“Have anything in your past you’re afraid to share with the pack, Matthew? I understand you came here after your brother and his family and you had difficulties in a former pack. Anything that could create problems for you here if your past came under scrutiny? I’d be happy to look into it for Darien as a favor to the family.”

Matthew’s face reddened, and Ryan wondered what the nurse might have to hide. Carol looked like she didn’t appreciate Ryan bringing it up here in front of Jake. But if the guy was going to attack Ryan’s business ethics, he was fair game.

“We’ll get together another time for a date.” Matthew gave her another hint of a smile, cast a deadly look at Ryan, and hurried off.

Satisfied that he’d chased off a potential suitor who wasn’t good enough for Carol, Ryan waited for her to go about her nursing business.

“Being in charge of my social calendar is not what you’re paid to do,” she said with mock indignation.

“I’m getting paid to guard you wherever you go and no matter who you’re with, Carol. That’s the deal.” Ryan smiled.

Carol did not look too disappointed that he had put a damper on the date with the male nurse, however, Ryan noted.

Jake grinned at the exchange and then grew serious and started giving orders. “Mervin, take a chair and sit by the back door so you can make sure no one we don’t know goes in or out of there. Tom, you can watch the entryway and waiting room. I’ll check out the exam rooms and the perimeter of the place while Carol sees her patients. And, Ryan, let either of us know if you need a break, and we’ll stick close to Carol then.”

Ryan offered a single nod.

Jake gave Carol a last command also. “You see only special patients, not any of the others, Carol. One of us has to be with you at all times.”

Exasperated, she sighed. “Fine. I have work to do.” She headed into an exam room and busied herself with something nursing in nature, Ryan assumed, while he watched her back. Afterwards, she went to her station, took the first patient’s chart, and then returned to the waiting area.

Ryan wanted to speak with her about what had happened between them earlier that morning. But he knew he shouldn’t, or he’d find himself sunk even deeper into a quagmire of trouble. The way she had looked at him in the kitchen that morning, flushed with awkwardness, had endeared her even more to him.

He figured everyone in the room—Darien, his brothers, Lelandi, even that lame Mervin—suspected more had gone on between Carol and him during the night than they’d admitted. And he regretted he’d have to be more… guard-like tonight. Sitting in the recliner would have to do.

His attention on Carol, Ryan felt like a puppy following his master around as Carol called out, “Miss Silverpenny?” But he didn’t mind, as long as Carol remained safe.

Silverpenny was a good gray name, and when the petite elderly woman stood up from a chair in the waiting area, Ryan relaxed a little. She appraised Ryan as she joined them and smiled at Carol. “How was the gathering, dear?”

“Great,” Carol said, walking at the woman’s slower pace to her nurse’s station and casting a look at Ryan as if she didn’t want him to contradict her.

But hell, he hadn’t danced with anyone in eons who’d made him feel like a randy teen like Carol had. And he would have remained on the floor, holding her close, swaying to a new song, if he hadn’t known he’d have to give her up to the other bachelor males after a dance or two. More than that, though. He hadn’t wanted her to dance with Jake or Tom, not close like he’d danced with her, and he’d been afraid Jake might have tried to butt in.

Folding his arms, Ryan leaned against the wall across the hall and out of the way as Carol helped the woman stand on a scale.

“I swear I shrank another inch and gained two more pounds,” Miss Silverpenny grumbled, her slim figure on the frail side.

Carol smiled.

The woman cast a glance over her shoulder at Ryan. “When she measures my height, she makes me remove my shoes.” She motioned to the thick wedge-soled shoes she wore, which would add an inch and a half to anyone’s height. She pointed an accusing finger at Carol, although her eyes twinkled with mirth. “And when she takes just my weight, she won’t let me remove my shoes.” They had to have weighed at least five pounds.

The woman reminded him of his cantankerous old Aunt Tilda, good-natured and harmless.

“Are you her boyfriend?” the woman asked, her tone serious now.

Ryan opened his mouth to reply in the negative, but Carol beat him to it, which bothered him to a degree. Not that he minded her telling the truth, but that she seemed so anxious to ensure no one thought he might be the one for her. What was wrong with him as a prospective mate, anyway?

“No,” Carol quickly said to her patient, shaking her head as if her word wasn’t enough to convince her.

The woman looked back at Ryan, raised her brows, and smiled a little.

“You might have heard I had some trouble last night, and, well, Ryan’s watching over me to make sure there’s not another… incident,” Carol continued, as she readied a thermometer to take Miss Silverpenny’s temperature.

The woman’s kindly eyes widened, and then she nodded firmly. “Yes, you know how it is here in Silver Town. Everyone was alerted to the problem with the reds, and should anyone see any sign of them, they’re to be reported.” She waved her hand at Ryan.

“As for Ryan, I thought he was your boyfriend.” She said it as if she hadn’t heard Carol say he wasn’t. “You can tell by looking at a man if he’s good or good-for-nothing. Ryan has nice smile lines beneath his eyes. Not much in the line of wrinkles between his brows, which would indicate he frowns a lot.”

Then she directed her comment to Ryan. “Welcome to the…” She stopped speaking when a human man walked into an exam room across the hall with Nurse Matthew. “…to the neighborhood.”

“Thank you, Miss Silverpenny, but I’m just here for a short stay.”

“You’re taking our pretty little nurse away with you? Oh my, whatever will we do without you, Carol? She hasn’t been with us for very long, but we adore her. Anyone who steals Darien’s ribbon in a game of tag, other than Lelandi, of course, is someone to be admired.” She seized Carol’s hand and squeezed. “We’ll miss you.”

Carol’s cheeks flooded with color. Ryan loved the blush on her cheeks. She didn’t try to explain any further that she wasn’t going anywhere and, instead, took the woman’s temperature and then her blood pressure. Afterwards, Carol escorted her down the hall, led her into an exam room, and sat her in the chair across from Doc’s, while Ryan closed the door for privacy.

“Is he going to stay with you all day?” Miss Silverpenny asked. “Night, too?” She smiled broadly.

Yeah, she was just like Ryan’s Aunt Tilda. If his aunt knew he was staying with Carol, she’d have him mated to her already, at least as far as gossip went.

With her pen poised over the patient’s chart, Carol cleared her throat and asked, “What are you having trouble with today?”

“Allergies. Doesn’t matter if I’m a wolf…” She glanced at Ryan. “…or running around as an old lady. I can’t quit sneezing. If it’s not that, my skin’s itching to high heaven. But if I took that darned allergy medicine the doc gave me, I’d be sleeping my life away.”

“Omega-3 fatty acids found in fish oil from salmon, herring, and sardines can help as natural anti-inflammatory agents,” Ryan said, trying to be helpful.

Carol opened her mouth to speak, but Ryan kept talking. “My Aunt Tilda had trouble with grass, ragweed, and mold. You name it, she was allergic to it. We didn’t want her shifting into the wolf because her feet and legs itched so much from walking through tall grass. She’d chew on her exposed skin incessantly until she turned back into her human form.”

“Ryan,” Carol said, her tone indignant. “You are my bodyguard. Not the doctor and not a trained nurse.”

“Sorry,” he said to Carol. He turned to Miss Silverpenny. “My apologies, ma’am. But if you try some of that fish oil, you never know. Good for your heart and whatever else ails you. And also, although it’s not been proven scientifically, my aunt’s allergies are better when she has a little homegrown honey daily.”

The old woman smiled at him. “Thank you, Ryan.”

“Is there anything else that is bothering you, Miss Silverpenny?” Carol asked, her tone clipped.

“Oh no, dear. Since I’m already here, I might as well see Doc while I’m at it, but my goodness, you ought to hire your boyfriend at the hospital.”

“The doctor will be here any minute.” Carol seized Ryan’s arm with one hand and the doorknob with the other, opened the door and pulled him out, and then shut the door behind them.

A woman had never accosted Ryan in such a rough manner, and while he didn’t think he’d like it if most anyone else did, Carol was another story. Hell, the woman was a tinderbox ready to ignite, and her firm touch was stirring up his libido all over again. Too bad they couldn’t put all that fire to good use.

Scowling, she guided him against a wall and released him, hands on her hips, brows furrowed in a cute little frown, standing so close to him to keep the conversation private that he could feel the heat from her sweet body. He wanted to pull her into a full body embrace, kiss her lips, draw the venom out of her bite, and prove to her that as much as he had irritated her, she couldn’t stay annoyed for long.

Drawing him from his wayward thoughts, she said, “Let’s get this straight. You are not a doctor or a nurse, and you’re not to give patients any medical advice.”

Jake approached from down the hall, wearing a big-headed smirk that Ryan interpreted to mean he’d been the subject of her ire before. Or maybe he was just amused at seeing Carol pinning Ryan to the wall with her verbal assault.