~ Chapter Thirteen ~

"Knock, knock," spoke a gentle, cheerful voice.

I looked up from the kitchen counter at the door. A young man stood in nothing but a pair of baggy shorts, with a soft smile on his face.

"Hiya, I'm Dylan Zarnowski. Any chance you've already heard of me?"

I smiled a little. "Your name came up in passing once or twice."

"Good stuff?"

"Of course." I picked up my plated sandwich, motioning toward him. "I don't have time to talk, though, my lunch awaits."

"Right... are you sure you can't talk for just a second? I kind of have news - you know, about your old pack?"

I hesitated, looking at him. Dylan stepped into the room and shut the door behind him, the cheerful expression slipping away. I had seen this sort of behaviour before, with Connor and Valerie when they were and weren't around their children during something serious. He motioned me to sit with him at the kitchen table, and I abliged without a fight.

"I'll talk," he suggested, "and you can just eat."

I nodded. "Sounds fair."

"We got a call today from one of the packs closer to yours. We don't typically talk to this pack, but they reached out sounding rather worried, and given their proximity to a person of interest, we figured it'd be best if we talked to them. They said they'd noticed that your pack had gone missing and saw us on our way out of it; we didn't feel we should explain to them what actually happened, so they were a bit apprehensive to give us any details in return.

"The Beta told me that they thought your pack had been completely wiped out, and then they got a visit from Roger and anyone who survived. Including all the families."

I naturally breathed out in relief that Valerie and her children were okay, but I wasn't too pleased that Roger had escaped with his life. After everything, that was the last thing he deserved. I'd hoped he was rotting in hell already.

"They helped them to recover," Dylan continued, "but as it's only been a couple of days, there's no telling what's going to happen with your old pack. Their numbers are severely decreased."

"What do this other pack think of all this?" I asked, pushing away my plate.

Dylan shrugged. "We were only told the story - and that the pack are just gonna get Roger back on his feet, and then they're going to send him away and have nothing to do with any of it."

"Are they aware that Roger is *insane*?"

"Probably." Dylan smiled sadly. "I don't think it's our place to get involved... even given the circumstances. If we stay back, maybe we can escape all of this without consequences."

I was already painfully aware that Dimitri had put his entire pack at risk for me. Even if his escape would have happened anyway, taking away one of Roger's vital pack members had to leave a sting, and I knew that Roger didn't react well to even being poked. It was difficult to tell if he'd be upset by my absence, though, as he hardly ever liked me and I was mostly argumentative toward him at the end of my time there - because he was trying to murder my mate, but that was besides the point in his mind.

I brought one foot up onto my chair and tucked it under my butt. "Did Dima say anything about all this?"

"He said the same thing I said," Dylan replied apprehensively, his eyes flickering to the window. "To him, it should be simple, but he's also preparing for the fact that Roger might come for us."

"Preparing how?"

"Well, you know, increased training and everything."

I clenched my jaw, and Dylan's eyes widened.

"Oh... whoops. Sorry, I shouldn't have told you about that."

"Shouldn't have told me?" I asked incredulously. "Yes, you should have. *Dimitri* should have."

He flinched. "Well, I didn't think you needed to know because you aren't going to be any part of training or anything, right?"

I frowned. "Why not?"

"Because you're the doctor? A doctor..."

My hands slammed down on the table like a toddler, and Dylan almost flung out of his chair. I abandoned the last few bites of my sandwich on the table, storming toward Dimitri's office, where I knew he was currently doing work. It occured to me that I didn't know *what* work - perhaps he was finding more ways of crossing me. Maybe he had found something that would hurt me more.

I swung the door open to the clean-smelling, large, open office, and kicked it shut in less than a second. Dimitri looked up from his work - a pile of forms - with a confused expression on his face, but we both knew I wasn't angry with anyone else.

"What, am I not good enough to be a warrior?" I asked, fuming. "Did you think I'd be so terrible that you're forcing me to be a doctor instead?"

He blinked, staring at me, and then frowned. "What? Erika, what's the point in you training?"

"What do you mean, what is the point?!"

"You're the only one qualified to be a doctor around here. Our last one left a couple of months ago," Dimitri explained. "Come on, you don't think I could stand to watch you become a warrior? You could get hurt and that would kill me."

"Dima, *I* will have to watch *you* get hurt. Would it not be better to have me on the battlefield to watch your back?" I demanded, and Dimitri shook his head. Blatantly. Honestly, I had to admit. "I'm not going to let you do this to me. You've been too protective the last twenty-four hours. I should be able to leave the house, Dima, I'm not a child. And I sure as hell am not going to become a doctor."

"But you're the only one qualified," he mumbled.

"I don't care! Find someone else, train someone else - whatever! I'm not going back into that role, not after everything its brought me." My heart felt heavy as I circled his desk, breathing in his strong scent. "You know better than anyone about that whole thing, Dima. Or did you forget?"

"I didn't forget." Dima took one of my hands in his. "If you don't wanna be a doctor, then whatever, I can let it slide for now, but I won't have you training."

I snatched my hand away. "*Why*?"

"I can't stand to watch it, Erika, I just can't."

My jaw ticked.

"I knew you wouldn't like it, but I, as your mate, have no other choice."

"Maybe you should have talked to me about it first," I snapped. "Can I not at least train one-on-one with you? Or maybe Xanthe... or Dylan - I just met Dylan, by the way?"

Dimitri hesitated. "I'll think about it. You could probably do with learning some skills to defend yourself on the off chance you're ever in danger here."

We were both lying, I could tell. I wasn't going to settle for one-on-one training, and he was going to get bored of trying to find another doctor when a perfectly qualified one lived under his very roof. But for now, the compromise kept us friendly, and that was all that mattered. If we were going to get through this, we had to do it together, rather than apart. At least until we knew what Roger was doing.

"I want you to tell me more alpha stuff without Dylan helping out," I told Dimitri, as I pulled myself onto a space on his desk. He looked up at me thoughtfully. "You can't keep me in the dark about anything, especially not matters related to Roger. I want to know it all."

"It won't upset you?"

"No." My jaw was locked tight.

"Okay," he muttered without conviction. "What did Dylan say?"

"That we don't know what's going to happen next, but another pack is helping Roger to find his feet."

Dimitri nodded slowly. "There isn't much else to the story yet."

"Definitely?"

"Definitely."

I chose to believe him, for all the good that would do me.

Alpha Stone wasn't someone I liked all that much right now.

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