I dropped my bag, causing my medicinal herbs and salves to spill out all over the floor. “Oh my God, you’re—you’re…”
“Nina,” the woman said, struggling to prop herself up with an elbow. “Or would you still prefer ‘omega wolf’?”
~Nina.~
~What a lovely name.~
The thin sheet covering Nina began to slide down, revealing her naked torso.
Her skin was dark and shiny, like the night sky, and her nipples glimmered like stars—I wanted to get lost in her galaxies…
“~Hello~, paging Dr. Distracted, my eyes are up here.”
I blushed. “I was just…just examining your wounds. You know, you really shouldn’t try to sit up yet. You still have a lot of healing to do.”
“Oh this? It’s just a flesh wound,” Nina said, pointing to a huge gash across her thigh. She started to get out of bed. “Nothing I can’t—”
She winced in pain as her legs buckled, sending her straight into my arms.
I was sure all the blood in my entire body had relocated to my cheeks as I held her, and there was no way she didn’t notice my damned strawberry-tinted face.
“I like your bedside manner, Doc.” Nina clenched her teeth as she transferred her weight to me and allowed me to place her back in bed.
“Do you always make jokes when you’re about to bleed out?” I asked reproachfully.
“It helps take my mind off the pain.” She raised her eyebrows. “Unless you have ~other ways~ to distract me from the pain?”
I crossed my arms. “If you’re suggesting drugs, then I can’t condone—”
“I was gonna suggest that you sit here and talk with me for a while,” Nina said, smirking.
“Oh, uh, okay. I guess I could do that.”
I felt like an idiot, but talking wasn’t such a bad idea. I needed to find out who she was for Aiden’s sake and the safety of the pack.
Or was I just telling myself that to justify my curiosity? I hadn’t been able to take my eyes off the woman since Aiden and Josh brought her to me last night.
I was even sleeping on a cot here at the pack house, telling myself there was no need to bother anyone else from the medical staff over the weekend.
“So, who goes first?” she asked, covering herself with a thick blanket—much to my relief. “Are you more of a truth girl or a dare girl?”
“I’ll talk, Nina, but this isn’t a game. If you want me to keep treating you, you’ll need to tell me what happened. You almost died. I need to know what did that to you and if it’s still out there.”
Nina rolled over, avoiding eye contact with me. “Hunters,” she muttered.
“Divine Hunters?”
She sighed and turned back. “Yeah, they were tracking me—almost had me too. Your alpha must’ve scared them off. What’s his name, anyway?”
“Aiden,” I replied, already wanting to talk about anything other than my ex. “Tell me more about the Hunters.”
“Just your run-of-the-mill humans who hate what they don’t understand,” she growled—the first hint of anger that I’d seen from her.
Feeling an emotional pull, I sat down on the edge of the bed. “Putting my healer duties aside for a moment, can I ask you something personal?”
She looked intrigued. “Okay, shoot.”
“What happened with your pack? Why are you alone? I mean, alone out in the wild—with no pack.”
Damn, I could have worded that far more eloquently. Had I really just asked her why she was alone? It was a question that I’d had to answer far too often.
She sighed, looking disappointed. “What you’re really trying to ask is why I was exiled, right? Wolves don’t just run around on their own unless they’re forced to.”
“If you’re not comfortable saying, I won’t pry.” I thought about how Aiden would probably be interrogating her in a cell right now if he knew she was conscious.
“No, it’s fine, I’ll be honest. I got caught stealing. I’m a thief,” she said bluntly. “A damn good one too. I’m not proud of it—okay, maybe a little proud—but I did what I had to for my own survival.
“I learned a long time ago that no one will look out for you, so you’d better learn to do it yourself.”
“Didn’t you have some family members that you could turn to for help?” I found myself scooting closer to her.
Nina frowned at the mention of family. “I was dead to my parents years ago, and they’re dead to me as well. I have no family.”
My stomach growled with anticipation at the spread of pasta and baked breads laid out before me.
Sienna’s mother was a damned good cook, and although I’d protested these weekly family dinners initially, her family had really grown on me.
I’d begun to consider them my own.
I tried to serve myself some spaghetti, but Melissa smacked my hand away.
“Now, Aiden, we have to wait for everyone,” she said sternly. “Selene and Jeremy aren’t here yet.”
Was Jeremy working on a Sunday? If so, I’d have to lighten his load at the pack house so I could eat earlier in the future. But with the Yule Ball only two weeks away, that should probably wait. We were all super busy.
I turned to Sienna, who was lost in thought. She’d been that way all day. I placed my hand on hers. “Are you feeling okay?”
“I’m fine. Just going over some pieces for a client in my head,” she said, forcing a smile.
The sound of the front door slamming and high heels clacking on the hardwood floor echoed through the hallway.
“We’re here, we’re here. Sorry we’re late,” huffed Selene, pulling Jeremy into the dining room and sliding into her seat without taking a breath.
Jeremy gave me an awkward nod. After a year, you’d think he’d have gotten used to his boss being at family dinners.
“All right, I officially declare this meal in session.” Robert grinned. “Dig in!”
“Finally,” I growled. “Melissa’s cooking is a work of art that should not go unappreciated.”
“Oh, stop,” she giggled. “You’d wolf down anything that was put in front of you.”
I glanced over at Sienna again. She was barely touching her food.
What the hell was going on with her?
“Hey, Mom, Dad, I have a question,” she said, speaking carefully. “What happened on that day you found me abandoned outside the hospital?”
There was an uncomfortable silence, and Sienna’s parents looked at one another apprehensively.
“Where is this coming from, sweetheart?” Robert asked.
I wondered the same thing. I knew Sienna had been thinking about her birth parents a lot lately, but I wasn’t sure dinner with her family was the right place to ask about them.
“I just want to know more about where I came from…~who~ I came from,” she said quietly. “My parents…did they leave a note? Did they regret abandoning me? You’ve never told me any details.”
I noticed that Melissa tensed up when Sienna used the word ~parents~ to refer to someone else.
“Why does any of that matter?” I cut in, feeling annoyed. “Whoever they were, they made a fucking rotten decision to leave you, and they deserve to carry whatever regrets they have all the way to their graves.”
Sienna’s eyes lit up like a volcano about to blow.
~Fuck.~
I actually expected flames to shoot out of her eyes any second.
Selene and Jeremy exchanged glances.
“You don’t know anything about them!” Sienna snapped back at me. “Just because your birth parents are a nightmare doesn’t mean that mine are!”
She pushed her chair back, scraping it against the floor, and jumped to her feet.
“Where the hell do you think you’re going?” I growled.
“Therapy!” she shouted.
~THERAPY?!~
I got up to follow her, but she was already halfway down the hall. “Sienna, wait!”
She stopped, still facing away from me, but when I placed my hands on her shoulders, I felt her relax at my touch.
“I’m sorry,” I said gently. “I didn’t realize it was such a sensitive subject.”
When Sienna turned around to face me, she had tears in her eyes.
I pulled her in close to my body. “Tell me what’s going on.”
She sniffed. “I’ve just been dealing with this pain on my own for too long.”
“And that’s why you’re going to…” I cleared my throat. It was hard for me to say the word aloud for some reason.
“Therapy,” she said quietly.
“Is it something that I’ve done? Because if I—”
“No, Aiden. It’s not about you. I promise.”
Her tone was reassuring, but I still felt like I was failing her in some way.
“I just need to work through some issues, and I think therapy is the best way.”
I lifted her chin so I could stare into her eyes.
I wanted to be the one to take away all of her pain and sadness. I never wanted to see tears in those beautiful blue eyes ever again, unless they were happy ones.
But maybe I needed to take a step back this time—let Sienna deal with this her own way.
I sighed and gave her a kiss on the forehead. “I’ll support you if this is what you think is best.”
Sienna grabbed my collar and stood on her tiptoes, pressing her lips against mine.
After she finally pulled away, I grinned and said, “But do you have to start therapy right this minute? It is a Sunday after all, and your mom made all that food...”
“In that case,” she said with a laugh. “I suppose it can wait until tomorrow.” Her smile softened. “Thank you, Aiden.”