Chapter Two

Kirk

brEATHE

brEATHE

brEATHE

I twisted the word around my thoughts, but my wolf wasn't having it. All of nursing school and every technique to keep my cool flushed right down the drain and it was all one-sided. At least for now. My wolf bumped his head against my ribs. In all my time working at Mercy of Frost I'd never had an issue.

"Never found him before either," my wolf chimed into my thoughts.

I took a deep breath and headed through the big double doors that led away from the corridor of patient rooms and hit the elevator button. Bane Hemlock needed to admit or discharge Chasten. Something needed to happen. I briefly thought of banging my head against the wall like a wolf in a cage but the elevator doors chimes open just in time before my wolf took over enough for that to happen.

Inside the elevator smelled like lemon drops. I pushed the button for the top floor where the doctors had their offices I hadn't encountered a doctor – permanent or with privileges – here that I wanted to fight. Now, I'd fight them all. I forced my wolf back down before he pressed hard enough to make his way out. It was in the best interest of my career and my mate to keep my shit together. I should've told someone up the ranks before now, but I didn't want to be taken off of Chasten's care team. I sniffed my armpit right before the elevator doors opened. Fortunately, my pheromone blocker spray was holding up.

"Mine. Go back."

Ignoring my wolf, I stepped off the elevator. Doctor Bane Hemlock shared his office here with his husband and true-mate, Lee Hemlock-Knight. It was a smaller office at the end of the corridor because the pair didn't have much occasion to work at Mercy of Frost.

‘We're requesting time off work not fighting anyone," I warned my inner beast.

The asshole responded by headbutting my ribs again.

As far as I knew the hospital didn't have a protocol for when an employee found their true-mate among the patients, but maybe they should've. The hospital offered new mate leave, parental leave, and leave for just about everything else. Maybe they needed a code for it.

Doctor Bane Hemlock was locking up his office as I sprinted down the corridor. He quirked an eyebrow and then flashed me a knowing grin. Had I let my innermost thoughts leak all over the pack link?

"He's awake?" Bane asked.

"Yes, sir."

"Don't start that. I barely let my students call me sir anymore. Makes me sound too much like Darian."

Darian Hemlock was one-half of the Hemlock Wolf Pack leadership. I liked the guy well enough but on a personal level he wasn't everyone's cup of tea.

"Chasten is awake and there's something I need to tell you," I said, choosing not to comment on Bane's cousin either way.

"And that is?" He glanced at the wolf-shaped clock above his office door as if he had somewhere else to be.

"I need time off sort of," I said not sure how to tell one of the biggest names in medicine that I might just start removing the innards or anyone who glanced at the gorgeous smartass downstairs the wrong way.

"Sort of?" he asked, a smile pulling at the corner of his mouth.

"It's about Chasten," I said.

"He can't be that much of a smartass," Bane laughed, catching me off guard.

Under different circumstances, I'd have said he had a nice laugh, but he was wasting my time. Time that I desperately wanted to spend with Chasten. Only he didn't know I was his true-mate. He didn't know that I'd kept watch over him the whole time he was out. That even after he bit me I argued with the doctor about knocking his wolf out. Sedating an inner beast isn't pleasant - it's downright disorienting.

"Sir, I mean, Doctor—"

"I know what's going on. Thought you were going to make me bite you in order to sedate his wolf," Bane said. "That's not normal. Have you told him? I'm guessing not. If you had I doubt he'd have let you out of his sight. Why haven't you told him?"

"There isn't a clear protocol for the situation, and I'd like to have my job on the other side of this. I enjoy working here and helping people. I like my coworkers, and the commute is nice too."

Bane cocked his head to the side as if listening to one link or another and nodded.

"No one's getting fired for meeting their mate," Bane shook his head.

"Is he healthy enough to even hear …"

Bane held up a hand to silence me and pointed down the corridor. I followed him to the elevator.

"He's fine. Wolfen diabetes isn't all that uncommon. You know that. I know everything you learned in school fell out of your ear when you got your first whiff of him, but it's still true. What we need you to do is relax. The calmer you are, the calmer the patient will be. Believe me. That counts doubly when the patient in question is your mate."

"Why didn't you say something earlier?" I asked him as he pressed the button to call the elevator up.

"It wasn't my business. The patient was sedated, and I figured having the others hovering around to see how you two would react to each other would do more harm than good. I'll take a look at him, and he'll need to follow up with his doctor. I'll be back in Heartville before time for that appointment comes around. You know that. You know the drill probably better than some doctors here."

"I do," I said, tentatively.

Nurses were usually ass deep in the most human parts of medicine, but the doctors didn't usually like to admit that. Bane Hemlock had never been stuck up as far as I knew but I wasn't taking any chances. So far, my wolf didn't want to take a bite out of him, and I wanted to keep it that way.

"Most wolves can control it with diet after a while," I nodded.

"Exactly," Bane said as the elevator chimed open.

I almost told him I was surprised he didn't have his own private elevator but didn't want to press my luck. I just wanted to get back downstairs to Chasten and help him get away from everything annoying him.

"And I'm not the one you need to tell about the time off. Just let HR know what happened between you two and they'll take good care of you," Bane said as the elevator doors chimed open and let us out on Chasten's floor.

"I'll give you---" I started but Bane shook his head.

"Tell him whenever you want. That part isn't my business," Bane said. "I'd say sooner rather than later would be best. Omegas don't like being lied to by omission. Once is probably okay but much longer and it's going to feel a lot like you omitted it on purpose and he's gonna wonder why."

"Uh – because his wolf is still sedated and he's ---"

"Had a little fainting spell?" Bane laughed. "And bit you?"

"That wasn't a real bite. That was a love nip!"

Bane stopped and looked at me. Then he laughed and shook his head.

"That wolf's gonna wake up soon. It was a light sedative to give him a nap while we worked out his meds and stats. That wolf knows and he's not going to shut up about you once he wakes up. I'm not your boss per say where this is concerned but I'd hit the locker room to get ready for introductions."

"How could his wolf know?"

"Unless you shot up with pheromone blocker in your veins, friend, he tasted your blood. It's not just smell that begins a true-mate response. That cat – er – wolf will be out of the bag soon. You do want him to know, right?"

"Once he feels better would be ideal," I said.

Bane shook his head and flashed me a knowing look. I was too old for anyone to flash me a look that said they'd been there, done that, and got the T-shirt. Sure, I was still young for a shifter, but I wasn't that young.

"You've heard how Lee and I met, right?"

"Everyone knows the story, sir," I nodded.

"No time will ever be ideal and you're lucky. Wolfen diabetes doesn't have angry henchmen," Bane said.

"I think it does, though. Wouldn't all the factors that affect blood sugar be the henchmen?" I arched a brow.

Bane huffed, sounding more like his wolf than I'd ever heard him sound before. I missed the point, but that was the whole point: I could either be an excellent part of Chasten's care team or I could be his true-mate. I wasn't sure I could be both at the same time.

"You can," Bane said, picking up on my thoughts over the pack link. "He'll likely take information and instructions from you better than some stranger in the long run. Fate says you two decided to care if each other lived or died a long time ago."

"His wolf bit me," I said, smiling at the memory.

"In confusion," Bane said. "Either way. You need to make up your mind. I'm going to peek in at my patient. What would you like me to tell him?"