The Pack's Doctor

Yara

It's been too long since I've let Annika out to run. With the number of classes that I'm taking and the heavy schedule I'm keeping, there isn't a lot of time to eat, much less let Annika run. But I have to let her out. She's becoming more and more restless.

'School is boring. Humans are boring. I want to do something fun,' she grumbles in my head.

'We're going for a run, Annika. Calm down.'

'Next time, don't wait so long.'

It's been a couple of months since I took her for a run. She's right. It's been too long. But I know how the packs fight, and I haven't wanted to risk getting in the middle of a battle or, worse, getting caught by Simon.

'I'm too smart for him to catch us. Besides, he has no idea that we're still so close to the pack.'

By 'so close' she means two hours, but it is too close. A wolf can run nearly as fast as a car, and when that wolf is on the hunt Goddess forbid that anyone gets in their way.

In the past, when I've taken Annika out to run, I've taken her in the opposite direction of Simon's pack. Well, technically, it's not his pack; it's his father's pack. Alpha Solomon has been the Alpha of my previous pack for as long as I can remember. His son, Simon, is a nasty piece of work. He loves to fight, and he loves to kill. The two of us couldn't be any more different. I like to heal, and I like to save.

For whatever reason, Simon set his sights on me. I don't know why. I'm an orphan. I'm not ranked. My parents were warriors, and while I can fight, I prefer to use my biggest strength, my brain. Simon much prefers to use his strength, his Alpha strength. He doesn't have to work for it, being genetically predisposed to being larger and stronger than most wolves in the pack, so he doesn't appreciate what he has, in my opinion. I, on the other hand, have had to work for everything I've achieved in this life with the help of Alpha Solomon.

My parents were killed in a pack war when I was young. Alpha Solomon took over as my guardian and made sure that I was cared for all my life. Maybe it's because he never had a daughter, or maybe it's because I'm more like him than his own son, but he's always looked after me, even to the point of sending me away from the pack when he realized that his son had taken an interest in me. He knew Simon was no good, and he didn't want me to suffer with his son's infatuation.

When we get to the spot where we like to run, I stop, sniffing the air, making sure there are no other wolves around here.

'Annika?' I ask, making sure she's not smelling something