My Healer

When she walked into the dining room, the men stood. Surprised, she stared at them; they had done this the day before, but she didn't know what it was for.

"It's a guy thing, from way back to whenever, come sit down," Meryn explained.

Rheia sat down next to Penny and the men sat back down. She felt Colton's warm arm stretch across her back. She leaned back rubbing her head back and forth on his arm and smiled at him. His answering smile reminded her of a sunrise. She leaned over and kissed Penny on the forehead. Penny looked up, both cheeks puffed out as she continued to cram chocolate chip pancakes into her white powder-rimmed mouth. Looked like someone had already gotten into her donuts. Rheia shrugged, as long as she was eating she could care less what it was.

"I ordered your coffee for you," Colton said.

She smiled at him. "Thank you and thank you for letting me sleep in. I can't remember waking up feeling so rested. I almost feel human," she joked.

Keelan frowned. "What else would you be?"

Rheia blinked at him, then realized what she said.

Meryn took the liberty of answering for her. "Human women have the capability to go for days without food or sleep before we have to rest. But in order to do so we need coffee. If we don't get it, we can get evil. Like, set you on fire evil."

Keelan gulped. "Is that a physical condition, like stretch marks?" he asked.

Meryn looked at Rheia nervously and nodded at Keelan.

Rheia looked between the two. "What about stretch marks?"

Keelan turned to her, eyes as wide as saucers. "Meryn said that when human women grow from child to woman, that their skin can sometimes rip causing tiny scar lines. She said things like that, make human women stronger than human men."

Rheia stared at Keelan and then swung her gaze to Meryn who fidgeted in her chair. Ryuu walked in and handed Rheia her coffee before he started to pick up empty platters. She took a sip and sighed happily. She turned to Keelan and nodded. "She's absolutely right. When I was at the hospital I would treat five to ten stretch mark cases a week; ghastly process." She took another sip of coffee before setting her cup down. She looked across the table at Meryn who was smiling wide at her. There was no telling what the nutty woman had told the men, but she knew one thing, she wouldn't be the one to tell them otherwise.

Colton turned to her looking a bit pale. "Does your womb turn inside out monthly as well?"

Inside out?

Rheia nodded without looking at Meryn. She put on a tragic expression before looking up at Colton. "It's a miracle we live through such pain." She had to quickly look away to keep from laughing when Colton swallowed hard.

"Don't worry, Rheia, Aiden and the guys bought practically every tampon the local store had for me last month, I can share," Meryn offered.

"Thanks, I'll probably have to take you up on that." Rheia looked at the assortment of pancakes Ryuu had made. She speared two blueberry ones and looked around for the syrup. Colton handed her a small bottle and she drenched her stack with the sweet amber liquid. She cut off a piece and took a bite. They were perfect. As she continued to eat, she listened as the men made plans for the day.

Colton turned to Keelan. "Did you make arrangements to see your mate again?

Keelan nodded. "She's staying with her aunt and uncle in Madison while she interviews for a job. I asked her out, we're going to go see the Hobbit marathon on Saturday. The small theatre downtown is running all three movies back to back to back. I've been dying to see the third one again."

Beth scrunched up her face. "They didn't have anything romantic playing?

"There's romance!" Keelan protested, then thought about it. "Well, up until the end when..."

"La la la la la! No spoilers!" Meryn put her hands over her ears.

"Okay, okay. Why haven't you seen it yet? It's been out for a while?" Keelan asked.

Meryn just gave him a look and then pointed to Aiden. "Overprotective, paranoid mate."

Keelan winced. "Sorry."

Colton looked over to Aiden. "Okay, today is Tuesday, so we have drills with Epsilon today. Did you want to continue with blind drills?" Colton asked.

Rheia was about to take another bite when a thought struck her. She turned to Aiden. "Do you always have drills with Epsilon on Tuesday?" Aiden nodded. Rheia sat back as a knot began to form in her stomach. "What about Wednesdays?"

"Wednesdays we train with Beta," Darian answered.

"Do you keep a schedule posted somewhere?" she asked.

The men shook their heads. Colton turned to her. "We maintain the same routines to cut back on confusion."

Rheia looked around and gave the men an acerbic expression. "So you've been using the same routine for quite some time?"

They all nodded.

"So if the ferals have been paying attention at all, they know exactly who will be where at any given point throughout the week?"

The men all nodded and then stopped mid-nod. Their expressions changed from smiling, to horror stricken, to ill.

"Dear Gods, she's right," Gavriel whispered.

Aiden sank back in his chair. "Thank Fate for you women. You see things differently than we do, question things we don't even think about anymore." He looked over to Colton. "Call all the units, tell them we have a mandatory meeting, including the trainees, first thing this morning," he said, before standing and kissing Meryn on the forehead.