Claiming Treasure

Chase Nygaard’s POV

Arrowhead Pack Clinic

I tossed my bloody surgical gown in the hamper with my gloves, leaving me in my scrubs. Doctor Olson was already in the showers, while I had stayed behind to clean up. It had been touch and go for a while; our mystery girl had nearly died from internal bleeding and a collapsed lung. She was out of immediate danger now but needed close monitoring. She was young, perhaps newly shifted. I knew from watching Rori that a juvenile wolf didn’t heal as quickly.

“We’re done. The mystery girl is in recovery,” I sent to Rori. “Doc and Possum are heading home, so I’ll stay here with her.”

“I’ll have some food sent to you. How long until she wakes?”

“At least two hours, probably a lot longer.”

I could feel her nervousness through the link. “Let us know when she’s able to answer questions. I don’t like this, Chase. A new wolf shouldn’t be running around with no family and no help.”

Of course, it reminded her of her own time on the run. How much different would her life have been if her grandfather Charles had been able to bring her into his Pack? If she hadn’t ended up in the mental hospital I was working at, Rori might still be out there, thinking she was crazy and hiding from her kind. “We’ll take care of her, love. I’m going to take a shower, and then I’ll be in my office here at the Clinic.”

“Sounds good. I have a Council videoconference soon. Carl and Ron will be recognized by the other Alphas over the Banff and Monongahela Packs. The other two will have to wait until next week since we are stepping aside in favor of hereditary claims.”

“What about the Council vote?”

“We have submitted our nominations, but there is a one week period for the candidates to talk to or meet with individual Alphas before a final vote. Two other names are in play, but we have the votes to get our slate through.” The European Alphas were going to shit themselves when they find a female as Council Chair. Colletta was going to have a lot of fun with that old boy’s club. I’d have worried, except I knew how strong Frank’s wolf was. The first in-person meeting would have those Alphas rolling over and baring their necks.

I called an Omega to finish the cleanup as I walked to the shower. Feeling better afterward, I dressed in scrubs again and went to see my patient. “Who are you,” I said to myself as I gave her a quick examination. Her vital signs were improving, and her breathing was much better now. She was off oxygen, and her gums were still pink, so her blood was well oxygenated.

“How is she doing, Alpha,” Tonya said from the doorway.

“Better,” I said. “Thanks for coming over.”

“It’s not a problem at all. I left lunch in your office. If you need anything, I’ll be in the surgical ward.” She moved down the hall while I finished updating the chart, then I headed back to the office to eat and catch up on paperwork. I set my phone with alarms every thirty minutes to check on her, plus I had a monitor showing live video and audio in case there was a problem.

Three hours later, I was through my medical license renewal paperwork, I had ordered replacement supplies, and set up my required continuing training courses for the next year. I heard a growl and looked up. My patient was starting to twitch her legs as her wolf woke up.

“She’s waking,” I sent to Rori. I got up and moved to her room. She was a striking wolf, with silver fur broken by white patches on the chest and legs. She was a foot taller than most females, which Doc agreed meant she was likely Beta rank or higher. Once she gained her weight back, she’d be even more impressive. I removed the IV drip, not wanting it to be attached if she panicked or shifted. I couldn’t imagine what it would be like waking up injured in a strange place with strange people. She could do almost anything.

I was sitting on the bed, petting her neck when Rori came in with another person I’d never seen. She stopped when she felt my wolf, her neck showing as she lowered her eyes. “Alpha,” she said.

“Welcome to the Arrowhead Pack, Mabel,” I said without getting up. “You found this girl?”

“Yes, by the side of the road while I was out hunting,” she said. “I had to run home and get my car and pick her up, then drive here.”

“That took two hours or so?”

“Yes, sir,” she answered. “I don’t know how long she was there before I caught her scent.”

“It’s a good thing you found her.” Her back leg had started kicking, and she whined when she felt the pain of the break. We didn’t cast the break, just set it in place and used a light wrap, since a shift would move everything again. “Are there any other packless wolves near you?”

“No, Alpha. An old Omega like me would move on if I sensed another wolf around.” She was moving nervously from foot to foot. “Relax. My mate is the dominant Alpha, and she already accepted you into the Pack if you want it. Your friends speak highly of you, as did your actions today.”

It was like a balloon let out, as her posture changed. “I would like that, Alpha. This Pack is so much different than the last one.”

“Even Bitterroot is nothing like the Pack you left. We have a moment, why don’t we bring you into the Pack while she wakes.”

She swore an oath to us, and we accepted her, bringing her into the Pack link. The sudden presence of all those wolves in her head after so long alone brought her to her knees; Rori helped her sit in a chair while she got used to it.

The mystery girl started to whine, and I kept petting her neck. I was whispering encouragement to her when her eyes opened up, and she jerked away. She growled as she tried to stand up, but couldn’t get there with her broken leg. She fell back with a whine as she bared her teeth at me. “You’re all right. You are in the clinic at the Arrowhead Pack, north of Duluth.”

She was looking around as her eyes desperately looked around for a way out. She tried to stand again, but this time I kept my hand on her neck. Her wolf was strong, her dominance pushing back on mine. She had strong blood, Beta for sure, maybe even Alpha. “You have a broken leg and broken ribs. Moving around is going to be painful, and you’re safe here.”

She tried to bite my hand, and I was having a tough time holding her down. Instead of calming, she was becoming more panicked. Rori took over holding her as I pulled off my scrubs and shifted into my wolf, jumping up onto the bed and taking her by the neck. My dominance rolled over the young wolf, who stilled in her grip and exposed her neck.

“I want to bring her into the Pack,” Rori said.

“We don’t know anything about her,” I said.

“She’s young and alone, that’s enough.” My wolf forged the bond, and I felt her in my head. “SHIFT,” I Alpha-commanded her.

Her eyes changed as her human came forward to replace the panicked wolf that had taken over. “What? Who are you?”

“I’m Alpha Rori King, and the wolf here is my mate, Alpha Chase.”

“What’s an Alpha?” She looked up as I let her go, my wolf sitting on the bed. “You’re like me?”

“Yes, we are werewolves like you,” I told her. “We need you to shift to your human form so we can keep treating your injuries.”

“Shift?”

Rori figured it out. “How long have you been stuck as a wolf?”

“Thanksgiving weekend. Winter sucks, I almost froze to death a few times,” she answered. Damn. She’d been stuck for MONTHS as a wolf, unable to change, and not knowing what she was.

Rori talked her through how to shift, and an emaciated young girl replaced the silver wolf on the bed. “OW! FUCK THAT HURTS,” she said.

I shifted and dressed. “I can help with that. I need to tape up your ribs and cast your leg while we talk.” I turned and drew up a sedative, enough to take the edge off but not put her out again. “What is your name?”

“Shelly Lorilla,” she said as she laid back. Rori covered her with a sheet, leaving her leg uncovered for me. “I never thought I’d have fingers and toes again.”

“Is there someone we can call? Someone who might be looking for you?”

“No one I’d want to find me,” she said. “It’s a long story.”

“We’ve got time,” I said. “Tell us how you ended up by the side of the road near Ely.”

“Ely?” I nodded. “Damn. I’m a long way from home.” I adjusted the bed until she was sitting up, and Mabel got her some water. “You smell familiar,” she said to the grey-haired woman.

“I’m Mabel, I found you by the road and brought you here,” she said. “How old are you, child?”

“Fifteen, I’ll be sixteen in May.”

That was an early shift, which meant something forced her wolf to take over. “Something happened to make her shift,” I sent to the other two. “This might hurt as I set it properly.” I moved her lower leg until the bones aligned.

“My Mom is a drunk,” she said. “Dad was a one-night stand; they met at a bar in Denver. He said his name was Dan Forest.” By Luna! Dan Forest was the Alpha of the Donner Pack in 2005; his mate had died without leaving him an heir, and he was the one who wanted Rori after the Arrowhead attack. I just shook my head as I realized he had an heir, but with a human female. “All she told me about him was that Dan was a big, handsome man, but a dud fuck with a ‘thumb-sized dick.’ The phone number he left was fake, and he never called her. She never saw him again. By the time she figured out she was pregnant, it was too late to get an abortion, so here I am.”

“She wasn’t a good Mom for you, was she.”

Shelley laughed. “She wasn’t a Mom at all. She bounced around from one boyfriend to another, shacking up with anyone she could trap between her legs. We’d stay until they got tired of her drinking and attitude, and she’d find another. We moved to Minnesota for the benefits. If I wasn’t good for anything else, I could get her housing and welfare payments. I pretty much raised myself.”

I was making good progress on the cast as she talked. “Where did you live last?”

“Saint Cloud. I was a freshman in high school there.” She’d moved almost two hundred and fifty miles north in five months, and I don’t even know if she understood why.

“Did you like school,” Rori asked. She didn’t have much in the way of high school experience, having done most of it online.

“I did, and I was in all the activities. I played soccer, was in church youth groups, drama club, anything I could find to stay there. The longer I spent away from home, the better.” Her stomach growled.

“I’ll get some food brought over. How long since you’ve eaten,” I asked.

“I caught a rabbit last week,” she said.

No wonder she was so thin. Rabbits didn’t have enough fat to keep the weight on a wolf, and she probably couldn’t take down a deer on her own. “We’ve already sent food over,” the kitchen said after I asked. We talked more as she ate, and my heart broke for all the little wolf had gone through.

“What happened that made your wolf take over,” I finally asked.

“Mom passed out during the poker party downstairs, and her boyfriend and his buddies were getting loud. I was trying to sleep, but it’s hard when you can hear everything they say.”

“I know exactly how she felt from when my wolf started coming forward,” Rori said.

“They were drunk and horny, and I had developed early,” she said as she gestured at her tits. They would have been much bigger before she lost all the weight over the winter. “Todd had moved from leering at my body to touching me through my clothes to groping me when Mom wasn’t around. It was only a matter of time, I guess. He was bragging to his buddies about how firm my boobs were, and that he was going to be ‘tapping that every night.’ His buddies decided they would ‘break me in and make a woman out of me,’ and started arguing about who got to fuck me where and in what order. I got up and locked the door to my bedroom, bracing it with a chair. Todd got pissed when I didn’t let him in, and I heard him take off his belt. He would beat the crap out of me when I disobeyed him, and it was even worse when he’d been drinking.”

“Someone needs his ass whooped,” I said to Rori.

Rori held her hand as she gathered herself. “The men started to break down the door, and that’s when the pain hit. I screamed, it hurt so bad, and then I looked down. I had paws and fur, I was freaking out, but the voice said to trust her. I jumped out the window and ran off, never looking back.”

I’d sent her name to Beta Vic, and he broke into our conversation. “Alphas, I’ve run her name through the system. There isn’t a missing person report out for her.”

It just got worse and worse. Mom didn’t care about Shelly enough to know if she was alive. “Thanks, Vic. It makes it easier if the humans aren’t looking for her. Track down the Mom and figure out who this boyfriend was.” My wolf already considered her family, and I didn’t like people hurting my family.

“We’ve done some checking, and no one is looking for you.” Her face fell, and I knew why. At some level, she still hoped her Mom would want her, and she didn’t. “You have a new home with us, among people that are just like you.”

“Eat and rest,” Rori said. “Tomorrow will be a better day. I’m so glad we found each other, Shelly.”

She started crying, and Rori leaned down to hug her as she let it out. “Careful of the ribs,” I said. I finished her cast, then got the things I needed to support her ribs while she healed. Shelly was doing better, and Rori helped her sit up so I could tape them up. “I need to keep you here in the Clinic for a day or two; we had to remove one of your kidneys, and your wounds need to heal.

“I can stay?”

Her wide eyes, hollow cheeks, and half-starved body were driving my protective instincts high. “You’re home now, Shelly. Get some rest.” Marge picked up the dishes, and I gave her a stronger sedative so she would rest.

Rori stayed with her until she was in a deep sleep. “She’s the daughter of an Alpha,” she said.

“Yes, and her wolf shows that. It’s weird,” I said. “Alphas and Betas have impregnated humans many times before, but the resulting pups were always weak Omegas. Why is she the size and power of an Alpha?”

Rori took my hand and led me out of the room, turning the light off and closing the door. “Luna gives us our wolves. She must have a reason.”

I just shook my head. “Daniel Forrest is an idiot. He was part of a group that almost wiped out Arrowhead, and a few years later, his heir to the Alpha position is born.”

Rori shook her head as she leaned into me. “It wouldn’t have mattered. There is no way Daniel or his father would EVER accept a female as Alpha of their Pack.” I pulled her into my office and sat her on my lap at my desk. “She does have a blood claim to Donner Pack. Will that matter?”

I thought about it for a moment. “The Alpha position went to Sawyer, who won it in a challenge. I suppose she could challenge him if she could get enough support from the Pack. They seem to love Sawyer and Ashley, so I doubt the Pack would back a challenge from an Alpha’s daughter.”

“She’s better off here, and it will be years before she is old enough. By Luna, she’s barely started high school, and she’s missed most of her freshman year!”

“Using her real name may raise flags.”

“Her disappearing should have raised flags. I want Vic to figure out what’s going on, and I want the people responsible for this clusterfuck to pay.” She shook her head as she looked out the window. “She’s broken like I was.”

“Not the same, but we’re going to help her, baby. We’ll be the family she needs.”

She leaned into my chest. “Yes we will.”