Chapter One

Chasten

CALL DON'T FALL

CALL DON'T FALL

CALL DON'T FALL

Who did the yellow sign above my bed want me to call? It wasn't like I could fall any further than I already had. I was flat on my back with thick IVs shoved into my veins. The bed was lumpy, and the sheets made an annoying ‘eek-eek' every time I wiggled around.

CALL DON'T FALL

CALL DON'T FALL

CALL DON'T FALL

"Hello?" I decided to call out to my captors.

Maybe I was abducted by aliens.

Maybe it was organ harvesters.

Was there still a market for such things?

"Hello," I called out again.

CALL DON'T FALL

CALL DON'T FALL

CALL DON'T FALL

I couldn't look away from the stupid yellow sign on the white ceiling. Somewhere close by, everything in the universe beeped. It made a little song: No newbie, no newbie, no newbie.

Maybe it was aliens after all. Aliens would make sense, right? Seriously, aliens. It had to be aliens. Had I been here before? Something was vaguely familiar. Where in the name of Frost's frozen balls was my wolf? Furry guy was never quiet for this long. I poked at him, trying to yank his tail inside his inner sanctum. But he didn't answer me. Maybe the aliens sucked him out through one of the IVs they had stuck in me. I didn't think he could fit out one of those tubes, but who knew what alien technology could do?

I've been at the Fall Festival on Hemlock Mountain. With a few friends, I stood outside that giant pumpkin waiting for them to light up the torch thing inside and make it a Jack O' Lantern. They were never gonna let me live this down. Wait though. Wait a Frost damned minute! Where were my friends?

"Treg? Grina?" I called out their names, but no one came.

So much for CALL DON'T FALL.

I could call all I wanted but no one was going to show up before I fell.

"Oh! You're awake," called a gruff voice from beyond the curtain.

Curtain? Where had that come from? I hadn't noticed the white starry pattern on the yellow background before. Aliens would definitely explain all the strange crap. Only the gruff-voiced man didn't sound like an alien. Out of habit, I sniffed, trying to discern whether Mr. Gruff was a wolf like me or some other sort of shifter. Frozen Frost, maybe he was a vampire. That would explain all the damn needles and tube shoved into my veins.

I couldn't smell him.

No.

Scratch that.

He had no smell.

Zero scent.

I sniffed my armpit. I smelled rank like stress, anxiety, and rotten fall gourds. At least my nose wasn't broken.

"We'll get you cleaned up soon. Do you know where you are?" The owner of the gruff voice pushed open the curtain, clicking together all its hooks.

"Do you know where we are?" I asked, sniffing again.

"Your friends warned me you were a smartass," he said, his gaze lingering on my chest a bit longer than needed.

"Did you eat my friends?" I arched a brow.

"Not yet. They didn't ask nicely enough," he quipped.

"What are you?" I asked, pushing myself upright.

"I'm a nurse. The nurse who's been watching your stats for the last few hours. Did you know you were diabetic before today?"

"What? No, what are you?" I asked.

This dude had the wrong room. At forty, I'd have been diagnosed by now.

"Chasten, do you know where you are?" Mr. Gruff asked again.

I rolled my eyes and said, "if I had to guess I'd say one of the three hospitals on Hemlock Mountain. Probably Mercy of Frost since it's the closest to the festival."

"Good boy," he cooed at me and I arched a brow.

"Do I know you?" I asked and started to cross my arms.

The needles shoved into my veins didn't like the idea so I dropped my hands back onto my lap. He waited a breath and then another before answering.

"No," the nurse said, avoiding my gaze for a fraction too long.

"Can I get these out?" I asked, holding up my arms.

"Not yet. The doc hasn't cleared you. You'll probably be here for a few more hours yet. Your friends are in the lobby. They wanted to wait in here but the beeping was driving the short one crazy."

"Treg has never liked that sound. Drives them crazy," I sighed and rubbed my hands over my face. "Was I right about which hospital?"

"Yep."

"Are you a dragon?" I asked.

"No, but thanks for the vote of confidence in my size," he chuckled.

He was tall and broad and under the right light – not the hospital light casting the same yellow glow of the CALL DON'T FALL sign – he would've been good looking.

"But I'm a wolf the same as you," he said a second later, as he leaned over and put the crab pincher on my finger. "Pulse."

"Do you have a name or is that a security secret?" I asked.

"Kirk," he nodded at my mouth.

I blinked until I saw the thermometer in his hand. Feeling sheepish, I opened my mouth and let him slide it under my tongue. With the rod in place, I couldn't ask more questions aloud. So I poked Treg and Grina over the pack links

"Treg is tripping out over the noise," Grina said, her voice more than a little annoyed.

She was on and off with Treg. More off than on these days. Their sensory issues were a bit much for her to handle sometimes. She tried her best but her patience was lacking. That and she was some sort of pack link empath and picked up all of Treg's anxiety whenever they were around each other.

"You can take them home if you need to," I said over the pack link.

"They won't even tell us what's wrong with you," Grina sighed.

"What is wrong with me?" I asked as Kirk pulled the thermometer out from under my tongue.

"Hypoglycemia more or less. They'll do more tests and stuff before you go home. You'll have to watch it and track it and stuff from now on. If I had to guess you probably skipped a meal today. Well, that or didn't eat at all."

I furrowed my brows. I'd eaten a few snacks at the festival but was saving my appetite for dinner. It was how I ate most days.

"You don't have to incriminate yourself. The fainting and test results already told us that part," Kirk said. "Have you ever fainted before?"

"I'm not sure I fainted this time," I said, almost crossing my arms again.

"You did. At least according to your friends. Your lucky the short one caught you so you didn't konk your head."

"Treg is good like that. If you can tell them I'm okay, they might let Grina take them home," I sighed. "Speaking of which. I'd like to go home too."

"And you probably will today," he said, meeting my gaze.

His eyes were a deep chestnut almost as dark as his hair. I curled my fingers into fists. I must be hungry because I wanted to run my fingers through those thick locks.

"Probably?" I sighed.

"Probably. You don't seem very bothered by what I'm telling you," he said. "Passing out and waking up in the hospital usually freaks most people out."

"I thought I was abducted or something," I shrugged. "All these IVs for blood sugar?"

"It's a bit more complicated than that. It's hydration and electrolytes and some other stuff."

I knew what he meant. My carrier was diabetic too – diagnosed early in life. I was checked every year during my physical and the autoimmune disease had yet to rear its head until now.

"I didn't even get my pie," I frowned, glancing down at the IVs.

"Maybe if you had you wouldn't have passed out," Kirk said.

"Maybe," I rolled my eyes.

Kirk was something I couldn't put my finger on. Not being able to smell him beyond his typical medical staff pheromone blocker spray pissed me off. Him not touching me pissed me off too. If my wolf had been around I'd have thought I was going into heat. Only —

"Hey! What did you do to my wolf?"

"Me? I didn't do anything to him," Kirk shook his head. "He bit me and Doctor Hemlock ordered him sedated."

"Bane or Lee or one of the others?" I asked.

"Fair question," he smiled. "Bane was on the floor today. When they brought you in passed out one of the interns thought you were a vampire. We had two come in yesterday with low vitamin d and knocked out like you were. So he jumped the gun and paged him."

"Why'd he bite you? Why was he out at all?"

"I'm not sure why he bit me. He was probably a bit confused with everything going on."

He didn't look at me while he spoke. It didn't mean he was lying but I reminded myself to ask my friends about it later.

"You don't believe me," he chuckled.

"You gotta admit – some pieces of this puzzle are missing."

"Something like that," he laughed again.

"What are you so cheerful about?"

"You woke up," he shrugged. "The doctor will be in to talk to you soon. If your labs are good, he'll probably send you home with a follow up appointment with your regular doctor. The call button is here." He held it up before laying it back down on the bed next to me. "If you need anything let me know."

He nearly sprinted out of the room.

"Well then," I said to the empty hospital room.

I poked my wolf again but whatever Doctor Bane Hemlock used to sedate him still had its claws in him.