by Terra Wolf
I smiled tensely again, not liking the sound of anyone telling me what I should know, even jokingly. My bear roared again, if I couldn’t get him under control...Yet, right on time to save me, Dr. Morris’ pager went off. He swore under his breath. “Can’t catch a break around here these days!”
“Another day, another dollar,” I said, gratefully resettling into my seat now that Dr. Morris was rising from the table, being called for duty.
“You’ve got that right. See you around, Zion.”
“Yeah. See you, Morris.”
The instant I was alone again, I almost regretted his having to leave. Morris’ brief appearance had at least managed to push Alexis from my mind. But now that I was in solitude once more, I no longer had a distraction.
While her looks were undeniable, her skills had left me rather stunned as well. It was obvious that she was light-years beyond the other nurses. The way she worked around the bite wound, she could have been a doctor. It’s not every day—or ever, in my case—that a nurse catches and calls out a doctor for making a mistake. Something about the way Alexis spoke to me while treating that patient had made me feel like a scorned child. It was like I was 14-years-old all over again, getting scolded by my algebra teacher in front of the whole class about “being too smart to be so careless.”
On the other hand, I didn’t even have legit reason to be upset with Alexis. She had every right to call me out on my mistakes because she was one-hundred percent correct. If something had been overlooked with that patient, the blame would have ultimately been on me. Yet, this realization did nothing to alleviate my conflicted feelings about her.
And it was just barely past noon.
With a sigh, I drank the last of my coffee and tried to mentally prepare myself for the long hours ahead, doing my best to sedate the beast underneath my skin.
Three
Alexis
In the break room, I drank the last of my water and threw the plastic bottle into the recycle bin just as Lorraine walked in.
“Long day,” she said.
“Tell me about it.”
“Are you okay?” She tilted her head in concern. “You seem a little annoyed.”
I shrugged my shoulders. “I’m fine..”
She pursed her lips and folded her arms. Lorraine had known me for a long time, and we had started working at the same hospital within a week from each other. We went through our adjustment phase together, and both of us had been mentored by Dr. Presch. Hence, she knew me well enough to know when I was bluffing or hiding my frustration.
“You in a hurry, Lorraine?”
She placed a finger on her plump chin. “Hmm…At home, I have a tall, dark, and handsome stranger waiting for me. But he’s on my DVR, so I guess he can wait.” She smiled. “What’s up?”
Together, we took seats at the table.
“I guess I’m just worried about Dr. Presch. Do you know where she is? She hasn’t left us, has she?”
A wrinkle appeared in Lorraine’s brow. “Honestly, I’m not sure. Maybe she’s just taking some time off, you know? It can’t be anything serious. Otherwise, I’m sure we would have heard something. She’s a busy woman. She deserves some time off. Hopefully she’s on an island somewhere with a big fruity drink in her hand and some handsome company.”
I laughed, though the word ‘handsome’ immediately sprung thoughts of Dr. Bradford into my mind. I suppose it showed on my face too, considering the way Lorraine narrowed her eyes at me. I tried to rearrange my expression into something more neutral, but it was pointless. Sometimes I was sure Lorraine was psychic.
Although Lorraine and I had started working at nearly the same time, she was at least fifteen years older than me. She often felt like a cross between a big sister and a surrogate mother. She had a few children of her own, so her maternal instincts were strong. I presumed that had to be why she was so good at reading nonverbal cues.
I cleared my throat and tried to keep my voice as nonchalant as possible. “So, do you have any idea if we’ll be stuck working with Dr. Bradford until Presch gets back? Or was this just for today?”
“Stuck working with him?” she said with a smirk. “I’m not sure the other young nurses around here would describe it that way. They all seem pretty pleased to have him around.” She laughed.
I shrugged my shoulders. “Yeah, well…” my voice trailed off, momentarily not knowing what else to say.
“I do believe he will be filling in for Dr. Presch for however long she’s on break, or wherever she is. Why do you ask?”
I shrugged my shoulders again. “No reason, really.”
“Oh honey, you are such a terrible liar! That’s why you’ve got to meet my kids. They’ll give you some pointers.”
All I could do was shake my head and laugh.
“Handsome, isn’t he?” Lorraine said, wiggling her eyebrows.
“He’s all right,” I said. But the words even felt dishonest to my own tongue. The accurate words to describe Dr. Bradford’s looks were ‘perfection personified.’ ‘Drop dead gorgeous’ worked as well. My heart had practically stopped when I first laid eyes on him.
“Just all right, eh?” Lorraine said. “Maybe you need your eyes checked. Honey, Lord knows if I was just ten years younger at least!” She sighed.
“Okay. So he may be decent eye-candy, but his personality leaves a lot to be desired.”
Lorraine nodded. “Yeah well, you can’t always have it all.”
“How much do you know about him? Have you ever worked with him before? How come this is my first time seeing him?”
“He typically works the night shift. Every once in a while, I work the night shift, so I’ve encountered him a few times.”
“Is he always so careless and uptight?”
Lorraine shook her head. “Not all the time. I think you just got the wrong impression of him, really. He’s a nice and decent man, from as far as I can tell. Though I have heard it’s his time if you know what I mean.”
“His time?”
“Yeah, shifters have kind of a ticking time bomb inside of them. If they don’t find their mate and settle down by a certain point, they go a little nutty. Get short with people, have a temper, and worse can’t control their Change.”
“Really? I never knew that.”
“My cousin Shelia married a shifter, real nice guy, but right before the wedding she said he used to get irritable. Finally he told her he couldn’t wait any longer. They eloped and he was fine the next day! Give Dr. Bradford another chance. I think the daylight hours just have him a little discombobulated.”
I huffed. “What do you mean, ‘give him a chance’? I’m not looking to date him or anything. I was just asking a question, that’s all.”
“Uh huh.” Lorraine paused for a moment. “So, just how are things going in your dating life, missy?”
I fought hard not to roll my eyes. “I don’t have time. I’m—”
“Dedicated to your work,” she finished my statement for me.
“Well, I am. It’s true.”
“And you know what that’s going to get you? A whole bunch of loneliness.”
“I’m not lonely. I have Apple.”
“I love Apple, but she’s not as handsome as Zion.”
“Zion?”
“Just rolls easily off your tongue, doesn’t it?”
“Doesn’t change the fact that he seems to be kind of a jerk.”
“I don’t think he means to come off that way. He really does care a lot about his job and his patients. His personality just seems a bit—what’s the word? Strict? I’m sure he’ll come around. Just needs to calm his bear a bit I think.”
“Don’t bears hibernate? Maybe he needs some sleep.”
Lorraine chuckled. “I think you just caught him off guard. You know how doctor egos can be. Not all of them are Dr. Presch.” She leaned forward and whispered, “They can’t always take it when we’re smarter than them.”
I laughed. Suddenly, my day felt a
lot better.
“Well, I don’t know about you, Alexis, but I’m going to get on out of here. My presence inside these walls is no longer contributing to my bank account at this hour.”
“All right, Lorraine. See you tomorrow.”
Four
Alexis
“Hey, there girl! How’s my girl?”
Apple eagerly greeted me with a wagging tail as I walked through the door to my home. Apple was a pit bull with a heart of gold who I had adopted from a local animal shelter four years ago despite everyone trying to talk me out of it.
“Do you know how dangerous pit bulls are?”
“That’s no dog for a pretty young woman like you. Get something a little more classy, like a poodle or a Yorkie.”
“Pit bulls are a lot to handle. Do you plan on having children someday? Do you want to bring them into a household with an aggressive animal?”
And on and on the criticism went. Yet, I couldn’t be deterred. From the moment I met eyes with Apple, whose eyes were nearly the same shade of blue as mine, I knew she was my doggy soulmate. The moment the papers were signed and I brought her into my home, she had been nothing but a bundle of love and joy. And although she can be protective when necessary, I had yet to have any serious aggression problems with her. Apple was living proof, as far as I was concerned, that with proper love and care, there was no such thing as a bad dog. The worst she had ever done was chew up a couple pairs of my old sneakers when she’d been left in the house too long while I was at work.
After jumping up and down and covering me with doggy kisses, Apple spun around in a circle exactly three times before running to the back of the house to retrieve her leash. She seemed particularly eager to go for her run, or perhaps she sensed my need to blow off some steam. The day’s shift at the hospital had not only left me exasperated and irritated, but with plenty of pent-up frustration as well.
“Just give me a second to change clothes, Apple,” I said, heading for my bedroom. She skipped behind me, her nails clicking on the wooden floor.
I pulled a t-shirt and shorts from my drawer and gratefully shed my hospital scrubs, kicking them into the corner of the room with the rest of my clothes that needed to be washed. Seeing how tall the pile had grown, I felt a twinge of embarrassment. Living alone had changed my habits quite a bit. Back in my younger college days, when I regularly had roommates and occasional booty calls, I wouldn’t have been caught dead with a pile of dirty clothes lying in a visible spot. But now, especially after particularly busy shifts in the ED, I would shed my clothes and sometimes could barely muster the energy to kick them into the pile.
While I loved almost everything about being a nurse, the one thing I considered the biggest inconvenience was the surplus of dirty laundry it regularly created. It seemed that wearing scrubs five days a week would reduce my laundry pile, but that was not at all my reality. I quickly learned that they were called scrubs for a reason; they needed constantly scrubbing. Every week, I was bound to come home with some kind of disgusting mystery fluid dried up somewhere on my clothing. Hence, nursing was not for those with delicate stomachs.
“No, Apple,” I said, seeing that she had been just moments away from jumping into my ever-growing pile of colorful and dirty scrubs. “That’s not lady-like at all, you know.”
She tilted her head at me as I slid on my jogging sweatshirt. As I stepped into my running shoes, she excitedly jumped up onto her hind legs, knowing it was finally time to go.
“You certainly lack patience sometimes, girl,” I said, giving her a quick scratch behind the ear. “Okay, let’s go.”
Five
Alexis
Apple and I began our daily run to the park and back. The evening weather was perfect—there was a comfortable breeze in the air and it was neither too warm or too cool. The only unfortunate thing was that the perfect weather conditions permitted my mind to wander in ways I wished it wouldn’t. And by that, I meant it kept wandering in the direction of Dr. Zion Bradford.
Once again, his delicious features drifted through my mind. Unfortunately, they were also accompanied with Lorraine’s words regarding my less than satisfactory love life.
She was right. Although I loved Apple dearly, it would have been nice to occasionally have some company of the male variety, even if he wasn’t entirely human. But I’d been so engulfed in my work, I’d dutifully pushed dating off the menu. While I tried to pretend it didn’t bother me—that my decision to remain single was entirely by choice—I knew that deep down, a part of it was because I was still so scarred from my ex. The heartbreak he’d forced me to endure was part of the reason I had wanted a dog in the first place; I had been desperate to find unconditional love in whatever form I could get it.
Tyler. He had been good looking too, albeit not as hot as Zion Bradford. Nevertheless, I had been so smitten with him that I hadn’t seen, or perhaps had ignored, all the warning signs. Tyler had been very charming in the beginning, showering me with roses and chocolate, romantic dinners, and fun outings. And then suddenly, he began to change.
It started because he hadn’t been supportive of my career ambitions. It had become apparent that he viewed me as the marrying type, but he had also made it quite clear that if we were going to be together, he fully expected me to give up my dreams to instead be a dedicated house-wife. Now, I know there’s nothing wrong with being a housewife; raising a family is one of the most important jobs in existence. So many women dedicate their lives to it and I have nothing but respect for them. But that’s just wasn’t the lifestyle I envisioned for myself.
For as long as I could remember, I’ve always wanted to work in the medical field. I was obsessed with hospital-themed television shows and had known since I was a little girl that it was the lifestyle I craved. So when suddenly given an ultimatum between a man and my career, I gladly chose my career.
Of course, the choice became a lot easier when Tyler turned violent about my decision, apparently deciding that he literally wanted to try knocking some sense into me. When it happened the first time, I tried to convince myself it was an accident and he hadn’t meant it. When it happened the second time, I figured he was the problem, not me. He was the one who needed help and I had contemplated whether I needed to stick around to ensure he received it. But then one night, I’d had a dream about my grandmother. It was so vivid. I could practically smell her home—a mixture of baked goods and lavender. We’d been sitting at the dining room table, and she’d been giving me the warm smile she always reserved specifically for her grandchildren. Then she reached across the table, took my hand and said, “Fool me once, shame on you. Fool me twice, shame on me. Fool me three times, then I’m the damned fool.”
When I woke up, I knew without a doubt that she was watching over me and trying to send me a sign. I knew then that I’d most certainly be a fool if I didn’t take her advice. Hence, I broke up with Tyler shortly thereafter.
Oh boy, did he try to win me back. He made every pretty promise in the book—swore he would never lay a hand on me again for as long as he lived. I can still hear his voice pleading with me. “Alexis, baby, I won’t do it again. You know how much I love you. I will never hurt you again, I swear. I swear, baby. I swear. I’m not going to hurt you again, as long as I live.”
I smiled, looked him straight in the eyes and said, “No, you won’t hurt me again for as long as you live because this is the last time you’re going to see me in your pathetic life. Goodbye.”
It was one of the smartest and most satisfying decisions I had ever made. Sometimes, I still shudder at the thought of what my life would have been like if I hadn’t left him. I would have probably been living behind a white-picket fence with an unhappy household full of kids—all of us afraid and terrified each night when Daddy came home. I had certainly dodged a bullet by leaving Tyler.
Nevertheless, I’d become lonely in the aftermath. There hadn’t been a single man to catch my eye though. Not until Dr. Zion Bradford. Yet, something to
ld me he had caught my eye for all the wrong reasons. The thought of him coincided with a random man in a parked car catcalling at me. At the sound of his whistle, Apple halted for an instant and growled.
“Good girl,” I said. “Let’s go.” We were halfway to the park.
Looks. Just like the creep who’d just whistled at me, my attraction to Dr. Bradford was all about looks because I hardly knew anything else about him. And the little I did know about him hadn’t been exactly flattering. I could still recall his haughty tone in the way he had chastised me while working on the bite wound patient. The mere memory still made my blood boil. It was people like Dr. Bradford that gave doctors a bad name.
As we reached the park, I looked around, checking to see that the area was empty. It usually was during this time of evening, which I was always grateful for. It allowed me to unhook Apple from her leash so that she could walk around, stretch her legs, and do her business.
“There you go girl,” I said, releasing her from her leash. She wagged her tail and happily trotted off, while I took a seat on the bench, careful to keep my eye on her nonetheless, just in case someone happened to cross our path.
Lorraine had claimed I’d just gotten the wrong impression of Dr. Bradford, but I wasn’t so sure. She had blamed his biting personality on the fact that he was a shifter of a certain age. Yet, that excuse didn’t work for me. I’d known other shifters, the Bradfords owned the hospital after all, and there were three of them, I think. Luke, the one I’d had the most interaction with was kind and calm. Nothing like Zion. And then there was another, Aiden maybe? He was young and didn’t spend much time at the hospital. And of course their uncle, who practically ran the board of directors. He was the stoic type.
So none of them were half as rude and snippy as Zion. Yet they were all bears like him.
I sighed, already not liking how much of my mind Dr. Bradford was occupying after just one day of knowing him. I hated people judging me for my looks, so it certainly didn’t sit well with me that I was being such a sucker for a handsome face. Yet, even as that thought crossed my mind, I recalled how it had appeared that Dr. Bradford hadn’t been able to resist peeking at my chest. The thought brought a flush to my face.
