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

6. Sawyer

6

Sawyer

S awyer looked at his patient curiously. “Good morning, Erin. What seems to be the problem? Abby says that you didn’t want to tell her the problem you’re having.”

Erin, a wolf shifter and a member of Sawyer’s pack, replied telepathically. It’s a shifter problem.

Sawyer replied aloud, “Abby knows all about shifters and she can be trusted, I promise.”

After casting Abby a suspicious glance, she said, in almost a whisper, “I can’t shift.”

Surprised, Sawyer looked at her for a minute. “What do you mean?”

“Jarred, my boyfriend, and I went for a run yesterday. Everything was fine. Then, we headed up to the mountain this morning, and we couldn’t shift, no matter how hard we tried. We visited the clan doctors, but they couldn’t figure out what was wrong with us. The clan doctors suggested that we come to see you. Jarred, a bear shifter, is in one of the other rooms waiting for you.”

After giving Erin a physical, he shook his head. “I don’t see anything wrong that would keep you from shifting. Let’s take a blood sample and see if it can tell me anything.”

They left the room, and Sawyer asked Jennifer to take a couple tubes of blood from Erin.

Sawyer and Abby went immediately into Jarred’s room and he told the same story. His exam didn’t show any anomalies or physical reasons that they couldn’t shift.

Jennifer was just coming out of Erin’s room. He sent her into Jarred’s room with the same request. Curious, he went straight to the lab to analyze Erin’s sample under the microscope.

“What the hell?” he muttered.

Sawyer looked up from his microscope and looked at Abby. “There’s something here that I’ve never seen before. It seems to be some kind of virus that is multiplying rapidly. Take a look for yourself.”

Abby peered into the microscope and gasped. “That is terrifying. I’ve never seen viruses or bacteria move like that or multiply like that.”

Jennifer walked in and handed Sawyer two more vials of blood. “Here’s Jarred’s blood.”

“Thank you,” Sawyer said absently.

He fished a fresh slide out of its wrapper, poured a couple drops of blood on it, and then smeared it, before sliding it under the microscope.

Sawyer studied the new sample and then shook his head. “Same thing. They were both exposed to a virus at the same time. Let’s see if we can figure out where.”

He asked Jarred and Erin to get dressed and join him in his office. While he waited, he called Beth.

After the initial greeting, Sawyer said, “I have a peculiar case and could use yours, Savvy’s, and Taryn’s help.”

He described what he saw in the blood and related that the two people couldn’t shift anymore.

“I will call Savvy and be there as soon as we can. I’ll have to round up the kiddos and take them to Rory’s and Savvy’s place so that Rory’s housekeeper, who is considered a part of the family, can watch them.”

“Thank you. I’ll ask them to stay.”

Abby stood behind Sawyer as the two shifters took a seat.

“It looks like you guys have some kind of virus that rapidly grows. I’ve honestly never seen anything like it. Can you retrace your steps from yesterday?”

Erin started. “Like I told you, we went for a run yesterday morning and shifted just fine. We both had the day off, so we decided to have a picnic by the lake. Then, we went back to his place to watch movies and then had pizza before I went home. I felt terrible last night, but I figured that it was the pizza.”

“Did you encounter anyone or anything out of the ordinary?” Sawyer asked.

Jarred nodded. “Now that you mention it, while we were walking toward our favorite spot, we passed a couple. One of them was wearing a cologne or perfume so strong that it was suffocating. It was almost like they had just sprayed it right as they came in contact with us, although I don’t remember them having a spray can or bottle.”

Sawyer made some notes on the computer. “Did you have the same symptoms as Erin?”

“Yes. My body hurt so bad, as though someone had beaten the living daylights out of me. All of my muscles ached. My head felt weird, as though I was drunk and my stomach twisted up in knots. Like Erin, I thought it was the pizza. I guessed that we had food poisoning until this morning when we couldn’t shift.”

“Can you guys hang out for a while? I have a couple of friends coming who might be able to help. No promises, but they are capable of working miracles that I can’t. I just ask that you not talk about them to anyone.”

Erin held up her pinky. “We pinky promise. If they can help us, we’ll do anything.”

The three witches arrived an hour later.

Beth put her hand on Erin’s arm and immediately drew back. “This is something alive and evil.”

“Let me try, Mama.”

Taryn put her hand on Erin’s arm and closed her eyes. Savvy muttered a protection spell for Taryn. Sawyer could see the thin veil that surrounded the young witch.

Taryn opened her eyes and shook her hand as though she was trying to shake off the feeling she got. “This was purposely made by someone. I don’t know who or why. It’s not going to stop growing until it has taken over her body. It won’t kill her, but it’s suppressed the magic that allows her to shift.”

“What are we going to do?” Erin moaned.

“We’ll figure out something,” Sawyer assured her. “I promise.”

He just hoped that was a promise he would be able to keep.

Beth put her hand on Erin’s shoulder. “We’ll try to come up with a solution, too.”

After the witches and the shifters left, Sawyer went into his office and shut the door. He sent emails to Zac, Matthias, and Lucious, the alpha of the dragon shifter clan, and told them what had occurred.

Lucious replied first. Could this have anything to do with the lab?

Matthias replied, That would be my guess. It’s rumored that they’re in the business of creating new viruses just so they can experiment with them, and it’s awfully suspicious that the virus suddenly appeared after they popped up.

We have to find a way of getting into that building, Matthias replied.

Zac let them know they were trying. Sebastian’s initial tries haven’t gotten him anywhere. They have that place locked up tighter than Fort Knox. It is heavily guarded with armed security that patrols the place. He’ll find a way, though.

Sawyer held his face in his hands and let out a slow, deep breath. It seemed that all hell had broken loose since he returned to Angel’s Creek. He left the Doctors Without Borders program to settle down and have a less stressful job. So far, that plan hadn’t worked out so well.

A soft knock on his door reminded him that he had other patients to see. Luckily, the rest of the day went smoothly. A couple more kids had the flu, one patient had shingles, and another needed a refill on her asthma medication.

When everyone left, he sat alone in his office, dreading what he had to do next. He called the DEA. He spoke with an agent named Jason Aberdeen who said that he and his partner, Millie Thompson, would be there within an hour. They just happened to be in the area, investigating a doctor at a hospital.

They showed up exactly an hour later. Sawyer showed them his spreadsheets, that listed the drugs that were bought, which were used on patients or given to patients as samples, and what was on the inventory.

“It does seem like you have a long-standing problem, here, Dr. Cooke,” Jason said.

“Call me Sawyer, please. According to what I’m seeing, this has been going on for more than a year.”

Millie nodded. “Yep. We’ll start by conducting background checks on all of your employees and see what we can find. We’ll look for past histories of any related issues that might not be seen by standard background checks. We’ll also check into bank accounts, associates of your employees, and so forth. Although Abigail Clark wasn’t employed by the clinic when the disappearances started, we’ll check her out, too.”

The agents stood and held out their hands for him to shake. He instantly sensed that they were shifters, although he didn’t say anything to them.

“Thank you for calling us as soon as you discovered the problem,” Millie said.

“I just want this whole thing over and done with and off my back.”

“We’ll figure it out soon for you,” Jason promised. “Whoever is doing this obviously isn’t hiding their tracks very well and they will be caught.”

The two agents left. Sawyer hesitated and then called Sebastian.

He explained the situation to him and then asked, “Can you run a background check on all my employees as well? Although the agents said that they could find out more than a typical background check, I suspect that you can find out even more. Plus, I don’t know how much they would be willing to share with me.”

“I’d be glad to. Do you want me to run a check on Abby, too, even though she wasn’t there when this thing started?”

Sawyer hesitated for just a minute. “Yes, please.”

“Will do.”

Sebastian typed on the computer as Sawyer gave him the names and social security numbers of all his employees.

It was very dark when he left the clinic. His gaze was automatically drawn to the large building on the hill, and he shivered as an icy cold finger of dread moved down his spine. The lights shined on it, keeping it as lit up as if it were the middle of the day. There were absolutely no shadows that a person could hide in to infiltrate the place.

It could just be my imagination and all the speculation, but there is just something evil about that place.

Sawyer went home and ordered some Chinese food to be delivered. His mind reviewed the events of the day and then settled on Abby.

He had almost kissed her last night. Sawyer wet his lips.

I wanted to kiss her and would have kissed her if Mom hadn’t interrupted. There is something about Abby that I can’t get enough of. It’s not that we’re constantly together. It’s her scent, her personality, and the way she treats people.

He felt himself harden as he thought about her beautiful face and the way she looked at him sometimes. Sawyer imagined them having sex on her couch last night and what she would look like naked. Of course, he had seen a lot of women, beautiful and otherwise, in the nude, not only because he was a doctor, but also because he was a shifter. However, there would be something completely different about seeing Abby naked.

Sighing heavily, he stood under a cold shower until his erection had disappeared and he thought he could sleep. However, her face popped into his mind even as he drifted off.