Chapter 15

Anna

 

I got dressed and brushed my teeth quickly. I was happy that James was going to keep his word and teach me how to fight. But 5 am, really?

I jogged down to the gym to try and wake up a little. I didn’t want to show up looking groggy, I knew James wouldn’t go easy on me for that. He would just be annoyed and give me a rough time. I walked into the gym cautiously, not sure what to expect.

James was dressed in a tank top that showed off his lean physique along with some workout shorts. He gestured for me to meet him over on the mats.

“Have you had any training or experience so far?” He asked.

“Good morning, James.” I replied pleasantly. “And no, I’ve never done anything like this before.” I think part of the reason that I was looking forward to this so much is because I’ve always avoided confrontation or cowered in the face of it. I wanted these lessons with James to give me some new skills, but also make me more confident in the face of adversity.

He just nodded. “We are going to start with the most basic moves then. I’m going to show you what you need to do today. You are going to practice on your own time and I expect you to have fully mastered them by the next time I see you.”

James appeared to be taking this seriously. I felt invigorated by the challenge he was giving me. I knew I could do this. I liked that he was giving me a fair chance to show him that I wasn’t going to be just a helpless female.

“The first thing I’m going to show you is a defensive stance. The goal is to keep your weight evenly distributed so it will be difficult for your opponent to knock you off balance regardless of what direction the blow comes from.”

James demonstrated, and I mimicked him carefully. He tapped on one of my thighs. “A little wider here.” I blushed but moved as he directed me.

He spent the next hour relentlessly drilling me and I had sweat dripping down my face by the time we were done. When we first started, I had thought that it would be difficult to keep my mind on the task. Especially since James was not shy about touching me to move my limbs into position. By the end of the session, I wasn’t even blushing every time he placed his hands on me.

James walked over to the mini fridge and tossed me a bottle of water. “Good job today.”

I looked at him in surprise and mumbled my thanks before gulping down my water in a very unladylike fashion. Was that a compliment?

“But I need you to work on strength training and general physical fitness in addition to our lessons here.” He added.

I smiled to myself as I put the cap back on the now empty bottle. At least I got a compliment before he told me that I was weak and out of shape. I wasn’t offended. I knew that he was just telling me what I needed to do to succeed at what he was trying to teach me here.

“We’ll have our lessons at five am here every morning and you can work on improving your strength with the twins in the evenings.” He continued.

I groaned internally but didn’t complain. Five in the morning, every morning? “What about weekends?” I asked cautiously. I really hoped he wasn’t expecting me to be here this early seven days a week.

“I think five days a week is enough for now.” He smiled at me and my heart started to beat a little faster. The rare smile from James was starting to happen more often. “I’m sure you will be busy on the weekends with everything else you need to do.” He added thoughtfully.

I smiled in relief. “Thanks for helping me with this, James.” I told him honestly. “I really appreciate it.

He quirked an eyebrow and walked towards me. “You should probably hurry up, you don’t want to be late for work.” He held out a hand to me. “I’ll take your empty bottle.”

“Um, thanks.” I answered awkwardly. I don’t know what I was expecting from him, but it wasn’t that. Was that James showing affection? I couldn’t picture James offering to take anyone else’s trash. Ever.

“Don’t forget,” I told him seriously. “We still need to have a talk about what you know about my family.” I might have been busy since I found out he was keeping secrets from me, but I had not forgotten about it.

I nodded, and I think I saw a little regret in his eyes. “Anna… I was going to talk to you once I found something concrete.” He swallowed. “I didn’t want to get your hopes up only to disappoint you.”

I nodded and reached out a hand to him. He took his hand in mine and stroked my skin with his thumb. I really did understand. James would want to be sure of something, he wouldn’t want to tell me anything that would be proven wrong later. An apology from James was shocking, but there’s no way he would want to admit to anyone that he was wrong about something.

“Thanks, James.” I said quietly. “I probably should hurry up. I’ll see you for dinner tonight?”

He nodded. “I’ll be here.”

I gave him one last smile and then hurried upstairs so that I could shower and get dressed. I passed a couple of the guys as I hurried through the house and gave them all a wave and a pleasant greeting.

I ran into the twins on my way upstairs. “Hey, Anna.” Mason greeted me. “Jase and I don’t have class until later, so we are going to stay here and get the house cleaned up.”

My heart dropped. I had gotten so used to them escorting me back and forth to work that I had stopped worrying about being out alone. I guess I had taken it for granted a little.

Jason saw the dismay on my face. “Aww, Anna. Don’t worry, we’ll be there to pick you up, so you can still get some twin time in today.” He teased me.

“Cody is going to take you in today.” Mason added. “He has a meeting on base this morning.”

I perked up, glad that I wouldn’t be alone. It would be nice to spend a little time with Cody, too.

“I didn’t have time to pack your lunches this morning.” I warned them. “So you guys are going to have to eat on campus.”

“That’s fine.” Jason said with a grin. “Today we’ll pack you a lunch.”

I laughed a little nervously at the glint of humor in his eyes.

Mason gave me a little nudge towards the stairs. “You better hurry if you want time for a shower.”

I laughed at the reversal of roles, but I ran up the stairs. Usually, I was the one who had to poke and prod them to get them out of the door on time.

I took a quick shower and twisted my wet hair back into a bun, it was just going to have to dry on the way there. I gathered up my bag and hustled downstairs to find Cody and my lunch.

I found Austin and Cody in the kitchen. “Good morning!” I greeted them both. “The twins said you’re taking me to work today?” I asked Cody, hoping he was ready to go.

“Ready when you are.” he told me. I smiled at him gratefully.

“Before you go, Anna.” Austin said with his serious face on. “I have some time later this evening, why don’t we sit down together and talk.”

I nodded nervously. “Am I in trouble?”

He laughed. “No, I just want to check in with you about how you’re fitting in with the pack. And I also have some business to discuss with you.”

I smiled in relief. “Sure, sounds good. I also have several things that I need to discuss with you.”

I followed Cody out to his SUV and there was a moment of uncomfortable silence after we both settled in. I had to think about when we had last spent time alone together, it felt like it been a while. I spent most of my free time with either Caleb or the twins. I still saw James, Austin, and Cody on a daily basis, but it was usually in a group.

I shifted in my chair. Maybe I should be making an effort to spend more time with Austin and Cody. After all, I was going to be seeing James every morning for the foreseeable future.

I opened up the lunch box to see what Jason had packed for me. I was feeling a little hungry after my workout this morning and Cody never turned down food.

I laughed when I saw just how much food Jason had crammed in here. Why did he think I would need two sandwiches for lunch? He had also packed me some pasta salad, pop tarts, and an apple.

I pulled out one of the sandwiches and offered Cody half. He hesitated for a moment but chuckled when he saw how much food was still left in my bag.

“Thanks, Anna.” He held the sandwich in one hand to eat it as he drove.

“What kind of meeting do you have this morning?” I asked Cody curiously. I knew he did volunteer work on base, but I wasn’t sure what that actually entailed.

He flashed me a smile after swallowing his last bite. “I am meeting with a bunch of guys who are on terminal leave now. I’m going to work with them to make sure they were able to find a place to stay once they get out and help them find leads on jobs. I’m also going to make sure that they establish a strong connection to the veteran community when they get out, so they don’t feel alone.”

I nodded empathetically. “I imagine that’s tough, especially if they don’t have family on the outside. The civilian world is a lot different from the military.”

He nodded. “Yeah, most guys are pretty excited to get out at first and feel some of the freedoms that civilians are used to. But for some guys it can be a difficult transition. When you’re in, you have people around you who are constantly making sure you have a place to live, that you have a place to go on holidays, that you don’t get behind the wheel of a car after drinking. All that oversight can seem really overbearing, but once you’re alone in the world and absolutely no one gives a fuck if you’re homeless, or in jail…”

His voice got a little rough as he trailed off. He cleared his throat and glanced over at me before taking another bite of the sandwich.

“Yeah, I can see the difference, even though I’m a little on the outside of all that.” I told him quietly.

He looked over at me in surprise. “Because you’re a civilian?”

“Kind of. It was a little tough for me at first because all the enlisted are close. They go out for drinks all the time, or have parties, or just go to the movies. But because I’m a pharmacist, there’s that invisible line that separates us because pharmacists are usually officers.”

He nodded. “But what about the other officers?”

I sighed. “They are all really friendly, but they have an officer’s club that I’m just not a part of. They have an officer’s lounge, and officer only events, and can call each other by their first names.”

“I’m kind of in this awkward place between the two.” I shrugged at him. “I’m not complaining, I really love working there and I love all my coworkers but… I think I didn’t realize how much I was really missing out on until I met you guys. I’ve always felt like I’m on the outside, I’ve never felt like I was a part of anything before.”

He gave me a warm smile. “You are at the center of our pack right now, Anna.”

He finished what was left of his part of the sandwich while I was still nibbling on mine.

“I’m nervous about my place in the pack.” I blurted out.

He chuckled, probably getting used to me blurting out randomness.

“Anna, I can tell you that all of us intend to keep you there with us. We will work out your place with time.”

I chewed a bite slowly before swallowing and looked at him nervously. Should I ask him? Would it be weird to talk about dating his friends? He had pretended to go out on a date with me after we first met, but I knew that was just for show. Cody would never be interested in a girl like me.

“Um…. What if I dated someone in the pack?” I asked cautiously.

He looked at me sharply. “Dated? You mean, other than Austin?”

I turned bright red. Did everyone in the pack assume that Austin and I were an item? Or that we would be inevitably?

“Um, yeah.” I said quietly.

He watched me carefully as he came to a stop at a red light. “I don’t know.” He told me honestly, and ran a hand through his hair.

I sighed and slumped down in my seat a little. That’s what I was afraid of.

His attention went back to the road as the light turned green. “Did Caleb talk to you?” He asked curiously.

I blushed. Had Caleb talked to Cody about this already? “Yes…” I said nervously.

He let out a breath and looked over at me sadly. Why was he sad? Did he think I was going to mess things up for his pack?

“As long as you feel comfortable with what’s happening.” He said slowly. “I don’t want Caleb or anyone else to pressure you into anything that you don’t feel ready for.”

I smiled at him. “Thanks, Cody.”

“I mean it.” He insisted. “Even if it’s Austin. You just let me know and I’ll talk to him about it. You never have to worry about confronting any of those guys on your own.”

I smiled at him in appreciation. It was really comforting that I had this giant wolf of a man at my back. I knew I wouldn’t have to worry about that with any of the guys, they were all very respectful of my space, but I appreciated the thought.

We pulled up to the base and the line at the gate was even longer than usual, probably because it was Monday.

“Hey, Anna?” Cody asked, tapping a finger on the steering wheel.

“Yeah?” I set down what was left of the sandwich. I should pack it back up before we got to the parking garage since I wouldn’t be able to finish right now.

“Have you talked to Austin yet? About Caleb?”

My face turned red again. “No, Caleb wanted to talk to the twins first.”

Cody looked at me sharply. “The twins?” He narrowed his eyes at me. “They haven’t tried anything with you, have they?”

“No, not really.” My face burned as I thought about what we had done in the pool. “Well, nothing that I didn’t want them to do.”

He looked at me in shock and I squirmed a little. “Caleb said sometimes female wolves have more than one mate, so it’s not really that weird.” I told him. I probably sounded a little bit defensive.

He sat back in his seat as we slowly moved through the line of cars getting their IDs checked. “It’s not weird, Anna. I was just surprised for a second. I guess I had you pegged as more of the type of female that wanted the princess type wedding and a Disney happy ending.”

I laughed, and I hated that there was some bitterness in my tone. “I’ve lived enough life to know that there is never a Disney happy ending. Something always goes wrong.”

I shrugged at him. “I know this would probably seem weird to humans, but it just kind of feels right to me. When I’m with Caleb or the twins I have a feeling that this is where I belong. I don’t really question it until I tell someone out loud and kind of dread their judgement.”

Talking about it with Cody was helping me to process a lot of the thoughts that had been swirling through my mind. “Honestly,” I said slowly. “I don’t think I would doubt it at all if I wasn’t afraid of judgement or causing problems in the pack.”

“You shouldn’t let what other people think get to you.” Cody told me quietly.

“I know.” I told him firmly. “I’m working on that. On becoming stronger and more confident in who I am.”

“I’ve noticed a difference.” Cody smiled at me.

I smiled back at him, pleased.

“So… Caleb, Mason, Jason, and Austin.” Cody said, watching me carefully.

“I’m not sure how Austin feels about me.” I told him honestly.

Cody shrugged. “I can’t answer for him. You should just talk to him about it. He will be honest, and you will feel better once you know one way or another.”

I nodded. He was right, there was no reason for me to sit here and wonder.

“Anyone else?” Cody asked, still watching me.

I chewed my lip nervously. Should I mention James? James had never confessed to liking me. He had not said he wanted to date or would consider me as a mate. Plus, I didn’t feel right exposing some of James’s potential feelings to Cody. What if I was wrong? I already told Caleb, but that was something I blurted out accidentally.

The gate guard saved me from answering as we pulled up to the guardhouse and he asked for our IDs. The guard scanned both our IDs before waving us forward.

I changed the subject, hoping Cody wouldn’t notice. “Are you still going to be here at lunch time?”

Cody shook his head regretfully. “I’m only going to be here a couple hours before I have some training to do with a few of the guys in the pack.”

“Oh.” I said disappointedly.

Cody grinned at me. “You sounded a little disappointed?”

I smiled at him. “Well, Yeah. I never get any Cody time to myself anymore.”

He gave me a huge grin and his eyes lit up a little. “Maybe we should change that.”

He pulled into a parking space in the parking garage and we got out of the vehicle. He reached into the back to get my bag and hand it to me.

“Maybe this weekend?” He asked hopefully.

“Sure.” I smiled at him.

He stepped a little closer to me. “Hey, Anna…”

I pulled my bag up my shoulder to look at him.

“I-“ he was interrupted when a couple of voices called out for me. I waved as I saw a couple of my coworkers heading in my direction.

They caught up to me and I introduced them to Cody. Two of the girls had wide eyes when they looked at him. He was a really big guy.

Janine gave me a shoulder bump as we walked toward the entrance to the hospital. “Girrllll… that man is fine. Where did you find him? More importantly, does he have a single brother?”

I giggled. I decided it was easier to tell her nope, no brother, than it would be to try and explain who Cody was. Cody pretended not to hear as he chatted with my other coworkers while we walked inside. Janine gave me an elbow to the ribs when he held the door open for all of us. 

Cody grabbed my hand when we got close to the pharmacy and we stopped in the hallway. My three coworkers hesitated further down the hallway, pretending to walk very slowly to the locker room as if they were not listening to every word Cody would say to me. Was this high school?

“Have a good day at work.” He murmured and leaned down to give me a kiss on the cheek. I turned bright red, but I did enjoy the sign of affection.

I could hear Janine and the other two giggling, but I pretended not to hear them as I told Cody goodbye and rushed to the locker room. Today was going to be a long day, I was going to be teased about this mercilessly.

I smiled to myself and touched my cheek where Cody had pressed his lips. Totally worth it, though.

I made it through the interrogation in the locker room without giving away any real information about Cody, my current living situation, or my feelings for any of the guys. As I was dodging questions I realized just how many secrets I now had to keep from my coworkers.

 I was used to keeping what I was a secret, but I’ve never had to hide this much before. If I told anyone what was going on in my life right now I’m pretty sure that they would have security escort me straight to the psych ward on the fifth floor.

I was a little glad I when I was sent downstairs to work in the emergency department today instead of in the main pharmacy. We didn’t always have a clinical pharmacist staff the ER, but we had the extra people and there was a group of patients being transferred here from the military hospital in Germany.

Usually, any service members injured while fighting in the Middle East were transferred to the hospital in Ramstein and then moved stateside to Bethesda. There was a storm up north right now, so the plane had been diverted here to Seaside. It happened pretty regularly.

We had only a few critical care spots open in the ICU right now, so all the patients were going to be brought to the ER after the plane landed so that we could triage them and assign them to the appropriate ward. After I walked in the ER I had Lieutenant Commander Long flag me down.

“Anna!” He smiled at me. “I was hoping you would be the one they sent us.”

I smiled back at him and gave a laugh. A lot of my coworkers did not get along with him because he could be very arrogant and pretentious if you challenged him. You had to phrase all of your statements to him as suggestions if you wanted him to listen. Some of my coworkers had egos to match his and ended up clashing horribly. In my opinion, the only person who was hurt by that was the patient.

We were here to work as a team and give the patient the best care possible. I wasn’t too proud to bow my head to make sure that happened. He could keep his pride and ego by taking credit for my work. After all, I was a civilian and didn’t have to worry about promotions and FITREPs. I would stay a staff pharmacist while my coworkers went on to become Division Officers and Department Heads.

I took a seat next to him while he sipped on his coffee. “How soon are they going to be here?” I asked curiously.

“They are deplaning now. They are going to send the most critical by ambulance first and then the rest will follow in other transport.” He told me.

I sat back. This was probably the only moment of peace and quiet we would get for the next eight hours, we might as well enjoy it now. “Did they send the charts ahead, Commander?” I asked hopefully.

“Nope. But hopefully they will have paper charts with each of the patients when they get here.”

“Hopefully.” I agreed. My job here was to work with the team to evaluate the current medication therapy for each of the patients, recommend changes, reconcile med orders, and triage the orders I was putting in.

The patients would have been on the plane for quite a few hours, and their IVs and drips would be running low. The supply of pain meds sent with the patients would probably be running low as well, so a lot of them would not be happy when they came in.

One of the corpsman stopped in. “Excuse me, Commander.” He said politely. “The first of the patients are arriving.”

I stood up, a little bit of excitement starting to rise inside of me. I liked the challenge of complicated patients. LCDR Long stood up as well and tossed his coffee cup. “Let’s go.”

Most of the day went by fast with how hard we had to work to get everyone processed in. The very last patient who was assigned to me was a young female marine. I took a look through her chart before I went to her bedside.

She had dark hair and the lightest eyes that I had ever seen. One of her legs was bandaged from where she had received shrapnel during combat. “Corporal Clive?”

She nodded. I confirmed her date of birth and stood next to her, so we could speak in private. Her nostrils flared, and she grabbed my arm.

“Oh, thank god.”

I looked at her in surprise.

Her eyes darted around and when she was sure no one was close enough to overhear, she whispered to me. “I need your help to get out of here before they realize what I am.”

I took a deep breath, taking in her scent. She didn’t smell like a wolf, but I did pick up on something other than plain human. I frowned. “You’re not a wolf?”

She shook her head sharply. “Panther.” She murmured to me.

My eyebrows rose, I hadn’t expected to meet another shifter this way. “Jaguar or leopard?”

A grin spread over her face. “Jaguar. Never had a wolf ask me that before.”

I thought it was interesting that she identified as a panther, not a Jaguar. A panther could be a member of any of the big cat families. What made them panthers was their black coloring. At least that’s the way it was in the animal kingdom. I wonder if shifters were different?

“How’s your leg?” I asked curiously, avoiding asking any more shifter-related questions here in the hospital.

“Healing faster than a human’s would. If they look at my wound it’s going to be obvious that something is wrong.” She whispered to me.

I frowned. “I see the problem. If you were a civilian, you could leave AMA… against medical orders.” I clarified when she gave me a strange look. “But if you try to leave now as active duty they can declare you AWOL.”

“What am I going to do?” She whispered to me with panic in her eyes.

“Relax.” I gave her hand a squeeze. I pulled the curtains around her bed in triage so no one could see in. I pulled out my phone to text Austin, I didn’t want to call him and have anyone overhear.

“Are you texting your pack-master?” She asked, rubbing her legs nervously.

I nodded. “He will know what to do. Do you have a pack?” I asked curiously.

She rolled her eyes. “I’m a panther, not a wolf.”

“So, what do panthers have?” I asked as I waited for Austin to respond.

“We’re mostly solitary, but sometimes have mates.”

LCDR Long interrupted us by shouting through the curtain. “Knock, knock.”

I gave her an apologetic look and opened the curtain. “Hey, Commander! It turns out that one of our patients is a friend of mine.”

He just gave me a nod as he paged through her chart.

I kept talking, hoping he wouldn’t pay too close attention to the dates on the page that said the injury happened a few days ago. “Her leg seems to have healed really well from the wound a month or so ago. The course of antibiotics did their job, no sign of infection or fever.”

He set down the chart and gave a nod of relief that this was looking like an easy case. It had been a long day.

“Let’s take a look, then.” He called for one of his nurses to cut through the bandages. The wound was revealed, and he examined the pink but unbroken skin. “This looks really good for a month ago…” he murmured.

He went to reach for the chart, but I grabbed it and paged through as if I was trying to be helpful. “Closer to six weeks,” I told him. Thankfully he didn’t ask why her wound was bandaged if the skin had healed.

“Why did they wait so long to transport you?” He asked.

She shrugged. “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.

I gave her 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?”

Her eyes flicked to me and I nodded. If she didn’t have a place to stay, then she could stay with me.

“Yes, sir.”

“Anna, any meds needed for her?”

“I would recommend ibuprofen as needed for pain during the course of physical therapy. Any muscle cramps, Corporal?”

“No, ma’am.”

LDCR Long nodded. “Go ahead and put something in for ibuprofen and I’ll sign it, Anna.”

I nodded. “Of course, sir.”

“I’ll put in my request to your command for the leave, Corporal.”

“Thank you, sir.” She murmured.

He left the area and Corporal Clive and I just stared at each other for a moment. I cleared my throat. “You can stay with me if you don’t have a place around here.”

“With your pack?” She asked doubtfully. “Wolves don’t like my kind.”

I shrugged. “My pack is different.”

“What are you doing working in a hospital, anyway?” she added suspiciously. “I thought wolves never let their females out of the pretty cages they like to keep them in.”

I just laughed. “My pack is very different.” I glanced down at my phone, I had a ton of missed texts and phone calls from Austin and a couple from James.

Corporal Clive was my last patient and it was almost time for me to go home anyway so I waved my phone at her. “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.”

She nodded at me. “You can call me Sam.”

I smiled warmly at her. “Okay, Sam. I’ll be back in a little bit.”

As soon as I got out into the public hallway and out of a patient care area I called Austin back. When he answered, I could hear an edge of worry in his voice.

“Anna. You can’t just text me to say that you found a stray panther and need help but then not answer your phone.”

“Oh, I’m sorry Austin! I didn’t realize how that must have sounded.”

He let out a sigh. “You’re okay? She didn’t hurt you?”

“Oh, no.” I told him. “I didn’t mean that I needed help against her. I meant that she was in a tough situation and I needed help to get her out of it.”

There was a moment of silence and then he chuckled. “Of course you found a stray and tried to help. Anna… not all shifters are friendly.”

“She is.” I insisted. “She’s an injured marine and was transported here from Afghanistan because of an injury.”

There was silence on the other end and I knew he was thinking. Austin’s pack was full of combat veterans and it was ingrained in him to help out a fellow service member.

“She was going to be exposed because her injury was healing too fast.” I told him.

I heard him sigh and I knew I had won on this one. “I’ll need her info and I can have one of our contacts help out. Where is home for her? We are going to need to get her orders back there and she may have to leave the service.”

I cleared my throat. “Um, I told her she could stay with me?” I said hesitantly.

“Anna… our pack has a lot going on right now.”

“I know, Austin. But I already told the doctor to ask for her to stay here. Plus, don’t we need more allies?”

I could hear James in the background cursing. If he had not wanted me in the pack because I was a female, then he was definitely not going to be happy about a female panther on our territory.

“Bring her here and we’ll talk.” Austin told me. “I already told Cody to get there ASAP because he was the closest to your current location.”

“Okay, thanks Austin.” I said softly. I hope he wasn’t too upset with me.

“I don’t want you alone with her.” Austin said sternly. “Wait for Cody to get there, I assume you’re alone now?”

“Yes, I’m just going to get changed back into my civilian clothes.” I cringed a little because he sounded upset but then forced myself to stand taller. Austin might be a figure of authority in the pack, but he wasn’t my uncle. I needed to catch myself every time I reacted instinctively to a harsh tone. This was Austin. Plus, I knew I was doing the right thing with Sam.

“Okay, the twins were already headed in your direction, so you will have plenty of backup.”

I rolled my eyes at his over-protectiveness. “I’ll see you in a little bit, Austin.”

We said our goodbyes and I quickly went back to the locker room to change. My phone was blowing up with texts and calls from Cody and the twins. I appreciated that the guys had my back, but they were clearly over-reacting.

I sent Cody a text to tell him to meet me at the ER. I started to put my phone away again but quickly sent a follow up to let him know I was fine once I realized he might misinterpret that.

I got changed and signed out before making my way back down to the ER. I scanned my badge to get back into the patient care area and looked around for Sam. I saw her still sitting on the triage bed, now dressed in her uniform instead of the hospital gown.

I logged into the computer and saw that her discharge paperwork was ready. I went ahead and printed it out.

I spied one of the triage nurses looking harried. “Hey Jocelyn!” I gave her a smile and a friendly wave.

She gave me a suspicious wave. “Hey, Anna. Heading out?” She asked, eying my civilian clothes.

“Yep,” I said cheerfully. “One of your patients is a friend of mine, do you mind if I do her discharge counseling?”

Her face relaxed with relief, she had probably been worried that I was going to add to her burden of work. “That’s fine, Anna. What’s her name so I can chart it?”

I gave her Sam’s name and she did what she needed to do in the computer. I gave her a wave of thanks and went to collect Sam.

“Ready to go?” I asked.

She gave me a grateful smile and nodded. Sam hopped off the bed and grabbed her crutches. I was sure she didn’t need them, but glad she thought to play along. Her face turned a little red. “Um, I can’t carry my duffle if I’m going to use these things.” She gestured to a giant bag shoved halfway under the bed.

I shrugged. “I can get it.” I pulled at the bag to get it from under the bed and OMG was it heavy. I yanked it up and swung it around, using the momentum to get it on my back. I grunted as the weight settled on me.

We made our way out of the hospital and down to the gate where the guards were stationed. I set the bag down happily with a thud and wiped at the thin sheen of sweat on my face. I swear that bag had to be at least half my body weight. I wasn’t going to complain, though. If Sam came here straight from Ramstein, then that was probably most of her worldly possessions.

Because it was the end of the day for most people, the line to get on base was pretty short. I didn’t see Cody or the twins yet, so I sent them a quick text to let them know where we were waiting.

I glanced up to see Sam watching me carefully. I gave her a small smile. “The guys should be here soon.”

She nodded but looked tense. I flashed back to when Cody had found me and announced he was taking me to see the pack-master, I had been full of anxiety and worry. I suspected Sam was feeling the same right now.

“The Seaside Pack is different from all the other packs out there.” I told her gently. “Austin is 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.”

She looked surprised, then wary. “I’ve had some run ins with wolves before.” She told me. “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.”

I smiled. I completely understood her hesitance and wariness. I had not believed Cody either when he told me Austin was cool.

“You know, the guys coming to pick us up now are prior active duty marines. Maybe you might know some people in common?” I suggested hopefully. I was really hoping Cody and the twins would be on their best behavior to set Sam at ease. I doubted it though, Austin had sounded like he considered Sam to be a potential threat. The guys didn’t react well to anything that might be considered a threat.

She nodded thoughtfully. “Maybe.”

I caught sight of Cody’s SUV up ahead at the stoplight and it looked like the twin’s jeep was right behind him.

“Are you up to hobbling up to the Starbucks up there so we don’t have to deal with the gate guards?” I asked Sam.

She nodded and gave me a grin. If we waited for the guys to reach us, then we would have to explain the whole story to the guards. The line of people waiting to get on base behind them would get pissed off because of the wait. Plus, the guards would have to halt the outgoing traffic so that they could direct Cody and the twins out of the line and get them turned around so they could exit. Not to mention the hassle that the twins would get because they don’t have ID to get on base.

Yeah, it was just easier to meet them up the road a little. I managed to get Sam’s duffel up on my back again. The guys realized what we were doing because they turned off into the Starbucks parking lot and started walking to meet us on the sidewalk. Once I realized they were going to come to us I sat the bag down with a relieved breath.

Cody was probably twice my size, I had no problem letting him take the bag. Sam stopped when she heard the thunk of the bag hitting the ground. She turned back to look at me with an amused look. “Not used to doing heavy lifting, huh?”

“Nope. I’ve become spoiled having a bunch of huge guys around.”

She gave me a playful scowl. “Don’t let them know you need them, it will inflate their egos.”

I laughed but as the guys got closer I could see that they were not happy. I stepped in from of Sam protectively.

Cody was the first to reach us. “Hey, Anna.” He said with a scowl directed at Sam. He moved to step around me, but I moved to keep in between them. His gaze moved from her to me.

I put a smile on my face but kept some warning in my eyes. “This is my friend, Sam.” I 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.” I told him and crossed my arms defiantly. “Sam is my friend and my patient. I promised her that I would take care of her, I’m not going to let you guys be mean to her.”

Cody’s jaw dropped a little. “Mean?” he chuckled.

The twins both chuckled as well from where they were flanking Cody. I 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.”

I nodded and turned to Sam. “This is Cody, Mason, and Jason.” I told her as I pointed them out.

She looked a little amused but still wary as she gave them a small wave from where she leaned on her crutches.

“Sam was injured on deployment and sent back here for treatment.” I informed them. I could see all three of them looking at her uniform, her rank insignia and her awards stack.

“Welcome back, Corporal.” Cody told her politely.

I gave a sigh of relief. Most of the tension seemed to fade as the guys realized Sam probably wasn’t as much of a threat as they had initially feared. We made our way back to the vehicles with Jason carrying the bag. I was a little satisfied when he had let out a small grunt when he picked it up. At least I wasn’t that much of a weakling. The guys decided we would all ride back in Cody’s SUV and come back for the Jeep later.

Cody directed me to the passenger seat of his SUV and the twins sandwiched Sam into the back seat. I felt a little flash of jealousy, those were my twins she was sandwiched between. That was usually my spot.

I pushed away my jealousy, it was obvious that Sam would rather be anywhere but there.

“We need to get Sam some food, STAT.” I announced, and Sam shot me a grateful look. “She has been burning calories like crazy trying to heal her wound the last couple days and I doubt whatever the marines were feeding her was sufficient.”

“Amen.” Jason said and all of us laughed.

“Have you ever had Cookout?” I asked Sam. “It’s a North Carolina thing, but there’s a bunch around here because we’re so close to the border.”

“Nope.” She said. “But I am in desperate need of some meat.”

“That’s what she said.” Jason mumbled, as if he couldn’t hold it in. I laughed out loud with everyone else. This wasn’t going to be that bad, they were warming up to Sam.

Sam gave a huge grin. “Don’t worry. I’m not into wolf meat so your men are safe. But I will be asking for some recommendations on the closest bar to pick up a hot guy later on tonight, it was a long deployment.”

I blushed a little at how blunt she was, I wish I could be that confident and free. I hated how shy and embarrassed I got at stuff like this.

Cody noticed my embarrassment and gave my knee a squeeze. “Cookout is right around the corner, so we can help with one of your cravings.” He told Sam.

The guys questioned Sam about her time in the military, who she knew, and her deployments while we drove. Since the twins had been in recently, they had some common acquaintances and were familiar with the area where she had spent time during her deployments.

We pulled up to the drive thru Cookout and Sam eyed the menu. “I kinda want one of everything.” She confessed.

Cody laughed, “Think about it while I start the order.”

I turned to Sam with a grin. “Don’t worry, I got it.” I told her confidently. “I’ll order you all the best stuff here. All you have to worry about is what flavor milkshake you want.”

Sam laughed and smiled at me gratefully. “There are forty flavors…”

I leaned over Cody after he finished ordering for him and the twins. He steadied me with an arm on my back after I practically crawled into his lap to lean a little out of the window. “I would like two Out West Style burgers, a bacon cheddar hot dog, chicken quesadilla, Cajun style chicken breast, onion rings, and a BBQ plate.”

Sam grinned at me and whispered theatrically. “And a peanut butter fudge milkshake.”

I laughed and added it to the order. I’m sure that the clerk thought we were feeding an entire platoon of marines with all the food we got, but I was guessing that panthers ate just as much as wolves. After healing the severe injury that she had received, Sam was going to have to eat triple her normal amount for the next couple days.

The smell of freshly grilled food filled the car as I passed out the food. I kept one of the Out-West burgers for myself but passed the rest back to Sam. There was quiet as everyone chowed down.

After living with a pack of wolves, I was well aware that sharing a meal was a bonding experience for them. I was hoping that this would subconsciously make the guys more open to Sam.

“I’ll trust you to order food for me anytime,” Sam said enthusiastically.

“Wait until you have some of her cooking,” Mason told her seriously.

I smiled. That was a good sign if Mason planned on her being around long enough to share another meal.

The guys chatted with Sam as we drove, and it turned out that they all had a lot in common. I saw Sam’s surprise as we pulled up to the mansion we called home. “Damn. This is like some MTV cribs shit.” She said with a laugh.

Now that no one human was around to see us, Sam abandoned all pretenses of using the crutches and we walked in the house. Austin and James were waiting for us in the foyer. James had a deeper scowl than usual, and Austin had a stern face as he watched us walk in with Sam. It started to soften a little as he communicated via the pack bond with Cody.

I introduced everyone, and Austin asked to have a word with me in private. I swallowed nervously. He did not look happy with me. James followed us without a word.

He pulled me into his office and sighed. “Anna, we are going to talk about this more in detail later, but now I need you to tell me everything you know about Corporal Clive and how you met.”

“Sam.” I corrected. I could see his mouth twitch a little, but he didn’t say anything. James watched me with stony features, but also didn’t comment. I shrugged to myself and I explained everything that had happened and what I knew from reading her chart.

“Thank you. I’m going to call them in.” He told me at the end of my spiel. I was a little surprised that he didn’t have any questions for me.

Cody and the twins brought Sam in the office. She looked a little nervous, so I gave her a reassuring smile.

“Cody, you can sit in on this. Mason, Jason, keep Anna nearby. I need to speak with her at length when I’m finished here.” Austin told us.

Crap. Austin sounded angry. I decided to speak up anyway. I didn’t want Sam to feel like she was being thrown to the wolves. “May I stay?” I 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.”

My eyes flicked to Cody in surprise. He had wanted to advocate for me? Cody blushed a little when his gaze caught mine and he shrugged.

“C’mon, Anna.” Jason nudged me. “I’ll read you all the threatening texts Cody sent us when he realized Austin had assigned us to take care of you.”

I gave Cody a small smile. I had no idea that he had been looking out for me from the beginning. I followed Jason but gave Sam a supportive smile on the way out.