But the eyes…
The black plastic cracked under the pressure of Zan’s tightening fist. Ever so slowly he brought his head up and looked at Scott. Zan’s eyes were hot, as piercing and startling an emerald green as the man pictured on the device that now mangled in his clawed grip. “Where,” Zan demanded on a barely contained growl. “When?”
Chapter Two
“Well, hell.” Dr. Jacklyn Chavez slid her cell phone back in the purse she’d just set down on the counter of her kitchen next to a blue and white checkered box. The appetizing scent of melted cheese, garlic pizza dough, and steaming pepperonis was enticing enough to make a grown man cry. While Jackie was, thankfully, not a male, she did let out a tired sigh that was quickly followed by a growling in her tummy.
“So much for my triple pepperoni pizza.” Unfortunately the call she just finished couldn’t be ignored. She’d need every scant minute it would take for her to wolf (no pun intended) down half the pizza to ready her guest room for an unexpected visit.
Jackie may not know who or how bad the situation was, but as one of the doctors in the small mountain town of Woodcliff, CO, when someone required help, each second counted. And when that call came from her Alpha of the Pack, it was non-negotiable.
Then again, she reasoned with herself, she couldn’t very well help someone in need if she was running on fumes. A glance at her watch made her realize breakfast had been over twelve hours ago, and with her metabolism rate she’d need more fuel to function. A doctor wasn’t any good to anyone if passed out from hunger.
Flipping the box lid up, she snatched a gooey slice and took a huge bite, burning the roof of her mouth. A minute later she was washing her hands of grease and cheese, her cheeks bulging from a second piece. Then she headed down the hall to her small second bedroom and turned on the lights.
The walls were painted a soothing greenish-blue, adorned with soft watercolors depicting serene forest scenes. The tiled floor was a simple off-white pattern, sealed repeatedly to arrest any and all bodily fluids, particularly blood. One heavy-duty hospital bed lay in the center of the room and a large oak dresser dominated one wall. A shorter metal cabinet ran the length of another wall, housing and providing counter space for medical equipment. One comfortable chair was set next to the head of the bed while a rolling stool waited on the other side of the bed.
To say the room was crowded was an understatement, but until she could afford a bigger house, either renting like this one or outright buying which wasn’t in the foreseeable future, she needed to work with what she had. And she was very good at doing just that.
Jackie pulled out white towels from the dresser and set them next to some glass jars on the metal cabinet containing cotton balls, individual packets of alcohol swabs, and a box of latex-free gloves.
Exhausted as she was she moved automatically, setting the room for what her Alpha, Dean Kinigos, had called a serious problem. While she didn’t know the specifics of this “serious problem”, she wanted to be prepared.
As one of the doctors in the community, she saw patients during normal office hours in her clinic, where another doctor and a nurse-practitioner also received patients. However, the majority of her patients were wolf shifters and while most acclimated themselves to a human environment, some had not. So Jackie created this room to provide a measure of safety for the later group of shifters. Not to mention the need for immediate medical supplies when they came to her home unexpectedly in the middle of the night with gashes or broken bones. Wolves were, after all, night creatures. Having a mini-emergency medical facility—mini being the operative word here—was a necessity.
Another quick glance at her watch and she hastened her pace. In her own room she changed clothes, donning dark blue scrubs, and tried not to look longingly at her large, fluffy, warm, and comfortable bed. She loved her bed. It was one of those sleep number beds and she enjoyed the freedom of changing the firmness of the mattress whenever she desired. And right now she didn’t just love her bed, she ached for it. Especially since she hadn’t been in it in over twenty-four hours. Longer actually.
Yesterday, one of her patients had gone into early labor and, desiring a home birth which most shifters preferred since any hospital births might arouse suspicion to their “other” status, Jackie had high-tailed it to the Sorenson home.
It had been a difficult birth, compounded by the horrifying realization that the cord was wrapped around the baby’s neck, creating panic for the parents, friends, and herself. Each pup was precious. Not just a miracle, but an affirmation of the continuation of their kind. It’s a chance at replenishing the wolf shifting population that had nearly been decimated in the Pack War some forty odd years ago. A war that had lasted for over a decade, though the actual time-frame wasn’t well known. In those days, most packs lived far from the human populace, making it difficult for those now alive to know for sure just how many shifters died. But the stories told by the survivors made it sound as if tens of thousands had been reduced to a mere couple thousand.