The Doctor's Five Alphas (Steamy BBW Werewolf Pack Menage Romance) (3 page)

“Water…” he suddenly spoke, still slumped in the chair. He didn’t move a muscle.

“What are you doing here? Who
are
you?”

“…Water, please…” he repeated breathlessly. His voice was hoarse, his body clearly drained of energy. I could see now that he was pale and sweating profusely – but it was too dark to determine if he was wounded or merely ill.

Realizing that he wasn’t going anywhere, I angrily stomped out of the door, taking the oil lantern with me. I walked around behind the hut and hung it from the hook of the covered well, then pushed the bucket over the side. After a few seconds, I heard the telltale splash, then began to pull the thick rope as I lifted the filled bucket back up.

I kept looking over my shoulder, half expecting someone – maybe even my sickly intruder – to come flying after me. I wondered what had even provoked me into coming all the way out here, to a country I’d barely heard of and some village in the middle of nowhere.

The mental image of the Chairman’s smiling face pierced the night, and I grumbled to myself.
Holiday pay
.
Pfft.

Detaching the bucket after it reached the top of the well, I lugged it and the oil lantern back into the hut. Stopping to cast light into the room, I noticed that he was still slumped over in the chair. He hadn’t moved a muscle in the several minutes that I had been gone.

“Alright, you…” I murmured to myself, bringing everything inside. I scooped some water with a clay bowl, then dropped to my knees beside the midnight bother and pressed the lip to his mouth.

“Drink,” I commanded.

He weakly parted his lips, lifting his head just enough to accept the rim of the bowl. I slowly, gradually poured a small amount of water into his mouth, and he turned away after a few sips. I tilted the bowl back, but some of it still spilled onto his chest.

“What are you doing in my hut? Who are you?” I demanded to know. Even with the emotional investment of my profession, I was still wary of a stranger who quietly let himself into my temporary home in the middle of the night…and if he
was
sick, there was no telling what he had, or how contagious it might be.

“I’m…sorry, doctor,” the man weakly answered. “Wanted to meet you…in the morning…too ill to wait…couldn’t last the night…”

The obviousness dawned on me instantly.

“Dane…” I murmured. “You’re Harold Chairman’s friend, the reason why I’m here. You are,
aren’t you
?”

“Guilty as charged,” the shirtless man answered. “Could I have more…?”

I lifted the bowl again, letting him sip another mouthful of water before cutting him off. He gratefully wiped his lip with his wrist, his head sinking back into the chair.

“How did you know I was here?” I asked.

“Watched you come in, by the road…”

“I didn’t see very many people out there,” I replied, setting the bowl down by his foot. “And a couple of wolves, or at least I thought so. Must have missed you.”

“Right…” Dane replied weakly, barely pulling himself into a more comfortable seated position. “Don’t worry…what I have, you’re not gonna catch. Very specific kind of problem…”

“You seriously want to talk about this now? You could use some rest, by the look of you.” Despite his intrusion, I couldn’t ignore that he
did
need me, by the looks of things…and I guess it made things a little better that he was the reason I was even in the country.

“You’re right,” he conceded. “It’s late…need light to…examine properly. Won’t last…too many more nights…full moon, soon.”

I nodded, listening. He wasn’t making much sense at the end there, but I expected that out of his delirium. “Right. Well, you can’t sleep here in this chair. Come on,” I pulled at his shoulders. “Let’s get you into the bed. I’ll sleep on the floor.”

“No,” Dane answered. “Fine with floor…you’ve had a long…trip. Need your rest too…”

“Doctor’s orders. Into the bed.”

“Can’t…need floor. Too heavy for you to…pull. Used up energy…getting here. Floor…fine.”

I sighed, glancing around for the best spot, somewhere that he didn’t have to go far to find. “Alright, well…if you insist. We’ve got to get you out of this chair, though. Down you go.”

Helping him ease out of the chair, I pulled one of my spare blankets aside and spread it out across the floor. “That’s right, down you go,” I repeated, helping him crawl onto the makeshift bedding. I lifted his head and placed one of my pillows beneath, then found another blanket to cover him. Finally, I set the bowl beside him, just within reach.

“You sure about this?” I asked, concerned.

“For the…best…wait until…morning,” he answered. “Goodnight…doctor.”

“Goodnight, Dane,” I replied, crawling back into bed. I stared at the ceiling for several minutes, wondering about these recent events, until I could hear his breathing as he started to slumber.

Exhausted from everything earlier, it wasn’t much longer before I drifted to sleep as well.

~

The following morning, I awoke slowly, gradually. Stretching my arms and curling my fingers, I took in the unfamiliar feeling of the bed and the blankets.
Oh right…Romania
, I thought to myself. Mustering the strength to open my eyes, I gave a large yawn as I stretched again, sitting up in bed.

My eyes lazily glided towards the chair across the room, and the memories of the night flooded back into my head. Throwing myself to the edge of the bed, I cast my gaze down to see…nothing.

The blankets were folded and sitting on the small table in the other corner. As for the pillow, it was back in my bed.

Well, that’s odd,
I thought to myself.
That guy was clearly in no condition to be moving around.

Climbing out of bed and briefly surveying the room, I poked my head out the window. There was no sight of my mysterious overnight guest anywhere.

Fine then.

Bolting the door shut and closing the windows, I changed into my clothes for the day – a light outfit accustomed to the warm climate. I thought it was about time that I took stock of the village, so I pocketed a small handful of coins, locked the door behind myself, and knocked on the hut next door.

Camilla answered almost immediately, a smirk on her face. “Up already?”

I glanced up at the overhead sun, directly above. “I thought I’d get an early start on the day.”

My guide chuckled pleasantly. “I take it you wanted to go into town? Buy supplies?”

“If you’re not too busy…I can come back later.”

“Shouldn’t be a problem.” She gave a quick smile before glancing over her shoulder and speaking quickly in Romanian. There was the sound of an elderly woman from inside, mumbling something loudly, and Camilla replied back. They exchanged a few more words before my guide finally stepped out, closing the door behind herself.

“My mother, she is…
difficult
, sometimes.
Very difficult.
But this is good, she needs supplies too.”

“Yeah?” I asked, falling into step beside my guide. We began to walk down the path towards the gathered buildings up the hill, passing an elderly couple who were lost in Romanian conversation.

“Yes, she needs eggs, bacon, things like that. We have pigs before, but we ate one and the sow grew sick. Needed sow for litter. We will barter for extra sow later, but for now, we buy pork from farmers’ market.”

“You eat a lot of pork here?” I asked her, stepping aside for a middle-aged man on a bike to roll past, grinning at me. I realized that I was probably a novelty in these parts, sticking out like a foreign, sore thumb.

“Yes. But I prefer lamb, fish,” Camilla explained. “Pork is everything. All kinds of traditional meals. You get tired of it, sometimes.”

“I can imagine.”

We walked in silence for the rest of the small trip, until we finally met the small crowd as patrons crossed from merchant to merchant.  With tarps and sheets forming overhead coverings, the townspeople with excess were selling all manner of vegetables, meat, livestock, tools, and anything else that was useful to their daily lives.

Camilla led me about; translating for me and helping me make sound purchases. She advised me quietly against purchasing eggs from
this
vendor or from buying woven towels from
that
villager.

Overall, we spent about an hour checking the merchants and snatching up our supplies, until we wandered the trip back home. The decline down the hill was pleasant, and we made small talk about her mother, about life in the village, and about the outer world.

When I pushed the door open, I didn’t expect to see Dane standing quietly and smugly in the room…nor did I expect him to be in what looked like peak physical health.

~

“Where have
you
been?” I demanded, gazing at the strong, shirtless man. Camilla gasped from behind, hiding by the doorway.

“It is alright, Camilla,” Dane explained, before speaking some words in Romanian. Camilla spat back a sentence or two, and his face darkened.

“I must go, Alaina,” she whispered to me. “Goodbye until later. And with helping the
wolf
…good luck.”

With that, she was gone, although I couldn’t help but notice by her tone that she wasn’t particularly keen on seeing this man healthy. As soon as I thought about it, I realized the sudden change in his demeanor –
this man had been almost at Death’s door last night…but he looks FINE now. What the hell?

“You seem to have angered my guide somehow,” I observed coolly as I set my purchases down on the counter. “Why was she so unhappy to see you?”

“She is still mad about the witch,” Dane brushed the question aside. “But we have work to do, if you would be so kind. The night will be here in a few hours, and with it my pain.”

“The night?” I asked skeptically. “What’s the matter with the night?”

“I have been afflicted with a curse,” Dane explained. “Striking me to my very being. These people, they do not understand sometimes how difficult it can be to protect them. They see only what is in front of them, thinking not ahead, thinking not of the difficulties in defending their lives.”

“Is that so,” I asked unsympathetically.

“They know to trust me now. They have seen what is out there, what my pack fights. The darkness in the night, it has taken some of their children and struck down their elderly. They have seen what my pack and I can do, how much we love and protect them. These things are truth.”

I raised an eyebrow as I crossed my arms, eager to see where this babbling fool was going with this. He might not have been physically ill all of a sudden, but he was certainly quite the storyteller.

Dane continued on, his hands thrown up in the air. “I tell them, ‘
The new one is a witch
.’ But they love the new villager so. She tells them stories and makes them laugh, she plays with the children and makes them squeal. I tell them, ‘
It is trickery of the witch. She makes you love her.’
Do they listen? No. What do they do when I bring evidence of her foul deceit? They try to cast me out. When the vile witch begins hurting them, striking at their very souls, my pack and I save them.”

He shook his head as I watched, arms still folded and a sigh lifting from my chest.

“But the witch, she strikes with a curse in her defeat. Now, when my beloved night comes, so does pain. I will be dead in another night or two…and they will not help me. And now Harry Chairman must send someone from across the world to save me before the curse kills me, because my beloved people turn their back when it is
my turn
.”