a broken collarbone. More bad news, you have to wear a sling for six to eight weeks."

"Joy," she muttered, sighing in relief when there was no surgery happening, but that didn't explain the syringes and vials he gathered up.

"Hey, it could be worse," Andy snickered, "The 'real' good news is that I have the good stuff, you won't feel a thing as long as you stick to the prescription." He shook a few bottles of pills before handing them over to her. "One of the blue ones every day. That's a slow release dose of pain medication. The white one's ibuprofen so take as needed or one every eight hours. Arm please, the uninjured one."

"…what's the syringe for?" she asked carefully as he swabbed her arm with an alcohol wipe, picking up a syringe.

"Standard procedure," he told her before explaining, "Canis Syndrome is still a relatively unknown disease. I'm just taking blood samples to run comparisons. Your pack medic also sent over your files, but I like to get a baseline, just to be sure I didn't miss anything."

"Huh, pretty responsible of you. Guess that didn't rub off on Logan, did it?"

Andy didn't hesitate to draw her blood. He was fast, professional, and he was taking too much for this to be standard procedure.

Jamie didn't know how many tests he had to run, but he definitely had larger vials than necessary, and he filled up six of them and was still going. They had 10ml labeled on the side.

"Don't be too hard on Logan," Andy said gently while Jamie bit the edge of her tongue as he continued to fill the vials of blood. "He is a bit of a blockhead sometimes, but you heard him. He's 22. His parents used to be the alpha and beta of the pack before they died. They started this pack for shifters like us to have a safe place, but no one else was able to take on the title so it fell to him. He's a good alpha, but he's still learning. He hasn't been trying to scorn your existence, even if it might seem like it."

Finally, finally he was done taking blood. A full ten vials and while he patched her up and told her to take the first dose, something she mimed doing.

After all this, there was no way Jamie felt comfortable enough to willingly dull her senses, even if it would take away the throbbing pain in her ribs and the throbbing in her head from where she was punched.

She was tense as Andy fixed the sling for her arm, careful to adjust the straps so it wouldn't bother her collarbone while it healed up.

"So, any other questions?" he asked.

Yeah, 'What's the blood really for?' 'Why did you need to take so much?' 'Why are you setting off my instincts?' but Jamie didn't ask any of that.

After everything that happened, alienating herself from a medic in a pack that wasn't going to be so welcoming after tonight was the last thing she needed to do.

She was weary though, and that wasn't going to change any time soon.

"After today I think I'm just ready to question where my bed is."

"Ha! Val should be outside waiting for you–and don't worry too much about what happened! We're a pretty easy-going pack, and Logan's still learning the ropes. Just you wait. It'll feel welcoming in no time."

There was that word again. Welcome. They were really trying to sell it. That Jamie was welcomed, that they were welcoming, that she would feel like she belonged.

How was she supposed to do that when the alpha was just a powerful shifter who didn't know what he was doing–or worse, did know what he was doing and still treated her so callously?

When the medic they had was setting her off and making her skin crawl despite how he hadn't done anything to really hurt her or threaten her?

Sure, Valerie seemed to be okay with her and seemed to care, but Logan Foster, just like his name, had fostered her off onto someone else. It was Valerie's job to try and get her to feel unthreatened and welcome by the rest of the pack.

Jamie knew what a pack was supposed to be. She knew how it worked, how it functioned, she learned everything from her father who was a good alpha, one of the best. Even if he'd sent her away in a bid to save her.

This? This was trying real hard, and maybe it was family. Jamie was strong enough to admit that maybe she was jealous of no longer really having that, but it sure as hell wasn't pack.