Did I want to go to her? I hadn’t considered that, but now that it was on the table, it had me thinking. If life weren’t in the way, I’d have taken her up on it instantly, but I had work. A random visit wasn’t impossible in the future, but as I thought about it for a few more seconds, I accepted that I wasn’t looking for a random visit. Not really.
“How did you know you wanted to be a healer?” I asked.
I’d asked her similar questions over the years, but more as a passing thought. This was different. I needed to know if I was on the right track.
“Do you really want to know about my story, or are you asking about yours?”
“Well, both… more me, I guess.”
“That’s what I thought. Do you feel like being a healer might be the way to go with your career?” Despite being on a regular call, I could practically see her leaning back in her chair with a knowing smile, the one that felt almost like a hug.
“I mean, yeah, but I don’t even know how to begin. I know it’s a calling, but does that mean you, like, need to be born with special abilities? Does your beast need them? I don’t know nearly enough to be thinking this way.” I pressed the heels of my hands into my eyes, attempting to alleviate the pressure that had been building there.
“They say it’s a calling,” she said. “The same way they say being a nurse is a calling, being a doctor is a calling, being a librarianis a calling. It’s nothing you can put your finger on, it’s just something that you know is for you. So try not to think too hard on it. Just let yourself feel. When you do that, what do you think?”
I let her words sit with me, not rushing to answer. She’d wait on the phone an hour if I needed it. It was who she was.
“That I want to be a healer, but I don’t even know where to begin.”
“Where to begin… hmmm, the best healers in this region are wolves, but I can’t think of who might be taking on apprentices right now.”
“Wolves?” That was surprising.
“Wolves. They found a way to blend some of the human practices into traditional healer ones. My advice would be to find one who is taking an apprentice. I’ll put feelers out, but you might not know this, but I’m old. A lot of my old contacts are no longer around.”
“You’re not old.” It was a conversation we’d had before and would probably have again. “Is that how you did it?
“Yes. I trained under a wolf.” That explained how she was so easily able to connect to my mate and figure out his issues.
“Thanks. I think I know what to do.”
We said our good-byes, and I called Axel before I could talk myself out of it. The second he answered the phone, I asked him if he could go with me to his pack and ask the healer if maybe I could apprentice with him.
“I couldn’t deny you anything,” he said. “I didn’t know this was on your mind.”
My phone indicated he was wanting us to use our cameras, and when I accepted, his beautiful smile filled my screen.
“Yeah, it’s just kind of been sitting there, growing despite me pushing it down.”
“You know you can always talk to me about anything.” He was walking now, and that was when I noticed the ice behind him. Great, I was messing up his practice.
“I know, I just… I was trying to be respectful of all you had going on. Although it probably doesn’t seem that way since I interrupted your ice time.”
“We were on a break, anyway.” He stepped into an office and shut the door behind him. “Mate, if we were together right now, I’d be pulling you onto my lap, holding you close, and telling you I’d never let you go until you promised not to hold anything back from me anymore.”
“And what would you do if I didn’t promise because I wanted to stay on that lap forever?”
“I guess I’d never make you promise and just keep you there.”
“Why does that sound perfect?”
“Because it is. I’m going to be able to come home in eight days. We have a small break. I can keep you on my lap the entire time, how’s that sound.”
“Perfect, but also… I can think of some better uses for that time.”
15
AXEL
