Kenny (Shifter Football League Book 2)

by Becca Fanning

  “Well you did just take down a lion, maybe she’s a little spooked. Give her some space man. I can’t believe you’re even considering a human.”

  “I didn’t say I was considering. I have to work with her, and you know I haven’t made many companions in the human world. I don’t want any, but it would be nice to have a friend during this internship.”

  “Friendship? Right.”

  Tye didn’t bother responding. He shrugged his brother off, and decided to head back to his parents’ house. The fight had appeased his bear for the time being, and now he just wanted to eat and catch up on some sleep. He needed to get Melanie out of his mind. He realized when she left that he actually cared that she left, and he couldn’t venture down that rabbit hole.

  Tye’s time at his parent’s house came and went quickly. He had to actively work to keep Melanie from popping up in his mind. His bear paced. He had to participate in two more fight nights just to appease the beast. He wasn’t normally this hostile, but his time in medical school coupled with Melanie walking off had him in a frenzy.

  It was time for him to go back to the city, back to the hospital, and more importantly back to Melanie. She would be there tomorrow, and every other day going forward until they were out of their internship. That thought alone was the only reason he was excited. As much as he wanted to be a doctor it had been nice to be back around his people where he could be himself and feel comfortable.

  “Tye, honey. Are you feeling okay?” His mom was a worrier, and she had that crease on her forehead now that told him he was in for one of her heart to hearts.

  “I’m fine mom. I’m just tired.”

  “I know you’ve been working so hard, and you know I worry.”

  “I know mom. I’m fine though, really. I got to get going soon though. Tomorrows the first day of my internship. I’m sure tonight will be my last night of decent sleep for a while.”

  “Just be careful. You know what sleep deprivation can do to us. I hate to see you be made an example of out in the human world. Is that girl from the other night in your internship?”

  There it was. What is mom was really worried about. Whether or not he was involved with a human female.

  “Yes she’s in my internship.”

  “Oh. That’s good. I’m glad you have a friend.”

  “She’s just a friend mom, try not to worry.”

  Tye showed up to his first day of the internship early in hopes of catching Melanie beforehand, but with only minutes before they were to meet with their attending doctors she was still a no show. Tye paced frantically wondering if maybe she dropped out just because of him. She seemed too determined to drop out simply because of whatever happened the other night. Finally, just as he was turning to make another lap he saw the top of her head enter the room. She was dressed professionally with her white coat on, and her long hair was pulled up into a bun high on her head.

  The attending’s came in just then to pair them off so Tye’s mission would have to wait.

  “Hello, welcome to Pittsburgh’s finest teaching hospital. My name is Dr. Bala, I’m the chief resident and will be handling you all while you’re here. I don’t have time to deal with you so unless it’s life or death my door is closed. We’ll be pairing you off to go and do rounds. Get to know your new buddy you will be spending a lot of time with them. You’ll make rounds with them, study with them, and pretty much you will see them more than you see yourself.”

  Tye kept his eyes on Melanie the whole time the doctor was reading off names. His bear lunged forward when he caught her scent. He wasn’t sure how it was possible for his bear to be showing the mate bond signs with a human, but he was. As the room started to empty and there was only four of them left Tye couldn’t help but hope that Melanie would be his partner. He could sense her anxiousness, and knew she was thinking the same thing.

  “Doctor Brigham and Doctor Gloss, you’ll be working under Dr. Byron. I chose you two because you both were top of your class. I know you can handle it, and won’t be bugging me about anything.”

  The doctor gave them a stern look as they made their way past him both nodding in agreement. Tye wanted to reach out and put his hand on the small of Melanie’s back and lead her out, but he resisted the urge. He had a feeling she had a mean right hook waiting for him if he ever tried anything like that.

  “Good to see you Melanie. How have you been?” He tried to keep his annoyance out of his tone, but he found that now that he had her attention he was angry all over again.

  “Fine, Tye. Yourself?”

  “Fine. I do happen to have this kink in my neck from whiplash a few days ago.”

  “You’re a doctor. I would assume you should be able to take care of that yourself.”

  “You’re correct. I’m more concerned about the cause though. You’re quite fast when you want to be.”

  “Tye, can we not do this now. We need to go and find Dr. Byron, and do rounds. I don’t have time for this now.”

  Tye started to ask her when she would have time for it, but she ended the conversation by walking off. He pulled himself out of his thoughts,and took off after her. She was right, right now they needed to focus on their internship. Later though he would get his answers.

  Chapter Eight

  Melanie

  “So did you off the other kid?”

  “Excuse me?” Tye was absolutely floored by her question.

  “Rumor has it that there was supposed to be someone else here. At the last minute he suffered an injury that kept him from the program. You took his spot.”

  “How in the hell would anybody even know that type of information. I didn’t know I got in myself until that meeting let alone who else received letters or should have received them.”

  Melanie could see the hurt and shock on his face briefly before he plastered a very pissed off look in its place. She wasn’t sure why she even brought it up, she definitely didn’t believe it. Even though he was a giant Shifter, and just days before she had seen him tear into a rather large lion, he just didn’t seem hostile. Honestly injuring the kid to get a spot in the coveted program sounded more like something she would do. She didn’t, but the idea had merit if she hadn’t got in herself. If she was being honest with herself, she really just wanted to avoid talking about the other night.

  “I’m not sure but that’s what everybody was whispering about earlier.”

  “I don’t even know who the kid is let alone harm them for a spot here. I’m a doctor. My job is to help and heal not injure.”

  “Is that why you took off the other night?”

  That was the question she had been avoiding. She didn’t want to go over why she had showed up the other night, and definitely didn’t want to discuss why she left. She couldn’t deal with these emotions right now especially since the chief resident had paired them together. Of all the luck to have she would now be spending all of her time with the one person in the internship she desperately needed to avoid. She had to admit though during rounds today Tye had shown that he earned his spot in the program. He seemed to know the answer to the questions before Dr. Byron could ask the questions.

  “How were you able to keep up with Dr. Byron so well today?”

  “You didn’t answer my question.”

  She sighed. He wasn’t going to drop it.

  “Tye, I left because you had just turned into a giant bear and fought a giant lion. It was a bit much. I’m sorry I took off like that. Can we please move on and discuss today, and the rest of our internship? We need to get through this program.”

  “Being a Shifter in medical school didn’t give me many friends, so I had a lot of time to study. I also have keener senses than you humans do. I’m much more sensitive to smells and emotions than you, and that helps.”

  “So you could smell that patient with nephritis? Dr. Byron wasn’t even aware that the kidney infection had progressed to that point.”

  “I couldn’t smell the infection per say, but the urine was
so strong mixed with the pain he was in. The fact that he had been burning with temperature for almost 36 hours told me it had progressed past just a simple kidney infection and probably into Nephritis. I took a guess, and turned out I was right.”

  Melanie stared at him in disbelief. Maybe ending up with Tye as a partner was going to have its perks. He was like her ace in the hole, personal feelings aside, she needed a strong partner like Tye so that she could come out on top of her boards. She noticed another pair of the interns had entered the coffee shop, and after wearily looking at Tye decided to sit elsewhere. That was fine Melanie thought, let them think he did take out the other kid, and she would have him and his abilities all to herself.

  Melanie shook her head at herself. Was she really this bad of person? Tye was super sweet, and she could tell that he was interested in her. So why was she now all of a sudden planning to use him and dump him as soon as this was over. Probably because she was the product of her father, and he didn’t know what else to do but use and abuse people.

  “Do the doctors know that you can sense things?”

  “Not that I’m aware of. They may assume, but nobody’s ever asked me, aside from you, so I’ve never offered up the information. I don’t like drawing attention to myself if you can’t tell.”

  She couldn’t help but smile at that thought. In his town he had been smooth, and effortless, but today he had been back to his clumsy self. He had knocked into a nurse’s cart while they were walking through the hall, rather quickly, to keep up with Dr. Byron. Then when he was asked to put a catheter in one of the outpatients he couldn’t quite handle the tubes with his giant hands, and Melanie had ended up taking it from him to insert it.

  “Is my discomfort funny to you?”

  “No, I just find it amusing that you get so awkward because you seem so confident in your other form.”

  “You asked me if I off’d some kid to get this internship. That’s not the first time I’ve been called out for being a Shifter in a human world. Once people see my golden eyes they immediately assume all kinds of things, and then the rumors spread.”

  Melanie figured he dealt with that a lot. Here she was planning on using his abilities to her advantage, but it was the same thing. She saw those golden eyes as her golden ticket to ace this internship, and her exams.

  “Well I guess we need to work out a study schedule around our schedule at the hospital. Do you have any other obligations we need to worry about?”

  “Other obligations?”

  “Yes work, girlfriend; other obligations.” Melanie wasn’t sure why she was so annoyed about the mere thought of him having a girlfriend, but she couldn’t look at him when she asked.

  “No, I have no other obligations. You?”

  “No.” His eyes seemed to almost glow golden as he answered her. He drew it out too in his deep voice, and it felt like it washed over Melanie not leaving any part of her untouched. She diverted her eyes from him, and tried to act natural.

  Tye stood, and went to toss his cup.

  “I guess there’s only one question left to ask Melanie.”

  “What’s that Tye?”

  “You’re place or mine?”

  Chapter Nine

  Tye

  He and Melanie made quite a team, and were quickly becoming the talk of the hospital. Tye could watch Melanie with patients for hours. She had an easy bed side manor, but she wouldn’t let them bullshit her either. She could somehow tell when they were leaving out important information or just straight out lying to her. With her knowledge and skills Tye only enhanced their abilities since he could sense more underlying issues without all the poking and prodding. Of course they had to poke and prod to confirm, but Tye had quite a streak of being right.

  They were putting in long hours at the hospital, and they still had to pass their medical boards. That meant even longer hours spent studying. Usually they did that together too at Tye’s place. His place was more accommodating to his large size so Melanie didn’t protest. Tonight was no different than the rest. They had finished their twelve-hour shift, hit the coffee shop, and then dragged themselves to Tye’s place to study.

  “I don’t think there’s enough coffee in the world to keep me up tonight.” Tye said as he threw himself on his couch. He wanted nothing more than to shift into his bear, and drift off to sleep.

  “We have to Tye. We only have a few more week until the first round of tests. I can’t get that failure letter while I’m spending the holidays with my dad. He’s already an arrogant prick; let alone if I fail.”

  “You won’t fail Melanie. You know this stuff. You fly through the rounds at the hospital, and you have an almost perfect diagnosis percentage.”

  “It’s easier in real life. Having a person in front of me to see, touch, and listen to. Having a piece of paper with hidden meanings, and important omitted symptoms meant to trip you up is different.”

  “I still have faith in you.”

  Tye chugged the rest of his coffee, and tried to shake himself awake. Melanie was stripping out of her hospital scrubs until she just had on her pants, and a tank top. She let her hair out of the stiff bun she always kept it up in on rounds, and shook it out. Tye couldn’t take his eyes off of her. She was breathtaking. He didn’t try to keep the desire out of his eyes when she turned to him. He didn’t say anything he just kept taking her in, like a man who had been deprived of air.

  “Tye.” She said his name hesitantly. Like she wasn’t sure what he was going to do next. He could feel her unease, and he could smell her desire. It was almost like a tangible pull between the two of them. They were fighting it, but it was there. Tye desperately wanted to pull her on top of him and drown himself in her for the night. She wasn’t there yet though. She was getting there though.

  He was always finding little ways to touch her when they were together, and she never pulled away. Any time he could get close to her, he did. He loved to breathe in her scent. She knew that’s what he was doing too. She never balked though. Sometimes he could feel her disappointment if he would pass up an opportunity. She felt the pull between them. He promised himself she would be begging him when he finally touched her.

  “Melanie.” He drew her name out. He finally broke the spell that was weaving between them and got up to get his books. He finally settled in next to her on the couch and got his stuff together to where they had left off the day before. He knew she had been watching him the whole time.

  “What the hell Tye.”

  “I’m not sure I follow.” He still didn’t look up at her when he spoke. Sitting this close to her he could smell her sweet scent. It was intoxicating. Maybe he shouldn’t have sat next to her. Hell he probably shouldn’t have let her come over tonight. He was sleep deprived and sex deprived which were a deadly combination for his kind. He hadn’t had any type of release since he’d been home to visit his family. That had been months ago. He still had another week before Thanksgiving break was upon them.

  He finally looked up at her. Her eyes were heavy with desire. He almost tossed all their books on the floor and took her right there on the couch. He tried to hide his desire from her. Tonight was not the night. Finally, she realized he wasn’t going to act on their desires, and her eyes narrowed at him. She plastered on her normal pinched expression, the one she wore when she was annoyed, and flipped her book open as well.

  He couldn’t stand her dismissal though. Goddess, he was behaving like a lunatic. He cupped her chin in his hand, and brought her eyes back to him. He finally leaned in and captured her mouth with his. He had been dying to see how her lips would taste for so long he growled when he finally did. She immediately opened her mouth to him, and ran her fingers through his hair.

  Tye’s bear was on the verge of taking over and claiming their mate. Tye held him at bay while he continued his tender assault. She met each of his strokes with equal passion. Tye finally pulled her on his lap to straddle him. They both groaned with the intimate position. Tye gripped her hip
s hard as he rocked her back and forth on his erection. It was all he could do to keep from ripping her clothes off.