Heats and Holidays (RBMC: Helena, MT #2.5)

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.

Damn, why is it so cold in here?

Maybe the HVAC was on the fritz again.

“Because I’m adorable and I know how to show a female a good time.” He used a tone that was as smooth as melted chocolate and nearly as sweet.

I raised an eyebrow and glanced up just in time to see his perfect pink tongue swipe out over his lips.

What else can that tongue do?

No… no, no, no.

“Fen,” I said, crossing my hands over my desk to lean forward. “I’ve got a shifter in labor, an elder with severe chest pain, and six other patients with various maladies that need to be taken care of. I don’t have time for a good time, regardless of how adorable you may or may not be.”

He scoffed. “You don’t think I’m adorable?”

“I think you’re annoying,” I said, “and I think you want something. You just don’t have the guts to say it. So spit it out or find someone else to pester.”

I’d known Fenris nearly all my life. He and Vermillion were in the same year growing up, practically more brothers than friends.

There had been a point in my life when I’d harbored a little crush on him, but that had quickly passed when I realized he’d never give me the same attention he gave anyone else in the pack.

To him, I’d always be Vermillion’s kid sister, and to me, he’d always be the rebel without a cause.

I had no room for rebellion, not when one wrong decision could mean the difference between life and death.

“What? A guy can’t check in on his favorite healer?” He feigned offense. “What is this world coming to?”

Realizing I wouldn’t get rid of him without giving him the attention he so clearly wanted, I sighed and leaned back in my seat.

My head throbbed, and my torso quivered, but I ran my gaze over the length of him and analyzed.

Being the healer meant I saw with more than just my senses.

I had to use the pack’s magic to intuit what was wrong with a patient if they couldn’t talk.

He had bags under his eyes, hinting at sleepless nights, but that could be from his extracurricular activities.

By this time last year, he would have been half a bottle of whiskey deep at the party with my brother, but Mill had recently mated Maeve Vanderbilt and would likely be attached at her hip for most of the evening.

I wouldn’t say Mill was Fen’s only friend, but certainly his favorite.

And with Mill suddenly devastatingly in love and decidedly distracted, it probably left Fen feeling nostalgic and lonely.

“What?” Fen said, blinking as he rested his fingers over his mouth. “Why are you looking at me like that?”

“You know,” I started. “It can be hard when our friends find their mates. They don’t want to do the things they used to do. They don’t come around as often. Check-ins become less frequent.”

Fen smirked. “What are you—”

“Mill still loves you. He’s still your buddy. It’s just different now.”

A pause hung between us as a slow, hesitant smile speared his lips. “You think this is about Mill?”

“C’mon,” I said. “You live to aggravate me, but you’ve never invited me to a party before. You’re lonely. It’s okay to be upset that your buddy has someone new in his life. It’s okay to be jealous—”

“Jealous?” At that, he threw his head back and laughed, and my fangs ached to elongate, desperate to sink into the corded muscle on his neck. Another surge of heat rushed through me, quickly followed by chills.

I’m just tired. That’s all.

No cause for concern.

I could use a nap.

I’ll find a dark spot to curl up once I get through these charts. Once I finish my rounds. Once I check in on Justina and the babies.

“Wyn, I’m not lonely,” he said through broken chuckles. “And I’m certainly not jealous. Maeve is gorgeous, but she’s not exactly my type.”