The Pack's Doctor by Cooper

Chapter 1

Yarn

It’s been too long since I’ve let Annika out to run. With the number of classes that I’m taking and the heavy schedule I’m keeping at the university, there isn’t a lot of time to eat, much less let Annika run. But I have to let her out. She’s becoming more and more restless.

“School is boring. Humans are boring. I want to do something fin, she grumbles in my head.

“We’re going for a run, Annika. Calm down.

‘Next time, don’t wait so long.

It’s been a couple of months since I took her out. She’s right, it’s been too long. But I know how the packs fight, and I haven’t wanted to risk getting in the middle of a battle, or worse, getting caught by Simon.

“I’m too smart for him to catch us. Besides, he has no idea that we’re still so close to the pack.

By ‘so close‘ she means two hours, but it is too close. A wolf can run nearly as fast as a car, and when that wolf is on the hunt? Goddess forbid anyone gets in their way.

In the past, when I’ve taken Annika out to run. I’ve taken her in the opposite direction of Simon’s pack. Well, technically, it’s not his pack, it’s his father’s pack. Alpha Solomon has been the Alpha of my previous pack for as long as I can remember. His són, Simon, is a nasty piece of work. He loves to fight and he loves to kill. The two of us couldn’t be any more different. I like to heal, and I like to save.

For whatever reason, Simon set his sights on me. I don’t know why. I’m an orphan, I’m not ranked. My parents were warriors and while I can fight, I prefer to use my biggest strength, my brain. Simon much prefers to use his strength, his Alpha strength. He doesn’t have to work for it, being genetically predisposed to being larger and stronger than most wolves in the pack, so he doesn’t appreciate what he has, in my opinion. Me, on the other hand, I’ve had to work for everything I’ve achieved in this life, with the help of Alpha Solomon.

My parents were killed in a pack war when I was young. Alpha Solomon took over as my guardian and made sure that I was cared for all my life. Maybe it’s because he never had a daughter, or maybe it’s because I’m more like him than his own son. but he’s always looked after me, even to the point of sending me away from the pack when he realized that his son had taken an interest in me. He knows Simon is no good, and he didn’t want me to suffer with his son’s infatuation.

When we get to the spot where we like to run, I stop, sniffing the air, making sure there are no other wolves around here.

‘Annika?” I ask, making sure she’s not smelling something I’m not

“No other wolves, she says, almost sadly. She misses the companionship of being in a pack. I look around once more, then make my way into the forest before stripping off my clothes and tucking them onto a tree branch, high enough that someone would have to look up to see them. I have a spare set of clothes in the car, just in case anyone steals these. It doesn’t happen often, but it does happen. Rather than assume that someone was being malicious, I choose to believe that they needed the clothes more than I did. They’re only clothes after all

I let Annika pull the shift, feeling my bones snapping and reshaping after so long of not shifting. It’s more painful than it should be, but soon enough, Annika is shaking out her reddish–brown fur and taking off into the woods.

while Annika runs, I can feel how good it is to stretch her legs, to feel her muscles flexing in her body as she runs. It’s quiet tonight, thankfully, and Annika’s paws on the ground are

she’s been running when we smell it,

fighting nearby,’ she says in our shared mind

Chapter 1

you hear

in trouble. Do you hear it?‘ she

do hear it. It does sound like

“Annika…”

if it is a werewolf. It may not be possible, they may not let

I can’t figure out what it’s doing though. Maybe it’s caught in a snare of some sort and trying to figure out how to get out. Or maybe it’s just stuck

We can’t afford to get

“111 be careful, Yara

making her way closer. When the wind shifts, her whole body goes rigid, the scent of teakwood filling my nose and making my body

Mate, she says softly.

“WHAT?

Yara. Our

just an injured animal, it’s our mate. I can’t leave him out here to die, but I also can’t have him trying to take

realize that the wolf, my mate, has stopped

barely breathes, waiting to see what

sure how I know that he’s not going to hurt us, something in his chuff seems more like a request for help,

but

caught in a bear trap. No wonder he’s still in wolf form. If he

he’s not howling in pain, Annika

caught in the trap is shattered, no

our mate. You have to,”

know. I will, if he’ll let

naked in front of this unknown man, even though he’s my mate, I have