Page 10 of Shifter and the Succubus (The Pack #1)

Jason cursed and held on to the van’s grab handle as Misha took the corner so fast it felt like they were on two wheels. “Misha! Slow down or we won’t get there in one piece.”

Misha mumbled something in Russian before blasting through a barely yellow—okay, pretty much red—light, followed by the barrage of horns from morning commuters.

Jason wished once again that he’d been driving when they got the phone call about Callie having contractions. Especially since she wasn’t due for another month. He held his breath when the van squealed onto the street that led to the gated demon community where Misha’s Shamat clan lived.

The gate opened as they approached, and Jason flinched as the van went through it, barely missing the side. “Slow down!”

Finally something registered and Misha slowed the van as they traversed the neighborhood and parked next to the hospital.

They jumped out of the van and ran toward the front door, Misha beating him through first. They only made it a few steps before Misha stopped and Jason ran into the back of him, just keeping himself from landing on his ass. “Hey!”

Jason stepped around his large teammate and saw Callie and Sabrina walking toward them.

“What’s going on?” Misha blurted.

Callie shrugged. “It was a false alarm.”

Misha shuddered and walked over to his mate to wrap her in his arms before turning to Sabrina. “You’re sure they’re okay?”

“Yes. Callie and the baby are fine. It was Braxton-Hicks. Quite common toward the end of pregnancy.”

Jason blew out the breath he didn’t know he’d been holding.

Callie smiled up at Misha. “Everything is fine.”

“I have told her to start taking it easy though,” Sabrina said.

Callie scowled at Sabrina. “I am taking it easy.”

Misha shook his head. “You’ve been cleaning and setting up the nursery when you don’t need to. You’re nesting.”

Callie sighed. “I knew I should have hidden all those baby books from you.”

“Too late.” Misha tossed the van key toward Jason before he reached down and picked Callie up.

“Misha! Put me down,” Callie sputtered.

“No. You’re going to go home and rest. And I’m going to take care of you. And when the twins get home from school, they are going to take care of you too.”

“Well, you don’t have to carry me.”

“Aleksei carried Naya around for weeks when she was pregnant and on bed rest.”

“And Naya almost killed your brother in his sleep!”

Misha laughed and kissed his mate. “I’m not convinced it was the only reason. Now let’s get you home.” He nodded to Sabrina. “Thank you.”

“Of course.”

Misha turned on his heel and walked out of the hospital to the sounds of Callie’s protests wafting down the hall.

“He’s going to carry her all the way home.” Jason laughed. “It’s never dull around here.”

Sabrina chuckled. “Agreed.”

His heart sped up at her laugh. Nope, not going there. And awkwardness replaced the laughter.

She stared at him. “How are you feeling?”

“Good.”

“Let’s take a quick look while you’re here.”

Before he could protest, she kept on talking. “Your release paperwork said you were to come back for a follow-up.”

“I must have missed that.”

Sabrina narrowed her eyes. He waited for her to call him on his BS, but instead she gestured for him to follow her down the hall.

They stepped into an exam room, and she closed the door.

Walking to a computer mounted on a stand, she typed on the keyboard and then patted the paper-covered exam table before pulling on some gloves.

Jason took off his coat and hung it on a hook and then sat. Sabrina pulled her stethoscope out of the pocket of her doctor’s coat and listened to his heart and then asked him to take deep breaths.

“Any residual pain?” she asked as she took his temperature.

“Not really.”

Again with the narrowing of the eyes. “Take off your shirt, please.”

He pulled his shirt over his head, and she looked at the scar on his side. She pressed her fingers against the red mark before stepping back. “It’s healing nicely. Pretty soon it will fade totally.”

“Like it never happened,” Jason said.

“Except it did. We might heal faster than humans, but that doesn’t mean we don’t have to deal with other forms of trauma.”

Time to deflect. “Are you putting your psych hat on, Doc?”

Sabrina’s eyes sparked. “I can’t help myself. Emotional and psychological issues are as important as physical.”

He didn’t want to open that can of worms. “I’m good. I’ve been shot before.”

Sabrina wrapped her stethoscope around her neck. “I was referring to you starting to show signs of being a shifter.”

She wasn’t going to let him shrug that off, so he went for the truth. “It’s a lot.”

“I can imagine. I’m glad you agreed to let the pack help you.” She held up her hand. “And before you get mad at them, they haven’t said anything to me about it. Kyle mentioned you were working with Griffin and Bea.”

“It’s not really a secret. They’ve been giving me a Shifter 101 course. And I feel like I’ve been trying to drink from a fire hose.”

Sabrina smiled. “I’m sure. But you don’t have to catch on to everything at once. I know that the original DNA blood tests were inconclusive about your genetic history. Would you like me to run some new tests?”

“You didn’t draw enough blood when I was shot?”

“If you remember, we were worried about getting blood back into you. And I would not run those types of tests without getting your permission.”

He shrugged. “It happened before.”

Sabrina frowned. “It doesn’t make it right.”

He agreed. “Yeah, well, Griffin apologized. He was protecting his pack. And honestly if I had been in his shoes, I would have done the same thing.”

“That is very forgiving of you. But it still doesn’t make it right.”

“No. But neither was me going commando on all supes without finding out that you’re not all bad.”

Sabrina’s eyebrows rose. “True.”

He blew out a hard breath. “And if I want to learn more about my shifter side, I need to let it go.”

Sabrina hesitated, which was never a good sign. “Have you spoken to your parents yet?”

Jason’s stomach twisted. “No. I just couldn’t get myself to ask. And it didn’t seem to matter because I never expected to show any shifter traits. But now…”

“Now you need to know.”

“Yeah.” But he needed to find out all he could first. “Let’s go ahead and run the tests.

See what happens before I go see my parents.

” He cleared his throat. “I also want to apologize for the way I acted when I left the hospital. I…well, I was working through some things. I shouldn’t have been a jerk to you, especially after you saved my life. ”

“Technically Dr. Jones did the surgery.”

“You know what I mean.” He swallowed. “I know that you don’t want to be anything more than friends.

And…I agree. The more I’ve thought about it, the more I believe it would have been a mistake to start anything.

We work together and don’t need it to be awkward, right?

” He couldn’t lose this team—his found family.

And even though his heart wanted more with Sabrina, he could truly lose everything if she wasn’t his friend.

So he would suck it up. Because let’s be honest, if it came down to him or Sabrina, the team would choose her. As well they should.

She looked at him for a drawn-out moment, and he looked right back, wondering if they were playing the stare-down game—who blinks first.

She finally responded. “Right. Your friendship means a lot to me too. I don’t want to lose that.” She walked to the cabinet, took out a sealed bag, and set it down on the metal tray next to the table. When she pulled it open, Jason could see all the items needed to draw blood.

“I would think you would have a tech draw the blood. Don’t you have somewhere important and doctorly to be?” he quipped, hoping to break the tension.

“Smart-ass.” Sabrina smirked. “I want to follow this blood and the tests from start to finish so that there is no question about the results. It will take a while to get the tests back.”

She tied the tourniquet and then wiped down his arm with an alcohol swab. “You’re going to feel a little prick.” Her eyes danced.

He chuckled. He loved seeing the spark in her eyes. They would be friends, that was all. She had made it clear she wasn’t looking for a relationship. Or at least a relationship with him.

And it was time for him to move on without her and figure out what it meant to be shifter, even if his heart was protesting along the way.