CHAPTER ONE
Geraldine
Fuck my life—Dr Fleming was coming my way.
Nobody on this great, green earth could annoy me quite like Dr Fleming could. His aggravating, flirtatious remarks paired with his persistence to get into my bed—in any way he possibly could—made him a nightmare to work with. Truly, there was no one more annoying than him.
The swagger of his walk and the smirk on his lips told me I was about to deal with his advances all over again. Just as I had for the past three weeks.
You’d think a guy like him could handle being rejected. It appeared not.
It wasn’t as if I didn’t want to be with someone, but my heart couldn’t accept Dr Fleming. He was my superior. He was everything I didn’t want in a mate, and he was hardly close to being my true mate, anyway. No spark had formed between us. I routinely checked my inner beast, taking her guidance as a way to develop my path. She didn’t nudge me when Dr Fleming was around. In fact, she did quite the opposite. She grew restless, irritable, and discontent, nostrils flaring possessively whenever Dr Fleming stood too close to me—which was something he did far too often.
I had been single for years, left to entertain myself without a potential mate in sight. I’d had a few close calls, but nothing that could compare to what I had once had, to the teal thread that, despite it’s being so thin, had led to one man in particular, by the name of Nathaniel Thornton.
Fantasies filled my head of that dashing man, who had potentially occupied such an important place in my life. He was a doctor, sure, but he was also different. He was heartbroken, a man too far down at the bottom of a bottle to notice that there were people around him who cared about what happened to him.
One of those is me, I thought with a depressed, faraway look in my eyes. He doesn’t see me as his potential mate, just the girl who picks him up when he’s down.
His name sat on the edge of my lips, prepared to be heard by whoever passed by. Which just happened to be Dr Fleming.
I bit my lower lip.
“Good morning, Geraldine,” Dr Fleming purred as he leaned against the counter. “Did you sleep well?”
“I slept fine, Dr Fleming.”
He chuckled handsomely. “Please, call me Claude. We’ve known each other long enough.”
I rolled my eyes. Unfortunately. I cleared my throat and smiled tightly as I replied, “I’ll do no such thing.”
“We can be friends, Dine. It’s fine to be friends. Besides, you volunteer here. It wouldn’t be so awful to maybe grab a drink sometime.”
“I’m busy.”
He laughed. “I haven’t even told you when.”
I glanced at my phone. To hell with trying to be professional. I was done with his antics. “I’m definitely busy.”
“How about tonight? I can take you to that restaurant you’ve been wanting to visit.”
“No.”
He drummed the counter, annoyance etched in his movements as he studied me from head to toe. It didn’t take a psychic to tell me what he was thinking—I knew. I didn’t appreciate him undressing me in the middle of the hospital.
“Busy,” I repeated firmly as I scrolled through my messages. “Like I said.”
“Just give me a chance.”
“Nope.”
A huff escaped him. If he were a dragon, it would have been a puff of smoke. I could feel my inner beast twitching at the sight of his disappointment. Though it pleased me to turn him down, I knew it would only make him punch back harder at a later date.
Fuck me.
“One of these days, Dine,” he assured me, knocking on the counter once more before drifting away. “I’ll get you.”
“No, you won’t.”
Once he was gone, I deflated into the desk chair behind me, gripping the edge of the counter to steady myself. Anybody with eyes could tell the man had a raging boner for me. It disgusted me that he couldn’t take a damned rejection with grace and dignity.
I rolled my eyes. Wolves are like that. I could smell the angry mutt’s scent lingering even after he had disappeared from sight. Wolves had such a distinct scent. I bristled as I considered how much he would hate me if he were to discover the truth about me and my beastly side.
Maybe I should tell him. Maybe that’ll make him leave me alone.
I shook my head. It was out of the question. No one could know about my true identity, not even my best friend in the entire world.
And speaking of my best friend, she had yet to give me an update on her happily ever after.
I checked my phone again, doing a double-take when I noticed that there was a new text message from an unsaved number.
“Drunk. Stuck at gas station off I-516.”
It was a no brainer. Nathaniel had fallen off the wagon again. It was a shame I loved him so much or I might have just left him there to learn his lesson.
But would he learn it or just repeat it until he ended up in a ditch? I tried not to think of the alternatives. My heart seized at the thought of waking to such awful news. Or jail. That would be preferable. At least, he would be safe there. Safe from himself.
The two hours remaining on my shift meant nothing to me. I volunteered at this hospital. It was nestled away from downtown, which posed an inconvenience to those who needed it most. Many of our patients were homeless, or well on their way to being homeless, and often couldn’t afford quality care.
Ever since the Dr Bishop’s practice had shut down, I’d needed something new to do with my time. I picked up volunteer shifts here on the weekends to keep me busy, to keep my brain from creating scenarios where my best friend was lost to the sands of time.