The Ultimatum

Chapter 2

【❀ A Few Months Later ❀】

It's been a few months now since I met Peter, since Evelyn and then Al passed away, and Peter got engaged to someone else. I took the money the Johnsons left for me in their will and enrolled in a program to turn my CNA licensure into a LNP license an hour from my old pack. Since I'd already been taking classes online while working for the Johnsons, I don't have long left before I complete my training and graduate from my program. It's the last week left of clinicals and then another week of class and exams before I graduate as a licensed nurse practitioner and I can start my new journey as a traveling nurse, where I never have to be dependent on my old pack and I never have to see Peter again. Hopefully, in my travels I can find a new pack to join and fly my mom and dad out for visits. But until then, it's a cheap apartment and busting my ass to graduate and get as far away as possible.

Only one more patient to attend to tonight, and I'm done with my shift. He's a pretty easy one, too. He broke one of his legs and cracked a rib in a car accident this afternoon and would've had to get a screw in his leg but he's been healing "exceptionally fast" according to the nurses at the station down the corridor. This likely has to do with the fact that he's a werewolf, and not human, but I don't mention that to them. They're human, and they'd never understand the existence of our world. Luckily, one of the head nurses and a few of the doctors are also werewolves and take care of his different pain medication doses and that type of thing while they wait for the last of his test results, but it's also why I'm assigned to him and not another intern, which is a shame because the only thing Vincent has to do in his newly-found downtime is flirting with me and stockpiling the jello I give him to get him to stop asking for my number. He's a pretty funny guy, truthfully, and cute, but the last thing I'm worried about right now is a boyfriend when I'm in school and working weekends transcribing medical audio on top of trying to forget all the reasons I left home in the first place.

For now all he can do is sit back and enjoy his stay until his tests come back and we can give him his prescriptions and discharge paperwork, which he's not taking very well. All I have left to do today is make sure he doesn't want anything and I'm in the clear to clock out and go home. I can already feel my bed calling out to me. I check my watch as I turn the door handle, and am not surprised to find out that it's already past ten at night. The goal is to be asleep before midnight for once. I enter the room, mouth already open to ask if I can bring him more jello or fix the pillows since he has trouble turning with his sore ribs, to find a few of his friends standing around him. Two men are on either side of him, attempting to hoist him out of bed, which they definitely should not be doing in his condition. He's mostly healed but he still needs crutches to keep the weight off of his still-mending bones if he wants to stand on his own and I know his ribs are still sensitive to the touch. I clear my throat loudly and watch them jump at being discovered.

One of them, a tall blonde wearing a yellow Hamilton High sweatshirt, has the decency to look at least a little bit embarrassed at having been caught in here well after visiting hours for this wing, but the other, a tan and toned looking brunette who is clearly feeling unrepentant for his actions, just flashes me a mischievous grin. I feel my heart rate kick up as adrenaline sets in. I'm not sure what trouble they're getting into, but I don't like it.

"Oh hey, Claire, what's up?" Vin asks, clearly having been caught in the wrong.

"Vin, I am this close to stealing your jello and eating it because you're killing me here. You know that it's past visiting hours and you shouldn't be up on your own without crutches anyway, so I think your friends should leave so you can get to your beauty rest and jello cups before I have to call security, because I'm tired and ready to see my bed. And I'm sure none of us want that, so-" I turn the handle and hold the door open for them to exit. They're still for a minute, and by the looks of concentration on their faces, I'm guessing they're mind-linking each other. I narrow my eyes. "Please don't make me have to call someone and be stuck here another half an hour," I plead, "Just leave. You can even take a Jello on your way out, but I am finally going to bed before midnight."

And they do. Leave, that is. At the same time, they hoist Vincent up between them. With a wink from Vincent, they take off, scurrying right past me and the door I'm still holding open. My jaw falls open. I dash out after them and see them heading for the stairwell. I turn and jog in the opposite direction for the nurses' station, skidding to a halt at the counter in front of a very alarmed-looking Delilah trying to pretend she wasn't just playing candy crush on her phone in the middle of her shift. "Call security! The patient from Room 203 just ran out without being discharged!" She swipes one last time and drops her phone. She spins to the intercom, punching in her code and explaining to a confused security guard. Security is too late to catch them, though, and I end up staying an extra half an hour explaining to my supervisor what happened in an excessive amount of detail.