Hade's Rose

Chapter 11: Marks

The examination room was cold and sterile. Light oak panels and dim lighting should have made for a more welcoming hospital experience, yet as I was marched from the carriage to here, rain had started drizzling then pouring down. I sat on a bench dripping wet and looked like a drowned rat.

The Moon Goddess, if she be real, was sending down her wrath upon me it felt. Through the lattice windows, the moon glared through the pane and I couldn't help but feel superstitious. The two Delta warriors from earlier were still with me, guarding the door. Outside, were the low mutterings of Gamma Stephan and a female Wolf (a doctor I think), as they discussed my strange and unusual case.

I was told in no uncertain terms on my way here that my torso would be examined for a Mating Mark, before proceeding any further. Stubbornly, I maintained my silence. There was nothing I could say that would change their minds and I did not have it in me to beg fruitlessly. Cogs whirred in my head of any conceivable plan I could make to get out of this, but I had nothing. Clearly this investigation was still in its prime and I doubt they'd put two and two together yet about who my mate could be.

The mutterings grew louder. The Gamma and the Doctor stepped back into the room. A decision had clearly been made.

"Miss Tyler" the Doctor approached me. She wore a white coat and a stethoscope hung around her neck. Perhaps Doctors only wore these to inspire confidence in their profession, but it gave me no feeling of assurance. I looked up, my hands hidden beneath my thighs to hide their trembling.

"I am going to have to ask you to remove your shirt for a brief examination," she continued. Her voice was that classic tone of medical indifference, a sharp reminder of the cool and detached nurses who visited us humans each year to insert our implants. Without meaning to, I shuddered and leaned back, tears welled up in my eyes at the indignity of stripping in front of these strangers.

Surprisingly, I wasn't the only one who felt this way. The Gamma spoke up, his voice crowding the room "Myself and one of the guards will be outside. Charn will have his back turned the whole time."

The Delta who had first identified me raised his head in acknowledgement, assumably he was Charn. The two men moved to go outside. For a moment I was shocked they'd show me such consideration, but remembered Wolfpeople's sacred and prudish attitudes to 'Mating Marks'.

After a moment of shuffling, it was just myself, Charn and the Doctor left. I still sat in silence, my hands hidden irresolutely beneath me. The Doctor moved to stand in front of me, her hands clasped in front of her. As a wolf woman, she was six foot tall and had blonde hair that lay tightly bound in a bun to the back of her head. I continued to sit still, scared to move and get the inevitable over with.

A soft cough sounded after a painful few seconds, I looked up but only raising my eyes to her chin. All previous bouts of courage had left me, and I felt like a withered husk of a being. The last year felt like a load upon my back and my emaciated strength felt crippling, causing lethargy to linger across my limbs.

I knew they had all been looking at me shuffle around, my leg always caused Wolf people a quick double-take. I know that humans rarely came to this hospital, as it was just set up to treat the Wolf folk for injuries and pregnancy mostly. No one seemed sure what to do with me here, an oddity in what was a perfect world of sick-free living.

A towel was gently placed in my lap. Lost in my musings, I hadn't noticed the Doctor turn around to reach it. "You look like you need this." A break in her cool façade, a corner of her mouth rose in a semi-smile. "I'm Doctor Evans. Take as long as you need, but know that you won't be able to leave here until I've checked you for a Mark." She gently but firmly pressed.