A Nurse Among Wolves

Chapter 5: Miren

I somehow had 4 insanely gorgeous men in my kitchen helping me cook. When the window had fallen earlier I had been so mad and frustrated I had sat right where I fell cursing and crying up a storm just to have these 4 gods find me in all by snotty, tear streaked glory. And yet they had all stayed and helped. I was honestly shocked. Especially when Ash had said all that stuff about men protecting their women. For a brief, crazy moment I had imagined him meaning all that about me. But it was a stupid idea. Toren was right, they were all just to nice to leave a girl crying and bloody. I looked at the guys that were now sitting around my kitchen table eating and laughing.

There was Toren who seemed to be even hotter than he was earlier, looking like he was straight out of Greek mythology. Then there was Ashton or Ash, a giant blond Viking of a man with purple eyes and the biggest muscle I had ever seen. There were also the twins, Rowan and Roman. Both of them were beautiful. Not the Viking war god kind like Ash but more of what you might imagine the fey from Midsummer's night dream would look like. All sharp angles and defined muscles. and what really cought my attention were the tattoos they all had. They were difference colors and weren't the exact same patterns but they all seem to be similar. Toren had black ones on his arms and neck, reaching under the collar of his shirt she assumed to cover his chest. The twins had gold tattoos in the same kind of intricate design. But unlike Toren the twins only had then on their arms as far as she could tell. Now Ash had what she thought were the most interesting one of the group. He had the most by far, having them on his arms, hands, neck and even his face but it was how they looked that was the most intriguing. His were silver, like liquid mercury flowing though his skin. so much so that Miren felt that if she stared at them long enough they might actually move. His were also the most delicate and complicated tattoos of the group.

All in all their wasn't one plain one in the lot, well except for me. In comparison to these guys I was down right ugly. They were all tall, built and here I was looking more like Winnie the Pooh then the beauty.

"This is amazing!" Rowan grinned through a mouthful of pasta. If there was one thing I could do it was cook.

"Where do you think I got these extra pounds?" I laugh at his over exaggerated compliments.

"You don't have any extra pounds" Roman told me quietly

I smile at the quieter of the twins "you're sweet" I tell him, smiling at the blush he'd been trying to hide all evening. We had all been having such a good time that I really didn't want them to leave. Not to mention having 4 huge men in my house was doing wonders to alleviate the ever mounting fear in my gut since that stupid window had broken last night. I wasn't a baby and I kept telling myself that whatever animal had broken it had probably just been curious. But no matter how many times I told myself this, the knot in my stomach just wouldn't go away.

"What's wrong?" Ash asked.

"It's nothing" I tried to tell him but he gave me this look like he knew I was lying "fine, I was just wondering if you get a lot of bears and things around here" I asked, feeling that blush creep back up my cheeks.

Ash and Torn exchanged a look "why do you ask?"

"Well its just that I'm pretty sure that's how that stupid window broke in the first place" at this I had all four sets of eyes on me, waiting for me to explain.

"So last night this huge crashing scared me right out of bed, I came down and found that the bottom half of the window had been broken inward"

"And you assumed it was an animal rather than a person?" Toren asked, with a raised brow.

"Well at the time I didn't even know anyone lived out here besides me so yeah I was pretty much running on the assumption that an animal had gotten curious and broken the window by accident" I shrugged like it wasn't a big deal despite the rising fear at how dumb my explanation sounded out loud.

"I don't think you should be staying here tonight" Ash rumbled and the others nodded in agreement.

"And where exactly am I supposed to go?" I was tired and my sass had decided to make an appearance "I don't know anyone and there's no motel in town" despite the sass I had to bite my cheek to stop the tears. I would not feel sorry for myself, I was a big girl and I would deal. That's when I realized that the boys were all giving me a funny look, something caught between excitement and worry, like a little kid who's about to ask for a cookie but they're not sure if mom will say yes.

"What?" I ask, narrowing my eyes at them.

"Welllll" Rowan started.

"You know us don't you" Roman finished for his brother.

"Yeah so?" I still wasn't quite getting it.

"What they mean is why don't you stay with us tonight and then in the morning we can come back and fix the window for you" Toren smiled at me as if this plan made all the sense in the world and it kind of did. I stopped to think about it for a second, I really don't want to stay here tonight with an open window that anyone or thing could just waltz right through but did that make staying with 4 men I barely knew a safer idea. It was stupid but my gut told me I could trust them. My gut had never done me wrong before so I decided to go with it.

"Okay" I said nodding "if you're sure I'm not imposing" as soon as the words were out I realized that I had stopped shaking. When had I even started shaking in the first place?

"You could never be an imposition" Ash told me, gracing me with a breathtaking smile. And from the looks on the others faces it seemed that it was a rare occurrence.

"Well if you're sure, let me just grab some things and then we can leave" I had to stop myself from running to grab stuff for my overnight bag. I had changed into clean clothes after the boys and bandaged me up so I was lucky that I had just done a load of every day wear. Most of the time all I wash were my scrubs and pajamas since that's 98% of my wardrobe. I giggled to myself when I pulled out the sexiest pair of underwear I owned. I still remember how embarrassed I was when a friend had dragged me into Victoria's Secret and made me buy my first thong. I had never worn it to date but I hoped that I just might get a chance too. I couldn't strike out with all four of them...could I? I stopped and looked angrily at the small strip of fabric. What was I even thinking about, I am not the kind of person who would go after a guy's friends because I struck out with him. And besides who was I kidding, they weren't interested in me in the first place. They were just being nice because they felt bad for me. I still tucked the thing into my bag but didn't think there was much hope of it ever being used. I grabbed a few more things and headed back down stairs to where the boys were waiting.

"All packed?" Ash asked, taking my bag from me.

"Yep, and thanks again" I told them "it's really nice of you guys to go so out of you way for me"

"Don't worry about it" Toren said, grabbing my keys from the hook "we walked here earlier but if you don't mind we can take your car, that way you don't have to walk and you can do whatever you need to tomorrow, that work for you"

"Yeah" I agree nodding "as long as you all don't mind squeezing into my Jeep" I smiled at the thought of Ash, Roman, and Rowan all squished into the back seat.

"We'll be fine" Rowan grinned, throwing his arm over his twin's shoulder.

We all walked out to my car, Toren getting into the driver seat while the twins got in the backseat. Ash put my bag in the back and when I realized he was going to get in back with the twins I grabbed his arm "woah there big guy" I laughed "you better take the front, I'll sit in back"

He gave me a slight frown "you sure?"

"Yes, I'm sure and besides I don't think you'd fit. The twins barely fit and you're almost a foot taller than they are" Ash nodded but didn't seem happy about it.

I gave his arm a pat before Rowan slid out of the car to help me up and into the middle seat. If I didn't know better I would say it was a ploy but shook it off telling myself it was just because the middle seat had the least amount of legroom. I really hoped that their house wasn't far since I was now pressed against both of them. Oh boy was this going to be a long ride.

Authors note:
Hey everyone! I hope you all are enjoying the story so far. Unfortunately, I am going to be out of town most of next week and am not sure if I will be able to update on Friday. Best case scenario I'll update sometime over the weekend but worst case you'll get 2 chapters next Friday.
Thanks for all the support!!❤️❤️❤️❤️