Page 3 of Reluctant Rogue

She smiled, but seemed puzzled, staring at him in what appeared to be confusion. After a moment she seemed to shake off whatever thought had her puzzled.

“Yes, I’m Katerina.” She turned and gestured to the others. “And this is Troy Shelton, Suzanne MacPherson, two of the partners here, and Suzanne’s husband, Mac.”

“Please, help yourself to some coffee and pastry if you like,” the big vet, Troy, said to him, but Katerina was still staring at him oddly.

“You’re an intern?” she finally blurted out in astonished tones.

Liam laughed. “I get that a lot. I felt like an old dude when I was in vet school, compared to the others. But I wanted to finish medical school first.”

Suzanne looked as bewildered as Katerina felt. “Medical school?”

Liam stared at them, and they stared back. He shook his head with a humorous quirk of his lips.

“I’m guessing Maroulla didn’t forward you my resume?”

They all looked at each other.

“I didn’t even think to ask,” Troy admitted.

“Oh, my God, this is so unprofessional of us,” Suzanne dropped her head in her hands.

Katerina noted that Liam was looking more amused than offended.

“In our defense,” Troy told Liam, “We’re all still reeling a bit from finding out that there is such a thing as shapeshifters.”

“Aresuch things as,” Katerina corrected helpfully.

“Let’s try this again.” Troy stood up, holding out his hand. “Troy Shelton.

They shook hands and Suzanne followed suit. “Suzanne MacPherson, and this is my husband, Mac. Douglas McCandliss, our other partner, planned to be here, but he had an emergency call.”

“He’s the equine vet, isn’t he?” Liam asked.

Troy nodded. “He has to go to most of his patients, rather than them come to us.”

Mac held out his hand. “I work at another clinic, so I’m not here in any official capacity.”

“You’re totally here out of curiosity,” Suzanne told her husband, and he laughed, not bothering to deny the allegation.

Katerina smiled from across the room and wiggled her fingers. “Katerina Kazakis, since we’re doing formal introductions now.”

“Soon to be Shelton,” added Troy with a pleased grin. He gestured to a chair. “Please, have a seat.”

Everyone sat again, and Liam opened his briefcase.

“Fortunately, I don’t go anywhere without copies of my resume.”

He pulled out three sheets of paper, passing them to Suzanne, who sat to his right. She took one, and passed the others on.

“While you catch up on that, I’ll lay out the basic ground work. The recent situation with your sister,” and he dipped his head to Katerina, “underscored for those of us in the medical community of the need for professionals on both sides of the fence; human as well as Changed. While it’s rare that a shifter will give birth in her animal form, we still need to be trained for such an eventuality. For instance, it’s my understanding that, while they appear perfectly healthy, the kittens are developing physically at a much slower rate than their non-shifter counterparts.”

Troy nodded. “That’s true. I examined them myself when they were three months old, and they had the physiologic development of kittens about half that age. Since they were otherwise perfectly healthy, as you said, all I can deduce is that the rate of development istheirnormal.”

“Exactly,” Liam nodded. “Maroulla said she’d spoken to you about making this clinic a focal point of care for shifters who are injured in their animal form?”

He made it a question, and everyone nodded in unison, making Katerina giggle.

“As an M.D., it’s my hope to also set up a quiet, unpublicized private practice out of my home, and see shifters in their human as well as animal forms as needed. So this area will be sort of…”