Treasure

“We should practice some of the mental parts about being a werewolf today, because you aren’t ready to get out of bed yet,” Chase told her after Coral had left.

“I’m starving, let’s eat first,” she said as she uncovered the plate. Underneath was a sausage and cheese omelette, hash browns, pancakes and fruit. “Really? Your sister brings syrup to a girl on bedrest?”

“She has confidence in you, I guess,” he said as he stuffed pillows under her chest so she could get both hands free. He grabbed a towel and laid it down, then put the tray with her plate on top of it. He cut up her pancakes for her, then handed her the fork. “Eat as much as you can, it helps with the healing.”

She had her mouth full, so she tried out that new mind link thing. “Talk to me about healing now that I know I’m a werewolf. Why didn’t I heal faster earlier?”

“You probably did heal faster, but your wolf was weak and couldn’t help you much. Now that you’ve accepted her, things will get much faster. It also helps for you to shift between your human and wolf forms, but we’ll wait until things are a little more healed up before we try that.”

“This is so cool, I can stuff my face and still have a conversation,” she said as she smiled.

“Let’s try something. I want to send you a memory. You just need to relax and let me push it into your head.”

“OK.” She took another bite and closed her eyes. He found the memory he wanted, and sent it along the link.

Chase was standing with the other doctors during rounds. His wolf was nervous, he had to shove him back as he tried to concentrate on what was being said. “The tragedy is that the patient doesn’t want the side effects, so they don’t take them. An easily controlled psychosis then grows to significant, even violent episodes. She’s lucky she wasn’t attacked or raped while she was out, and the man who found her called the police.” His wolf was angry, there were predators out there who took what they want. He’d dealt with rape victims before, both here and at the Bitterroot Pack. He wondered if it had every happened to Treasure; he knew she had woken up naked at least twice after her wolf forced a shift.

The attending opened the door, and the smell hit him like a truck. ”MATE,” his wolf shouted in his head. “MUST PROTECT MATE.” He walked in the room in a daze, shocked at what he smelled, then again at what he saw. He’d never forget her picture, he’d studied her case for months. Treasure Olson, the lost child of the Arrowhead Pack, was his mate, and she was locked up in his mental hospital.

”Let me go,” she said. He looked at her, their eyes locked on each other, and their wolves connected at that moment. He held onto control, barely, and he thanked the Goddess neither of them shifted right there.

“Never,” he said to his wolf. She was beautiful and she was his to love and protect.

“Hello, I’m Doctor Nygaard,” he said, willing himself to function again. In a moment, his life changed. His training, his Pack, nothing was as important as the young woman strapped helpless in the bed. He loved her already.

Chase opened his eyes, looking over to her she had her eyes closed and was crying. Reaching over, he cupped her face and she looked back into his eyes.

“I thought I was crazy, the things I thought when I first saw you, what the voice was telling me, it didn’t make any sense.”

“Mates aren’t the same, they don’t need sex or romance or lust. You felt it, before I laid my eyes on you, I knew who you were and what you were to me. I loved you then, and I love you more with every single minute I spend around you.”

“You aren’t disappointed? I mean, I’m too young, I don’t know what I’m doing, and my mind is a mess,” she said as she looked away.

He leaned across, keeping his hand on her cheek before he stopped with their nose almost touching. She leaned into his hand, her eyes darkening in lust, and he kissed her gently. She moaned as she opened her mouth, and his tongue gently probed between her lips. He tasted divine, the tingles and feelings in her were amazing, and her arousal spiked as the kiss went on and on. He finally sat back, both of them shocked by the intensity of their feelings. “Wow,” he said.

“Yeah.” There was a nervous pause, and she looked down and started eating again. “My first kiss was amazing,” she sent.

“I agree. Now eat while I tell my wolf why he can’t do all the things he wants to do to you quite yet.”

She closed her eyes, talking to her wolf who sent her a very graphic image of what SHE wanted to do with him. “He would like that,” Chase said. “Good job with the projection.”

She got red as a tomato. “I sent that to you?”

“Yes,” he said with a smile. “The link was still open from when I pushed to you. Think about closing that down when you’re not using it.” She did and went back to eating. She finished her plate, then some of the food Chase fed her from his.

“You must think I’m a pig,” she said as she felt her full stomach.

“I’m happy because you are safe, fed and in my bed,” he said. He reached over to the table and gave her a couple of pills along with a glass of juice. “Pain pills, you need to rest again this morning after I change your dressings.”

She took the pill and finished her juice as he cleared the dishes, stacking them on the tray and placing them by the door. She moved the pillows out from underneath her so she could lay flat on the bed as he went in to get more towels. “Are you all right with me removing your shirt,” he asked.

“If it was any man other than you, I wouldn't be,” she said. He gently worked it off, then rolled her to the side so he could put a large towel underneath. He opened up his medical kit, taking out what he needed.

“This might hurt a little, the dressings can get caught in the scabs.” He peeled back the bandages, exposing the long wounds. She gritted her teeth, the pain not hidden from the bond. His wolf was mad he was causing her pain, even if it was for her own good. The stitches looked good, the skin was starting to knit back together already. He sent her the image of her back, the furrows going from just under he ribcage to her buttock and ending on the back of her thigh. “Next time get out of the way,” he teased.

“Next time you fight the bear,” she sent back with a smile. He used a washcloth to remove the dried blood, then gave her a sponge bath. When she was clean and dry, he put antiseptic ointment in the wounds and covered them with fresh bandages. By the time he was done, she was already asleep. He covered her with a sheet, then walked out to return the dishes to the kitchen.

“How is she doing,” Thor asked as he walked back into the bar area. He and a few other Club members were sitting at a table as he came over and took the offered chair.

“She’s healing well, no sign of infection which is good,” he said. “She won’t be able to leave bed for another day or two, though. Those wounds are deep and about two feet long, she can’t even bring her legs up right now.”

“Hell of a thing getting torn up like a bear like that.”

“Yeah, she’s lucky it left when she went into the river. Her parents carried her almost five miles back to the house. I’m just glad I was close enough to help. With the people after her, she didn’t need another hospital.” He stood up, looking at all of them. “I really appreciate the way you’ve protected her. I have to get back up there though.”

“You’re sleeping in her room?”

“Yes.” The men looked at him, a little hostile. “She asked me to.”

“Hurt her and we’ll kill you, and they’ll never find your body,” Thor said with malice.

“I could never hurt her, I love her,” he said. He walked off as the men went back to talking, mostly centered around how they’d have to keep an eye on him and talk to Roadkill and Wolfman about all this. He went back into the room, listening to her, thankful she was in a deep sleep. He got out his laptop and phone and piled pillows against the headboard, before taking off his boots and jeans and sliding underneath the sheet with her. He had some decisions to make; his mate needed him. Being a Pack Doctor would have to wait.

He called the hospital, speaking to the Chief Resident first. He wasn’t happy that his student was pulling out in the middle of his residency, but Chase was adamant that the family emergency he was undergoing would prevent him from continuing. “You’re throwing away a bright future,” he said. “I can give you a couple weeks, but any more and you’ll have to repeat your entire residency!”

“Then that is what I will do,” Chase said. “Thank you for everything, but I cannot meet my family commitments and continue my residency, and my family must come first,” he said. He promised to stop in and close out his paperwork sometime in the next week, then hung up.

Rori’s arm hand moved over to touch his thigh as she slept, and she settled back into her sleep. He checked his messages and incoming calls, as expected his phone had blown up after his departure from the Pack. He listened to the messages, quickly deleting those trying to get him to reconsider, and called the one person he really needed to apologize to. She picked up on the first ring. “Chase?”

“Hi Mom.” She started bawling, and he instantly regretted not calling her earlier. “I’m sorry this all happened like this, I was hoping Dad would accept things and he didn’t.”

“He didn’t even tell me what happened, just that you and Coral had defied him and were now rogues,” she said. “I haven’t slept a wink since your Pack bonds broke. Please, baby, apologize to him. He’s furious with you, but he’ll get over it.”

“It’s not that simple, Mom.” Starting at the beginning, he told her about meeting Rori in the hospital, her being attacked, and his father finding out she exposed her nature to her parents. “Her Mom is the only one she’s ever known. Hell, she didn’t know she was even a werewolf until a few days ago,” he said. “I couldn’t stand there and let him kill the two of them and arrest her, when she did what she had to do to protect them. I chose my mate over my Alpha. Coral chose to come with me.”

“Oh my Goddess,” his Mom said. “I had no idea.”

“My mate is an Alpha, the blood heir of the Arrowhead Pack. Coral is our Beta. We’re not rogues, Mom, we’re forming a Pack. I don’t want Dad as an enemy, but right now he’s probably getting the Council to issue arrest warrants.”

“I’ll talk to him, honey. I have to go, tell Coral I love her and call your Mother every day, you hear me son?”

“I love you Mom.”

“I love you, Chase.”

He hung up and noticed Rori’s eyes were open, and she had tears in her eyes. “Are you all right, my love? Are you in pain?”

“You… you chose me.”

“Yes. I told you, nothing will ever be more important than you. I am yours, Rori, forever.”

“Come here,” she said as she turned onto her side. He slid down, letting her rest against his side. Her hand moved under his shirt, sending trails of fire into his chest. He tried not to respond to her caress, but she was his mate and a bucket of ice water wouldn’t stop his response. He hardened like never before, but she was too injured to mate. “Mark me,” she said.

“What?”

“You’re my mate, aren’t you? Don’t you want me?” His wolf surged forward, he was all in favor of making her his.

“Of course I want you, but I want you to be sure before we do this,” he said. “The bond is forever. There is no divorce, no second chances, it goes until death.”

“I want that,” she said. “I want everyone to know you are mine, and I am yours.” She rubbed her face into his chest. “My wolf wants it all but marking you would make her happy.”

“I want it too,” he said. “It will hurt for a moment, so I’m told, but then it becomes pure pleasure. The mark remains on your neck for all wolves to see.”

“Do it,” she sent as she exposed her neck to him. His teeth shifted slightly, becoming more pointed, and he licked at the junction of her left shoulder and neck before opening his mouth wide and biting down. She stilled in pain, but as the blood entered his mouth it turned into amazing pleasure. He licked at the wound, the puncture wounds bleeding slightly as he let go.

He moved his shoulder down, offering her his neck and she took it quickly. He groaned as the pain turned to pleasure, and the mate bond snapped into place between them. “We are one now,” he told her.

”I love you,” she said before she fell asleep on his chest. He held her close as he felt their souls merge. They were mates, and everyone would know that.