Page 23 of Someone Else's Wolf

Would medical consultancy require less paperwork, or more?

Interesting that all of my concerns were about the conditions, the money, and my life in general, not about giving up a career I was supremely attached to. I'd known I didn't have blue running through my veins the way some cops did, but I'd thought I was a little more attached to my career than that.Huh.Now, that was something worth mulling over. Maybe I didn't want to be a police officer forever.

Kirk gave me an alert look. "What are you thinking?"

"Stupid things," I admitted. "I was wondering if I'd like medical work. But you can't even stand the secondhand smell of my boyfriend, so how would that possibly work for us?"

He grimaced. "I see your point." He gave me a cautiously assessing look. "But you would consider it, if it weren't for that?"

I was beginning to think I'd consider anything that would help me keep seeing Peter. How pathetic was that? "Let me think this over and do some research. I wouldn't give up my boyfriend, though."

It was getting awfully easy to say that word. Suppose I said it around Peter, before we'd talked about it? What would he think of my newfound possessiveness and my assumptions? I hoped he would be pro-boyfriend.

Kirk gave me a quizzical look. "Why are you even considering it? You know I have an unpleasant personality."

"Yeah, you're a regular monster." I grinned at his shocked expression. "Let me do some research before we decide anything, okay?"

He nodded and rose, smoothing down his t-shirt, looking down. "Take your time." He looked as though he wanted to say something more but didn't trust himself to say it correctly.

I thought about it as I watched him go, his back straight and shoulders back, as usual, so in control. Was I being an idiot to even consider this? Perhaps he really was an asshole. Perhaps I'd hate medical consultancy work.

But my gut told me this needed to be investigated, even if it seemed to have come out of left field. So, investigate it I would.

As big a deal as whether I liked the work and if Kirk and I could stand each other was whether there were any job openings near my home, and if Kirk was willing to move there.

Nothing I chose at this point could exclude being near Peter. He was quickly moving past the point of being important in my life to it being a deal-breaker if the future didn't make room for him.

I wasn't sure what that said about me. Maybe that I was a soppy mess. After all, he'd said I wasn't his mate. It seemed I was thinking more permanently than he was, but I couldn't stop myself.

Who knew I was such an old romantic? Certainly not me.

CHAPTER TEN

The next few days, I dug in like never before. I wasn't quite sure why, but it seemed important.

Why should I consider working with Kirk, the guy who found me repulsive for sleeping with a wolf? Plenty of people would hold the same view if it came out at work, but I couldn't shake the feeling that thismattered. I dug in with all I had.

I learned all I could about the medical consultancy work that Kirk would qualify for. Honestly, it seemed pretty easy compared to some jobs. He would use his sense of smell to identify medical issues in various patients or in tissue samples, or in some cases would eliminate them.

At first it seemed stupid, even borderline discriminatory, to regulate that he had to have a partner to work in this field. Because of course shifters couldn't be trusted without a handler to keep them in line.

But that seemed less true the more I looked into it. Yes, it was a stupid rule, but it was based on a valid reason. Medical work like this wasn't physically taxing and didn't require long hours. Sometimes, it only came down to a few hours a week of actually working, yet it could be incredibly emotionally draining. There was a very high rate of burnout as shifters who had sailed through qualification and did excellent work began to realize they would rather do literally anything else with their lives than tell people yes, they had cancer, or some other deadly disease that was easy to spot through its smell, once you knew how (and had a shifter's nose).

Kirk was excellent with his nose, but I wondered if he'd given any of this a serious thought.

One day, I caught up with him while he was standing near a shallow pond, looking moodily out over the water. Ostensibly, he'd been on a walk, but he looked like he'd been standing here for hours, staring into the distance and regretting his life choices.

"Kirk. Glad I found you." He hadn't been hard to find, since he came here often, but it was probably best not to sound like I was stalking him.

"Shane," he acknowledged without turning to look at me. He had the slightly martyred air of someone who was thinking about walking into the lake to avoid this conversation.

"I've been doing some research," I informed him.

"I thought you forgot about that."

"No. I wondered whether you've thought this through. Apparently, it's difficult emotionally to do the work. I mean, long-term. I'd try to help, of course, but I'm not the most comforting person in the world." Especially considering we barely knew one another, and Kirk was prickly enough to bite my head off if I tried to be sympathetic.

He snorted, and I swear it was the most deer-like snort. It stopped me in my tracks for a moment, though I don't think he noticed. He was frowning hard at the water now, shoving his hands deeper into his pockets.