Hunter's Secret
Chapter 29 - Backup Arrives

Titus’ POV

Ash does not come with me to pick Raine up so she can keep an eye on Hunter. I text Raine when I get to the airport, and she tells me where to meet her. She sees me before I see her and calls out to me.

“Dad!”

I smile and wave as she walks over. I swear she gets more beautiful every single time I see her. She is just wearing a pair of jeans and a casual flowy white blouse, but she is gorgeous. She is pulling her suitcase behind her and is either oblivious to or ignoring the heads she turns as she walks by. She reaches me and pulls me into a long hug.

I didn’t realize how much I missed her until I was holding her in my arms again. She looks up at me and laughs at me, wiping the escaped tear off my face.

“I think you cry every time you see me.”

“I can’t help it. I just miss you so much,” I say, tightening my hold on her and she squeezes me back too. But she squeezes my ribs, and I can’t help but wince.

“Sorry. I forgot. I will look at them when we get back home,” she says matter-of-factly.

I listen to her talk all the way home and I am so proud of her. She is loving her job, and she is so excited to continue her residency. We get inside the house, and she takes her stuff back to her bedroom, coming back out with her ‘doctor face’ on.

“Lift your shirt up.”

I do as she says, and slowly move the side of my shirt up so she can see my very bruised side.

“Dad! This looks really bad! You should be resting! Not picking me up from the airport,” she scolds me, gently touching my side, "You need to ice this more often. And take some pain medicine to help with the swelling. You were right though; they are definitely broken. Can you take a deep breath?”

“Not really. Ash has been helping me manage the pain, but it still hurts.”

“Gross.”

“Not like that,” I say, rolling my eyes at her, “She has been using her magic to help numb the pain a little.”

“Right…you really need to rest though, Dad. You should be healed enough to return to normal activities after four weeks, but it might take up to six weeks. And you need to do some breathing exercises. Only breathing shallowly leaves you at risk for pneumonia and other respiratory issues.”

“Okay, okay. I hear you. I will take it easy. Thank you.”

She smiles at me and turns to make us both some lunch. I try to help her, and she shoos me out of the kitchen, so I go sit down on a chair. As much as I don’t want her to have to take care of me, I accept her help because I heal like a human now. Ryker has been gone so long that I don’t have his help with healing or pain tolerance anymore.

We eat lunch and she tells me she is going to go lay down for a quick nap before heading over to the infirmary. I am sure she is tired from traveling. I call Ash.

“Are you still with Hunter?”

“Yes. He is not better, but he also isn’t worse. Did Raine arrive safely?”

“She did. She just went to take a quick nap before we come over.”

“You are supposed to be resting too. Call me when you are ready to leave, and I will come get you and Raine.”

“Fine. I will call you later. Love you.”

“Love you too.”

I take some more pain meds and wait for Raine to get up. She slept for about 3 hours and when she comes out, she is dressed in scrubs and carrying her medical bag.

“You ready to go, Dad?”

“Yes, but I need to talk to you really quickly before we do. Come sit down.”

She gives me a suspicious glance but comes and sits down.

“Hunter is the Alpha of Blue Flame. He is a werewolf. Everyone that will be there will be a werewolf. Hunter’s best friend, Cameron, is normally the Beta, serving under Hunter. Since Hunter cannot serve in his role for obvious reasons right now, Cameron is the temporary Alpha and is still learning to deal with the power that comes from that position shift.”

“It’s fine, dad. I grew up around werewolves. I am not worried.”

“I know you grew up here, but my pack was not really a pack, and the normal rules did not apply here. The hierarchy of a pack is really important, and I am just trying to prepare you for that.”

“I appreciate that, but I will be fine. I deal with power hungry jerks all the time.”

“I just wanted to let you know. Let me call Ash. She is coming to pick us up because she also told me I am supposed to be resting.”

She smiles at me. I call Ash and she doesn’t answer but appears in the house instead. She walks over to Raine and Raine stands to give her a hug.

“Hey, Ash. I am glad to see you finally moved in. And thank you for keeping my dad company and for being here for him. I love you. I have missed you.”

“I love you too. Your dad is quite stubborn, but I wouldn’t have it any other way. I love him.”

I stand up and join their hug too, “I love you both so much.”

Ash breaks the hug and asks if we are ready. Raine picks up her bag and nods her head. Ash grabs both of our hands and the next second, we are standing outside of the infirmary. Raine and I both blink in surprise and Ash just shrugs her shoulders and says something about it being faster.

Raine’s POV

I take a deep breath, my heart racing a bit from the teleportation that just happened. I didn’t know Ash could do that to other people. It has been a long time since I have seen her use magic. It has been almost ten years since I have lived here. I forgot how different it is to be around non-human people all the time. Pushing those thoughts out of my head, I take another deep breath and follow my dad and Ash into the hospital. We follow the front desk lady’s directions to Hunter’s room.

There are so many people sitting outside of one room that I assume it must be his. Dad reaches out to shake the hand of a very attractive man with blonde hair. He is very tall. Almost as tall as my dad. He has broad shoulders, and I can tell he is a regular at the gym, based on how his muscles move under his shirt. I move my eyes up to his face and he has piercing blue eyes and a sharp jawline, outlined with some stubble that looks like he missed a few days of shaving. I look to his side and see a girl with brown curly hair shooting daggers at me with her eyes. She touches his arm, and he reaches down to hold her hand, without breaking his conversation with my dad. The girl smirks at me and I roll my eyes internally.

I was just checking him out, no reason for her to be so possessive. It is not like he is my type anyway. I prefer brown hair. Plus, he has blue eyes and blue eyes freak me out so that is a no go too. I hear my name called and I break myself out of my thoughts.

Dad introduces me to the man.

“Raine, this is Alpha Cameron. Alpha Cameron, this is my daughter, Raine Hart.”

“Nice to meet you Dr. Hart. Thank you for coming all the way out here,” he says, reaching his hand out to shake mine. I shake his hand and I swear I hear a growl come from the girl standing next to him. He drops my hand and glances at her, with a look that I can’t quite figure out. I am introduced to several more people, well wolves, I guess. I meet Hunter’s parents who both look exhausted with worry, much like the parents of many patients I have had in the past. I also meet Hunter’s other doctors and they hand me his chart, which I take a quick look at. He seems to be a perfectly normal twenty-one-year-old so I can understand why they are puzzled. I can feel everyone’s eyes on me as I go over Hunter’s chart and I glance up, to see everyone quickly pretend like they weren’t all staring at me.

“I will certainly do my best to take care of Hunter, but I can’t do it with all of you here. You should all go home and get some rest. You can’t help him if you are too tired. I will personally call you if there are any changes or if I learn anything.”

No one moves and I sigh. This is typical behavior and while I can understand it, it also makes my job that much harder.

“You heard her. Go home so she can work. I will tell you if anything changes,” Cameron authoritatively commands.

They all start moving toward the door except for the girl. He looks down at her and both of their eyes almost get a grayish look to them. They look like they are having an entire conversation with just their eyes, but I can’t really be sure. He bends down and kisses her which she readily reciprocates. I turn away from them and when I hear footsteps walking away, I turn back around. Cameron wipes his lips with the back of his hand and when he looks back at me, his eyes almost look black. But he blinks and they are back to their normal blue color. This jet lag must be messing with me.

Cameron asks me if I want to go into Hunter’s room now and I nod my head yes. He holds the door open for me and I walk in to see a mountain of a man laying on the bed, albeit a very pale, very sickly mountain. Do all werewolves just look like they won the genetic lottery? My eyes travel over his very still body and up to his very chiseled face. He has beautiful brown hair. I just want to reach out and touch it. What the hell is wrong with me? He is my patient! I have had attractive patients before, but they don’t make my heart beat like this. What is going on?

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