Doctor Wolf’s Human Nurse (Fated To The Wolf #9)

2. Sawyer

2

Sawyer

S awyer went home tired but happy. He hadn’t realized how much he’d missed Angel’s Creek and all the people in it. He was sure that his business would be very successful.

Of course, it helps that I’m the only clinic in town. Otherwise, folks would have to go to Raton or one of the bigger cities.

He ordered a pizza and took a beer out of the fridge and collapsed on the couch. He had longer days when he was working for Doctors Without Borders. There were so many people who had a lot of needs. He and the other medical personnel had done the best that they could do, considering the limited supplies and conditions of the areas they were in.

It had been very fulfilling, knowing that he had made a huge difference in the lives of so many people. He had worked with some of the most amazing doctors, nurses, and other medical professionals in the world.

Sawyer sighed as he stared off into space.

It was time to come home. I missed my friends and family, and it was time to fulfill my dreams of owning my own clinic.

Several larger, prestigious hospitals had offered him some very tempting positions when he announced that he was leaving the organization. They were very tempting. A couple of the offers had made him pause for a moment. He would finally be able to buy that 1964.5 Mustang he had always wanted. However, Angel’s Creek called him home.

Dr. Leonard had been a very popular doctor. In all honesty, he wanted to retire five years ago, but there wasn’t anyone who wanted to take over his practice. At first, Sawyer was afraid that people would be too loyal to him and wouldn’t like the change. Most people didn’t like change. However, he seemed to be doing okay.

His thoughts were interrupted by the doorbell. Pizza had arrived.

A picture of Abby flashed into his mind as he ate. She was a very beautiful woman. She had the sexy girl next door look. At one point during the day, when she bent over to pick something off the floor, he imagined bending her over his desk and caressing her beautiful ass as he took her from behind. He felt himself harden and his cock pressed hard against his pants as he thought about how incredibly hot she was. In his mind, he saw himself pulling lightly on her blond ponytail as he pumped in and out of her hot, wet pussy. Judging by the way she had looked at him a few times, she likely felt the same about him.

He shook his head as if to shake the forbidden thoughts out of his mind.

She is my employee. That’s it. Nothing more and nothing less. Not only could I get into big trouble if we got into a relationship and things went south, but it would mess up the working relationship at the office, he told himself sternly.

Sawyer turned on the television and found a college basketball game. He purposely focused on his pizza and beer, pushing away any thoughts of Abby.

The next day was just as busy. It seemed that every person in town had a tummy ache, headache, or cough. He was positive that people were just coming in to check him out. Many of them knew him since he had grown up in Angel’s Creek, but they had known him as a child, not a grown man who was a doctor.

The morning flew by and finally, he and Abby had a chance to take a break, eat lunch, and simply breathe.

He smiled at her and patted her on the back. “I must say that I’m impressed, especially with the slight differences between caring for shifters and mundane humans.”

She blushed at the compliment. “Thank you. I wasn’t sure what to expect from shifters, since your bone structure and muscles allow for a complete physical change. I guess I expected to see extra joints on the bones or whatever.”

“I could see how you might think that.”

Abby tilted her head a little and asked, “How does it work? I mean, do your bones, muscles, and organs just magically rearrange themselves?”

“Pretty much. We focus on our desire to shift and then walla, we’re in our animal form.”

She trembled slightly. “Does it hurt? Do your bones crunch and make noise?”

He laughed. “You would think that, but no. It’s a smooth transition with no pain.”

“Wow. That sounds so amazing.”

“It is. I’ve often thought about the physical aspects of shifting. I had a lot of questions in anatomy class that I couldn’t ask because I was pretty sure that my professor was human.”

“Do the others in the office know about shifters?”

Sawyer shrugged his shoulders. “I don’t know. I would guess that they do, considering that there are a lot in this area, but I haven’t asked them. To be honest, that is one of the reasons I hired you. You at least knew that shifters existed and based on your transcripts, I figured that you would quickly and easily learn about the different ways to care for our shifter folks.”

“I’m trying. You’re a good teacher,” she said with admiration.

The look in her eyes sent a little thrill of electricity through him. He quickly shook it off.

She’s only looking at me like that because she sees me as a mentor. She’s your employee. Hands -- and everything else -- off.

He and Abby were kept busy after lunch by the constant stream of patients. That didn’t stop him from noticing her scent. It was an intoxicating smell of vanilla and her own essence. He couldn’t seem to get enough of it. It made his heart beat a little faster and his cock twitch.

I catch everyone’s scent . It’s one of the ways I can tell whether a person is very ill or they simply have a common ailment.

Regardless of what he told himself, Sawyer knew, in the back of his mind, that there was something special about Abby’s scent. However, he refused to believe it had anything to do with fated mates. That, most definitely, was not on the table right now.

That afternoon, Sawyer took inventory of his supplies, including the drugs that they had on hand. Even though he had an office manager that the former doctor swore by, Sawyer still liked to know exactly what was going on in his office.

“This can’t be right,” he muttered to himself as he took stock of his drugs.

Worry gripped his heart when he realized that he was missing a couple boxes of fentanyl and a bottle of morphine pills. All of the drugs were supposed to be logged as to whom they were dispensed to, when, and why. There were no records that could account for the missing drugs.

With a sinking feeling, Sawyer made a note of it in his electronic log. He hoped that it was just a simple accounting error, but something in his gut told him that there was more to it than that.

He sighed heavily and ran his fingers through his hair. “Great. I just had to inherit a major problem.”

The biggest question he had was when the drugs went missing. Did they disappear during Dr. Leonard’s tenure, during the transition period, or after Sawyer took over?

Do I bring this up to Brent now or do I wait, monitor the situation, do a little internal investigation, and see what happens?

He tapped his fingers on his desk and sighed heavily. This is the last thing I wanted to deal with.

Sawyer’s stomach growled, so he decided that he was going to head out. For a minute, he debated about whether he was going to go home and grill a steak and a potato or if he should take the lazy way out.

“Lazy way it is,” he said and pointed his vehicle in the direction of Howlers’.

He was surprised when Sean greeted him. “I figured that you would be honeymooning with Xyla.”

Sean grinned. “Remember, we did everything backward and did the honeymoon thing before the mating ceremony. Both of us needed a break after our little ski vacation. She got a job working as an online nurse with a telehealth company and started today, so I decided to get back to the bar.”

“Understandable. I got over that adventure by diving into the clinic and getting ready to take it over.”

Sawyer sat at the bar and ordered a beer and a cheeseburger.

Sean put a napkin in front of him and put the tall mug of beer in front of Sawyer.

“How are things going at the clinic and with Abby?”

“Abby is great. Since Martha is a physician’s assistant, she can handle a lot of the simpler cases. The medical assistants work with her. Abby works with me. It was helpful that she already knew about shifters.”

“I didn’t get a chance to know her very well, but she seemed pretty great. Of course, she and Xyla have been best friends forever. How’s everything else going?”

Sawyer shook his head, lowered his voice so no one could overhear him, and told Sean about the missing fentanyl and morphine.

Sean’s eyes widened. “Oh, that’s not good. Those drugs have some major street value. Do you think that someone stole them?”

Holding up his hands, he said, “That’s what I’m thinking, although I hope that it was just a miscount. Unfortunately, my gut thinks otherwise. I just don’t know whether it happened before Dr. Leonard left or after.”

“What are you going to do?”

“Sit back and wait to see what happens next. If nothing else goes missing, then I’ll report it as a mistake in the inventory count. If more disappears, then I guess I’ll have to get the feds involved.”

Sean grimaced. “Ugh. No one likes the feds.”

“I’m certainly not a fan, but I’ll have to report it. I can’t risk losing my license.”

Sean started to reply, but the waitress slid Sean’s dinner in front of him.

Sawyer dug into his dinner with gusto. He was a lot hungrier than he thought. He had just finished when Zac, the pack leader; his brother, Josiah, the sigma of the pack; Conner; and several other pack members came in. They spotted Sawyer and everyone settled around him to catch up. When he finally made it back to his place, he wore a huge smile. He felt as though he had never left.

After his shower, he crashed into his bed, exhausted. An image of Abby’s beautiful face, blond hair, and chocolaty brown eyes flashed in his mind and a feeling of absolute want flowed through him before he pushed it aside and fell asleep.