A/N
Most of this book will be in Leah's POV, so instead of saying it in every chapter I will point out when it's Nicholas' and then again when it goes back to Leah's.
Happy reading!
(Image: Rosie Blackwater)
Leah's POV
I shifted right as I burst through the kitchen door, landing on my four paws gracefully, a snarl upon my lips as I quickly took in the scene before me.
Rosie was laying against one of the metal cupboards, eyes closed. I could hear her heart beat but it was very faint, instantly making my own heart clench with worry. I would have to inspect her more in a minute after dealing with the threat. She was hurt badly, I could tell that much.
I glanced around and saw a mangy looking mutt, rat gray colored fur that seemed to grow in tufts making him look like a patch work quilt of icky, dirty fur. The stench of filth that accompanied him was vile, almost making me wrinkle my snout in disgust. His eyes were yellow but they were dull and sunken in to his skull and his teeth had the same color, everything about the wolf screamed rogue, filth, mutt.
An angry growl erupted from my throat as I took a deliberate step towards him, sensing the others burst in to the kitchen behind me.
Oh no. This one's mine. Vampire blood or not.
Assessing the scene quickly with my trained eye I saw he favored his right foot to put weight on, leaving his left flank open. The door was to his left so that gave me an advantage but not by much. The blood made them faster and stronger than a normal wolf, but it also hazed their mind, making them puppets of sorts.
A continuous low growl came from within me as I approached, making it known to the mutt that I would be the last wolf he ever saw. Mistaking my slow approach for fear, the wolf lunged at me using his right side, as predicted.
I dodged left and reached out with my own right claw and sinking it in to the soft flesh of his flank. I heard the skin tearing and smelled the blood rather than saw it. The cut was not deep, I didn't want to kill him. Yet.
Landing in one fluid movement I whirled around before he could properly regain his footing, allowing me to lunge this time, closing my jaws around his throat and pinning him to the floor.
For good measure I made sure he was immobile before lifting my teeth away from his neck and closing them sharply around his front right leg, then the back one, my powerful jaw breaking through the bone easily and making it impossible for him to walk.
He was strong, but stupid. Good thing or else I would have gotten seriously injured.
As the pitiful animal whimpered I looked at Eric pointedly and then back down at the wolf. He understood immediately and grabbed a long piece of fabric from one of the aprons to tie the snout with before picking up the trembling form and taking him away. I'd see where to later. Right now I had more important things to deal with.
I trotted behind another countertop and shifted back in to my human form, cursing silently as I realized my clothes would have been torn up in the sudden shift.
Standing there butt naked I glanced around hurriedly, trying to find something to throw over my body. My gaze settled on a chefs coat. That would have to do for now.
Shrugging in to it and buttoning it up I hurried towards Rosie, kneeling beside her to assess her wounds.
She had three long gashes that ran from under her left breast, all the way around the soft flesh of her upper right hip. They were oozing blood but nothing a few...ok a lot of stitches and special ointment wouldn't cure in time. She was unconscious, meaning the blow must have knocked her down and she may have hit her head. With steady hands I inspected her skull, finding a large open wound where she must have banged her head on the edge of the counter. This one could be tricky. Head woulds were especially dangerous for wolves. Our bones in both human and wolf form were slightly softer than others, thus allowing us to shift back and forth and minimize the pain. This is usually a good thing since it makes healing bones much easier as well, but in a head wound it was also much easier to suffer damage to ones brain without the extra protection of the hard bone.
Sending a silent prayer to Gaia I reached for a kitchen towel to wrap around Rosie's head to stop the bleeding.
At that moment the kitchen door burst open and a familiar scent enveloped my senses. Nicholas was here.
"About bloody time!" I snapped and only then realized that everyone had been standing there in silence watching me closely. I had forgotten about them.
Nicholas' wolf trotted over to me and whined, looking at Rosie's limp form, the. Proceeded to inspect me thoroughly, checking for wounds. I swatted him away in annoyance, earning myself a growl on his part.
"I'm fine, she's not. Now get me some help we need to move her. Is there a place I can tend to her wounds? I need surgical equipment and also healers herbs and tools." I completely disregarded the possibility they had their own healer who would want to tend to Rosie.
Out of the corner of my eye I could see the others gawking, I guess no one spoke to the Alpha like that?
Shrugging internally I rummaged around the kitchen for more towels to stop the bleeding from her stomach wounds. By the time I had done that, Nicholas was back, in human form and fully dressed.
I sensed his hungry eyes roaming the bare skin of my legs and felt his disapproval, almost making me chuckle. The wolf was possessive! Goddess help me.
Sending a glare his way I stood back, allowing him to pick Rosie up gently and motion for me to follow him, before looking back at the females crowding the door way. "Clean up in here, Rosie hates a dirty kitchen. And when Eric gets back tell him to meet us at Jacobs. Silver, I need you to try and get an answer on the tides as to how big and when the next attack will be, if any. I know you are tired and just finished another journey but this is important. He barked orders in a way that demanded they be obeyed, but also with a deep amount of respect for his pack mates, which made them
Happy to follow his lead. Interesting. Could it be possible I'd come across a True Alpha?
Musing over this as I followed him out the door and on to the street at a hurried pace, I barely noticed where he was leading me.
True Alpha's were rare, apparently only one was born in each century. It had nothing to do with blood lines, yet the Goddess chose one male every hundred years and bestowed upon him the gifts that would make even other Alphas bow to him.
It was not about being the most vicious, violent wolf out there and plundering for power, it was the fact he held so many leader qualities that even other packs were inclined to follow him.
I was pulled from my musings with a loud knocking sound. We were at the door of a modern looking home, the outside was light gray, the door black and the windows tinted. It was beautiful, in a cold, modern minimalistic sort of way.
The door opened and light flooded the front step to reveal a man in his early thirties (maybe? Werewolf age is hard to tell since we age much slower after reaching the age of 18). He glanced at both Nicholas and I, pausing to take in my appearance and size me up, then looked at Rosie. His mouth formed a hard line and he nodded his head, motioning for us to come inside.
Once he closed the door behind us he lead us down a hall way to a set of double doors that opened in to a hospital wing type room. There was a small waiting area and two doors, one on either side of the waiting room.
He lead us through the one on the left hand side which revealed a small operating room, except the shelves were lined with botanical remedies and healer tools, instead of the usual hospital gray nothingness.
So the healer was a male. Interesting.
"She was attacked by a rogue. They have been taken care of. Jacob this is Leah, she was also trained as a healer and was with Rosie at the time of the attack. She took out the rogue...oh and she is also, apparently my mate." Nicholas spoke coldly but his eyes gleamed with a slight amount of pride as mentioned me.
I simply nodded towards Jacob, still focused entirely on Rosie's well being. "I trained as a healer under a physician, she was a wolf but also a prestigious human surgeon, her primary focus being neurological surgeries...I think Rosie banged her head on the edge of the counter as she fell from the impact..."
I was all business, ignoring Jacob for the most part as I washed and disinfected my hands and arms, sliding an available pair of scrubs over the chef jacket I still wore.
The first thing we had to do was disinfect and close the wound on her torso, stop the blood loss and then we could make sure nothing happened to her brain.
I was so preoccupied in getting ready that I stopped in my tracks as I noticed the two men standing there and gawking at me like I was some sort of alien.
Rolling my eyes I motioned towards Rosie, now laying on the operating table. "I mean, I get I'm half naked and a novelty but come on! We've got shit to do!" I said in an exasperated voice, throwing my hands in the air. "You. Leave. You can wait outside or you can go rip the mutt up and get some answers. Yes, he's alive, Eric took him somewhere. You won't be helping anyone here by hovering." I snapped at Nicholas, to which he frowned but held up his hands and retreated through the doors. I could have sworn I saw the ghost of a smile on his lips.
As Jacob turned on the large overhead light and cut through Rosie's clothes to reveal the wound, I readied the tray of instruments we would need. Less than 2 minutes later we were cutting the dead, infected flesh away.
The wound seemed to have festered, I'm guessing it was due to the vampire blood in the rogues system.
Making a mental note to investigate that concept further I began closing up the wound with dissolving stitches after thoroughly disinfecting it.
Once that was done we rearranged her on the table so we could assess her head injury. This was why she was unconscious.
Her skull was dented and cracked, and I feared that if we moved her too harshly a splinter of bone would lodge in to her head... Fortunately we were able to see that although the blunt trauma had been substantial, there was no actual cut in the brain. We'd need to wait until she woke up to know more...for now we focused on stopping the swelling.
Once we were finished we stood by the table regarding each other curiously. Jacob was easy to work with. But we still had to see what state she was in when she woke up. If she woke up.
"We did everything we could, it's in Gaia's hands now Leah" I heard his soft voice and nodded towards Jacob, gulping down a sob as I peeled off the scrubs.
"She barely knew me but she helped me more in one day than most people have my whole life... I hope she pulls through" I sighed as I watched him hoist her on to a wheeling bed and take her towards the second room which turned out to be somewhat of a hospital room. Now that the human medicine was out of the way, wolf medicine came in to play, but we'd have to wait till tomorrow for the swelling to really go down.
I sighed and sank down on to the couch in the waiting room, completely exhausted, and before I realized it, I had drifted off to a troubled sleep.
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2137 words! Holy moly that was a long chapter!
Thanks again everyone for reading and voting and commenting! And if you are sharing with your friends double thanks!!!
It's Friday! Yay!
Well, Leah is quite the bag of tricks eh? I wonder if Nick bit off more than he can chew! Hehehe
Think he will be able to handle her?
More later! Or maybe tomorrow depending how tired my fingers feel after lunch!
Much love!
Xoxo
BB