The One He Claimed

Chapter 89: Dr. Caspian

Brooklyn

I’m not sure why it helped me, but it felt cathartic to help the warriors coming in who were in various stages of injury. It had been a pretty non-stop flow of them from the moment that I walked out to help. I quickly realized that the best way for me to be effective was to pass off the bigger injuries to the nurses and for them to leave the stitching to me. Eventually, there was a line of warriors waiting for me to stitch them up.

“You have a very soft touch, Brooklyn,” the current warrior I’m stitching says softly. I’m not sure if they have all just appreciated me or if it’s because they know what happened, but every warrior I’ve spoken to, no matter how injured they were, has been kind and gentle with me.

“Thank you, Warrior. You, on the other hand, have a very deep g**h. I’m going to need to put several layers of stitches into his wound to keep it closed while your wolf heals you.”

“Do what you need to do. Argus is exhausted and needs his sleep,” he says, referencing his wolf. “As do you, Warrior,” I say, looking up and meeting his gaze for the first time. This warrior is older, my father’s age and I can see the sadness and the kindness in his eyes. Yep, he definitely knows what happened to me.

I get back to work, worrying that my trauma will be the way that everyone remembers me. I know it was bad when I got here. My mother barely got me here and I was unconscious, but I’ve heard the whispers and I know how many stitches were required. to put poor little Brooklyn Row back together again.

When I’m done, I put a bandage on his hip and he sits up, flexing his leg before standing. I turn from washing my hands to see if he has another injury that I missed, but he’s looking at me.

“For what it’s worth, we all think you were very brave for what you did. If you or your mother need anything at all, you let me know,” he says.

The line of warriors behind him echoes his sentiment and I feel tears p**k at my eyes.

“Just so you know, we’re going to get the body out of your house and we’re fixing your door so that when you’re ready, you can go back to your home,” the next warrior says walking up and sitting down.

“Thank you,” I say, feeling overwhelmed with their kindness.

About an hour later, one of the female warriors sits down. I begin working on her while she quietly assesses me. I’m not sure what she sees, but I have a job to do, so I do it quietly.

“They’re right, you do have a soft touch. I barely felt that,” she says to me. Once again, she stands and waits for me to look at her.

“If you ever decide that you want to learn to fight, let me know. I’ Il work with you. Even if you’re not ever a warrior, knowing that you can throw a punch can make you feel powerful,” she says to me.

“Thank you,” I say, feeling overwhelmed with gratitude to this pack and the warriors who are being so kind to me.

Throughout the day, I’ve had whiffs of my favorite dinner, roasted chicken, mashed potatoes and gravy. My mom would make it for me on cold days when our omega wolves struggled to keep us warm. The comfort food always made us warm and happy.

I’ve asked a couple of people if that’s what they are making in the kitchen for lunch and now for dinner, but no one seems to know. All I know is that I’ve gotten whiffs of the mouth-watering food and I’ve even felt my quiet wolf fluttering around in my mind today. I’ll have to tell my mother when she wakes. If our favorite comfort food is all I need to awaken Ermelinde, my wolf, my mother will make it every day until she returns.

I’ve just finished stitching up the last of the warriors, taking a moment to accept their thank you for gently stitching them before I close my eyes and stretch my neck and back. My body is aching from bending over to stitch all day.

I stand and turn, beginning to clean up my area. The nurses, once they realized that I could stitch up everyone, had brought all the supplies to me so I didn’t have to waste time searching for them or someone to tell me where the supplies were.

I’ve just gotten the last of the garbage cleaned up when I smell it again, my favorite comfort food. I lift my nose in the air and take a deep breath. They must be making it either here or at the packhouse. My mouth waters and my body begins to calm after the long day.

I turn and stop, seeing a man I don’t know watching me closely. He’s in scrubs and he has a surgical hat in his hands like he pulled it off his head and then forgot he was holding it.

I take a step back quickly, terrified of who this man might be.

The man raises a hand and takes a step toward me. I whimper, not sure if I can find help before he gets to me. Just then a nurse walks by and stops, seeing me staring at the man. Her nose lifts and she comes rushing over to me.

“Brooklyn, it’s okay, this is Dr. Caspian. Luna Margot asked Luna Sophie if he could come help us. We needed extra hands, as I’m sure you realized. He’s not going to hurt you, he’s a doctor. He’s been here for several hours helping us with the more difficult injuries,” she says, putting her arm around my shoulder.

“I’m sorry, I didn’t mean to startle you. Brooklyn, is it?” he asks me.

I nod, leaning against the nurse.

“Doctor, did you need something?” the nurse asks him, a bit protectively. I’m very thankful for her right now.

He frowns, looking from the nurse to me. “Do you not….can you not sense who I am to you?” he asks me.

I whimper again, closing my eyes, as the nurse sucks in air beside me. He’s where the smell has been coming from. They aren’t making my comfort food, it’s the scent of my mate..

“I can’t. I can’t. I can’t,” I say, beginning to s**b. The doctor takes a step toward me, and I yelp, terror filling my body.

The nurse holds out a hand to stop the doctor, and turns to me, taking my face in her hands. “Brooklyn, look at me. Look at me. Breathe, sweetheart. Breathe. That’s right, just breathe with me.”

She gently wipes the tears from my eyes and turns to look at the doctor. “Stay put,” she says sternly before guiding me toward my mother’s room.

“Why don’t you sit with your mother. I’ll have food brought in for you. You’re exhausted after all the work you did today. It will be good for you to eat and then get some sleep.”

I nod, beginning to breathe more easily as we walk away. I turn and see Dr. Caspian watching us, hurt clearly written on his face.

Luna Sophie asked me to check on all the mates who are in the hospital, and there are four, not including my mother. Since they are all in the same wing as my mother, I check on her first, then go to check on each one of the women, letting them know they aren’t alone, letting them know that their children need them if they have them, or that the pack needs them if they don’t. I don’t know if it will help, but hopefully they can hear me.

Each time I’ve stepped out of a room, I’ve smelled my favorite. comfort food. I don’t know if he’s nearby or if he’s just been down this hallway a couple of times, but I always take a deep breath before going into the next room. When I go back to my mother’s room, I see that one of the nurses has brought me a cot to sleep on with blankets and a pillow. I sit beside my mother, telling her everything that I did today and how proud of me she would be. I remind her that I need her and that I know she’s suffering, but it will be okay and that Luna Sophie said we could stay even if we don’t have our wolves. I know she was worried about that, so hopefully she can hear me.

I finally lay down to sleep, but I can’t. I toss and turn, unable to get the hurt look on Dr. Caspian’s face out of my head. I finally decide to go check on the other women, since I’m not sleeping anyway and I quietly step outside my mother’s room. When I turn, I see him, Dr. Caspian. It looks like he’s been waiting here all night to talk to me. He sits up from the slumped position that he must have fallen asleep in and puts his hands up.

“Please don’t run from me. I won’t hurt you. I swear.”

I look around but it’s the middle of the night and everything here is quiet now. I refocus on him. “What do you want?”

He scrubs his hands over his face before looking back up at me. “One of the nurses told me what happened to you.”

I nod. Everyone in the pack knew anyway so what’s one more person.

“I took the liberty of reading your chart from when you were in the hospital and I have to tell you that I’ve never wanted to kill someone so much as I want to kill that Alpha for what he did to you,” he says. I can tell that he’s working hard to control his emotions, so he doesn’t scare me by growling or snarling.ConTEent bel0ngs to Nôv(e)lD/rama(.)Org .

“Look, I know I’m a few years older than you are…”

I raise my eyebrow and I see his lips twitch.

“Okay, I’ve seven years older than you are, which means, I’ve been looking for my mate for seven long years. I didn’t realize that you were going to be younger than me by so many years, but I believe that fate has brought us together. It was Luna Margot that asked me to come help with the wounded. She’s not even part of this pack. I didn’t have to agree, but I did, and because both of those things happened, I found you.”

“Y’ve been maki

Son’t care that you thay fever will to have a sexual relationship

she and heartal and that 13 have

bortion pou’re courally a route out the the froh veryting

give him a chance

“What die i ammal like to you?” I ask them

SDE E AVID Duplj

don’t lue in any pus, move on, i have my own gri And you smell the my garoma spolesan tut sition. What to umut like to gau

putatoes and gravy

“Saunds yummy “he says and 1 duck my head so be can’t see

“Maybe someday you’ ue me power and I can see for myset,”

I look at tum ənɑment Swan juệ gang for get scrhet water