The surgery was located at the back of the pack house, a later addition to the original building. It housed the wards, theatre, consultation rooms and a spacious waiting room. It was all set around an enclosed courtyard where the patients from the wards were free to wander once they were allowed out of bed.
Presiding over it all was Doc, one of the oldest members of Blake's four hundred strong pack. It had to be assumed that he had once had a different name, but he had been 'Doc' for so long in his life that it was rumoured that even he had trouble recalling what that name may have been.
He had stood by Blake's side as he had been sworn in as Alpha of the Blackridge pack, just as he had stood by Avery's side when he'd subdued and claimed the pack sixty years before that. The man didn't seem to age, looking just as grizzled then as he did now, and he was waiting patiently by the door as Blake hurried through towards him.
He nodded sagely, as though his Alpha carrying what appeared to be a half-naked and unconscious girl into his consultation room was a regular occurrence. Life appeared to hold very few surprises for him these days. He ushered them through to the consultation room, waving away the curious onlookers that had gathered nearby.
"Pop her on here and let's see what we have to work with, shall we?" He bustled about, moving medical equipment around, and checking everything was where it needed to be.
Blake carefully lay her on the bed in the centre of the room and paused, one hand stroking a stray lock of hair from her face, hovering over her as though reluctant to let her go again. Doc coughed discretely behind him and he moved out of the way, retreating into the corner to watch the man work from the side-lines.
"Interesting," Doc murmured when he picked up on her unusual scent. He showed no other reaction as he continued to check her pulse and blood pressure; expertly manuvering her around to place the pads for the ECG machine, and hooking up the wires so that the steady beep-beep of her heart rate bounced around the quiet of the room.
Given the man's lack of reaction, Blake privately wondered if his old wolf was asleep. He could feel Rothan - still pacing up and down in silent agitation. Even the random pack members he passed as he'd rushed her through the village had recoiled, bared their teeth or jumped back as the scent wafted past them.
Doc's lack of reaction suggested a man with senses dulled by age... or a superb level of self control.
"How far did she walk before you found her?" Doc asked, lifting one of her feet and assessing the lacerations carefully. "These will need cleaning..." he muttered to himself.
"We don't know."
"Well, where did she come from?" He tutted at the state of her arms and legs as he moved his hands along them, swiftly checking them for broken bones, and Blake fought the irrational urge to tell him to be gentle with her.
"We don't know that either." The hands moved up and over her ribs, still probing for broken bones, and Blake smothered the low growl that was trying to work its way up his throat.
The doctor shot him an assessing look before moving up towards her head, his fingers gently parting her long waves of hair to expose the ragged gash beneath. "But, how - "
"Doc," Blake interrupted with gritted teeth, his eyes avoiding the open wound. "Once you've finished your examination, I suspect you'll have more information than I do right now."
The first outward sign of anything other than professional curiosity flickered across Doc's face as he took the girl's temperature. Muttering darkly about the lack of useful information, he began pulling hospital blankets out of the nearby cupboards, piling them one by one over his patient.
"Too cold," he muttered to himself, absentmindedly adding more layers.
Fortunately for the unconscious girl, a nurse appeared from the direction of the wards. She looked at the girl on the bed - who was by now, in very real danger of being buried under a mountain of blankets - then at the enthusiastic but distracted doctor who was still rummaging around in one of the cupboards looking for more sheets, and sighed. Bowing her head towards the Alpha in a gesture of respect and smiling at him softly, she moved to rescue her patient from imminent suffocation.
"Father, I think she has enough covers now," she said firmly, taking the last of the thick, woollen blankets from his arms.
For a split second her eyes reflected her shock as the girl's scent washed over her, but Blake was impressed by how quickly she shook the feeling off, approaching the bed with a professional air of neutrality.
Doc blinked and looked over at his patient, realisation dawning in his eyes.
"She's too cold," he explained sheepishly as his daughter began removing several layers. "She needs warming up, or she'll be in danger of running a fever... it's a miracle she isn't already."
The small nurse nodded in agreement, still removing the array of blankets one layer at a time.
"I'll get the heated sheets, father," she replied, her soft voice barely audible in the quiet room. At only twenty, Jenni was still very young to be as competent as she was around the hospital, but was showing a real aptitude for medicine. She spent most of her days by her father's side as he taught her everything she needed to know about practicing it, and most patients fell under her care, at least briefly.
Doc looked non-plussed as he watched her work for a moment, sorting out the sheets and hooking up an IV line for fluids. Then, satisfied that she had all the little details under control, he moved up to re-examine his patient's head wound.
"I hear there was a rogue attack on the way back this morning, " he murmured as he poked at the wound. "The pack-link has been buzzing with rumours. Is there any connection to this?"
Blake frowned and tore his eyes away from the nasty looking laceration. "I'm not sure, I don't believe so."
He moved out of the way so Jenni could retrieve swabs and saline from the shelves behind him. His lack of attention lead him to knock gently against the metal frame, and the rattle of glass bottles caught Doc's attention.
Doc paused in his examination for a moment and took a long look at his Alpha, observing his tense posture and worried gaze. His sharp eyes also picked up on the tear in his shirt at the shoulder, the cut underneath that should have been healed before he even reached the surgery, and the sheen of sweat across his Alpha's face.
"How are you feeling?" he asked, abandoning the girl and walking over to his Alpha, prodding at the wound.
Blake winced and glared at him. "What are you do -? I'm fine." He nodded back towards the bed. "Your patient is over there."
Doc ignored him and reached up to feel his forehead.
Blake swatted his hand away in irritation, a move that failed to phase Doc in the slightest. "When you've finished cleaning out the wounds on the patient's feet," Doc murmured to his daughter who had just sat down with a swab in her hand. "Take the Alpha into the wards and get this injury seen to."
"I'm fine," Blake repeated firmly.
"You are not," Doc argued. "That flesh wound should be nothing more than a scar by now, I want to know why it's taking so long to heal. Jenni, take a swab before flushing it out please, I have a sneaking suspicion there might have been something on the blade used."
Jenni nodded and flashed a look of concern at her Alpha.
Doc meanwhile turned back to his patient steadfastly ignoring the deep growl that emanated from Blake's chest. It filled the tiny room like far away thunder causing Jenni to squeak in fright and drop her cotton swabs.
"I said - "
The doctor cut him off with a stern look. "You are my Alpha, but I am your doctor," he said seriously in a low voice. "As such it is my duty to ensure that you remain in good health so that you can be my Alpha."
Blake looked ready to argue some more and the doctor gave him a look that, on any other wolf, could be described as mild annoyance. On Doc, Blake would guess it was closer to exasperation.
"I'm willing to bet that your wolf has gone quiet. Can you hear him?"
He couldn't. Normally extremely outspoken, Rothan had gone strangely quiet during the walk back through the forest, although he could still feel him in the back of his mind.
Doc's face creased into an I-told-you-so frown. "No? That's because he's having to concentrate too hard on healing you. Stay if you like, but I'd give you all of five minutes before you collapse onto the floor. It needs seeing to, before it gets any worse. Besides..." Doc leaned around him for a roll of bandages, "You're in the way."
Jenni looked back and forth between the two wolves in shock - one furious, one serenely unconcerned. No one else in the pack - no one outside of his own blood in fact - would ever risk ordering the Alpha out of any room that he wanted to stand in, never mind go so far as to imply that he wasn't wanted there!
"I will continue the examination and care for our new arrival in your absence," Doc explained calmly as though he wasn't busy ordering about the most powerful man in the pack. "And Jenni will re-join me once she has finished taking care of you."
Blake opened his mouth to protest, but Doc held up a firm, but pacifying hand.
"I'll come and find you when I have news and, of course, when she wakes up." His tone left no room for argument and Blake could only glare at him for a few seconds before sighing, and stalking out into the corridor leading to the wards, gesturing at Jenni to follow him.
She dropped the instruments on the tray and ran after him - eager not to upset her irate Alpha any further, her tiny frame barely half the Alpha's size.
Doc returned to his examination muttering to himself about stubborn Alpha males. He knew that, had he not been too busy dealing with the poison in their system, Blake's wolf would have wanted to tear him apart for showing such disrespect. Wolves had a simplistic view of the world that was often very black and white; it was no wonder many of their kind struggled to remain in control.
Pack life was important because it helped keep the wolf in check as they understood and respected a strict hierarchy. Rogues, without any hierarchy to keep the wild side of their nature in check, could quickly become feral; their wolves controlling them more and more until there wasn't much human left.
The Alpha and his wolf therefore were the most important pieces of the puzzle and it was part of his duty as pack doctor to force them to listen to him and take care of themselves, whether they liked it or not.
Still, his own wolf would be busy berating him for hours for talking to their Alpha that way and, he concluded ruefully, he might be in need of an aspirin before the day was done. He glanced down at the slumbering girl and pondered on her strange scent. She was a mystery he knew his Alpha would want to solve quickly, and Doc doubted that this would be the last battle of wills between them today.
*
She stood on a vast rocky beach - not in front of a raging sea - but on a still placid lake, covered in a mist that blurred the view of the thick pine forest surrounding it.
When her eyes opened, a twinge of panic left a tight, sick feeling in her gut - she didn't recognise the landscape around her. No matter how hard she tried, she couldn't remember how she'd gotten there.
Recognised or not, it still felt incredibly familiar. She was sure she'd stood on this beach many times before, but she couldn't have named it if she'd tried. A smattering of new snow covered the rocks and the very tops of the trees. Ice formed around the edges of the lake. Wherever she was, it was quiet and cold.
She could see her breath. Little wisps of warm mist swirled in front of her as she looked around, but the cold seemed to come from deep within her; a bone-chilling, numbing cold that she had brought with her to this place from somewhere far away.
Hello?
Movement by the water's edge caught her attention and she turned her gaze towards the other side of the vast lake. A beautiful russet-coloured wolf stood on the pebbled shore. She couldn't explain why, but when it turned its golden eyes towards her and howled - she wasn't afraid.
She made no attempt to move, gazing in wonder at its size and magnificence. She knew this wolf. It had a name, but like the lake, she couldn't recall what it was. It hovered on the tip of her tongue but failed to pass her lips.
More wolves responded to that howl from deep in the forest, the air ringing with their mournful song. The russet wolf twitched its ears, listening to their call. It stared at her for the longest moment, an air of longing about its stance, before padding away. Fading into the encroaching mist, she lost sight of it.
Where are you going?
The mist continued to advance, crawling insidiously across the shore and spreading out onto the water like a white blanket. Once she could no longer see the other side of the lake, both it and the wolf were easily forgotten.
She turned back towards the forest, staring up at the vast trees above her - the evergreens vivid against a stark, white sky. The mist curled between them, looking more and more like a dense fog, blocking her view deeper into the forest. Out from between the foliage nearby emerged a new wolf that padded through the thick mist, halting just beyond her reach, its eyes fixed on hers.
This wolf was a stranger to her. Its fur was as black as coal, with eyes that shone a rich tawny gold. There was intelligence behind those eyes and she felt herself drawn to it, wanting to know it better.
Her hand was out stretched to touch the thick fur but, before she could take a single step, it turned and walked away from her.
Don't leave!
The wolf showed no sign that it had heard her. Its tail was the last thing she saw of it before it disappeared into the trees. Crying out in disappointment, she tried to follow but her feet wouldn't cooperate - they sank into the sandy shore, holding her fast.
She cried out again, but no sound left her lips. The thick fog continued to roll in, enveloping the lake and the surrounding trees until she could see nothing but an inky, white soup. Everything seemed to sink into the thick, suffocating fog - even her recollection of herself and why she was there.
It did not hurt. There was no pain.
She sank deeper and deeper into the haze. The world around her faded away. All that remained was the smell of the forest.
How long she remained trapped in that nothingness she didn't know. But every minute she remained there, breathing in the damp, cloying fog, she felt herself slipping further and further away. After a while, she was unsure if she could ever return to herself. Then...
Warmth.
It started at her toes, creeping upwards through her legs and seeping into her body. She could hear voices somewhere in the distance, but she couldn't make out what they were saying. Her fingers began to tingle, a pleasant sensation as the chill retreated.
The fog was beginning to slowly dissipate around her as the feeling spread, but the lake and the trees were gone... only the darkness remained.
She floated there for a while, concentrating on the voices as they drifted in and out of her hearing - they didn't become any clearer, but the constant sound comforted her. Her body relaxed and, as the warmth flooded through her, she sank into a deep and dreamless sleep.
Author's Note: Hi guys! You might have noticed that the spacing in this chapter is a bit... odd. Unfortunately, it was the only way I could fix the comment algorithm! (Wouldn't allow inlines for goodness knows what reason) So, yeah... double spaces! Sorry!