by Ellie Pond
Nurse Smithfield appeared in the doorway. Her smile flashed at Dr. Cottage. “Now that’s the best thing I’ve heard you say in the last twenty-four hours.”
“Not for me, for Miss Berry.” She needed space. But the struggle on Aurora’s face called for a friend, a rational friend—Tad.
“Whatever you say. Don’t forget I can tell a lie when I hear one.”
“Shit, princess, are you okay?” Tad came into the room, brushing dangerously close to Elizabeth.
“What’s going on?” Tad turned to Elizabeth.
“I’m guessing she realized that she has a mate, a mate that’s she’s known for her entire life.” Elizabeth stared at the couple. Tad carefully held Aurora’s hand. She felt no jealousy, only pride in Tad’s kindness. She blinked. She had no right to be proud of anything he did.
“How?” asked Aurora. “How, Tad? How could he not tell me?”
“Princess, he didn’t know. There’s no way he could have known. Spencer’s alpha vibes had you on lockdown from the moment he saw you.” Tad placed his book next to Aurora.
“Why, Tad? Why would Spencer do that? Do that to me? To his brother?”
“He didn’t mean to; he wouldn’t hurt you on purpose. My guess is his wolf was so young, he could tell that you were important to the pack, but he misread it. You were both so young.”
Aurora’s eyes were red, but no tears fell. And with a sniffle, her eyes cleared, but rage poured from her. “Where is he?”
“Duncan? He was in bed when I left.”
“No, Spencer.”
“I’m not sure. Breakfast, maybe? I haven’t seen him.”
“I have a few things I want to say to him.” Aurora stood up and marched out of the exam room.
“I bet you do.” Tad watched her storm out.
“What do you think she’ll do?” Elizabeth took off her gloves and washed her hands.
“She’ll be okay. Not so sure about my cousins.”
He laughed, and something in her snapped. She wanted to walk out the door and never see him again, and at the same time she wanted to pull him to her, while their lips crashed together. When they talked, everything felt right. And then by the end of the conversation, he would push her away.
"What's going on here?" she asked.
“I don't know what you mean, Doc?”
“This is killing me. I don’t want to like you.”
“That bad?” He smirked at her and stepped closer. “I kinda like you too. Theories are just theories until they’re proven or disproven by a law.” His hand cupped her face.
Goosebumps ran down her neck. “I need to at least know you better before I can make a decision.”
“Like an experiment. I think that’s a great idea. What time are you done here today? Or do you have any papers I could grade?” His eyes lit up.
“No papers. Actually, I’m supposed to take the day off. Captain’s orders. No doubt to get me to think about what it is he wants me to do. I have half a mind to go up to the bridge and tell him to leave me alone.”
“Or?” He wrapped his arms around her and she squirmed. “Just listen. We could stick it to him by you taking the day off and going to port with me.” Tad picked up the book that he had set on the exam table when he came in. He held the travel book from the port up to her. “Have you ever gone here?”
“No. I haven’t,” Elizabeth laughed.
“What are you laughing about?”
She grabbed his hand and took him down the hallway towards Anna’s desk and her office. Anna looked up from the computer.
“Well, you two are doing well.” Anna’s braided hair was piled into a complex twist on the top of her head.
“It’s a new day,” Tad piped up.
“Ask Anna what you asked me.”
Tad raised an eyebrow. He held up the book. “Has Elizabeth ever been here?”
Anna snorted. “Elizabeth doesn’t get off the ship unless it’s to follow a patient to the hospital for a consult. If you hadn’t been busy with cubs, she would have taken the MOB to the hospital herself. She couldn’t pick the location of the island out on a map.”
“I thought for a second that you might get bored,” said Tad.
“Not a chance.” Elizabeth grabbed the tome from him.
* * *
“You look lovely.”
“Thanks. I have three dresses on the ship. This one, a semi-formal and a formal dress.” She was wearing a green dress. The skirt let her walk freely and, best of all, had pockets.
“One for every occasion. How practical.”
She didn’t tell him it was because she had an affinity for shoes and the fewer dresses or non-work clothes she had in her room, the more room she had for shoes. Today’s were sensible but fun: slip-ons with howling dogs on them. They weren’t wolves, she told herself when she bought them online. Plus, they were the brand of shoe that sent a second pair to a woman who couldn’t afford shoes.
From the little she had looked through the book on Port-Au-Prince and the bit that Anna had told her, she knew there were lots of great hikes and ruins to see. Tad bounced around like one of her students.
“What do you want to do?” Elizabeth hefted her pack onto her back.
“I’ve got it all planned out.” He watched her. “If that’s okay?”
“Great,” she said without any trepidation.
* * *
They left the ship in single file. She was used to seeing the legs and feet of passengers on the dock outside her porthole. Port days were quiet, a marvelous day to get work done. Okay, enough of that, she said to herself. Today was about fun and getting to know Tad. She ogled him from behind. He was something to behold. A blush rushed up her neck as she remembered his naked body. Tad reached behind him and took her hand, her pack on his back.
“Look, there’s the clinic.” Elizabeth pointed to the top of the hill that overlooked the city. For a clinic, it had the view of a million-dollar mansion. She had glanced out the window a few times before hurrying back to the ship. Had the port always smelled this strong? Diesel fumes and seaweed accosted her. She considered going to check on the MOB rescue.
Another ship’s horn blasted as it pulled into the dock next to Dark Wing. She jumped.
“You truly don’t get out much.”
“Nope.”
Tad pulled her towards the buses of passengers going towards their excursions, and he headed towards one of the large coach buses. She tried to plaster a neutral expression on her face. Going on a ship tour bus and having to spend all day waiting for the slowest passenger in the group didn’t sound like fun. But Tad guided her past them and towards a little parking lot to the side. A driver wearing a pink flowered shirt held a sign that read ‘Larsen.’
“Didn’t mean to scare you,” he whispered to her.
She smacked his arm playfully and laughed. “You had me.”
“You didn’t think I would make you sit on a bus full of tourists all day? Come here.” He pulled her in and kissed her.
Tad held out his hand for the driver and introduced both of them. They got in the back of the lime green town car. The driver pulled out of the lot quickly. Elizabeth hadn’t had time to put on her seatbelt and went flying across the old-style bench seat into Tad, who caught her.
“Hello.” He placed her back in her seat and helped her buckle up. He leaned forward over the front seat. “We aren’t in a rush,” he said to the driver.
“No, problem. Just want to get out of downtown before the next cruise ship docks. It will be impossible to drive anywhere down here after they start unloading.”
“Okay, just take it easy, please.”
Elizabeth settled in as they drove away from the ship and away from the clinic as well.
“The ruins are on the other side of the island. Don’t worry, we will be back in plenty of time before the ship leaves.”
“It’s like you’re reading my mind.”
He laughed and ran his thumb down the side of her cheek.
“I’m not reading your mind. I can be perceptive when I want to be.” He kissed her cheek, and a blush rose up her neck.
She held onto his arm and looked out the window. The driver had slowed to a reasonable pace. The scenery was lovely. She had never been here, not past the harbor. The houses with their stepped roofs reminded her of Europe, but the colors were all Caribbean. Pink, vivid green, and blue houses sat shoulder to shoulder from the sea to halfway up the mountainside. Small gardens dotted the front yards with tropical plants. Soon they were out of the capital and the houses turned to rocky pasture with goats wandering amongst the rocks and grass. Patches of dense forest crowded the road, only to open again to farm land. The road hugged the mountain on one side, and a ledge led to the sea on the other side for many miles. The car pitched into darkness as they entered a tunnel. Elizabeth turned her attention to Tad. The reflection in his eyes that only shifters had glimmered at her. His shifter vision let him see her in the dark tunnel as if it was daylight. Scooting across the bench seat until their legs touched, she leaned in to him. He put his arm around her as they plunged into the bright Caribbean sun.
She gazed at him. His eyes were once again the bright steel blue she had grown accustomed to over the last few days. Her lips found his, and she had to pull away before she caused a scene in the car. With one kiss, he melted all of her inhibitions. No doubt he scented her arousal. With the windows down in the car, she was actually cold. She rubbed her bare arms. Tad pulled her closer, and the heat radiating off of him comforted her.
On this side of the mountain, the ocean side of the road held open fields and the other dense jungle. The driver turned down a jungle road, then down a single-lane road to a parking lot. One short bus sat in the lot with a handful of cars next to it. A building with a low metal roof and a large wooden porch all around it sat beside it. A sign next to it declared it the Carib Heritage Center and Citadel. The driver stopped in front of the building. Tad got out of the car and held a hand out for Elizabeth.
She glanced back at the car. If the driver left, they would miss the ship’s departure window for sure.
“It’s fine. I paid him for the whole day.”
An unexpected sense of calm washed over her. Elizabeth darted up the wooden stairs. Large white rattan fans buzzed on the porch’s ceiling. He held the door open for her. While it wasn’t much cooler inside than out, the inside of the center was far more modern than she would have expected from the outside. Elizabeth pulled out her wallet and paid for their tickets. Tad started to complain, but with a quick stare she silenced him.
“Thank you,” he said. “I invited you, though.”
She glared at him.
“Okay, fine. Thank you.”
She held her glare until she laughed. It was sweet that he wanted to treat her, but she could take care of herself. And the fact that he didn’t press the issue too hard satisfied her that he wasn’t the typical alpha hardhead.
They browsed through the center and exited out the back doors to the area with the archeological ruins. The displays held their interest. Elizabeth was shocked it was the first time she’d visited a place like this with someone who spent as much time reading and examining as she did. The two of them strolled and studied in quiet, each occasionally pointing out something that interested them.
Her hand felt bare without Tad’s hand grasped in hers. Hand-holding in the past always tethered her uncomfortably.
Tad was a few steps ahead of her. He’d found a section of the ruins that looked down into what would have been the domestic living quarters of a family. Next to the ruins, there was an illustration of how it would've looked when the family lived there. It was the sort of illustration that as a child she would've spent hours with, a cut-away one that showed how people lived in their homes. Her favorite book as a young girl had layers of colorful acetate, with each page showing a little more of the interior and examining the insides of homes and the lives of the people within them. The display reminded her of the book that she hadn’t thought about in forever. Digging into the unknown excited her. She'd loved studying how people used to live. How people differed from one another. That was one of the things that drew her into studying shifters.
“I love imagining how they would've lived.”
“Me too.” Tad pushed a strand of her hair behind her ear.
They ambled around, looking at all the displays and the exposed archaeology for over an hour. Then they climbed a long winding trail with dense foliage hanging over it, the air thick with humidity. Tad carried her pack and a white canvas pack as well as they trudged up the mountain.
By the time they arrived at the top, the vegetation cleared. The breeze picked up. Once they rounded the corner, they were rewarded with the towering citadel and an expansive view of the dense foliage to the water far below. They found a patch of grass, and Tad beckoned Elizabeth to sit. He opened the canvas pack and pulled out two sandwiches with two bottles of water. They sat and ate in silence. She liked that about him. He didn’t fill the silence because he needed to be the center of attention.
“Thank you for inviting me. I would never have done this without you.”
“You deserve a break. When I have a complex problem, some exercise helps me come up with a solution.”
“My head is so much clearer today. Thank you.” She paused. “I spoke to Violet. Yester—this morning. Wow, that was only this morning. She said that your mother left you broken. But that she fixed you?” She flattened the empty paper from her sandwich and tore it into a square. She began folding an origami swan that she had not made for years.
“That would be one interpretation.” Tad peered out over the field of exposed ruins without a glance to her.
“Are you okay? Did it hurt you, what Violet did?” The last thing Elizabeth wanted to do was to cause pain. But she was incredibly grateful to be able to think clearly again . . . And so far today she’d only spoken English, but that was more of a bonding thing. She’d finally been able to get into the shifter medical journals online early this morning. The more bonded you became, the less random language transfer occurred. Always something else to learn. A half hour flew by as she read more and more.
“I’ll be okay.” Tad watched her as she created each fold. She had made so many of the things in high school that muscle memory kicked in quickly and easily. “I’ve tried to get the hang of that. It's all math, and math was always easy for me. But not origami.”
“It’s really just a sequence. Once you get the hang of it, it's quite easy.” She handed him the swan, and he held it up to admire it before putting it in the pocket of his backpack. She wanted him to tell her about what happened with Violet. But it was obvious he didn’t want to talk about it. Once again, their fingers intertwined. A question of what it would be like to be his mate flashed in her mind. Why was she wavering, even though her inside melted every time she looked at him?
She leaned in and her lips brushed against his. His eyes opened in question for only a beat before he took ownership of the kiss. His tongue slid along the seam of her mouth until her lips parted for his. His fingers tangled in her bun, pulling her hair free. He ran his fingers over her curls.
When she pulled away, her lips were plump. She couldn’t deny the pull to him. “I want to try this.”
“Doc, you know better than most that there is no try, there is only do.” His smirk shot straight to her core.
A snort escaped her. She pushed on his arm and slapped his chest. “You’re going to go nerd on me now?”
“I’m a nerd. Pay attention, my dear doctor.”
Her pulse thudded. With a gentle shove, he landed flat on his back and she straddled him. A growl erupted from his barrel chest. One of warning or lust?
“Nerds are hot.” She ground herself against him, leaned down, and licked his neck. In the next beat, she found herself flipped onto her back, Tad’s arms caging her in. He sucked on her earlobe and kissed along the hairline on her neck. She moaned and ground her hand down
the thick bulge in his pants.
A child’s laughter echoed up the path. Tad rolled off of her and smoothed her hair. “We should get going.” His clear blue eyes flashed.
* * *
Their driver was waiting for them in front of the cultural center. Tad helped Elizabeth into the car and closed her door before running around to the other side. It was much warmer out now, and Elizabeth found herself getting drowsy. She rested her head on Tad’s shoulder, and soon she was asleep.
She woke up as they pulled into the parking lot in front of the ship. The Dark Wing stood out dramatically at port with its black and purple coloration. Other ships looked boring with their standard white paint. The ship let out three loud blasts. They weren't late, but they certainly weren't early.
Tad helped Elizabeth out of the car. She stretched her legs as he paid for the driver. Tad held both of their bags as they walked to the customs area to get back on board the ship.
Every ounce of drowsiness fled Elizabeth when she saw who was standing at the entrance.
Phillip.
22
Port Authority
There was no question the jerk leaning against the island’s makeshift customs entrance was in fact Elizabeth's ex. He bolted upright when he saw Elizabeth and rushed towards her. The irritation and fear coming off of his mate made his wolf burn at his skin. His mate didn't like it when he was bossy, but in this moment his need to protect her outweighed her desire. Phillip rushed at them.
“Who the hell is this guy?” Phillip pointed his finger at Tad. “He’s the reason you’re not answering my calls?”
“Who are you?” Tad stood between his mate and her hipster ex-boyfriend. He had a hard time imagining that they had anything in common.
Elizabeth stepped out around him. “He has nothing to do with why we aren’t together.”
“You won’t talk to me.” Phillip ran his fingers through his hair.