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

20. Sawyer

20

Sawyer

S awyer pulled Abby close to him and kissed her forehead. “That was pretty impressive. Where did you learn how to do that?”

“I do know how to read, and I consider myself to be educated in many different subjects. I read steamy romance novels as well as Shakespeare, historical fiction, and fantasy, as well as other genres.”

“Is that what you call steamy romance novels? Education?”

“Absolutely. For many reasons.”

“Such as?” Sawyer asked.

“I once had an English professor who told me that reading was important. It didn’t matter whether we were reading the back of cereal boxes, manga, comic books, or Playgirl. Words are words. They are just arranged differently, depending on the purpose.”

“That sounds logical,” Sawyer said. “So, why else are they good?”

“A lot of them depict healthy relationships. Romance novels show the man treating the woman right and vice versa. They don’t abuse each other, cheat on each other, or hurt each other intentionally.”

“I’ll give you that argument,” Sawyer conceded.

“Third, it teaches women about sex, although I will admit that you exceed all of those other studly men I read about.”

“Thank you. Maybe I should read a few of them and get some ideas.”

“I really think you should,” Abby agreed.

“I’m just glad that you don’t find me lacking. A lot of times fantasy is a lot better than reality.”

“Oh, you do just fine fulfilling my fantasies.”

“You have fantasies about me?” he asked, his curiosity piqued.

“Most definitely. You wouldn’t believe the things we’ve done together in them.”

“Like what?”

“You’ll find out as time goes on,” she promised.

“What if I don’t want to wait?”

Abby laughed. “That’s just too bad.”

They lay together in a comfortable silence for several minutes. Sawyer’s brain raced a million miles an hour. He was trying to sort out his feelings for her and figure out how to ask her the question that had been on his mind lately.

Just ask her.

He took a deep breath. “I’ve been thinking about us lately.”

“Have you, now?”

“Yes. I’ve been trying to determine the best way to ask you a question without sounding too corny or like I’m straight out of the 1950s.”

He thought he heard her breath catch and wondered whether that was a good or a bad sign.

“I would like us to start seeing each other exclusively. You know, be a couple, with an official relationship.”

“Are you asking me to go steady with you?”

“Yes, something like that.”

“Do I get your class ring?”

He laughed. “I have no idea where that is. But if I ever find it, it’s yours.”

“I suppose we can go steady then, as long as I don’t have to wear a neckerchief and poodle skirts.”

“I don’t know about that. I think you’d look sexy in a poodle skirt – especially if you aren’t wearing anything underneath. You could wear a white button-down shirt with most of them unbuttoned and no bra. Oxford shoes would be an added bonus.”

“We start going steady and you turn into a dirty old man.” She laughed.

“What can I say? You’re sexy, hot, gorgeous, and all those other things.”

She giggled and snuggled against him for a few more minutes until they got up long enough to clean themselves and change sheets. Sawyer absolutely loved the feeling of holding her close to him.

The next morning came all too soon. Her alarm went off and they peeled themselves out of bed. She made coffee and breakfast, and then he dashed home to take a quick shower and change. He didn’t really care what Martha thought now that he and Abby were official, but it still wasn’t proper for the doctor to go to work in the same clothes two days in a row.

They had almost finished for the day when Zac called him. “Is there any way you can meet at the ceremonial hall in half an hour?”

“Sure, what’s up?”

“One of the younglings escaped – a dragon shifter. He went home and his family called Lucious, who notified everyone else. He gave us a layout of the place. We’re going to raid it tonight.”

“I’ll be there. Let me tell the staff. Cindy can reschedule anyone that Martha can’t take care of.”

His heart racing, he ran to the front desk. “I have an emergency. I need you and Martha to coordinate the rest of my patients. Anyone she can’t handle because there are so many of them, call them and reschedule. I have to go.”

He rushed back to grab his jacket and literally bumped into Abby as she followed him into his office. “Is everything okay?” she asked, with a hint of panic in her voice.

“Better than okay. One of the younglings escaped. We’re going in tonight.”

“Please be safe and call me when you’re home safe.”

He brushed a quick kiss across her face. “I will.”

Adrenaline coursed through his veins as he raced to the ceremonial hall. Lucious, Mathias, Josiah, Sean, Rory, and Sebastian were already in the conference room. A few other members of the bear and dragon clan arrived and then they laid out the plan. The youngling, who was around ten, drew a picture of the lab, letting them know where everything was.

The alphas outlined the plan they came up with. The dragons would enter the compound first through the air because they could catch the guards by surprise and burn them if they had to. Their tough scales would make it hard for any bullets to harm them. Once the guards were dispatched, the other shifters would move into the compound. They would breach the door and move stealthily inside.

“It’s important that we do this as quietly as possible,” Zac said. “We want to take them by surprise.”

“Why?” one of the dragon shifters asked. “If we attack all at once, we can take out the guards and rush the people inside.”

“If the people inside the lab think that there’s a problem, they might try to use the younglings as shields. We don’t want them hurt,” Matthias said.

“Listen to them or you will sit this out,” Lucious ordered.

The dragon shifters nodded. They would not disobey their alpha.

“We’ll hit them at three a.m. when almost everyone will be asleep and the guards will be tired. They will likely be bored and not paying attention,” Sebastian said.

It was hard to wait until time. Everyone was keyed up and antsy. Zac ordered cheeseburgers from Howlers’ so they could eat before heading out. Finally, after an eternity passed, they loaded up and headed toward the lab.

They parked far enough away that their vehicles couldn’t be detected. Everyone undressed and shifted. The dragons took to the skies while the other shifters trudged up the steep hill.

As Sebastian had pointed out before, the tall fences were lined with concertina wire. If the dragons were flying low enough, the barbs were sharp enough to cut their stomachs.

Everything went according to plan. The dragons easily overtook the guards. They managed to snatch them up with their claws and dump them on the other side of the fence. A few members of Sebastian’s crew would make sure they didn’t go anywhere.

Sawyer’s heart thundered in his chest so hard he thought it was going to explode. The adrenaline made him feel as though he had swilled ten pots of coffee back-to-back. He didn’t know he was holding his breath when Zac opened the front door and everyone rushed inside.

He let everyone else do the fighting. Sawyer had memorized the directions to the cells where the younglings were being kept. It didn’t take him long to dispatch with the single guard watching the cells. The younglings woke up immediately.

Sawyer shifted into human form. “Where are the keys?”

“On the wall over there,” one of them said.

He quickly grabbed the keys and unlocked the cells. “Are you guys hurt?”

One of the older kids, a wolf shifter who belonged to Sawyer’s pack, spoke up. “They just took a lot of our blood. They fed us and gave us water. Everyone pretty much ignored us unless they wanted blood.”

“Can you shift?”

They all nodded and shifted except for one little girl. She was probably only about six.

He was relieved that they all seemed to be okay, but was angered by the conditions they were kept in.

Sawyer picked up the girl and held her. “You’re safe now, but we have to get you out of here. You don’t have to shift if you don’t want to. I’ll shift and you can ride on my back, okay?”

She nodded slowly. Sawyer put her down and shifted. She got on his back and they all made their way cautiously downstairs.

The rest of the team had rounded up everyone in the lab, including Dahlia and Roger.

Slide off, Honey, he told the little dragon shifter telepathically.

She did and he shifted. “See that dragon over there? His name is Lucious. He’s an alpha, and he’ll take care of you while I go look for something, okay?”

Lucious shifted and held his arms out to the girl, who ran into his arms.

The dragon alpha sighed sadly. “She doesn’t belong to our clan. They must have been taking shifters from other places.”

Dahlia stared at Sawyer with hate in her eyes. “You think you’ve won. We’ll get out and we’ll start again. I’ll make sure you spend the rest of your life not knowing when I’m going to strike.”

“Where’s the spray?” Sawyer asked.

“Fuck you,” Dahlia said.

“Julian, would you burn her toes, just a wee bit?” Sawyer asked.

A large dragon with silvery red scales lumbered toward Dahlia and let out a hot, misty stream of air. It was hot enough to hurt, but not enough to cause damage.

She crossed her arms over her chest and glared at Sawyer defiantly.

Sawyer nodded and this time Julian added fire, singeing her toes.

Dahlia screamed and told Sawyer exactly where to find the canisters of the spray, as well as the combination to the safe they were kept in.

“I’ll be back shortly and if they aren’t there, Julian will burn more than your toes,” Sawyer promised.

He raced upstairs and came down with a large satchel full of canisters.

“These are it. Let’s get the younglings to my clinic so I can check them out.”

“We’ll take these two and the rest of their cohorts to the cells at the ceremonial hall,” Zac said.

“Even though the cells are cold and damp since they’re in a cave, it will be better accommodations than the younglings had,” Sawyer said angrily.

The wolf and dragon shifters, except Lucious, who was holding the little girl, took charge of making sure that the lab staff was safely stuffed into the cells until the right authorities could come to get them.

The bear shifters and Lucious helped Sawyer escort the younglings to his clinic. As soon as he got there, he called Abby and asked her to drive to the clinic to help him examine the younglings and calm them. Conner and Rory had already called Beth and Savvy. Beth and Taryn dropped the younger pups off at Rory’s house and picked up Savvy. The three witches were waiting outside of the clinic with Abby.

There were six younglings. All of them were physically healthy, although they were traumatized by their experience. Two of the younglings were from the Angel’s Creek area. The other four weren’t. Two were dragon shifters, one was a wolf shifter, and one was a tiger shifter.

Taryn touched each one of them and smiled at them. Sawyer saw the younglings instantly relax.

“It’ll be okay. You’re safe now. We’ll take care of you.”

All of the younglings nodded and four of them managed weak smiles.

“My mother will be glad to take care of Betsy until we can find her family,” Lucious said. “I’ve already called her. I’ll stay with Betsy until she’s comfortable with Mom.”

“Rory and I will take the other three,” Savvy said. “Amy, Colby, and Rosa will be glad that they can do something for the younglings until we can find their families.”

Amy and Colby were the married couple who were their housekeeper and groundskeeper. Rosa was their cook. The three of them weren’t considered servants – they were important family members.

“I took several canisters of the spray. Hopefully, having a pure sample will help us figure out how to help the shifters. I wanted to look for notes, but didn’t have time.”

Beth took a couple of the canisters. “We’ll figure something out. We’ll camp out at Rory’s until we have a spell or potion that can cure this virus. These guys don’t get to win.”

Sawyer, Lucious, and the other bear shifters went to the wolf shifter pack’s ceremonial hall. They all wanted to see Rick, Dahlia, and the other scientists behind bars.

Dahlia and Rick looked at Sawyer, Zac, and Julian defiantly when they stopped in front of their cell.

“You can’t keep us in here. This is kidnapping and wrongful detainment. I’ll sue all of you guys and press charges,” Dahlia yelled.

Sawyer growled, baring his teeth. “No one is going to care about anything you have to say when they find out that you kidnapped and kept young kids prisoner to experiment on. What in the hell were you thinking?”

“They aren’t children and they aren’t human. Those creatures were nothing more than lab rats,” Rick said.

Rage exploded inside of Sawyer. His fists clenched and he gritted his teeth. Sawyer literally saw red. It was a very good thing that steel bars separated Sawyer from Rick. Otherwise, the man would be dead with his throat ripped out.

Zac put his hand on Sawyer’s arm. “Who are the shifters that helped you out?”

“Why should we tell you anything?” Dahlia spat.

“Because Julian is as upset about the treatment of the younglings as Sawyer is. I’ll open this cell door and you can see what an enraged wolf and dragon will do to you with a quickness.”

“You don’t need to open the door for me,” Julian snarled. His head shifted to a dragon’s and he blew a small stream of fire into the cell.

“We don’t owe them anything,” Rick said, quickly, and gave Zac the names. “They are rogue shifters we hired in Santa Fe.”

Sawyer glared at them. “Is that where you kidnapped the other younglings from?”

Dahlia and Rick stared at him with their lips pressed shut.

Zac waved his arm. “Julian.”

“Las Vegas. They were playing at the park,” Dahlia said. “What are you going to do with us?”

Sawyer was gratified to hear the fear in her voice.

Zac grinned. “Don’t worry. The feds are going to be fighting over you for a long time. What you were doing is considered domestic terrorism. I called a friend who is high up in the food chain in the FBI. They notified Homeland Security and the Center for Disease Control to assist them in the investigation. Everyone is on their way and should arrive within the hour.”

He leaned in closer and smiled. “New Mexico doesn’t have the death penalty, but this is a federal case. The United States federal system has and will implement capital punishment.”

The three of them walked away, exhausted but satisfied.