The Bridge (Golden Lycans Sequel)

I Expect Better

***Ella***

I walk through the doors of the hospital I now work in. It's been four weeks since I started here but I still feel nervous. I have an advantage that my peers don't have, but I still worry about getting things wrong. I guess that's normal, though. Walking beside me is Clara, who I've known now for several years as we both went to Oxford University to study medicine. We both got accepted to do our foundation year at the same city hospital on the south coast. Clara is also local and she's human. They're all human here, and I find that oddly comforting. The last six years of my life have been a whirlwind of craziness, and given I spent the first seventeen years of my life believing I was human like everyone else, it's nice to live normally again...when I am at work, at least.

Clara and I walk wordlessly toward the coffee chain that thrives on the ground floor of the hospital. We haven't spoken a word since she got in my car half an hour ago, and that's just the way we are. We can sit together in a comfortable silence, and we both know we need a coffee to get going in the morning. I've been up for a few hours already, but Clare looks half dead. She isn't capable of normal interaction until she's been caffeinated, and that's on a good day.

"Heard we are on Miss Sankar's service," I say as she takes her first sip of her vanilla latte.

"Balls. I heard she loves to bust the nuts of the first years," Clara says with a groan, activating her vocal chords for the first time today.

"Well we are just going to have to surprise her," I say brightly as I press the button for the lift.

"How do you do that," she sighs as I smile happily at her.

"Do what?" I ask nonchalantly.

"You literally have the sun coming out your ass every day, I don't know how you do it. I was up until one in the morning revising both the appendectomy and gallbladder removal. I feel like crap and before you tell me I don't, I know I look like crap too," Clara says as we step into the lift. The lift doors close and we are greeted with our reflection on the back of the lift. Gone are the days when I could wear my hair down. My excessively long, light blonde hair is in a braided ponytail. My light blue eyes are now guarded by a pair of glasses...but they're just for show. I feel a little like Clark Kent in the hospital. My eyes are a little bit bigger than normal and my eye colour is a little unusual. Plus...unfortunately even in this day and age, people often don't take me seriously as a light blonde. The glasses help a little with that.

"Look at you, you look like Elle Woods, fabulous lawyer, beauty queen..." Clara sighs. Clara is a few inches shorter than me, and is also blonde, but her wavy hair is cut above the shoulder. She isn't lying, she looks like she's had about three hours of sleep. I am so very sure they're not going to kick us into an operating theatre on our first day. Being overprepared was always Clara's thing, even during university.

"Ha, please don't mention lawyers while at work, this place and our profession is a litigious minefield," I mutter, watching the floor letters tick by on the lift panel.

"Oh please, you're surrounded by fancy lawyers, if anyone is getting off getting sued, it's you," Clara scoffs as we get out on the surgical floor.

"They all work in international matters, it's not the same," I reply as we enter the handover room.

"Still..never met anyone as connected as you Els," she laughs as she pulls out a chair and slumps into it.

Two male junior doctors I've not met yet arrive through the door a few seconds after us. The four of us look at each other, and I can tell I am the only one who has not panicked about this morning. The two men have dark circles under their eyes and are also nursing coffees from the chain downstairs.

"Hey, did you guys also read up on general surgeries?" One of them asks nervously. His name is Devon, I can see it on his name badge. Somehow doctors always come from good breeding and I can see he's a stunning blonde haired man himself, usually, under the eye bags and dishevelled hair...

"Yeah...appendectomies and gallbladders," Clara nods nervously.

"Great, we weren't too sure. Kim here looked at laparoscopic techniques, so hopefully we've covered all bases," Devon said, nodding toward the Asian doctor next to him who gives us a feeble wave.

"What did you look at?" Kim asks me. Oh dear...time to burst their bubbles.

"Well...I looked at Miss Sankar's career profile...which is all in orthopaedics...not general surgery..." I say slowly. Devon's hands palm his face and Clara swears under her breath.

...

***Serena***

"f**k sake this thing is just too small," I complain loudly as I try to shut the door to my wardrobe.

"Maybe you need to take some out. you've had some stuff in there for years," Kate Davison, my roommate asks. She is my only sort of friend I have here and she's a Beta from the Blackwater Eclipse pack. It's the same pack that the deeply hot and desirable Louis Astor is from.

"Good point," I grumble to myself. I sit down on the edge of my bed, having finished putting my various things away. I lean back on my bed and look up through the half glass ceiling of our room. The year I started my great grandfather had commissioned some alterations to a few of the rooms on this particular part of the building, mainly to accommodate the faeries of the world. Ella had really enjoyed the extra sun the rooms had from the back wall that was made entirely of glass, which also extended into part of the ceiling. There was a small balcony out the back with two wooden deck chairs. There were a handful of these rooms so I was delighted that I got one, but when your family both owned and ran the school, the best room was part of the deal.

"Louis got hotter," Kate says casually. I look at her in bemusement.

"How is that even possible," I reply, wondering how on earth someone who resembled a chiseled greek god could somehow get any hotter.

"He comes of age on friday. Rumour is he's having a bit of a thing with drinks and stuff in an old barn a mile from the north border," Kate says with her eyebrows raised.

"A party? We're going," I say confidently. Invited or not, it was an opportunity Hera and I couldn't pass up. All we had to do was sneak out and avoid whoever was patrolling the boundary that night. Thankfully, that wasn't us.

"Just after a full moon too, bet he's going to be going loopy outside the next few nights," I mutter. Whenever Lycans came of age and turned eighteen, the week before tended to be...turbulent. The higher rank you were, the more interesting that week was due to a huge increase in strength and general energy.

"Still nothing for him in terms of a mate?" I inquire, hoping Louis is still unbonded.

"Yeah, no news," Kate replies, sounding bored.

"Could be you, you know," I suggest as she flops down onto her bed, her long flaming red curls spread out behind her.

"My parents would be so happy," she says blandly. I'm not sure why she's pretending she wouldn't be over the moon if it turned out they were destined mates. To become Luna at your own pack was a huge privilege that didn't happen to many. Most Lunas were from other packs to help keep things diverse and balanced.

I unzip my guitar and look at it lovingly as I place it back on the stand I have at the end of my bed. Kate sighs loudly.

"Ugh. Why did you bring that back?" Kate asks bluntly. It's my turn to sigh as I roll my eyes. She hates it when I play my guitar, but it's a great stress reliever. This year it's definitely going to be needed. Last year I ended up having to sing and play on the balcony with the door shut to appease her. Singing and playing my guitar was one of my favourite things to do when on my own. I ignore her comment and instead listen to my grumbling stomach.

"Well, it's that time of the day. Shall we go grab lunch, I am starving," I say, patting my stomach.

...

The hall is a little busy with other students who have been dumped here early like we have. To be fair on Austin, he is a busy guy and I was quite pleased he'd taken time out of his day to take his younger sister back to school for her final year. None of the other siblings of pack alphas got that treatment. He'd visited Dad in his new office on the way out, so he'd made the most of the trip. I decided that I would go see him myself after I was done with lunch.

We grab a few light items from the food service area and turn toward where our table was...or usually was.

"What the heck? Does he not know?" Kate grumbles as she wanders over to our table and taps the shoulder of the innocent guy who is sat there. I really don't care and I am happy to sit at another table, but apparently Kate wants to get territorial today. I'm about to sit down at another table when I hear her speak.

"Hey there honey, just so you know for future meal times, this table that you're hogging right now? It's kind of our spot," she says, sounding so rude and confrontational, "maybe take yourself to another table. Now."

What the heck? Has she actually done this? I sigh and quickly walk up to them both.

"Kate, it's fine, there are at least fifty free tables, leave him be," I say with my eyebrows raised. I look down at the guy sitting in the chair. I can smell he's human, which is probably why Kate is being like this. He's got thick, curly, sandy blonde hair, slim but broad shouldered...so he might perhaps stand a chance in a fight against Kate. He clears his throat.

"Apologies, I will not be long," he replies in a much deeper voice than I'd expected. He certainly sounds like a rich kid, clearly also unceremoniously dumped in a boarding school by his parents like the rest of the humans that come here. On top of that, he now has Kate looking at him like he's some sort of foreign interloper, poor guy.

"Uh huh," Kate says bluntly with an eye roll, a hand now going to her hip. I am starting to feel so very uncomfortable now and I'm about to leave this awkward situation when he promptly drains the rest of his mug of tea.

"I hope you have a good day," he says politely and kindly, lifting himself up from the chair and straightening up to his full height. My eyes widen a little as he unfolds himself to what looks like a lofty six foot eight? I think we maybe have two Lycans of similar height here, but he's definitely the tallest human by miles. His light blue eyes glance into mine briefly; they look kind, which makes this situation so much worse. He wanders off and I immediately feel awful and so guilty. What Kate just did was not okay. Despite the awkward exchange he appeared to have a slight smirk on his face, but I must have been mistaken. I feel terrible that this just happened, and I feel my cheeks burn as Kate plops herself down happily into her favourite position at the table, looking triumphant.

How does she think that was acceptable?

"Well, I hope he has now learned," she announces loudly in a strangely vindictive tone. She has definitely gotten worse over the summer, I realise.

"What, that you're a b***h?" I say awkwardly, forcing a laugh, as I take a seat. The seat feels wrong, it all feels wrong.

"Girl, who cares, he's just a human," she says with an eye roll. I care. Us Lycans didn't generally interact much with the humans here, but we weren't horrible to them. I certainly never felt like they were beneath me.

"Be nice to them, his parents are probably loaded and pay for that cushty room of ours," I say while buttering a bread roll.

My wolf senses perk up and my gaze quickly diverts to and becomes fixed on the person that has just entered the hall.

Louis Astor.

Oh goodness; in the flesh once again he is better than my vivid imagination remembers; the man is absolute perfection, and Kate is right. He somehow got hotter. I don't know how, but he has.

"Well my ovaries are actually quivering," I say quietly as I watch him stride confidently through the hall toward the food the way alphas always do. Louis' obvious Italian heritage gives him great bone structure, soft, jet black hair, gorgeous olive skin, abs that just went on for days.... right down to the large bulge that was ever present in whatever he was wearing, be it skinny jeans or baggy shorts...

B.D.E, I state bluntly to Hera, internally.

He is ours in that barn, mate or not. He is worthy of us, Hera howls at me.

Damn right, I agree.

"Feeling hungry for something else?" Kate laughs, gauging my expression. Louis exits the food service with his tray, and our eyes briefly meet as he scans the hall looking for anyone he hangs with. I wish it were us. I've always wished it were us. His delicious brown eyes don't betray any inkling that he feels any sort of bond...and neither do I. With a dejected sigh, I am now done with that dream.

It won't be him.

But, there was nothing to say I couldn't have a little fun with him if he was game, I had been too nervous to go for someone as delectable as him last year, but I was feeling a lot more confident in myself since the summer.

After lunch I head to the lift that goes up to the Headmaster's office. I enter the lift and hum to myself as it ascends to my destination.

I knock on the door using the golden wolf head door knocker and wait....and wait. Presently the lift doors opened again and out steps my Dad, all six foot five of him. Leo Landry, who has gone a little grey over the past couple of years, ironically so since he was now leading a much less stressful life.

"This isn't how this works," I say with a frown while gesturing around the vicinity.

"Serena, what are you talking about?" He replies with a frown himself as he unlocks the door. He's carrying a tray of food and he now sits down behind the desk with it. I sit myself down on one of the chairs opposite him.

"Grandpa was somehow always in this office. Without fail, no matter the time of day or night," I say curtly. Dad is cutting off a slither of a large steak that I definitely didn't see available to the students just now.

"The man basically lived in this tower with his bedroom above this room. His knees were too arthritic to get about much. He could be here at all times," Dad explains before putting the slice of steak in his mouth.

"Explains a lot..." I say, looking around at the subtle changes to the office. There is a lot less clutter kicking around, and for some reason I'm not sure I like it this way. I miss Grandpa.

"Serafina has had her room upgraded, she texted me earlier," I say casually, looking out the window now.

"Mhmm, well she works very hard, mentors many younger students...she's well liked and a good role model who keeps good company," Dad says pointedly.

"Yes, well we couldn't be too identical now, could we? We had to deviate somehow," I mutter back. I didn't like what he had just implied. But it was true. Serafina and I seemed to be polar opposites these days, but we still got on the same we ever did.

"You need to start thinking about University rather than just aiming for the school of life," Dad says, eating a particularly large chip.

"Yeah, it's on my to-do list," I mutter again. I was starting to regret coming up here. A minute of silence passes while I stare out the window at some birds.

"There's a wide variety of students here, eh? Lycans, witches, a few elves, several teen TV and film stars, royalty, a few Olympic athletes, too many celebrity offspring and apparently a siren even starts this year for the first time," Dad says, trying to sound upbeat. Perhaps he's realised he's bummed me out, I wonder.

"Can't say I've noticed, in all honesty," I reply.

"Well it helps if you connect with people and take in more of what's going on around you instead of charging off on your own somewhere. You are the representative of our pack to the rest of the Lycan student body. But this isn't just a Lycan school. Broaden your horizons. Make some friends," he replies.

"I connect with people just fine, I'm great with people. Plus I have friends...sort of," I reply back tenaciously.

"Those friends of yours? They're not friends and they are not good people. Besides, I mean personal connections Serena and by that I don't mean getting caught tossing off another student in a cupboard," he shoots back. I groan and roll my eyes wildly, getting up out of the chair. This was a mistake. I round on him in annoyance.

"Why is it that people have such a problem with women having more freedom in that regard, but it's so okay for guys to?"

He looks at me with clear disappointment in his eyes, and I'm taken aback.

"Because you are better than that. I expect better, but that's only because I know you can be better. You are such an incredibly capable and very talented young woman. But you are capable of being so much more and I fear that you just don't realise it," he says sadly. I feel quite hurt and I don't want to be in this office any longer. All I'm reminded of right now is that my patient, great, great, great grandfather is no longer with us and he had never judged me or made me feel the way I was feeling right now.

"We can't all be like Austin, Dad," I grumble, leaving the room with a childish sigh.

...

I go for a walk around the grounds to cool off, enjoying the sunshine. My mood has plummeted since coming back and I just knew it'd be this way. A feeling of being quite lost and confused is setting in the more I walk around and mull over the things my Dad had just said. I think about Kate's obnoxious interaction with the human and how ashamed I felt being a part of it. Had she really changed this much in seven weeks? Or was it me...had I actually changed? Who knew.

I yawn, taking myself back inside and back to my room, deciding to spend some time on the balcony with my guitar.

..

"Cadence and Kai are back and they're heading to dinner in twenty minutes," Kate informs me as she reads her phone. It's gone half past five and I've spent most of my afternoon sitting on my own on the balcony. I tuned my guitar twice and did an apt rendition of Sunday Bloody Sunday.

I peer into my mirror and consider if anything needs to be spruced up before we head down. I decide to let my freckles do the talking this evening while they're here for a short time after a sun drenched summer. The first dinner back was a bit of an event for the others as they liked to scope out the rest of the students. See who got a nose job during the summer, who was now together, who had bonded together out of the Lycan crowd, if anyone looked strung out after a wild summer of drinking and drugs. The humans were always good for a lot of that, being that they tended to be the kids of rich parents. They had usually gone somewhere glamorous over the summer, such as laying out on a yacht somewhere...actually that wasn't exclusively for humans. I had spent two weeks swimming, jet skiing and all sorts of other watersports off the coast of southern France for two weeks in the summer on the sailing boat our family had docked out there. Just me and one of the younger male gamma's from the pack who could actually sail. It had just been a crying shame that he was gay.

"Thoughts?" Kate asks, and I turn to see that she's put on a tight, ribbed jersey dress in a deep blue.

"Yeah, you look good," I tell her as she slips her sandals on.

"Let's go," she says happily, following me out the door.

The hall is much busier than it was at lunchtime now that everyone is here. Thankfully our usual table has been saved by Cadence and Kai. I didn't want a repeat of lunchtime and have Kate create another uncomfortable situation. They come from a coven near Kate's pack and they're very aloof. They take different classes than we do, so generally we only see them at meal times.

Kate and I grab our food and we sit down. From my seat I can gaze at Louis who is only a few tables over. While there is definitely no mate bond for us, he is still very nice to look at, that's for sure.

"Anything major happen yet?" Cadence asks casually while she rips her garlic bread into pieces with her trademark long acrylic nails. I am sure they're going to reek of garlic now.

"Josie Lang has definitely had her t**s done," Kate says in a businesslike manner, "either that or she's gained a stone exclusively to her chest."

They continue gossiping amongst themselves as I continue to eat my dinner. I allow their banal chat to fade into the background, realising that I really just don't care for that sort of chat anymore. It's mean and it's just not me. I instead look out at everyone else across the hall.

Why are we staring at everyone instead of engaging in our usual shallow chit chat? Hera asks pointedly as I scan the faces in the room.

I don't know, like you say, it's shallow. I don't care for it anymore. Right now I'm wondering who have I gone to school with all these years? Why have I only hung out with these three? Who have I missed out on?

Perhaps our mate is out there. We often subconsciously find them first before we sense them properly. Maybe you're trying to find them without realising it? Hera says hopefully.

Such a one track mind... I will come of age in like four weeks. I'd have sensed them by now. They clearly aren't here at the school. Why have I only hung out with Kate and tweedle-dee and tweedle-dum all this time? It's like I properly saw her for the first time today and it was a wake-up call. She's just...not good. I'm not a fan, I say to Hera.

Neither am I. Never have been, Hera admits.

I should face it, I'm basically a bit of a loner here now and I've got no one but myself to blame, I sigh internally.

...

***Ella***

It's nine o'clock when I finally leave the hospital. It's been a thirteen hour day and I am tired. I spent most of my time today sat down, listening to policies, procedures and all sorts of other information about the particular service I'll be on for the next four months. As I suspected we hadn't touched a patient, but we did accompany the senior registrar around to the wards and see them.

After Clara exits my car I drive back home to the pack. When I get out I look up at the almost full moon, raising my hand to the sky to draw a little energy down from it. It instantly makes me feel more awake and refreshed. I grab my bag from the back seat and enter the front door of the pack house, to be greeted instantly by Martha.

"You're back. Excellent. There is dinner for you in the fridge but it needs reheating I'm afraid, we didn't think you'd be back this late," she says, looking tired herself. I realise then that she's stayed up to greet me, and I feel a little guilty. Still dutiful after all these years and looking out for her Luna.

"Thank you so much Martha. This is probably going to be a regular...issue, so please don't stay up waiting for me again, it isn't necessary and I'd rather you enjoyed your evenings," I say with a smile. She nods in acknowledgement, says goodnight and she sighs a little in relief before slowly heading up the stairs. She's in her sixties now and has been serving the pack house for over forty years. She isn't used to the Luna having a full time job. Things are a little different now.

I go to the kitchen and open the fridge, grinning at the sight of a plate of Thai food; Austin's favourite. I don't bother to reheat it as it tastes pretty good cold, too.

"There I was thinking my days were long at times," I hear Austin say as he enters the kitchen. His handsome face is a much welcome sight, and I tilt my head to the side as I observe him.

"It won't always be like this," I assure him. He comes over and tenderly cups my face with his hand.

"How was it?" he asks, taking a seat next to me on another stool.

"Well, a lot how I imagine your day was. Lots of paperwork, lots of wondering about many things...missing the ease of being at school," I reply with a chuckle.

"Things were definitely more straightforward. Even at university. But...that International Relations degree I worked hard for might come in handy real soon," he says with a particular look.

"Oh yeah?" I reply, waiting for the punchline.

"Ambassador for the United Kingdom post is officially open for invited applicants," he reveals with a particular expression. My eyes widen a little as my brain quickly processes the implications of him getting such a post.

"You would be gone a lot," comes out of my mouth first.

"I might, but I do have an excellent Beta, a very capable Luna...and no one would dare mess with our pack anyway," Austin replies casually.

"How does Atlas feel? I mean this might put babies on the back burner for a while," I say with a cheeky smile. I know this will throw a spanner in the works. Austin grins broadly and looks down at the floor for a moment while shaking his head.

"Thanks for throwing that curveball at him," he chuckles, "but he's quite game for it...for a few years. It might not be that demanding...plus you can always grow a portal tree or two to help with ensuring I can always get back home promptly when needed."

"I can't just put them in places willy nilly," I point out.

"Didn't stop you from allowing us to go to Oxford University of all places though, eh?" he replies, which is an annoyingly good point.

"Yes...but it was Oxford. Oxford, Aus. Nothing wrong with making the top university in the country more accessible to our pack and Will's," I say, finishing off my food. He sighs and looks at me fondly before reaching out and tucking some hair behind my ear.

"I've drawn you a bath. I sensed you crossing our border and started one immediately," he says before picking up my empty plate. I look at him with a surprised yet grateful expression. It has been six years but I am still surprised by how lucky I am to have him.

"Goddess, do I love you," I say warmly, getting off the stool, "will you come sit with me and tell me all about your day?"

"I will always come sit with you."