Linda O. Johnston - Visionary Wolf

When Rosa had arrived, Spike was in a special fenced pen by himself in the upstairs area where the cover dogs were housed when not on duty, his leg bandaged, and one of the aides continuously changing the dressing. Rosa had been able to follow Drew as he carried Spike downstairs to what he’d referred to as the base’s primary lab area, where she’d been able to snip off fur from around the cut, wash it well, soak it with disinfectant and wrap it in sterile bandages after providing topical anesthetic, a few stitches and a larger cover bandage and temporary cone collar to make sure he didn’t chew too close to it. He’d healed just fine.

The poor dog’s injury had given Rosa not only the opportunity to see part of the military facility that housed the amazing Alpha Force, but also to increase her already good reputation, thanks to Melanie’s verbal recognition of what Rosa additionally did to help those shifters who needed medical assistance while in their animal forms.

Liam parked his car and used a key card to get them both inside the building. The guy was either a gentleman or he didn’t trust her not to drop the critically important box containing Drew’s blood samples, since he carried it inside. He then led her to the stairway to the area where Rosa knew the labs, and some offices, were located. He unlocked that door and she followed him downstairs.

A lot, maybe all, of the members of Alpha Force were gathered in a room past the labs where Rosa had been before.

“This is Drew’s office in this building,” Liam told her, “although he’s got another one in the main admin building at the other side of the base.”

It wasn’t a large room, but there were many chairs in rows facing the desk, all occupied. Rosa recognized a few of the people there who’d sometimes brought their cover animals to the vet clinic or had come to visit Drew and Melanie in their home next door.

Even so, Liam introduced her to them all—and most important to her now were Captain Patrick Worley and Captain Jonas Truro, whom she’d already met. They were both medical doctors, but only Patrick was a shifter.

Then there was Lieutenant Seth Ambers, also a doctor, Staff Sergeant Jason Connell, who was Drew’s cousin as well as a member of Alpha Force, aides including Staff Sergeants Ruby Belmont, Piers Janus, and more. Rosa hoped she would remember names, but even if she didn’t right away, she would try to have as good a relationship as possible with all of them, easiest if a solution was found quickly for Drew’s problem.

When he was done with the introductions, Liam told Rosa to join him standing behind Drew’s desk facing the group. “Rosa has come here to give a rundown, especially to everyone who’s a medical doctor, regarding what she found when she conducted Drew’s blood test. I’ve mentioned that to some of you.” He gestured toward the box they’d brought, which now rested on Drew’s desk.

Rosa wondered if the entire group needed to hear this, since she figured only a few would know anything about blood and blood tests and the different blood types of regular people and shifters and all. But considering the fascinated and concerned way they stared at her, she assumed they were all highly worried about their commanding officer and what was going on with him. They wanted him back, as normal for his type as he’d been before.

Plus some of them were shifters, too, and would want to ensure, if possible, that the same thing didn’t happen with them. And fellow Alpha Force members who were aides would need to know how to help the shifters they worked for.

So, yes, for their own reasons they all needed to be there.

She first described how she had been put in charge of Major Connell by the head veterinarian at the clinic—his wife. “Melanie did her own exam first, of course, and I’ve been keeping her up-to-date. But I’m sure it was hard on her to have to check out poor Drew in this situation.”

Rosa then talked about how she had examined Drew, had kept him under her care, had looked for any abnormalities in his canine form—and had, of course, taken a blood test.

“I don’t know that I need to get into much detail here,” she told the group. “I did find what appears to be some irregularity in the consistency and color of the fluid and, not being a chemist beyond the skills needed to be a damn good veterinarian—” she smiled a bit sadly at that, realizing that her own fears of inadequacy were showing in her irony “—I wanted to see if anyone here could help analyze Drew’s blood and determine if it’s the cause, or an indication, of what’s going on with him.”

“We’ll take a look.” Patrick was the first to stand, then Jonas did. “Come into the lab area with us, Rosa, and we’ll start checking things out, okay?”

“Of course.”

She glanced toward Liam, who nodded. He apparently wasn’t joining them, but he was her ride back to town. She suspected she’d be able to find another one, though, if necessary.

Patrick picked up the box. She wasn’t surprised when Seth joined them. It wouldn’t hurt to have all the doctors who knew human patients’ traits getting involved, or at least that’s what she surmised.

Patrick led Rosa next door to the lab areas, where he asked Seth to start the analysis process, getting slides ready for the microscope and more.

“We really appreciate this,” Patrick said, standing with Rosa in the middle of the main room, which was lined with shiny metal cabinets with glass doors. Some had equipment on top—a lot of microscopes, for one thing.

Patrick was a tall guy, dressed in camos like all the people around here but Rosa. His hair was light and short, his face long and nice looking, with a cleft in his chin.

He didn’t resemble Liam except for his height and outfit—and for an instant Rosa missed Liam’s presence. Ridiculous.

“I appreciate it, too,” she said to Patrick. “I just hope you can figure this out.”

“I’m sure you know we want to,” he replied. Seth was already removing the various vials of blood from the padding in the box. Rosa had labeled them with the time collected and whether she had done anything to attempt to examine each particular sample, so she figured they at least wouldn’t have any questions about that.

But what they all really needed was answers.

She hung out in the lab for a while, mostly watching the others, listening to them discuss what to do next. Then Patrick said, “You know, Rosa, this is going to take a while. Why don’t you go back to your clinic, and we’ll let you know what we find, okay?”

In other words, her staring wasn’t making them go faster, but might be causing them some discomfort.

She didn’t want that. Besides, back at the clinic she’d be able to bring Melanie up-to-date, such as it was with no answers so far, and maybe do something helpful there before the day ended. “Sounds good,” she said.

She just hoped that Liam was ready to leave.

Liam was champing at the bit.

He had gone to his own office, upstairs in another part of the building, but only briefly to check on how Denny was doing.

He’d promised to return Rosa to town, and though he figured he could get someone else to do it, he wanted to be the one.

He also wanted to get on his own computer and get busy doing his own thing to start fixing all the absurd and detrimental rumors.

“Here’s what I’ve done,” Denny had told him, and good guy that he was, Liam’s aide had followed his prior instructions and started with one of the social media sites where the posts were among the most awful and accusatory against shapeshifters the night before, including an unnamed military group containing shifters. Oddly, as Liam had previously noted, a few had signed their posts with the names of Greek or Roman gods, like Zeus, Hera, Orion, Diana and Poseidon, and even Cerberus, the three-headed dog. They could be a group of anti-shifters, or just one person pretending to be a bunch. Which frustrated Liam. He hadn’t had the time to start figuring that out yet.