My Healer (Bewitched and Bewildered Book 3) (6 page)

"The squad in Jefferson consists of Radek Carson as Sheriff, Levi Sorrel as a police detective, Marco Rodriguez as Fire Marshall, Dax Vi'Eaereson as firefighter and Athan Durant as lead paramedic. They were my best friends growing up and always looked after me; they are the only family I have left."
 

"Ai-DEN! What the fuck!" Meryn screeched.

Aiden looked at her, puzzled. "What?"

"What? What do you mean what?" she asked, standing.

Seconds later Ryuu came rushing in with Penny on his hip. "
Denka
, what is the matter? What has he done this time?" he asked, setting Penny down on her feet. She ran over to Colton and climbed into his lap

Aiden glared at him. "Why do you always assume it's me?"

Ryuu glared at him flatly. "Because it usually is." He hurried to Meryn's side and cradled her wrist in his hand. Rheia watched in wonder as an electric blue dragon tattoo on Meryn's arm began to glow. Meryn took a deep breath, but continued to send her mate death glares.

Aiden looked around; the men all shook their heads and shrugged their shoulders. Rheia could see whatever had set Meryn off, the men were clueless as to what it was.

Ryuu maneuvered Meryn back into her chair. "Now tell me, what exactly has you so upset?"

Meryn pointed a finger at Aiden. "Him! He's been keeping secrets! Secrets that could have helped me months ago!"

"Oh my Gods!" Beth's eyes widened.
 

Meryn turned to her. "Exactly!"

Aiden rested his head on the table. "I never understand you," his voice was muffled by the table.

"Understand me? Understand
me!
" Meryn yelled jumping to her feet again.
 

She turned to Rheia. "You said your brothers are part of this Vanguard squad?" she asked.

Rheia nodded. "Yes."

"You say they're all across the country?" Meryn prompted.

"Yes, I've heard them talk about many different cities."

"So like, maybe, I don't know, five or ten squads?" Meryn asked.

Rheia shook her head. "More than that, at least one per state, for sure."

"Aiden!" Meryn turned back to Aiden and picked up a fork. "I'm going to fucking stab you!"

Aiden jumped back as Ryuu brought his arms up under Meryn to keep her from stabbing her mate.

"Meryn, you need to calm down and tell us why you're so upset!" Aiden said, concern etched over every inch of his face.

"You all can't be that thick?" Beth demanded, turning an angry look to her mate.
 

Gavriel shook his head. "We would never knowingly upset either of you my love."

"Let me stab him. Just once!" Meryn yelled. "Just four tiny holes!"

"Can someone please explain?" Aiden boomed.

"You want an explanation? Fine! How about this for an explanation? Lycaonia is slowly being invaded by ferals; we've been attacked not once, but twice. Manpower is so scarce I had to restructure your entire training system just to get rookie trainees distributed to speed up the training process and you mean to tell me you have hundreds, fucking
hundreds
of trained unit warriors around the country that you haven't told me about?" Meryn gasped for air. She glared at him for two seconds before bursting into tears.

Aiden moved forward, waving his hands around his mate, not knowing what to do. "Baby, please calm down, you'll make yourself sick." Ryuu released her and Meryn collapsed into Aiden's arms. "I didn't deliberately keep it from you, to be honest I forgot all about them. The Vanguard project was never sanctioned by the council, so it was all volunteer based. Instead of cycling from active duty to retirement, we had unit warriors establish identities outside of Lycaonia to provide quicker assistance to families living outside the four pillar cities. Instead of retiring, they were put in an inactive state until they returned. They aren't even on our rosters anymore. For all intents and purposes they are doing this on their own time."

"Please tell me you have a list somewhere. Please tell me you've been keeping track of their names and locations," Beth pleaded.

Aiden looked to Colton and Gavriel. Both men shook their heads.

"Unbelievable." Beth closed her eyes and leaned back in her chair.

Aiden pulled Meryn into his lap; she had calmed down enough that she was just sniffling. "You have to keep in mind, this project was never approved and it technically doesn't exist. As one warrior would return, another one would go out. If a warrior wanted rest and relaxation, he would put out feelers in a low-crime area. If they wanted sunny weather and the beach, he would check with coastal squads to see if they had an opening. These men go into an inactive status when they leave. They pretty much run things themselves with Radek being point of contact to me for all the squads. He might have more information, but then again, he lives outside of Lycaonia and doesn't have to worry about paperwork being found in an audit."

"Don't blow smoke, Aiden." Beth said, her eyes opening. A small grin tugged at the corners of her mouth. "I saw the state of your office before we redecorated, you weren't worried about an audit."

Aiden had the decency to blush.

Colton leaned back in his chair and threaded his fingers behind his head. "Radek is still with Vanguard huh? That sneaky bastard, he owes me five bucks."

Everyone turned to face him. Rheia knew that his offhanded comment made it seem like the missing five dollars was Colton's only concern, but she saw it for what it was, comic relief. Sure enough, when she looked around everyone was smiling.

"I can call him for you. I'm sure he'd be very interested to hear you're my mate." Rheia teased.

Colton's chair landed on all fours and he looked at her not blinking. "Fuck! I've mated Radek Carson's little sister."

"Actually, he calls me his
baby
sister. That probably doesn't make a difference though." Rheia laughed at Colton's morose expression, it tickled her.

"You talk about him like you know him," Beth said.

The men all nodded.

"He's good enough to be in Alpha, he could have had my position if he had wanted it. But the idea of leaving Lycaonia was too tempting," Colton explained.

"We need an accurate count of all Vanguard warriors and their locations. Then we need to be able to get in contact with them and mobilize them if need be. Then we have to make sure that they are either up to speed on current human technology or get a sixth man out to them to run their command centers." Meryn began listing everything that needed to be done.

Beth stood. "First things first, your wellness checkup. I'm sure that Rheia would love to see our recently renovated clinic."

Meryn stood, her eyes and nose red. "Okay." All the spunk seemed to have been drained from her during her outburst.

"I'm sorry, baby, if I had remembered I would have told you sooner." Aiden nuzzled her cheek gently.

Meryn sighed. "It's just that Beth and I worry about you guys all the time. You're always outnumbered, the ferals seem to be breeding like rabbits," she turned to Beth, "no offense." Beth rolled her eyes. Meryn continued. "We've been doing everything we can think of to help you. If even half the Vanguard returned, we could easily triple our numbers. We never know which routine patrol will be the one where one of you doesn't return and it eats us up inside."

The men fell silent.

Rheia stood and stretched. "Nothing in life is guaranteed, not even tomorrow. I learned that early in life. You have to do what you can, when you can, like wellness appointments or Disney World." She smiled at Colton. "What you can't do, is live in fear. It will leech every moment of joy out of the time that you do have, and that's no life at all." She turned to Penny. "What do we do when we're afraid of something?" she asked the little girl.

Penny stuck her tongue out and blew a loud raspberry. Rheia nodded. "That's right, baby girl. You give it the ole two finger salute and you keep moving forward, because backward isn't an option."

Gavriel shook his head ruefully. "Human's lives are so short, but the wisdom you acquire stuns me at times."

Rheia looked at him. "It's because our lives are so short that we have to learn quickly." She turned to Beth. "Ready when you are, only, who'll watch Penny?"

Colton spoke up quickly. "We can watch her," he said, pointing to the men.

Rheia looked around, the men wore varying expressions, ranging from neutral to anxious. "Are you sure?"

Colton nodded. "Absolutely! We got this."

Beth and Meryn walked around the table heading towards the doorway, Ryuu following behind them.

Rheia kissed Penny on the forehead. "Same rules with Papa as when Uncle Radek and your other uncles watch you, okay?"

Penny nodded and reached into her small backpack to pull out a cell phone.

Rheia smiled. "Good girl."

"Wait, what rules?" Colton asked as she walked out of the room.

"Never mind. Have fun." She waved goodbye.

In the foyer, Beth eyed her scrubs. "Are you sure you don't want to change?"

Rheia looked Beth up and down taking in her outfit. "You're a clothes person, aren't you?"

Meryn chuckled. "You have no idea."

Rheia pointed to her scrubs and shook her head. "No thanks, I like my scrubs."

Beth shuddered.
 

"Ladies, your coats." Ryuu held three coats over one arm, he handed them out, one by one.

Meryn arranged her scarf and Rheia could have sworn it moved on its own. Blinking she looked again and it was still.

"Okay, let's blow this popsicle stand," Meryn said heading out the door.

Rheia followed eager to see somewhere familiar.
 

I can't wait to get to the clinic and normalcy.

CHAPTER FOUR

Colton bundled up Penny before they took her outside. The construction crew building the trainee's new barracks had moved the dumpsters yesterday, giving them back the grassy area they used for drills. Penny stood calmly at his side holding his hand.

"Are you sure this is a good idea? Having her outside during training?" Colton asked Aiden. The men were all staring at the little girl as if they had never seen a child before.

His friend turned to him. "Why not? She can't be inside all by herself, she could trip and fall or choke or drown in a bathtub. You heard your mate; she knows how to cut pieces off without killing us. Do you really want to risk something happening to our little angel here?"

Colton's brows furrowed. "Why would she be in the bathtub?"

Aiden rub his hands over his face. "I don't know, but I remember doing a lot of stuff when we were cubs that didn't make sense."

"Good point." Colton looked down at Penny. "No bathtubs, okay?" Penny nodded and gave a thumbs up, her tiny hand encased in a mitten. Colton's heart was a melted pile of goo in his chest. He scooped her up and kissed her cheek. "You're so damn cute!"

"Ahh, sir? What's with the kid?" Graham, the Delta Unit leader asked.

Aiden thought about it for a second then smiled. "So glad you asked." He walked over to Colton and Penny. "Penny, are you good at hiding?" She nodded. "Are you fast?" She nodded again.

Colton felt a growl crawl up the back of his throat. He turned his body so Penny was away from Aiden. "What in the hell are you thinking?" he demanded.

Aiden looked hurt for a moment before he reached out and cuffed Colton in the back of the head.

"Ow dammit!"

"Do you really think I would do anything to put her or any child in danger? You're like a brother to me Colton; I would never hurt my own niece," Aiden grumbled.

Colton was instantly contrite. "I'm sorry Aiden. My wolf is really at the surface, any perceived threat and he loses his mind."

"Apology accepted." Aiden nodded his head and turned to walk towards the group.

"Especially since I was going to ask you to be her
Athair
," Colton yelled to Aiden's back.

Colton had known all his life that if he had any children Aiden would be their
Athair
.
 

Aiden turned back around to face him and looked dumbstruck. Colton turned to Penny. "Penny, do you know what an
Athair
is?" She shook her head. "An
Athair
is someone very special in the life of a child. If anything were to happen to me or your mommy, Aiden would take over raising you and he would see to your protection and care." Penny's arms tightened around his neck. "Nothing is going to happen, I promise."

"Did you mean it?" Aiden asked quietly.

"Of course I did you idiot. I chose you to be my children's
Athair
when we were pups."

"Thank you for the honor, I will help protect her with my life," Aiden said, sounding choked up. The damn bear had always been sentimental.

"Congratulations Aiden, we know you'll be a wonderful
Athair
." Sascha clapped Aiden on the back.

Aiden winked at Penny and nodded at Colton before turning to face the men. "We have a new little cadet with us today. She assures me that she is great at hiding and is very fast. We'll be dividing up into units; the goal of this drill is to protect your bell tower from this stealthy assassin," Aiden said pointing to Penny. Colton was surprised to see her put on a pretty scary "game face", but he was even more surprised to see two of the warriors step back from her. He leaned in. "Did your Uncle Radek teach you that?" he whispered. She nodded. "Not bad kiddo." She held up her mitten hand, Colton gave her a high five.

"Any unit that cannot defend their tower will have extra laps and will be put on the list as available babysitters for one afternoon." Aiden looked at his clipboard. "Trainees, your jobs will be to distract your unit, giving our angel opportunities to ring those bells. Alpha trainees, your job will be to record how many times each bell is rung. Any questions?" Aiden asked looking up.

"What will the Alpha Unit be doing?" Sascha asked pointing out the fact that they only had three bell towers, one each for Gamma, Delta and Beta. The absent two units were running patrols.

"We'll be making sure nothing happens to Penny. Let's get something straight men, I love all of you like brothers, but if anything happens to my niece I will happily turn you over to her mother, and trust me, she is not a woman to be trifled with, understood?" Aiden gave them men dark looks.