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Cole smirks at Rose. “This is Nurse Nadia,” he says, nodding to me. “Shehas clearance.”

Rose scoffs again and turns to me, looking me up and down like I’m nothing. “Why?”

I realize suddenly that Cole has been quite clever in not dropping my last name, which would have let Rose in on my connection to the mission’s General.

“That’s above your paygrade,” I say, quite cool, cutting and casual as I deliberately turn to Jeanie and give her a sunny smile, reaching out a hand. “Hi! I’m Nadia. I love what you’ve done with the therapy area – I think patients are going to be really comfortable here.”

Rose takes a second to stare at me in shock before stepping to Cole’s side and glaring up at him, asking something in an angry whisper I can’t hear. He sighs and turns to her, lowering his voice and responding to her frantic hiss.

“Nice to meet you!” Jeanie says, smiling at me even as she glances anxiously at Rose. “Um, but was Rose right? Did you guys get any news that you can share?”

“Yeah,” I say, giving another casual shrug, quite liking this Jeanie girl despite her absolute crap choice of companions. “The General was just letting us know that things are moving along on a faster schedule than we expected. We could begin seeing our first patients as soon as this evening or tomorrow.”

“Oh, wow,” Jeanie says, her sculpted brows going up in surprise and gratitude. “Thanks, that’s really, really useful to know.”

“Anytime!” I say, grinning at her. “Have you seen the nursing resources yet? I’d love to give you a tour of the tent, see if we can come up with a system for referrals and stuff to share information without violating patient privacy.”

“That would be amazing,” Jeanie says, nodding eagerly.

I grin at her and nod towards the tent. She immediately links her arm with mine, heading off with me. I don’t look behind me as we go.

Jeanie does, though. “Wait, so,” she says, her voice low. “Was that just…Cole Kincaid?”

“Yeah,” I say, shrugging casually, as Cole deserves. Honestly, I don’t get why everyone flips out about him so much. He’s just some guy.

“Like, thePrince?” Jeanie whispers, a bit awed, leaning closer to me.

I turn my head to give her a glare that’s only moderately withering. “No, he’s a knockoff generic version of Cole Kincaid,” I say, dry. “Completely unprincely but just as dumb.”

Jeanie busts out laughing and gives me a little smack on the arm, friendly already. I grin. “Do you like…know him?”

“Just as part of the mission,” I say, shrugging and turning my attention back to the nursing tent, hoping to make Jeanie drop the topic as soon as possible.

“I think maybe Rose has something going on with him,” Jeanie murmurs, glancing again over her shoulder.

I don’t bother to look. “Great,” I say, ready to move on from any and all discussions of Cole Kincaid’s love life. “Those two seem to deserve each other.”

Jeanie turns back to me and grins, perhaps intuiting that there’s more beneath my words than I’m letting on. But shedoesn’t push me, instead heading into the nursing tent with me so that we can make a plan to treat our mutual patients.

Cole

“Who is that girl, Cole?” Rose asks, her voice low and cold as she glares up at me.

I sigh and look down at her, studying her face, realizing that this riled-up jealousy used to be precisely the thing that worked my wolf up into a frenzy. But now my wolf just studies Rose with his ears pricked, more curious than anything else. Then he yawns, placid, and turns away.

I smile, pleased at this relative freedom from the power Rose has traditionally held over me. “You already know the answer, Rose,” I say. “She’s one of our nurses. Their representative, actually.”

She scoffs. “But she’s just a human, surely she doesn’t have the capacity –“

I tilt my head, glaring hard at Rose, and she stops mid-sentence, her lips still parted. “Don’t go there,” I say quietly. “Things are different in Oseania, but you’re in Clythera now, where humans are equal in rightsandrespect. Youknowbetter than that.”

Rose has the grace to look guilty. She’s always a little trouble with human/wolf politics. Oseania has always been a staunchally of Clythera and supports our equal rights policies; but unlike some other countries which actively aggress against humans, Oseania just doesn’t have any humans amongst their all-wolf population. This absence has bred its own kind of prejudices amongst their people. Rose has unlearned many of her biases against humans since she’s spent more time in Clythera – but clearly, sometimes they shine through.

Quickly getting over her guilt, Rose narrows her eyes at me and then quickly flicks her gaze up and down my body, perceiving that her old tricks and charms aren’t working. “What aren’t you telling me, Cole?”

I sigh, pity and frustration mingling in me because Rose obviously thinks that we’re playing our same old game when things have changed for me.

But…I’ve also promised Nadia that I won’t tell anyone that she’s my mate. I’m intent on keeping that promise – not only because my mate’s comfort has to be my priority, but also because I’m well aware that if I break trust with her again, she may leave forever and cut off all contact.