No Anesthesia

"I need to intubate if your O2 sats drop," Elena said, her voice clipped.

She had managed to leverage him onto the gurney. The overhead lights hummed, casting harsh shadows over his brutalized body. She had cut away his shirt, revealing a torso of corded muscle and ancient scars.

"No tubes," Kaelen grunted. He gripped the rails of the bed, his knuckles white. "And no anesthesia."

"I have to stitch three layers of muscle, Kaelen," Elena argued, holding a syringe of lidocaine. "You will go into shock from the pain."

"I need to stay awake," he snarled. "They're still out there. If I sleep, they breach."

"Who is they?"

"The Northern Rogues. They want my territory. They want my head." He looked at her, his golden eyes narrowing. "And now that they have my scent leading here, they'll want you, too."

Elena paused. She set the lidocaine down and picked up the needle driver. "Then hold still."

She drove the needle into the raw meat of his chest.

Kaelen didn't scream. He hissed through his teeth, his abdominal muscles seizing. Sweat beaded on his forehead.

"Talk to me," Elena ordered, trying to distract him as she tied the first knot. "Why were you this far north?"

"Following a pull," Kaelen gritted out. He watched her hands. He wasn't watching the procedure; he was watching *her*. "A scent on the wind. For three years. Winter and wild sage."

Elena’s hands faltered. That was her shampoo.

"It's biology," she said sharply, resuming the stitching. "Pheromones. Compatible immune systems. It's not magic."

"It's destiny," Kaelen corrected. His voice was getting stronger, despite the blood loss. His werewolf healing factor was fighting the damage, burning through calories at a terrifying rate. "You can hide in your white coat all you want, Elena. But you feel it. The heat."

He reached up with a bloody hand and tucked a stray lock of hair behind her ear. The touch scorched her skin.

"I feel adrenaline," Elena said, pulling away. "I feel the stress of a trauma situation."

"Liar," Kaelen murmured. "You feel the bond. It scares you because you can't control it. You can't put it in a chart."

"I am not yours," she snapped, pointing her scalpel at him. "I am your surgeon. There is a boundary."

Kaelen smiled. It was a bloody, feral expression. "Boundaries are for humans, Elena. I'm going to tear yours down until there is nothing left but us."

*ZZZT.*

The overhead lights flickered.

Elena looked up. "The generator..."

The lights died.

Pitch blackness swallowed the room. The hum of the heater cut out. The silence of the clinic was instantly replaced by the roar of the wind outside—and something else.

The sound of glass shattering in the waiting room.

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