Shifting Boundaries

Chapter Nine

Felix

Everett asked if he could come with me to my appointment with Paula on Monday, which was a surprise. I agreed, of course. I wanted to encourage any degree of involvement from my reluctant mate. It was actually kind of adorable, the way he intensely watched Paula as she did my check-up. Any time her brow furrowed even a little bit, he got anxious and asked what was wrong. The third time it happened, Paula threatened to send him out into the hallway until she was finished if he didn't calm down. Everett scowled until he saw me fighting back a laugh – then he blushed and looked down, keeping quiet, though the worry didn't quite leave his eyes until Paula proclaimed me to be healthy and recovered.

Paula cleared me to go back to work, which broke Everett's sulking silence as he leapt to his feet and shook his head, his mouth open and moving, but the words seeming to get caught in his throat. His eyes locked on mine and I read the clear panic there. "Give us a minute?" I murmured to Paula, who quietly left the room, shutting the door behind her.

As soon as the door was shut, Everett's arms wrapped around me in a crushing hug. "Woah, calm down," I said, hugging him back just as fiercely. I was taller than he was, so I was able to engulf him in my embrace in a way that felt completely right. Everett's head tucked against my shoulder and he showed no sign of letting go any time soon.

I rubbed soothing circles over Everett's back until he leaned back enough to look up at me. "You're worried about me going back to work," I said.

Everett winced. "Yeah."

I nodded, watching him thoughtfully. Since he seemed less panicked and more ready to talk it out now, I pulled him back onto the exam table so we could sit side-by-side. I kept Everett tucked snugly against me and he leaned into the contact, sending shoots of excitement and warmth through me. It had been hard to respect his boundaries over the past couple of days, and it was only getting worse as I got to know Everett better. Finally being able to hold him like this brought me acute relief.

I looked down at him, taking in the way his teeth worried at his lip and his eyes darted around the room nervously. I decided to try a logical approach. "You know, I've been doing this for almost a decade now and this is my first bad injury. I'm very good at protecting myself. They wouldn't have me training others in defense if that weren't true."

Everett jerked in my arms and shot an indignant look at me. "This wasn't your first bad injury," he protested.

I frowned at him. Even if I had been injured badly before – which I hadn't been – how would he know? Everett rolled his eyes at my confusion and jerked the neckline of my t-shirt down to show the thick scars on my chest.

"Oh," I said. "Those weren't anything serious, Everett."

His eyes bulged and he shook his head. "Not serious? They scarred you, Felix. It takes a lot to scar a werewolf."

"All of those scars are from the same week," I told him, hoping more information would calm him down. "A pack from up north lost their land when the government claimed eminent domain. They tried to purchase some of ours, but we wouldn't sell... so they tried to take it by force. Since they had to move everyone in their entire pack, anyone capable of fighting did, not just a smaller strike force like we would expect. I've never seen anything like it – dozens of wolves led a sneak attack in the night. If we weren't so good at patrolling, they might have succeeded in assassinating the higher-ups in Lakota and winning by dawn.

"Instead, we rallied and forced them out of our land. It took days of fighting, with those of us taking part in the battle running off to sleep only when we absolutely had to. We weren't able to spend energy on healing because of that, so we got scars from wounds that normally would have healed completely."