Wild Love

"Why are you here again?" Mr. Anderson groaned when Kira flounced into his office, files piled on her arms. Kira paused and raised an eyebrow. "Um… I work here?" Mr Anderson facepalmed. "No, you were supposed to be on leave, two years ago." Kira pouted but didn't back down. "But sir, I just came to a conclusion about…" "Kira Sutton," Kira winced, when her boss used her full name, it meant business. "You're my top nurse here and one of the best workers of Oakwood Clinic, I can't just sit and watch you run yourself to the ground." "But sir…" "No buts! Kira," The older man said seriously. "Everyone here at the clinic is worried about you, you work double shifts and extra hours, you even come in on weekends. Hell! I'm the owner of this clinic and I don't even come in on weekends." Kira bit her lip, she had enough self-awareness to feel abashed at the Director's words, nobody had to know that she had no life outside of the clinic. It wasn't that she was a workaholic, but the thought of going back to her empty cottage in the woods was very depressing. Maybe she should pick up knitting again. Mr. Anderson felt a little worried, he should have phrased that better. He was a Beta wolf and he guessed Kira was too, so there would be no releasing of scents to calm each other down, but he could still use his words. "I'm sorry, but we're really worried about you, it can't be healthy living like this." "I passed the test, Mr. Anderson," Kira said, a little bit pissed off. There were perks to working at a small clinic where everyone knew each other, but there were downsides too, like now. "The test is to check your physical well-being, Kira, and we never doubt that you don't take care of yourself or I would have locked you up in your house for sure." Kira crossed her arms and blew away stray blonde wisps from her face. "This isn't what I agreed on when I decided to work here, going on a leave is purely optional." She reminded tightly, she really didn't like playing that card but she was getting desperate. Mr. Anderson smiled fondly. "I had a feeling you would say that." He slid open the top drawer on his desk and took a folder out. "What's that?" Kira asked, immediately curious. "Our newest patient's file." "Sandra?" Kira quickly asked, moving closer. Sandra was an Omega who had come in the day before because of irregularities in her heats. "No, why don't you have a seat?" He motioned with a hand, eyes reflexively following the slender nurse's fluid movements. Thank goodness he loved his wife because Kira wasn't safe to be around. "This is a branch of the clinic that you do not factor in and you probably haven't heard about it before because we rarely get patients of that kind." "Are we still talking about Werewolves sir?" The blonde asked, sitting up in her seat. "Yes, of course, but there are special cases, usually trauma cases where a Werewolf can't shift." Kira widened her eyes at this piece of information. "That sounds horrifying, I had no idea that it was even possible.” Shifting came as naturally to Werewolves as breathing and it was as essential too. “So the patient can't shift to their wolf form?" She clarified. "Actually, it's the other way around." "The poor thing is stuck as a wolf?" Kira gasped. "Yes, we found it hurt in the woods some weeks before and now he's fully healed…" "It's a he?" Kira interrupted unconsciously, already filing the information away for later. Mr. Anderson managed a small smile, he was going to miss the hard-working nurse. "Yes, we've confirmed that much at least but it's always shivering and cowering in a corner so we can get little else." "A trauma victim," Kira said tightly, frowning a little. "We think so too." Mr. Anderson smiled again and pushed a hand through his greying hair. "Mina had been taking care of him all this while but her mate is getting antsy." "Can't blame her," Kira murmured. "Mind you, this is a suggestion which you have a choice in but, since you also minored in psychology, I was thinking you could take him in and care for him." "A way of working and still getting my leave." Kira pointed out dryly, Of course! The old man would never give up till he had his way. Thank the goddess, he wasn't an Alpha. "Exactly just that." He laced his fingers together over his large, overly masculine desk. "So what do you say?" "And if I say no?" Kira tried half-heartedly. "I won't push but you're taking that goddamned leave even if I have to give you a f*****g suspension." He replied grimly. Kira winced, she had seen that coming. "Fine." "Fine?" Mr. Anderson repeated. The blonde shrugged. "Yes, you have my hands tied here. I'll take care of the patient...does he have a name?" "We don't know, he's not a part of any pack that we know of…" "Most Werewolves are not in packs." The nurse couldn't help saying with a bit of spite. "That's true, but we couldn't communicate with him at all, we even tried shifting but it only terrified him. We named him Jael, by the way, everything you need is in this file." He pushed it towards her. Kira picked it up and added it to the pile still under her arms. She hadn't actually had anything important to tell the Director, she had been hoping to bullshit her way into staying another week. "Thank you, sir." "No need to thank me, Kira." Mr. Anderson grinned. "You're indispensable, but I care about your well-being too. Also, I'll phone Mina to drive Jael down to your cottage in her truck." He added as the nurse stood up to go. "Thank you, sir." Kira repeated, bowing slightly with her handful of files. "Take care of yourself, Kira." Kira walked out of his office and legged it off to the locker rooms. It would feel really weird not to step into her scrubs at the start of each day or hurriedly take a quick shower in between shifts when she didn't want to go home. She was robotically clearing out her locker into a big disposable bag, she felt so hollow like she had been thrown out of her only home onto the streets. "Finally got suspended, huh?" A husky voice interrupted her bleak thoughts. "Get off my back, Helena." Kira said without a bite in her tone. "Hey, hey Kira, you'll be fine okay." She said quickly, helping her to clear out her locker, her red ponytail bouncing around. "It's not the end of the world and soon you'll be back here again, being an annoying pain in my ass." Kira rolled her dark green eyes, the action drying up the big drops of tears that had threatened to fall. "If I come back and find your scrunchies in my locker, I'll burn them all." She threatened teasingly. Helena paused her action of shoving something into her now empty locker and whistled inconspicuously. "Of course!" Kira hoisted her bag up one arm, her scrubs still on. She was just taking her truck deep into the woods, she didn't really care about a fashion statement just then. "I never imagined I'd be clearing out my locker." She muttered absently, more to herself. "Come on, I'll walk you out." Helena offered, even though the beautiful blonde kept her distance at work, she could safely say they were friends. "Thank you, Helena." Kira said genuinely to the redhead, the walk to the truck had been quiet but that made her appreciate it even more. "Anytime, Kira." She grinned. "Plus, I'll come to check on you just to make sure you don't jump into the creek." Kira just rolled her eyes. "I’ll be fine, plus I know that you’re too lazy to make the drive down to my cottage deep in the woods, please." Helena just smiled at her, shaking her head. "I'll miss you." She said to her as she got into her truck, one of the few vehicles very common in Oakwood. Kira started the engine, suddenly feeling an irrepressible urge to cry. "Yeah, I'll miss you too." She replied thickly and set the car into gear without a backward glance, the tears started to roll down as the Clinic went out of sight.