I could see curiosity in her eyes, but she must have decided to keep things professional.
“How’s your leg?”
“Healing faster than a human would. If they look at my wound, it’s going to be obvious that something is wrong,” I whispered to her. I looked down at the name tag on her coat to see ‘Anna’ with a pharmacist designation below. I was guessing that a pharmacist would have some authority around here, but a civilian probably wouldn’t have as much as a military officer. How much would she be able to help me?
She frowned. “I see the problem. If you were a civilian, you could leave AMA… against medical orders,” she clarified when I gave her a strange look. “But if you try to leave now as active-duty they can declare you AWOL.”
“What am I going to do?” I asked desperately. It was clear that Captain Michaels hadn’t sent her and she didn’t seem to know how to handle this any more than I did.
“Relax.” Anna squeezed my hand before she closed the curtains around us so no one could see in and pulled out her phone.
“Are you texting your pack master?” I asked, rubbing my legs nervously. Wolves were territorial, and her pack master might react badly to an outside shifter showing up and putting his pack at risk.
Anna nodded. “He’ll know what to do. Do you have a pack?” she asked curiously.
I rolled my eyes. “I’m a panther, not a wolf.”
“So, what do panthers have?” she asked as she stared down at her phone.
“We’re mostly solitary, but sometimes have mates,” I lied. If I told her the truth, I’d have to explain why I was alone and no longer part of the community. Besides, since that was true about jaguars in the wild, she’d probably believe it.
A doctor pushed aside the curtain, and my heart rate accelerated. Did this slightly naïve wolf have what it took to lie well enough to hide my true nature? I was surprised when she grabbed my chart, told him the injury had occurred over a month ago and started rattling off medical terms.
I swallowed nervously when he called for one of his nurses to cut through the bandages and my wound was revealed. It was evident that it was healing well as he examined the pink but unbroken skin. “This looks good for a month ago…” he murmured.
He went to reach for the chart, but the wolf kept it and paged through as if she was trying to be helpful and not making up lies as she went. “Closer to six weeks,” she told the doctor with a bright smile.
“Why did they wait so long to transport you?” the doctor asked me with a frown.
I shrugged and tried to act nonchalant. “I was doing well enough that I didn’t need care stateside, Commander. But paperwork, you know?”
He nodded in understanding. Anyone who worked for the military understood the frustrations of paperwork, red tape, and bureaucracy.
“They wanted you back here for physical therapy?” he guessed.
My eyes darted towards the blond wolf, and she gave me a nod to just roll with it. “Yes, sir. They want me back here to get back in fighting shape.” “Did they send you with orders?” he asked.
“No, sir. I believe my command wanted a prognosis first.”
“I’m going to recommend six weeks convalescent leave. Are you able to stay in the area for physical therapy here?”
I glanced over at the wolf, and she nodded. But did she really have the authority within her pack to make promises like that? “Yes, sir,” I told the doctor as if I had no doubts about my future.
He looked up at me. “I’ll put in my request to your command for the leave, Corporal.”
“Thank you, sir,” I murmured. That would give me the time I needed to find out the details of where I could find Hart and her family.
The doctor left me alone with Anna, and she gave me another smile. “You can stay with me if you don’t have a place around here.”
“With your pack?” I asked doubtfully. “Wolves don’t like my kind.”
Anna shrugged. “My pack is different.”
“What are you doing working in a hospital, anyway?” I asked suspiciously. “I thought wolves never let their females out of the pretty cages they like to keep them in.”
Anna just laughed. “My pack is very different,” she said as she glanced down at her phone. “Stay here until your discharge paperwork is ready. I’m going to put in your order, finish up documenting my cases, and then change. I’ll be back to pick you up as soon as I can, Corporal.”
I nodded at her in thanks. “You can call me Sam.”
Anna left, and I decided it was time to change out of this stupid hospital gown. My civilian clothes were at the bottom of my duffle, so I went for my service uniform. Someone had thoughtfully packed it on top in a way that left me with very few wrinkles, an impressive feat.
I ran my thumb over the first Combat Action Ribbon I had ever added to my stack, and a flash of pain stabbed me in the heart when I pictured Hart grinning alongside me. An image of her leg lying in the dirt, barely visible through the dust cloud, flashed through my mind. If I had just been quicker to grab her… or maybe if I hadn’t stopped the other marine to tell him I was going after her… It all happened so fast. I dug my nails into my thighs, needing to feel the pain. I should have made her go in front of me when we ran to the helo; I should never have allowed her to take the rear. My thoughts spiraled into darkness, and I couldn’t help reliving that moment over and over, looking for ways I could have saved Hart.
Anna came back for me before I had too much time to sink into a debilitating depression.
“Ready to go?” she asked with a smile.
I tried not to look as despondent as I felt and grabbed my crutches. Anna pushed back the curtain to lead the way out, but I had to stop her. “Um, I can’t carry my duffle if I’m going to use these things.” I gestured to the giant bag I had shoved halfway under the bed because otherwise, it would have taken up half of the tiny ‘room.’
Anna shrugged. “I can get it.” I had to force myself to stand still as she struggled with it, but I had to act if I was still an invalid if I wanted to get out of here without more questions.
As we walked out of the hospital, my anxiety grew. I was about to be confronted with what was most likely an angry pack master. I was going to have to convince him to help me, and I wouldn’t be surprised if he demanded that I vacate his territory immediately. He had no obligation to help me at all.
Anna must have sensed the dread radiating off me. “The Seaside Pack is different from all the other packs out there,” she said gently. “Austin’s our pack master, and he runs the pack similarly to how the military runs things. He doesn’t allow violence or abuse in his pack.”
I studied her closely, trying to determine where she ranked in the pack. But whatever she was doing to hide her nature was throwing me off. I could usually feel magic radiating off a shifter far enough away for me to avoid them altogether. The stronger the aura, the more powerful they were, and the more I wanted to stay away. This wolf could be the lowest in her pack or she could be the alpha bitch, and I would have no idea. Her promises meant nothing if she didn’t have the clout to back them up.
“I’ve had some run-ins with wolves before,” I said warily. “I’ll be honest… You seem really cool, and my gut says I can trust you. But the others in your pack? I’ll wait and see.”
“You know, the guys coming to pick us up now are prior active-duty marines. Maybe you might know some people in common?” she suggested hopefully.
I nodded thoughtfully. “Maybe.” That might help my case. Marines tended to stick together, active-duty or not. I just hoped they weren’t the type of Marines who would hold my gender against me.
Before I could even get my hopes up, three big wolves barreled down the sidewalk towards us with murder in their eyes. If I weren’t ‘injured’ and desperately in need of shifter assistance to hide my nature from the humans, I would have turned tail and tried to figure something out on my own. While I might be able to take on one or two wolves on my own, they
almost always traveled in packs. Piss one of them off and you had the entire pack on your heels. I was especially wary of these wolves because they had prior military training – and probably the same training that I did.
Unlike with Anna, I could get a read on these wolves pretty quickly. The big one, who looked like he topped off at six-foot-five radiated power like an alpha. Shit, did the pack master himself come for me? The other two weren’t far below him in power, but it was clear that they followed the big one’s lead.
I glanced over at Anna cautiously, but stood my ground. Had she set me up? She got a soft and gooey look in her eye the moment she saw the guys heading this way, so chances were that she was involved with at least one of them. But what did that mean for me? I stood as tall as I could while pretending to need crutches – not an easy feat. But showing weakness wasn’t an option. These guys were predators and I needed to walk the thin line between letting them know that I wasn’t going to be pushed around, but not be so threatening as to invite an attack.
Anna surprised me when she snapped to attention once she saw the attitude the males were throwing off and stepped in front of me protectively. My eyebrows rose. This female wasn’t afraid to face off with three giant alpha wolves with murder on the brain? She had balls.
“Hey, Anna,” the largest one said with a scowl directed at me. He moved to step around Anna, but she kept her body between us.
“This is my friend, Sam,” she said pointedly, holding his gaze.
The scowl stayed on his face, but his eyes softened a little bit. “Anna, I need you to let us handle this from here.”
“No,” she said with a defiant tilt to her chin.
My estimation of Anna went up a few more notches. She was powerful enough to refuse a direct command from an alpha wolf with a significant amount of power behind his words. She was made of stronger stuff than any other female wolf I’d ever seen before.
Anna stood strong in front of me and made it very clear that I was under her protection. I gave the males my best ‘I’m just a cute little brunette’ look, but they weren’t buying it. The big one still had his gaze on Anna, but Tweedledee and Tweedledum both narrowed their eyes and looked even more suspicious of me.
“Sam is my friend and my patient,” Anna told them. “I promised her that I would take care of her, and I’m not going to let you guys be mean to her.”
Cody’s jaw dropped a little. “Mean?”
I stared at Anna in shock right along with them. I wish the worst thing I had to worry about was someone being mean to me.
The twins chuckled from where they were flanking Cody, and some of the tension bled out of the situation. Anna glared at all three of them. “Yeah. Mean.”
Cody ran his hand through his hair. “We’re not going to be mean to her, Anna. But we do need to evaluate a potential threat.”
Anna turned back to me. “This is Cody, Mason, and Jason,” she told me as she pointed them out.
I tried to hide my amusement at just how easily the pretty blonde had overruled three wolves who were each twice her size. They were still on edge, but had relaxed enough that I knew I was out of danger.
“Sam was injured on deployment and sent back here for treatment,” Anna informed them. I could see all three of them looking at my uniform, rank insignia and awards stack. Those three things told the story of my last five years in the marines and what they saw must have partially mollified their concerns.
“Welcome back, Corporal,” Cody told me politely.
I sighed in relief. Most of the tension seemed to fade as they realized I probably wasn’t as much of a threat as they had initially feared. All five of us crammed into an SUV, and I winced as I was wedged between the two twins. Clearly, they didn’t trust me that much.
Anna shot me a look that was tinged with jealousy and a small hint of warning from where she sat in the front passenger seat. I gave her a slight shrug to let her know that in no way was I interested in the two wolves next to me. She could keep them.
After stuffing our faces with surprisingly delicious food from a drive-through, I spent the rest of the drive comparing notes with the other marines. My time in the marines had overlapped with some of the twins’, so we knew some of the same people and had deployed to some of the same locations. Cody had been in before my time, but he had known my Gunny back when he was a lowly Lance Corporal.
My jaw dropped when they drove up to their pack house. “Damn. This is like some MTV cribs shit,” I said with a laugh. These wolves were loaded if they thought living in a mansion was normal.
My nerves came back as we got out of the car and a step closer to meeting their pack master. These guys seemed relatively cool, but I’m not sure how things would have gone if we hadn’t all been marines. I rolled my shoulders back as if I were planning to go into battle. I would be polite and respectful, but I wasn’t going to cower fearfully in front of this guy.
I walked into their home with my head held high, acting like I was completely comfortable walking into a strange den of wolves who might want to rip my head off. Two wolves were waiting for us as we stepped in the house. I gave them each a respectful nod as Anna introduced us.
Austin, was tall with dark blond hair and dressed impeccably in a suit as if we had just interrupted a power meeting. I wasn’t surprised when Anna told me he was their pack master, because I could feel the energy radiating from him. The other man, James, exuded danger the way that Austin radiated power. He had dark hair, tan skin, and he was dressed in the black military fatigues of a mercenary. I fought the shiver that crept down my spine as his cold dark eyes evaluated me from head to toe. Austin might be the guy that I would need to impress, but James was the one I’d have to watch out for in the shadows.
The two of them took Anna back to an office, leaving me alone with Cody and the twins. “Any advice for a fellow marine?” I asked hopefully.
Cody smiled at me. “Be honest. Austin values that above all else, and James won’t let you out of that room if he thinks you’re hiding something.”
I swallowed nervously. “James is like… your enforcer?”
The twins both frowned at me, but Cody was the one to correct me. “Head of security for the pack.”
“But don’t piss him off,” Mason warned me.
“Anna’s the only one who can get away with that,” Jason mumbled. Mason elbowed him, and Jason gave an unapologetic shrug. “It’s true.”
Cody rolled his eyes. “Relax, Sam. James is prior military just like the rest of the pack. He might come off as overzealous and protective of the pack, but he always has our best interests at heart. As long as you don’t mean anyone in this pack harm, then you have nothing to worry about.”
I nodded. “Believe me, coming to Seaside was nowhere in my plans.”
Jason looked at me curiously. “What were your plans?”
I shrugged. “I dunno. Make it through the rest of my deployment, come back to the States where I could spend my combat pay on alcohol like a good marine.”
The twins both snorted in amusement, but Cody looked more serious. “How long did you want to stay in the marines? Because in another few years, humans are going to notice that you aren’t aging correctly.”
I sighed. “I haven’t really thought that far ahead. The Marine Corps was the answer to so many problems in my life; I don’t know who I’d be without it.”
Cody gave me a sad smile. “I think that’s true for most of us.” He reached in his pocket and handed me a business card. “I run a volunteer group for marines and sailors who are transitioning out of the military. Regardless of how the meeting goes,” he gestured to the office where Anna, James, and Austin were sequestered. “Know that I’d do whatever I can to help when you do decide to move on from the marines.”
I forced a smile on my face as I took the card, but a sense of hopelessness overwhelmed me. Move on? I was homeless and alone before the marines, what would I be without them? Who would I be if I wasn’t a marine?
Anna came out of the office looking more worried than when she came in and gave me a supportive squeeze of the hand when she passed by me.
“Cody, you can sit in on this. Mason, Jason, keep Anna nearby,” Austin ordered. “I need to speak with her at length when I’m finished here.” “May I stay?” Anna asked cautiously.
“No,” Austin answered. His tone softened a little as he continued. “I don’t let anyone into these meetings who would want to advocate for the interviewee; I want to evaluate them without anyone influencing the process. That’s why Cody couldn’t stay for yours.”
Anna looked at Cody in surprise, and I suppressed my smile. Did she not realize that the big wolf had it bad for her? She gave him a shy smile, and the twins shared a glance. I had a feeling their relationship with Anna was about to get a lot more complicated.
Austin waved me into his office and I took a seat in one a chair in front of his desk. James leaned up against the wall to observe from a distance, and Cody sat next to me. Austin gave me a friendly smile. “Why don’t we start by discussing how you came to be here today?”
I suppressed my snarky urge to tell him that I wasn’t here by choice and instead gave him a neutral smile. “I was injured during a combat mission, sent to the hospital in Kandahar, then transported to Ramstein. I was en-route to Bethesda when my plane was diverted to Seaside.”
Austin nodded. “We’ve already confirmed that part of your story.”
I tried not to scowl. Then why were we even having this conversation? Austin and James exchanged a glance, and I had the feeling they were using their pack bond to discuss me. “A doc in Kandahar told me to ask for Captain Michaels once I reached Bethesda,” I told them politely. “I was hoping he would help hide my potential exposure to humans. My initial wound would have been potentially career-ending if I had been human, and it’s unlikely that a human would be able to return to active-duty without at lease a few months of recovery time. Anna managed to convince the ER doc that my injury had occurred six weeks ago, but a large number of people know that’s not true.”
Finding Buried Secrets: A Seaside Wolf Pack Novel Page 3