Chen Read online

  He knew full well what dirtsiders were, of course. You couldn’t work on board a vessel like the Hunting Cry and not pick up some of the slang that formed the core of the rangers’ language skills. Avoiding their sense of superiority was easier. “Drill is different. No doubt she’d be desperate to fulfill her normal role in the group.” If anything, it made the wolf more prone to re-injuring herself, not less, but he wasn’t going to rub Chen’s nose in that. Pun intended.

  “She was with the rest of the pack, playing. I wasn’t paying attention at the time, and then she just...screamed.” Chen’s fear and frustration came through in more than her tone, and he could feel Nujalik stiffen in response to her bondmate’s distress.

  “That explains a lot. If she’s not focused on her every footfall, like she would be during a drill, she’s more likely to do something unexpected, and that can aggravate an existing injury quickly.” Wolves didn’t share everything in their experience across the wolfbond, at least that’s how his instructors had explained it. They could only share what they were aware of and understood. Sometimes that didn’t include what their bodies were doing. “Look, do you behave the same way in front of your parents as you do when it’s your friends? Of course not. Nujalik’s no different. She could have twisted, or stretched, or landed badly. Play had her distracted, or giddy, as opposed to her more careful behavior in a combat scenario.” He put pressure along the line of the wolf’s femur, and Nujalik growled a low warning.

  Chen surged forward, looking ready to tear him away from her wolf, though some internal restraint held her back at the last second. He’d never seen anyone move so fast. He felt a sudden kinship with her opponents; being on the receiving end of one of her attacks must be terrifying. And that was before you added in the invisible wolf.

  He held his hands up, and Nujalik crossed back to Chen’s side, butting her head against Chen’s leg. As Chen relaxed, the fist punishing his heart slowly eased its grip and let him take a breath. The pain in the animal’s hip was early but no less a warning for that. “She needs to spend more time in regular gravity.”

  “What do you think we’ve been doing?” Chen barked. “I just said we spent three days drilling with the local forces.”

  “And that’s a good start, but she needs more.”

  Chen gritted her teeth. “How much more? She’s not some dirtsider’s K9. She’s a ranger.”

  “What she’s going to be is crippled,” he snapped. Wrong approach. Wrong tone, and not the way to get her to understand. Javad counted to ten silently, pushing his glasses up so he could rub the bridge of his nose. “I’m sorry. What I’m trying to say is if she doesn’t spend time in constant gravity and let her hip heal properly, this could turn into a more serious injury.” And that was assuming he’d gotten all the obsidian shrapnel out four months ago. Except why would it be surfacing now if he hadn’t? “If it turns into hip problems, they’re going to be a lot more difficult to fix.”

  “Maybe if you hadn’t re-opened her leg, it wouldn’t be an issue.” Chen’s voice was almost a hiss.

  Rage flared white hot in his chest and turned his words into a snarl. He’d made the right call, and he’d be damned if some ranger questioned his judgment. “Because she’d be so much better off with pieces of volcanic glass slowly cutting deeper into her muscles. Every step driving them farther until they nick something important, like the femoral artery, and she bleeds out without warning. That’s what you would have preferred to happen?”

  Chen paled, and regret twinged in his chest. Rangers were all so damn stoic—a trait their wolves tended to carry in abundance as well. Dammit, someone had to point out that not everything got better with time.

  They stared at each other for more than a minute, her intensity enough to trigger his flight response. A muscle in her cheek jumped as she ground her teeth, but he refused to yield on this. When he felt he’d held her stare long enough to make his point, he broke the gaze. Like wolves, sometimes you had to challenge just enough to let them know you wouldn’t back down.

  Breath eased out of her in a resigned sigh. “I know a place we can go.”

  “It needs soft, uneven ground, ideally with no stairs. Treat her like a pup—carry her up and down the stairs if you have to.” Too much stair time could aggravate the problem with an RSI, but he didn’t share that. He watched her absorb the new information, determine its worth, and file it away. “I’m only trying to point out what’s best for both of you.”

  Her eyes narrowed, and she inhaled sharply. “Most people who say that mean what’s good for them.”

  “I’m not most people, I’m your wolf’s doctor. And yours, as a result. You don’t have to take my advice; I’m letting you know what the outcome could be if you don’t.”

  “And that is?”

  “Hip replacement. A year or more of rehab. And your fireteam without you for that entire time.” He hated pushing it, but at the end of the day that’s where this foolishness was headed. If nothing was done, things would only get worse. The pain on her face didn’t make him feel any better about his honesty. “I’m sorry.”

  He offered Nujalik a final treat to coax her away from Chen, wondering if he’d be able to identify any issues with her gait now that he knew what to look for. If it was there, the blur of the wolf’s coat hid it well. He grimaced. “When you take her dirtside, let me know. You can leave a message with the med center.”

  She watched him with a guarded expression. “Why?”

  “I’d like to see how she moves in full gravity. I’ll head down-well with you.”

  “I can take a drone, send video. No need for you to bother.”

  “It’s not a bother. And even holovid won’t give me the detail I need. I trust my eyes better than a video compression artifact.” He smiled and opened his hands. “I don’t want to follow you around for a week. I need maybe an hour of observation at the start, and the same again towards the end. To make sure she’s making progress.”

  Chen put her hand on the door and slid it open. “I’ll see what we can do.”

  “Do what’s right for Nujalik.” He tapped his omni against hers and heard it beep as it accepted the note. “Call back next cycle. I’ll have a set of exercises ready to download to your omni. We can talk about the best time for me to do observations then.”

  “Like I said, we’ll see.” Chen whistled, and Nujalik bounded out the door ahead of her, looking for all the world like an excited blur at her bondmate’s feet. Javad made a mental note to send the exercises to her omni in advance, since there was no way she’d be inviting him planetside like he’d asked.

  That seemed like the best choice for everyone but Nujalik.

  Three

  Chen dropped her tray onto the table from higher than she’d intended, and the racket startled an uncomfortable pause into what little conversation was happening in the mostly empty mess. She set Nujalik’s bowl on the floor more carefully, then used her napkin to clean up where the fruit salad had splashed onto the tabletop. She hated dragging a sleeve through someone’s spill and refused to put anyone else in that position.

  A quick glare convinced the diners still watching to turn away, while her wolf checked under the table for any tasty tidbits that had been left behind before focusing on her own meal.

  May settled onto the bench opposite her. Measured against their typically even keel, their raised eyebrow and twinkling eye practically constituted hysterical laughter. “So, the appointment went well. Do I need to requisition a new doctor?”

  In spite of herself, Chen relaxed into a smile at the jibe. “Not today. I make no guarantees about tomorrow.”

  “Wow, you must really like him.” May dug into their bowl of vegetables and rice in time to miss the heat that flared across Chen’s cheeks.

  She closed her eyes and let out a careful breath as she brought her traitorous body under control. Dr. Priddy had a way of slipping past her defenses that was dangerous, combined with a general openness that tugged at her lik
e a magnet. The man acted as if he’d never been hurt, never had to wall off a part of himself. It would have been intoxicating if it wasn’t also baffling.

  No, the problem was he knew he was easy to like. And he had too much insight into how wolves behaved for a simple civilian doc. She choked down a spoonful of the too-sweet fruit cocktail. “What do we know about him?”

  “Priddy?” May either contemplated the question for a moment or counted ceiling tiles. Chen wasn’t quite sure which. “The Forces recruited him before the ink on his licenses had dried. He’s apparently some kind of wunderkind with canines, and they were hoping it would translate to umbra wolves.”

  “Nujalik likes him, so that probably tracks.”

  May shook their head. “Nujalik likes anyone who has food or belly rubs to share.”

  From under the table, her wolf gave an annoyed sneeze, and Chen chuckled. “You can be upset if you want, but you know it’s true.” The spiky wave of her wolf’s annoyance dragged across Chen’s spine, and she combed her fingers through Nujalik’s coat until the wolf’s pride had been salved.

  Once her wolf had settled and returned to her bowl, Chen felt like she could address the bigger question. “The doctor thinks there are persistent issues with Nujalik’s hip. That she’s either aggravated an existing injury or created a new one.”

  May paused and set their spoon down. “What did he say about the issues with your bond?”

  Chen picked up the yellow, crumbly cube from the corner of her tray and took a bite. All the moisture immediately fled from her mouth, failing to soften the overly dry, slightly bitter compound. She drained her tea in a failed attempt to swallow it down without sputtering. When she’d cleared her palate, she managed to croak out, “I thought that was cornbread!”

  “Hm. So do they, I suppose.” May did smirk at that, a tiny curl to the corner of their mouth that echoed their eyebrow. “I forgot to mention, the bio-fabricator’s having an issue with its settings, so the cornbread may be a little dry. Which is why I selected the vegetarian option.”

  Technically, all the selections from a fabricator were vegetarian, since the machines printed out food from a selection of chemicals, and not from animal-sourced meat of any kind, but she didn’t feel like arguing.

  “Thanks for the intel, Corporal.” Nujalik’s concern crept into the corner of Chen’s awareness, pricking her skin like the silence in the wake of an unanswered question. She reached down and winnowed her fingers into the wolf’s ruff in reassurance.

  “Any time. I have to take care of my team, after all.” May chewed another spoonful of what looked like cubes of sweet potato. Or maybe carrot. “So, you were saying?”

  “That you’re not going to let it rest?”

  They tilted their head, eyes glittering in quiet acknowledgment of the obvious.

  “Fine.” Chen took a bite of her food, hiding behind the simple action long enough to decide how she’d advance. The entrée, some kind of mushroom gravy and printed protein patty, was surprisingly flavorful. Apparently, all the effort had gone into that instead of the sides. “I didn’t mention the bond issues with him. He’s not a psychologist, and he’s not going to understand the wolfbond. It’s like anything else, it just needs time.”

  “I see.” May set their bowl down and leaned against the back of the bench. “You know I hate to push, but I need to ask. Because you can bet your hide that Penzak will ask me. Is this a danger to the unit? And is your refusal to consider treatment a result of a lack of confidence in Dr. Priddy? Or fear that something might actually be wrong?”

  Somehow their words made the food in Chen’s mouth dissolve into a chewy, flavorless paste. She forced herself to finish chewing and swallow. “Can it be a little of both?” Though she had to admit, it wasn’t that she suspected he was wrong, so much as the doctor’s tendency to be so damn smug about being right.

  Their face softened. “It can. But there still needs to be a solution.”

  She nodded. “He suggested a week or more in planetary gravity, to see if it starts to reverse the effects.” Gravity could vary in even a midsized ship like the Hunting Cry, based on a number of variables that she didn’t bother to keep track of.

  “It might also give you two time together without the distraction of other rangers, other wolves. Which could help strengthen the wolfbond again.”

  Chen smirked. “Now who’s grasping at straws.”

  May’s face grew somber. “Your friend, and your battle buddy. And the corporal who needs every member of their fireteam at the top of their game.”

  “I’d have to take leave.” Chen looked down at her wolf and tried to come up with another option. Something that didn’t involve her leaving the only people she cared about short-handed in case something happened somewhere in the Three Systems.

  “It’s recovery time for a squad mate. Besides, you haven’t taken time away since—” They cut themselves off before saying her name, but Chen heard it anyway.

  Since Elena and you broke up.

  And it was true. Hell, it had been true before the relationship ended. One of the many reasons that they’d fought had been Elena’s insistence that Chen put their relationship ahead of her fireteam. As if that was even possible—with a civil war brewing on Tyson, and Triptych increasing their attacks throughout the Three Systems, now was not the time to leave her teammates unsupported. And it wasn’t like she could just set aside the wolfbond. The pack was forever. Something else Elena had never understood.

  Chen tensed her jaw as she pushed back Elena’s unwanted intrusion into her thoughts and dropped her shields back into place. “Actually, I was thinking the cabin would be a perfect location.”

  May watched her a moment, then shook their head. “Since you were going to risk reopening old wounds already.”

  “Don’t start. Besides, it meets all the requirements.” Chen counted them on her fingers. “It’s remote, so no one will bother us, especially now that it’s winter down there. It’s mine, so I know it’s available. There are no stairs. Soft, mostly even ground around the cabin. Plenty of woods to run in.” It was also the place Chen had taken Elena whenever she’d gone on leave. Going would allow her to scrub the rest of her ex’s presence from what used to be Chen’s safe haven.

  “You could do scent training while you’re down there. We need more wolves than Pakhet who can do the work.” At the mention of her name, May’s wolf popped her head over the edge of the table. Her amber eyes looked at Chen’s discarded cornbread with suspicion.

  Chen pushed the dusty cube closer to the wolf’s nose, leaving a trail of crumbs in its wake that she knew she’d have to sweep up so they wouldn’t get into the air-scrubbers and destroy a seal or something.

  May’s hand intercepted the faux-cornbread and scooped it into their bowl despite the disappointed whine from their wolf. “Believe me. You wouldn’t have liked it, and then you’d stop trusting Chen. And where would that get us?” They scrubbed between the wolf’s ears, and she grinned in tongue-lolling satisfaction.

  Chen watched the proceedings but didn’t rise to her squad mate’s barb. May’s suggestion had a lot of merit, if she was honest. Scent work would allow a fair bit of trotting about and let Nujalik practice critical problem-solving skills, which would keep her from getting bored. It also would better test and push the bond between them than endless games of fetch or aimless rambling about in the woods that surrounded her property. Most importantly, it would be a new skill that could improve the squad.

  And she wouldn’t feel like she was hiding.

  Chen swallowed. “I need you to promise me. If we get deployed, you’ll send a shuttle. I couldn’t bear it if you all went into the field without me.”

  “Like I’d go anywhere without my support specialist.” May sipped at their tea and leaned across the table. “Penzak would recall you, even if I didn’t. He knows how important you are to the team. If I have any warning at all, I’ll make sure you drop with us.”

  “Even if th
ere’s no warning. You need to make sure I get word of it.”

  “I promise,” May said. Two words that, from them, were as good as carved in stone. “Good enough?”

  “I can accept that.” Chen knew they’d do everything in their power, but having the reassurance helped.

  “When are you planning to leave?”

  “It’ll be a couple of cycles, I imagine. I need to check my responsibilities and get things squared away before I can go.” Chen took a drink.

  “Luckily, your duty roster shifts have already been cleared for the next two weeks.” May offered a thin-lipped smile. “And the third is light enough that it can be cleared.”

  Chen choked on her tea, coughing and sputtering as the liquid invaded her sinuses. “You knew?” Anger flared at the back of Chen’s throat, outrage that they’d dragged her through the whole conversation without need.

  May shook their head once. “I didn’t know. I suspected. Even if they put Nujalik into shipboard rehab, you’d have been out of commission. I needed to make a decision that would allow the squad to keep functioning. I predict and take action to mitigate. That’s my job.”

  Chen spun her tray one-eighty and placed her fireteam leader’s bowl on top of it. “That and clean up detail. After all, I’ve got to get packed if I’m going to get out of here.” She stood and stepped out from behind the table. “Permission to leave, Corporal?”

  “I could order you—”

  “But you won’t.” Chen smiled her friendliest smile. They’d played through the same ritual almost every day since she’d first been assigned to the fireteam. “If you did that, you’d have nothing to complain about.”

  May scoffed quietly before standing and gathering up both trays. “Get packed, Specialist. I want you headed to Farhope before the end of the next cycle, or...”