Know Your Enemy

Oliver

I woke up still in Lya’s hospital bed. Her head was resting on my shoulder, and she snored softly. I breathed in deep, as if her lilac scent wasn’t overwhelming enough. Her body pressed up to mine was a tantalizing temptation that had me reminding myself we were in a hospital bed, and she was healing, and she didn’t feel the same yet. But mate bonds didn’t seem to care about that. I slowly started to shift off the bed, making sure not to jostle her, but Adair growled.

'We stay,' he insisted.

I looked out the window. The sun was up, with the last bits of pinks and oranges burning off. 'People will be by to check on her, and she will wake up at some point.' I really didn’t want to be caught in bed with her. Not yet.

'So? Mate.'

'I know,' I said, 'but she’s not ready.'

Adair grumbled as he released the hold paralyzing me. I grabbed my jacket and slipped out the door, quickly closing it behind me.

“Still here, Alpha?”

I whipped around, coming face to face with Dr. Whitledge. I stood up a little straighter. “You’re here early,” I stated.

“I’m the only doctor in the pack at the moment, and I have a patient to check on,” Dr. Whitledge reminded me.

I nodded. “When does Lessa get back again?” I asked. Lessa was a friend growing up, but lost touch when she went off to school. She had met her mate while getting her medical degree. He was in a different pack, and she was off visiting him. I really hoped they decided to settle here; we needed at least two doctors around.

“This weekend, and I believe Ric will be coming with her. He wants to see the pack before they decide where to live.”

“I’m sorry you’ve been flying solo, I’m doing my best to get a third doctor staffed, but all our candidates are just starting school,” I said.

“Don’t forget, Ric is also a doctor,” he reminded me.

I nodded, catching his drift.

“So,” he clapped me on the shoulder, “how is our patient this morning?”

“Sleeping. She woke up for an hour or so late last night.”

“Good, good. Sleep is healing.” He looked past me, through the window of the door into her room. “Do you think maybe her wolf is doing something to speed things along in the background?”

I shrugged. “I don’t have the medical degree.”

“And this is uncharted territory,” he mused. Dr. Whitledge made his way into Lya’s room, and I started the return to the packhouse.

Adair shifted around, clearly upset.

'What?' I demanded.

'Her wolf is sad,' he said. His voice was morose, carrying the pain for both of them.

'I would imagine.'

'I want to talk to her,' the wolf said.

'I know. In time.' I wondered how long that would be.

I opened the door to the packhouse. Hearing noise coming from the kitchen, I made my way in that direction.

“Morning,” Trevor drawled. He was leaning against the kitchen counter with a cup of coffee in hand. “How was sleeping in a chair?”

“Uncomfortable,” I said, reaching into the cupboard to grab a mug, “so I slept in the bed instead.”

Trevor cocked an eyebrow. “We’ve gone over the importance of consent, yes?” I shot a glare in his direction. “What? She’s my friend.”

“So am I, and I would hope you’d think better of me as your friend,” I chuckled.

“Your oldest friend,” he corrected. “And I do remember a time where you weren’t sitting around waiting for your mate.”

I rolled my eyes. “Everything was always consensual.” I sat down at the kitchen island with my coffee. “Lya might be able to come home tonight.”

“That’s good,” he said. “Do you have a room picked out for her yet?”

“Probably Thom’s old room. It’s on the ground floor, so it’ll be easy to get around while she recovers.”

The packhouse was large. The main floor held a large gathering area, library, formal dining room, kitchen, and offices for the Alpha, Luna, and Beta. The Luna’s office had sat empty for eight years. Upstairs, there were basic guest rooms. The basement was set up with a TV, chairs, couches, wet bar, and pool table. There were two other wings to the house, to provide some additional privacy for those living in the house full time. Each wing had an additional, cozier living room. All the bedrooms in the Beta wing were full, taken up by my father’s - now my, at least for now - Beta, his mate, and their three pups. The Alpha wing was just myself now. Trevor had grown up in this house with me, and so I let him keep his bedroom in the Alpha wing, even once he left. Placing Lya in the Alpha wing was a no-brainer, seeing as - if all went well - she would someday just be sharing my room.

“Do you think Anna will ever move out?” Trevor asked.

Anna was Gregory’s - the Beta’s - oldest daughter. She was twenty-two now, but also just finishing her undergraduate degree. She had been playing with the idea of going to medical school, which would just be another four or more years of schooling and time away from the pack.

I shrugged. “I wasn’t super concerned about it. She’s only been back once or twice since she left for school, and we haven’t needed the room. When she meets her mate, she will just need to move in with him.”

Trevor scrunched up his nose. He and Anna had had a tumultuous relationship to say the least while growing up here. They were the definition of a sibling rivalry, even though they weren’t siblings.

“I do hope she isn’t a deciding factor regarding you taking on the role of Beta,” I suggested.

“It isn’t,” he said quickly. “Is she coming back for the summer, then?”

I nodded. “Last I heard, she wanted to see if her mate was back at the pack before giving med school a go.”

Trevor scrunched up his nose again. “I feel sorry for that poor bastard.”

I chuckled. “I do believe there are quite a few she-wolves out there that would say something similar about you.”

Trevor downed the rest of his coffee, dropping the mug in the sink. “I’m going for a run. Wanna join?” He pulled off his shirt as he headed to the patio door.

I shook my head. “I have to call my brother.”

“Suit yourself.”

I refilled my coffee and retreated to my office. I looked up at the clock on the wall. 8 am here meant 9 am east river. Hopefully Thom wasn’t at work yet. I sat down and pulled out my phone.

The phone rang a few times before he picked up. “Hey man, what’s up?”

“How did it go?” I asked.

“Just fine,” he said. I truly wondered how he was able to maintain such a chipper attitude about disposing of a body.

“Do I want to know?” I really didn’t.

“The less you know, the better, right?”

I sighed, thankful for that. Maybe if I had actually received alpha training, I would be a little more hardened to this aspect of the job. Me, though? I was just a warrior by training. I could take the bad guys out, but disposal and dwelling on the carnage never sat well with me. “So how are you doing?” I asked.

“Just dandy, in another couple months, Kai will be here, so we are in the homestretch of prepping for that.” Thom’s excitement was palpable.

“I wish Mom was here for this,” I said.

“Me, too,” he sighed. “But what about yourself? How is the girl settling in?”

“We had some hangups getting back.” My tone was guarded. “We need to start tracking local hunter activity a bit more carefully, I think.”

“This have anything to do with that guy sitting in my pigs’ lot right now?” he asked.

“Yeah,” I confirmed. “We also had a run in with a group of them a few miles north of Pierre. Lya got a bit shot up.”

“You sure they were hunter-hunters?”

“Silver bullets.”

“Ah.” Thom was silent for a moment. “But the girl is okay if she got shot with silver?”

“Lya will be fine, I think. There’s a lot to unpack there,” I said.

“Alright, well give me a hint, but then I have to go to work,” he prodded.

“Well, it would appear she is my mate,” I said sheepishly.

“Oh, you dog!” Thom cackled. “Can’t just help a girl out of the goodness of your heart, can ya?”

“But she doesn’t know. Not yet,” I added.

“What?” he asked. “Why not?”

“She’s so disconnected from her wolf they can’t pick up on it,” I said.

Thom whistled through his teeth. “There is a lot to unpack there. I’ll give ya a call and we can talk about it over a bourbon sometime. But, I gotta go. Good luck with your mate.”

“Talk to you soon,” I promised, ending the call.

I hadn’t been off the phone long before there was a knock at the door.

“Come in,” I called.

The door opened, revealing my Beta, Gregory. “Alpha,” he nodded. Gregory was a good guy. He had grown up in this pack, and was my primary pillar of support when taking over for my father. If it weren’t for him, this pack would be in shambles. I had considered handing over the Alpha line to him on more than one occasion the first couple years.

“How’s it going, Gregory?” I asked.

“Well enough,” he said. “We got some information regarding the hunter family you asked about.”

My ears perked up. “Oh?”

He nodded. “I am actually concerned we weren’t aware of any of this family’s connections so close.” He dropped a file on my desk, with a familiar name written in bold letters.

“Shit.”