Page 23

Nadia

The next few hours are incredibly challenging. The evening shift starts out pretty normally, but everything changes when a military transport arrives with a whole bunch of people from the Children of Solace who are much, much more wounded than the patients that we’ve been seeing so far.

My father even comes out of the command tent to greet the transport, taking charge in a way he didn’t when people were simply finding us on their own.

I stand close with Grace and Shayne as people – mostly men – are unloaded from the truck, bloody and moaning, some of them unable to walk on their own.

Our guards – Cole and Tommy among them – join in on the effort to get everyone into beds as doctor Arbroth quickly marks which cases take top priority.

“Still no kids,” Grace murmurs, frowning, her arms crossed.

I nod, agreeing, wondering again where they all are.

Shay exhales slowly. “Come on, questions later,” she says, striding forward when Arbroth lifts her head from the computer at the desk, looking for someone to give instructions to. “Now, we help.”

Shayne’s spirit is in the right place, but we each immediately find that the task itself is somewhat more difficult than it has been before.

“Get the fuck away from me,” a huge wolf snarls, half sitting in his bed as I approach with my little medical tray. My steps falter in the face of his aggression, as I feel myself very much the prey to his predator.

“Um, I’m…here to help,” I say, lifting the med kit as if that proves something.

“No humans,” he snarls, his whole body trembling before his arms give out, forcing him to fall back on his mattress, panting with pain and exhaustion. “You’ll…poison me because you’re either wicked or stupid. Either way, I don’t want your hands on me –“

I just gape at him, not knowing what to do. But Jeanie quickly comes to my side, her hands already on her hips. “Problem here?”

“I won’t be doctored by a human,” the wolf whispers, wincing in pain.

“All right, cool,” Jeanie says, her voice rich with sarcasm as she turns to me. “You can move on to the next one, Nadia, this one has clearly chosen death –“

“What?” The wolf’s body jolts, trying to sit up. But he moans, forced to lie back.

Even if he is a dick, my heart hurts to see him in so much pain. He really needs medical care, and it’s against all of my instincts – personal and professional – to walk away.

“This is the nurse ,” Jeanie says, gesturing her hand at me and waving it slowly up and down like a game show model showing off a great prize. “ She is the one who helps you. If you refuse, you’re making your choice.”

“Give me a wolf nurse!” the Alpha shouts, at the end of his rope with both frustration and pain.

“Ain’t got none,” Jeanie snaps, her frustration matching the wolf’s. “All human nurses today.”

“You fix me up, then!”

“One, you don’t get to tell me to do anything ,” Jeanie says, stepping towards the man and holding her ground.

“And two , I don’t have the training. So, this is the last time I’ll say it – accept aid from Nurse Amir or die quietly in that bed.

Or! You can choose to fuck off into the woods to die – I don’t care. ”

The wolf breathes hard for a few moments but then nods, accepting the aid, turning his head away from me and closing his eyes like he’ll just pretend I’m not human as I work.

Jeanie nods and turns to me. “Don’t let him push you around. Any of them. Hold your boundaries and call me or one of the wolves if they give you any shit.” She raises her voice and turns back to the patient. “ Any shit at all.”

The wolf snarls, rough and violent, but doesn’t otherwise move or speak.

I exhale slowly and nod to Jeanie, hoping she sees the gratitude behind my tense expression.

I work efficiently with the wolf I’m treating.

He growls answers to my necessary questions, but lets me work on the very deep cut to his stomach.

I call Arbroth over when I’ve done what I can, and she looks over the man, letting him know that she thinks he’ll live but – like so many others – needs to be transported to a more serious medical facility as soon as possible.

The wolf snarls but does not offer any further protest.

Arbroth wraps a gentle hand around my arm and pulls me a few feet away, frowning as she looks me over. “Are you all right, Nadia?”

I set my shoulders back, doing my best to tuck my temper away. I look up into his face, staying steady. “I’m good, doctor. Thank you for asking.”

She nods slowly, looking me over. “Take a break if you need it, even in the middle of the exam. Many of these patients are volatile. If you lose your temper…”

I nod, dropping my eyes, realizing that she’s right – and that she’s not being a jerk either.

Arbroth has just apparently become very quickly aware of the fact that I’ve got issues keeping my temper.

I have since I was a kid – it’s part of who I am.

And while I’ve generally found ways work through it, Arbroth’s just letting me know that today is not a day for slips.

“I get it,” I say, nodding to her, willing calm into my heart, imagining it spreading through my veins. “I’ll keep a cap on it.”

“All right,” she murmurs, quite softly. Then she gives me a professional pat on the shoulder and hands me my next case sheet before she strides away. I smile, watching her go, admiring her very much. I wish I could be that calm and cool at all times.

I roll my shoulders and take a deep breath, heading to the next bed. Jeanie catches my eye from across the room and gives me a nod. I nod back, quite grateful for her silent offer of help if I need it.

By the time midnight rolls around and my shift ends, I am very ready for it.

I step out of the tent and stretch my back, looking around for a place to rest. My eyes catch on a bright flash of red hair by the fire, and I look over to see Grace and Shayne eagerly waving to me.

I start towards them, my footsteps only hitching a little when I notice the very large, dark form sitting to Shayne’s right.

Stupid wolves. I need a wolf break tonight, but, of course, the universe intuited this and decided it wasn’t done messing with me, so it sent the future King of the wolf people to hang out with my girls.

I don’t say a word to Cole as I step close. I just glare at him and then deliberately flick my gaze to the sliver of space on the log between him and Shayne.

When I look back up at Cole’s face, eyebrow raised, his mouth slowly spreads into a smile. “Oh, Nadia,” he says, graciously moving aside and leaving plenty of space on the log. “Would you like to sit here between me and Shayne?”

Grace scoffs. “Don’t let her do that to you, Cole!”

“Thank you, how kind of you to think of that,” I murmur, settling myself primly next to Shay and leaning against her a little bit.

“You brat,” Grace says, leaning around Shayne to glare at me. She lifts a mug from the ground at her feet. “And to think, I was going to give you this hot chocolate –“

I groan, reaching for it –

But Grace shakes her head, pulling it away.

“What’s going on?” Cole murmurs.

Shay sighs, looking over me toward Cole as I bend nearly in half to get the cup from my demonic, withholding friend.

“Apologize to Cole!” Grace snaps.

“No!”

Shayne softly pats me on the back as she addresses the Prince. “When Nadia gets frustrated and overwhelmed, she either needs to go to an empty space and shout at the sky for a few minutes or eat a lot of sweets. Or both, which is ideal.”

Cole hums, considering this. “Everyone has their own ways of coping with the stresses of the day.”

I huff when Grace finally gives in, passing the still-warm mug of cocoa to me. I take a long sip, savoring the sweetness on my tongue, letting my shoulders curl in and my eyes fall shut.

“Grace and Shay were just telling me that the patients tonight are a trial,” Cole says softly, casual and conversational. “Can I take it that your night was similar?”

“They weren’t just a trial,” I say, the words huffing out on a sigh. “They were…complete assholes, Cole.”

He makes an interested sound in the back of his throat, and I turn to glare at him. His face again breaks into a smile. “What?”

“You’re being annoying. ”

“I’m listening! Being supportive!”

“In an annoying way!”

“Na-na,” Grace sighs, rolling her eyes at me, even as Shayne laughs.

“I’m serious!” I say, still shaking my head at him.

“You’re like, being so damn polite! Making all these understanding noises and giving canned responses!

You’re trying to do and say all the right things – can you just like…

be a person? Like if you think that I’m a brat for calling all my patients assholes and making you move seats,” I gesture to the log with vehemence, “then just say that!”

Cole eyebrows raise as he stares at me in shock. Grace does too, but I don’t know why they’re all surprised, because I’m right . Cole is performing nice-guy-ness – he always has the right answers, always knows what to say. But it’s practiced and it’s boring and dull and annoying .

“All right,” Cole says, nodding, hearing me. And then, as we all watch, he visibly lets go of some of his Princely pretense, his body relaxing, his shoulders slumping a bit, his face falling into less practiced lines.

I nod, turning back to my friends.

Grace raises an eyebrow at me, her mouth stern. “You’re being a serious jerk, Nadia.”

“And thank you for expressing that, Grace! I appreciate your candid response!”

She shakes her head, not letting me get away with it.

“Fine, I’m sorry,” I mutter, meaning it even if I’m still bitter. “I’m sorry, Cole, that wasn’t very nice or gracious of me. You were just being polite.”

“It’s cool,” he says. “I get it. You had a hard night and you’re not…wrong. Sometimes I lean on being polite as a way to keep back what I really think. I was sort of raised to believe that…being polite and noncommittal was priority number one.”

“Well, not if you want to get close to us, it’s not,” I mutter, looking down at my cup. “If you think I’m crazy because I need sugar water when I’m mad, like some kind of furious hummingbird –“

He bursts out laughing.

“Then just tell me you think I’m crazy,” I finish. But even as I scold, I feel some of my anger and tension slipping away. Cole has…kind of a nice laugh, or whatever. It’s hard to be in a bad mood around him.

Which is stupid.

“Na-na needs more nice juice,” Shayne whispers, tapping a finger on the bottom of my cup. I take the opportunity to look away from Cole, sipping from my cup.

“Okay, okay,” Cole says, sighing happily. “I’ll be more honest and genuine. So, your patients were assholes?”

“Yes,” I say, nodding and glancing at my girls. “They were for you too?”

Both Shayne and Grace nod. Then Grace looks beyond me to Cole. “Do you have any insight into that?” she asks, frowning at him. “Like, why were these ones so much worse than the ones we had on the first night?”

“Because…” Cole says with a sigh, shaking his head. He grimaces and looks around the camp before leaning in closer to us, speaking low. “Look, can you guys keep this…between us?”

As one, all three of us nod.

“All right,” Cole says, sighing and leaning closer. “Then, in the name of being more real and close ,” he shoots me a little glare, “I’ll tell you what I know.”

I just stare expressionless at the Prince, waiting patiently, regretting nothing.

He sighs. “Look, it’s not very public knowledge yet, but the assault on the main camp last night? It was…a disaster.”

My eyes go wide.