Finding the Fire Within: Seaside Wolf Pack Book 2

by C. C. Masters

  Usually, any service members injured while fighting in the Middle East were transferred to the hospital in Ramstein and then moved stateside to Bethesda. There was a storm up north right now, so the plane had been diverted here to Seaside. It happened pretty regularly.

  We had only a few critical care spots open in the ICU right now, so all the patients were going to be brought to the ER after the plane landed so that we could triage them and assign them to the appropriate ward. After I walked in the ER I had Lieutenant Commander Long flag me down.

  “Anna!” He smiled at me. “I was hoping you would be the one they sent us.”

  I smiled back at him and gave a laugh. A lot of my coworkers did not get along with him because he could be very arrogant and pretentious if you challenged him. You had to phrase all of your statements to him as suggestions if you wanted him to listen. Some of my coworkers had egos to match his and ended up clashing horribly. In my opinion, the only person who was hurt by that was the patient.

  We were here to work as a team and give the patient the best care possible. I wasn’t too proud to bow my head to make sure that happened. He could keep his pride and ego by taking credit for my work. After all, I was a civilian and didn’t have to worry about promotions and FITREPs. I would stay a staff pharmacist while my coworkers went on to become Division Officers and Department Heads.

  I took a seat next to him while he sipped on his coffee. “How soon are they going to be here?” I asked curiously.

  “They are deplaning now. They are going to send the most critical by ambulance first and then the rest will follow in other transport.” He told me.

  I sat back. This was probably the only moment of peace and quiet we would get for the next eight hours, we might as well enjoy it now. “Did they send the charts ahead, Commander?” I asked hopefully.

  “Nope. But hopefully they will have paper charts with each of the patients when they get here.”

  “Hopefully.” I agreed. My job here was to work with the team to evaluate the current medication therapy for each of the patients, recommend changes, reconcile med orders, and triage the orders I was putting in.

  The patients would have been on the plane for quite a few hours, and their IVs and drips would be running low. The supply of pain meds sent with the patients would probably be running low as well, so a lot of them would not be happy when they came in.

  One of the corpsman stopped in. “Excuse me, Commander.” He said politely. “The first of the patients are arriving.”

  I stood up, a little bit of excitement starting to rise inside of me. I liked the challenge of complicated patients. LCDR Long stood up as well and tossed his coffee cup. “Let’s go.”

  Most of the day went by fast with how hard we had to work to get everyone processed in. The very last patient who was assigned to me was a young female marine. I took a look through her chart before I went to her bedside.

  She had dark hair and the lightest eyes that I had ever seen. One of her legs was bandaged from where she had received shrapnel during combat. “Corporal Clive?”

  She nodded. I confirmed her date of birth and stood next to her, so we could speak in private. Her nostrils flared, and she grabbed my arm.

  “Oh, thank god.”

  I looked at her in surprise.

  Her eyes darted around and when she was sure no one was close enough to overhear, she whispered to me. “I need your help to get out of here before they realize what I am.”

  I took a deep breath, taking in her scent. She didn’t smell like a wolf, but I did pick up on something other than plain human. I frowned. “You’re not a wolf?”

  She shook her head sharply. “Panther.” She murmured to me.

  My eyebrows rose, I hadn’t expected to meet another shifter this way. “Jaguar or leopard?”

  A grin spread over her face. “Jaguar. Never had a wolf ask me that before.”

  I thought it was interesting that she identified as a panther, not a Jaguar. A panther could be a member of any of the big cat families. What made them panthers was their black coloring. At least that’s the way it was in the animal kingdom. I wonder if shifters were different?

  “How’s your leg?” I asked curiously, avoiding asking any more shifter-related questions here in the hospital.

  “Healing faster than a human’s would. If they look at my wound it’s going to be obvious that something is wrong.” She whispered to me.

  I frowned. “I see the problem. If you were a civilian, you could leave AMA… against medical orders.” I clarified when she gave me a strange look. “But if you try to leave now as active duty they can declare you AWOL.”

  “What am I going to do?” She whispered to me with panic in her eyes.

  “Relax.” I gave her hand a squeeze. I pulled the curtains around her bed in triage so no one could see in. I pulled out my phone to text Austin, I didn’t want to call him and have anyone overhear.

  “Are you texting your pack-master?” She asked, rubbing her legs nervously.

  I nodded. “He will know what to do. Do you have a pack?” I asked curiously.

  She rolled her eyes. “I’m a panther, not a wolf.”

  “So, what do panthers have?” I asked as I waited for Austin to respond.

  “We’re mostly solitary, but sometimes have mates.”

  LCDR Long interrupted us by shouting through the curtain. “Knock, knock.”

  I gave her an apologetic look and opened the curtain. “Hey, Commander! It turns out that one of our patients is a friend of mine.”

  He just gave me a nod as he paged through her chart.

  I kept talking, hoping he wouldn’t pay too close attention to the dates on the page that said the injury happened a few days ago. “Her leg seems to have healed really well from the wound a month or so ago. The course of antibiotics did their job, no sign of infection or fever.”

  He set down the chart and gave a nod of relief that this was looking like an easy case. It had been a long day.

  “Let’s take a look, then.” He called for one of his nurses to cut through the bandages. The wound was revealed, and he examined the pink but unbroken skin. “This looks really good for a month ago…” he murmured.

  He went to reach for the chart, but I grabbed it and paged through as if I was trying to be helpful. “Closer to six weeks,” I told him. Thankfully he didn’t ask why her wound was bandaged if the skin had healed.

  “Why did they wait so long to transport you?” He asked.

  She shrugged. “I was doing well enough that I didn’t need care stateside, Commander. But paperwork, you know?”

  He nodded in understanding. Anyone who worked for the military understood the frustrations of paperwork, red tape, and bureaucracy.

  “They wanted you back here for physical therapy?” He guessed.

  I gave her a nod to just roll with it. “Yes, sir. They want me back here to get back in fighting shape.”

  “Did they send you with orders?” He asked.

  “No, sir. I believe my command wanted a prognosis first.”

  “I’m going to recommend six weeks convalescent leave. Are you able to stay in the area for physical therapy here?”

  Her eyes flicked to me and I nodded. If she didn’t have a place to stay, then she could stay with me.

  “Yes, sir.”

  “Anna, any meds needed for her?”

  “I would recommend ibuprofen as needed for pain during the course of physical therapy. Any muscle cramps, Corporal?”

  “No, ma’am.”

  LDCR Long nodded. “Go ahead and put something in for ibuprofen and I’ll sign it, Anna.”

  I nodded. “Of course, sir.”

  “I’ll put in my request to your command for the leave, Corporal.”

  “Thank you, sir.” She murmured.

  He left the area and Corporal Clive and I just stared at each other for a moment. I cleared my throat. “You can stay with me if you don’t have a place around here.”

  “W
ith your pack?” She asked doubtfully. “Wolves don’t like my kind.”

  I shrugged. “My pack is different.”

  “What are you doing working in a hospital, anyway?” she added suspiciously. “I thought wolves never let their females out of the pretty cages they like to keep them in.”

  I just laughed. “My pack is very different.” I glanced down at my phone, I had a ton of missed texts and phone calls from Austin and a couple from James.

  Corporal Clive was my last patient and it was almost time for me to go home anyway so I waved my phone at her. “Stay here until your discharge paperwork is ready. I’m going to put in your order, finish up documenting my cases and then change. I’ll be back to pick you up as soon as I can, Corporal.”

  She nodded at me. “You can call me Sam.”

  I smiled warmly at her. “Okay, Sam. I’ll be back in a little bit.”

  As soon as I got out into the public hallway and out of a patient care area I called Austin back. When he answered, I could hear an edge of worry in his voice.

  “Anna. You can’t just text me to say that you found a stray panther and need help but then not answer your phone.”

  “Oh, I’m sorry Austin! I didn’t realize how that must have sounded.”

  He let out a sigh. “You’re okay? She didn’t hurt you?”

  “Oh, no.” I told him. “I didn’t mean that I needed help against her. I meant that she was in a tough situation and I needed help to get her out of it.”

  There was a moment of silence and then he chuckled. “Of course you found a stray and tried to help. Anna… not all shifters are friendly.”

  “She is.” I insisted. “She’s an injured marine and was transported here from Afghanistan because of an injury.”

  There was silence on the other end and I knew he was thinking. Austin’s pack was full of combat veterans and it was ingrained in him to help out a fellow service member.

  “She was going to be exposed because her injury was healing too fast.” I told him.

  I heard him sigh and I knew I had won on this one. “I’ll need her info and I can have one of our contacts help out. Where is home for her? We are going to need to get her orders back there and she may have to leave the service.”

  I cleared my throat. “Um, I told her she could stay with me?” I said hesitantly.

  “Anna… our pack has a lot going on right now.”

  “I know, Austin. But I already told the doctor to ask for her to stay here. Plus, don’t we need more allies?”

  I could hear James in the background cursing. If he had not wanted me in the pack because I was a female, then he was definitely not going to be happy about a female panther on our territory.

  “Bring her here and we’ll talk.” Austin told me. “I already told Cody to get there ASAP because he was the closest to your current location.”

  “Okay, thanks Austin.” I said softly. I hope he wasn’t too upset with me.

  “I don’t want you alone with her.” Austin said sternly. “Wait for Cody to get there, I assume you’re alone now?”

  “Yes, I’m just going to get changed back into my civilian clothes.” I cringed a little because he sounded upset but then forced myself to stand taller. Austin might be a figure of authority in the pack, but he wasn’t my uncle. I needed to catch myself every time I reacted instinctively to a harsh tone. This was Austin. Plus, I knew I was doing the right thing with Sam.

  “Okay, the twins were already headed in your direction, so you will have plenty of backup.”

  I rolled my eyes at his over-protectiveness. “I’ll see you in a little bit, Austin.”

  We said our goodbyes and I quickly went back to the locker room to change. My phone was blowing up with texts and calls from Cody and the twins. I appreciated that the guys had my back, but they were clearly over-reacting.

  I sent Cody a text to tell him to meet me at the ER. I started to put my phone away again but quickly sent a follow up to let him know I was fine once I realized he might misinterpret that.

  I got changed and signed out before making my way back down to the ER. I scanned my badge to get back into the patient care area and looked around for Sam. I saw her still sitting on the triage bed, now dressed in her uniform instead of the hospital gown.

  I logged into the computer and saw that her discharge paperwork was ready. I went ahead and printed it out.

  I spied one of the triage nurses looking harried. “Hey Jocelyn!” I gave her a smile and a friendly wave.

  She gave me a suspicious wave. “Hey, Anna. Heading out?” She asked, eying my civilian clothes.

  “Yep,” I said cheerfully. “One of your patients is a friend of mine, do you mind if I do her discharge counseling?”

  Her face relaxed with relief, she had probably been worried that I was going to add to her burden of work. “That’s fine, Anna. What’s her name so I can chart it?”

  I gave her Sam’s name and she did what she needed to do in the computer. I gave her a wave of thanks and went to collect Sam.

  “Ready to go?” I asked.

  She gave me a grateful smile and nodded. Sam hopped off the bed and grabbed her crutches. I was sure she didn’t need them, but glad she thought to play along. Her face turned a little red. “Um, I can’t carry my duffle if I’m going to use these things.” She gestured to a giant bag shoved halfway under the bed.

  I shrugged. “I can get it.” I pulled at the bag to get it from under the bed and OMG was it heavy. I yanked it up and swung it around, using the momentum to get it on my back. I grunted as the weight settled on me.

  We made our way out of the hospital and down to the gate where the guards were stationed. I set the bag down happily with a thud and wiped at the thin sheen of sweat on my face. I swear that bag had to be at least half my body weight. I wasn’t going to complain, though. If Sam came here straight from Ramstein, then that was probably most of her worldly possessions.

  Because it was the end of the day for most people, the line to get on base was pretty short. I didn’t see Cody or the twins yet, so I sent them a quick text to let them know where we were waiting.

  I glanced up to see Sam watching me carefully. I gave her a small smile. “The guys should be here soon.”

  She nodded but looked tense. I flashed back to when Cody had found me and announced he was taking me to see the pack-master, I had been full of anxiety and worry. I suspected Sam was feeling the same right now.

  “The Seaside Pack is different from all the other packs out there.” I told her gently. “Austin is our pack-master and he runs the pack similarly to how the military runs things. He doesn’t allow violence or abuse in his pack.”

  She looked surprised, then wary. “I’ve had some run ins with wolves before.” She told me. “I’ll be honest… You seem really cool, and my gut says I can trust you. But the others in your pack? I’ll wait and see.”

  I smiled. I completely understood her hesitance and wariness. I had not believed Cody either when he told me Austin was cool.

  “You know, the guys coming to pick us up now are prior active duty marines. Maybe you might know some people in common?” I suggested hopefully. I was really hoping Cody and the twins would be on their best behavior to set Sam at ease. I doubted it though, Austin had sounded like he considered Sam to be a potential threat. The guys didn’t react well to anything that might be considered a threat.

  She nodded thoughtfully. “Maybe.”

  I caught sight of Cody’s SUV up ahead at the stoplight and it looked like the twin’s jeep was right behind him.

  “Are you up to hobbling up to the Starbucks up there so we don’t have to deal with the gate guards?” I asked Sam.

  She nodded and gave me a grin. If we waited for the guys to reach us, then we would have to explain the whole story to the guards. The line of people waiting to get on base behind them would get pissed off because of the wait. Plus, the guards would have to halt the outgoing traffic so that they could direct Cody and the twin
s out of the line and get them turned around so they could exit. Not to mention the hassle that the twins would get because they don’t have ID to get on base.

  Yeah, it was just easier to meet them up the road a little. I managed to get Sam’s duffel up on my back again. The guys realized what we were doing because they turned off into the Starbucks parking lot and started walking to meet us on the sidewalk. Once I realized they were going to come to us I sat the bag down with a relieved breath.

  Cody was probably twice my size, I had no problem letting him take the bag. Sam stopped when she heard the thunk of the bag hitting the ground. She turned back to look at me with an amused look. “Not used to doing heavy lifting, huh?”

  “Nope. I’ve become spoiled having a bunch of huge guys around.”

  She gave me a playful scowl. “Don’t let them know you need them, it will inflate their egos.”

  I laughed but as the guys got closer I could see that they were not happy. I stepped in from of Sam protectively.

  Cody was the first to reach us. “Hey, Anna.” He said with a scowl directed at Sam. He moved to step around me, but I moved to keep in between them. His gaze moved from her to me.

  I put a smile on my face but kept some warning in my eyes. “This is my friend, Sam.” I said pointedly, holding his gaze.

  The scowl stayed on his face, but his eyes softened a little bit. “Anna, I need you to let us handle this from here.”

  “No.” I told him and crossed my arms defiantly. “Sam is my friend and my patient. I promised her that I would take care of her, I’m not going to let you guys be mean to her.”

  Cody’s jaw dropped a little. “Mean?” he chuckled.

  The twins both chuckled as well from where they were flanking Cody. I glared at all three of them. “Yeah. Mean.”

  Cody ran his hand through his hair. “We’re not going to be mean to her, Anna. But we do need to evaluate a potential threat.”

  I nodded and turned to Sam. “This is Cody, Mason, and Jason.” I told her as I pointed them out.