Linda O. Johnston - Visionary Wolf

Shifters other than those in Alpha Force also sometimes attempted to develop their own formulas to help them change when they wanted to. Even some members of Alpha Force besides Drew, including second in command Captain Patrick Worley, and Lieutenant Simon Parran, had brought their own versions when they had joined the unique military unit, or so Liam had heard.

Rosa might have known something about that even before joining this clinic as a veterinarian.

Liam, though, hadn’t brought anything like an elixir with him when he’d joined the unit. As always, he’d been focused on his technological skills. He had been online when he’d first learned such stuff actually existed, beyond the stories and legends, and so did a special, covert military unit that used it.

That was how he had learned about Alpha Force, and the rumors about what and where it was. Why he had shown up at Ft. Lukman one day with a résumé in hand, and had asked to speak with the officer in charge, who happened to be Drew.

Drew had apparently been as impressed by him and his techie skills as Liam had been impressed by Alpha Force. The result had been Liam enlisting and joining the unit—and being taught and mentored by the man before him, the shifter who now couldn’t shift back.

Liam had to figure out how to help him, by assisting the others working on the same problem to succeed or otherwise.

“Well, it would be easier if I could report back to the rest of the gang that you admitted to drinking something besides, or in addition to, our regular elixir,” Liam said, pursing his lips a bit. “But I know they’re all trying hard, without knowing what they’re looking for, to research how this could happen.”

“I’m trying, in my own way, too,” Rosa said, standing again. “I gave him a brief physical before, but would like to do more now, although under these circumstances I’m not sure a regular veterinarian, even with some knowledge of shifters, can help.”

“But we appreciate your trying.” Liam also rose and looked at her. This, at least, was a different angle. “What do you want to do?”

“A blood test, for one thing. And I’d like to take a closer look at Drew’s body to see if there’s something visible, a cut or growth beneath his fur...anything that may be different. Maybe an X-ray, too.”

“Great,” Liam said. “I’ll help.”

Drew appeared to be okay with it as well, since he just stayed limp on the table, which Rosa adjusted to be closer to her waist level. She did the exam first, saying she would draw blood when they were done, then take it into the clinic’s lab to analyze.

“Many vets send blood out to a specialized laboratory for analysis,” she told Liam. “But with this kind of patient I’ve learned to conduct the analyses myself. It’s safer that way.”

Liam wanted to hug this attractive, smart, careful vet, but of course he didn’t.

Instead, he helped her work with Drew, moving him on the table so she could use her stethoscope to check his heartbeat—normal for a canine, she indicated. Also to feel his chest, his limbs, his back, his skin, seeking any kind of lump or other abnormality, but she found none.

With Liam’s help—and also that of Brendan, the vet tech he had seen in the hall before—they moved Drew into another room where the X-ray equipment was kept, but once again nothing unusual was discovered.

Brendan took charge of the move back to the same exam room. There were others in the hall then, including a woman also dressed in blue scrubs like Brendan, whom Liam assumed was the other vet tech Brendan had mentioned before.

Melanie, too, came into the hall just as Brendan got Drew inside the room. “How is he doing?” she asked in a thick voice.

Rosa, who’d been following them, said, “We haven’t found anything yet. He seems tired at times but he—” her voice lowered “—he seems to know what’s going on and communicates with us when we ask questions.”

“That’s good,” Melanie said. “I just wish...” She didn’t finish, but instead hurried away from them, down the empty hall.

Liam looked into Rosa’s lovely brown eyes. She looked sad. No, worse, tormented. He had another urge to hug her in empathy. Better yet, to come up with an immediate answer.

He did neither. But he also didn’t look away from her.

Odd, but he felt they’d somehow bonded over this difficult situation. They both wanted to resolve it. Fast. For similar, but not identical reasons.

Alpha Force needed Drew back the way he was. And Liam needed his friend and commanding officer.

His wife, head vet at this place and Rosa’s employer, mother of Drew’s daughter and son, undoubtedly needed him most of all.

Brendan came out the exam room door. “Okay, he’s situated on the table again. He looks tired.”

Rosa immediately pulled her anguished gaze away from him and Liam felt a pang of...sorrow? “Thanks, Brendan. I’m going to draw some blood now.”

Which was what she did, after entering the room again accompanied by Liam, who helped to keep Drew resting despite the prick of the needle.

But there wasn’t a lot he needed to do. Drew appeared exhausted.

What was wrong with him?

And how were they going to fix whatever it was?

In a way, Rosa appreciated the break from hanging out with Drew and using her veterinary skills to watch over him for any illness symptoms that the wolf he was now might evince.

She was of course happy about his apparent understanding of what she, and other people, were saying. That tended to be true with shifters she’d had as occasional patients around here, unlike before she moved here, when the shifters turned fully into the animals they were. And despite his apparent exhaustion, Drew seemed to be doing all right.

But of course he wasn’t.

So, after drawing his blood using a needle, she said, “I’ll be back soon. I need to analyze this.” She waved the tube containing the red liquid just slightly. She felt sure that both Drew and Liam understood what she meant even without saying so.

But notwithstanding the pressure caused by her worry, she felt even more concerned as she left the room. Drew was her patient, and as a veterinarian she was always anxious about her patients, who generally couldn’t tell her what their ailments were.

In Drew’s case, she might not know all he was feeling, but she knew what his most important condition was.

Plus, oddly, she felt a bit apprehensive about walking away from Liam at the moment. Not because she thought leaving him with Drew was inappropriate in the least. But she recognized that, in the short time since she had first met him, she was relying on him to at least acknowledge, and possibly approve, what she was doing with his commanding officer to make him well.

“Ridiculous,” she muttered, as she reached the door to the lab, next to the room where Drew’s X-rays had been taken. She was the vet. Liam just worked—and shifted—with her patient.

Yeah, and probably had more knowledge than she did about how to deal with this situation. But Rosa would do all she could.

As she’d told Liam, if blood work was needed for most patients of the vet clinic, they sent the sample to a nearby lab for analysis. But the blood of shifters in wolf form was different from that of other canines.

Rosa had learned those differences where she had first obtained her veterinary license and begun practicing, in an area of Michigan where wolves of both types were prevalent.

That was one of many reasons why she had fit in when Melanie had conducted a hunt for the right type of vet—one with knowledge of what, in shifters, remained the same and what didn’t.

Not that Rosa was a doctor for humans, but from what she understood, shifters’ blood and other characteristics remained the same as other people’s when they weren’t shifted.