CHAPTER 1
Morwyn
I fought a shiver and flicked through the medical charts of the pregnant shifter in room two. She’d started contractions six hours ago, and so far, hadn’t dilated more than two centimeters. I’d always considered myself a realist, but the optimist in me hoped the delivery wouldn’t be long and painful.
The yule party was tonight, and even if I wasn’t planning to attend myself, I didn’t like the thought of her and her family missing out on the festivities. The entire pack would be there, all of our nomads and travelling relatives having made the trip home to celebrate. It was the first time we’d all been together like this, and she deserved to see it.
Unfortunately, her pups didn’t agree. Triplets. We’d been monitoring her condition closely over the last few months, and she wasn’t due until after the new year. But these babies were undoubtedly members of the Helena, MT pack already — bullheaded and stubborn and living on their own timetable.
“There you are,” said a deep, gruff voice that immediately raised the hair on the back of my neck. My wolf bristled, almost bearing her teeth with irritation.
“Fenris,” I said, raising an eyebrow as I glanced up at the doorway to my office.
“Morwyn.” He pulled his lips into a wolfish grin, the same one he’d had since he was a boy. Now a grown man, it suited him. Another tremble rushed through my body, but I ignored it. I’d have to remember to tell the groundskeeper to turn up the heat. I couldn’t have my patients fighting hypothermia on top of everything else.
“What can I do for you this evening?” I closed my patient’s file and sat back in my seat. Fenris was my big brother’s best friend, and he lived to annoy me. This could be anything from “I stubbed my toe and would you look at it” to “your brother died again and needs you to resuscitate him.”
“Just wondering if you’re going to the Yule party.” He shoved his hands into his jeans and leaned against the doorjamb, trying to play it casual.
As much as I was loath to admit it, Fenris had filled out nicely. At well over six feet, he had dark hair that accented his bright blue eyes and perfectly groomed scruff around his disgustingly masculine square jaw. His shoulders and muscular torso gave way to narrow hips and thick legs that spoke of the hard work he did on the homestead. Tonight, he wore his Royal Bastards MC cut and a pair of denims with black boots, looking like he stepped out of an advertisement for a popular motorcycle brand.
Not that I liked that or anything. No, Fenris had been, and always would be, off-limits for more than one reason.
“No,” I said. “Anything else?”
“Why not?” He raised his eyebrows and pushed off the door, clearly taking my response as an indication to invade my personal space. His scent hit me next, bergamot and cinnamon and warmth.
Delicious, my wolf howled.
Repulsive, my human replied.
My cheeks flushed, and I swallowed against my suddenly dry throat. My muscles shook, and I blinked as a sharp pain hit me behind the eyes.
“I’m busy,” I snapped as I leaned forward to open my folders again, considering the conversation over.
“You’re always busy.” He flopped down in the chair on the other side of my desk and extended his legs in front of him, crossing them at the ankle like he meant to settle in. Maybe stay a while.
“Yes, well, I’m the only healer,” I said, which was true. Our old healer had trained me before his retirement, and since then, only two other shifters had the scent on them. But they were young and wouldn’t fully come into their magic until they transitioned — like a second puberty that happened around our mid-twenties, a time when the magic took over. To survive it, we needed a member of the opposite dominance to see us through, to give us their essence in every sense of the word. Until then, it was just my team of wonderfully skilled nurses and me.
“You look tired,” he said.
“Wow, such a charmer,” I replied and flipped over a page in the chart. Was that why he’d come here? To tell me I looked like hell? The insult grated under my skin, slithering down my chest to settle like lead in my stomach. I didn’t care what Fenris Sheppard thought.
“You think so?” He grinned again and tilted his head with a wink.
I sighed and rubbed my temples, my headache worsening the longer he stayed. “Don’t you have some dreamy-eyed female to chase around?”
“Why?” He raised his eyebrows. “You jealous?”
“You’re impossible.” I rolled my eyes, fought another shiver, and went back to work.
He had a reputation with the other shifters. In our pack, sex wasn’t taboo, and it wasn’t something to be ashamed of. Humans were social creatures, and our animal sides were more so, especially the wolves. Every month, on the full moon, we stripped naked and endured a painful transformation together, our bodies breaking down and reforming into our other halves. Fostering intimate relationships was part of the deal. It made us closer.
But Fenris was impulsive at best and reckless at worst. He’d been known to host wild parties in his dorm when he was in his twenties, and from what I’d heard going around the pack, not much had changed now that he was in his thirties. He jumped first and looked later. He once had three females fighting over him, only for him to somehow coerce them all back to his place. For someone who prided herself on order, on being in control of every situation thrown at her, I couldn’t afford that type of instability.
“C’mon,” he said, nodding toward the door. “Take a break. Come to the Yule party with me.”
“Why would I do that?” I kept my focus deliberately on my spreadsheets, reviewing lab results and highlighting anything of note. I certainly did not notice the way his delectable aroma suddenly filled my tiny office, causing my inner wolf to whine and beg to roll around in it. I did not pulse with a distinct flutter in my lower abdomen, which then cascaded to another shiver through the rest of my body.
