Page 12 of Wolf Bane (Marked #3)

Chapter Five

“I didn’t mean it like that.” Ethan sighed for the fourth, maybe fifth time (it was sixth but who’s counting). “I know you didn’t do anything wrong! I just… had a brain glitch.”

“Okay.”

“Landry.”

“What do you think I did wrong, Ethan?” I hissed.

My office door was closed, Gina Perrin was at the front desk with Reba, ostensibly helping her sort out the callbacks for the missed appointments, and Bossy and Overbearing (Okay, Davis and Kenner) were arranging transport for Mr. Robards to a specialty clinic in Luring, a suburb of Fort Worth that had one gas station, one old Walmart, an HEB that dated from the dark ages, two trailer parks, and apparently a super-secret werewolf lab.

Because that was life now, I guess.

“ What did you do, Landry ,” I repeated. “Yep, still stings.”

“Can we please do this later?”

“Oh, sorry, am I doing it wrong again?”

“Landry!”

A rapid knock sounded on my office door. “Hey, the rest of the team from LMR is here.”

I raised a brow at Ethan. “Did you know she was going to be here? Is this more of Landry-is-a-mushroom? And what the hell is LMR?” My mental filing cabinet was running out of space for all of the acronyms that had come into my life lately, and honestly, I was starting to wonder how many wolf-based names could possibly exist in the world.

“I have no idea who that woman is,” Ethan snapped. Louder, so Gina Perrin could hear him more clearly, he added, “Send them to room two. We’ll be right there.”

There was a brief hesitation, then the sound of Gina Perrin walking away.

“If I tried for the rest of the day, I don’t think I could begin to explain to you how much it is pissing me off that you’re in my place of work, throwing your weight around like you’re in charge.”

Ethan’s jaw worked silently as he chewed on the words that would no doubt cause a bigger fight if they got out. Finally, in a measured tone that added fuel to my irritated fire, he said, “Then maybe it’s best you don’t try.”

He slipped past me and opened the door, following Gina Perrin’s steps down the corridor to exam room two. “What the fuck is LMR?” I shouted after him.

* * *

Reba was hard pressed to leave.

“I don’t think it’s a good idea,” she hedged, eyeing the additional two burly weres who strode into the clinic less than an hour after Ethan arrived. They’d either broken land-speed records to get there or were already in the area.

I wasn’t sure which was more worrying.

Ethan was all business, ordering Bossy and Overbearing to let me check Mr. Robards’ vitals. Gina Perrin stepped back, hands held up in a go right ahead gesture, letting me close to my patient.

“Hey, Mr. Robards,” I said quietly, pressing the stethoscope to his chest. His heart was going hard and steady now, pulse faster than before though not concerningly so. Just better than I’d heard it in our previous visits, which was… good? Maybe? “Can you tell me how you’re feeling?”

His lips twitched, eyes half open as he lolled his head to look at me. “Not really,” he muttered. “Lord almighty. I… I feel hot. Hot and tired. Am I dying?”

I thought of Justin on Tyler’s couch.

“No. I don’t think you are, anyway. These men here are going to take you somewhere to help.” I glared up at Ethan, who was doing his level best not to watch me and failing miserably. “I’ll come with you, just to see you settled.”

“You can’t,” Ethan murmured. “You’re… you’re not on the approved list.”

“I’m not sending him on his own,” I hissed. “What the hell, Ethan?”

“It’s okay,” Mr. Robards said, voice weak but clear. “It’s okay, Doc. They’re not gonna hurt me, right?”

I stared hard at Ethan. He shifted uncomfortably, turning his practiced Sheriff Smile to Mr. Robards. “These guys here know what you’re going through, Mr. Robards. And Lobo Medical has experts in the field.”

“Do they? Would be nice if they offered training to doctors in the area,” I muttered. Gina Perrin snorted softly but busied herself studying her phone when Ethan and I both glared over at her.

“If I can’t come with,” I said finally, “then I’m going to insist on a conversation with the physician in charge of Mr. Robards’ care before he leaves here.”

Ethan started to protest but, smart man that he was, decided that wasn’t the hill to die on. “I’ll see what I can do,” he said finally, stepping out of the room to make a call.

Which was ridiculous, honestly, because the clinic wasn’t that big and Ethan’s voice was low and carried.

A few minutes later, after a string of yes sir and maybe and well, he’s insisting , he came back with a tightness around his eyes and a hitch in his fake smile. “Doctor Norris will be calling you in a few minutes.”

We spent the time making Mr. Robards comfortable while four burly werewolves tried to be inconspicuous. Ethan edged closer to me, his voice barely above a whisper when he said, “They really are EMTs. They just happen to work for the research facility.”

“Because that’s a combination of words that doesn’t freak me out, given my history,” I sniped.

“Jesus, Ethan, what the hell is going on here? You left as one guy but came back as one of them!” He recoiled at that—it wasn’t a huge movement, but I saw it, and a sharp shard of regret lodged itself just below my throat. “Ethan?—”

“We’ll talk later,” he said gruffly, turning away to manage the Odd Squad.

It was a rush of bodies after that, with me and Gina Perrin getting shoved to the side while the weres brought in a stretcher and removed Mr. Robards.

My protests were largely ignored, save for a pained glance from Ethan as he followed the others to an unremarkable ambulance parked just outside the clinic.

A few gawkers were lingering across the street, pretending to desperately need a copy of the Greensheet from the empty box that had been there since time began.

Mr. Robards gave me a tiny, reassuring smile as he was loaded into the back of the pale green and blue ambulance, two of the weres climbing into the back with him as the other two got in front.

Gina Perrin came to stand beside me on the sidewalk. “It’s okay,” she said. “I did a round of training with LMR last year. They’re legit.”

I spun on her, the urge to snarl almost overwhelming. “I don’t even know who you are, Gina Perrin! The level of bullshit the ICW puts me through is heroic, you know? And I don’t have one damn reason to trust you.”

“Landry?”

Reba’s voice, made unusually small by the chaos, dragged my attention away from Gina Perrin. “Sorry, Reba. It’s… a lot today. Take the rest of the day off, okay? I mean, there’s only like an hour left in it since we close early on Fridays, but… yeah…” I sighed. “This is so fucked up.”

She nodded, eyes wide. “Um. This was weird, huh?”

“That’s a word for it.”

She stared at me for a long moment, lips parting as if to speak before she pressed them back into a tight line. “I… I need to go do some things, okay? I’ll call you? Are we, um… we open on Monday?”

I nodded slowly. “Of course. Are you… are you okay? I know this was a lot but?—”

Her smile was too bright, too big, as she backed away. “Of course! Just dandy! I’m gonna go get me a glass of tea and tell the better half we should get Thai tonight, that new place in Decker City.”

Something was wrong. I mean, beyond the clusterfuck that had become Mr. Robards’ visit. “Reba, are you sure you’re okay? Do you need to sit down or?—”

“No, no,” she said, laughing shakily. “I just… that was so strange,” she blurted. “I’ve never seen someone seize like that and the sounds …” She trailed off, eyes wide.

“It was very upsetting,” I offered quietly. “It got to me, too. Go on home, take the rest of the day, alright? If you need to call in for tomorrow, I’ll make do. It’s alright.”

She shook her head again, harder this time.

“I should be okay after a stiff drink and a few hours of Law & Order . Maybe package up some brittle. Something to get my mind off everything. Um. Talk soon.” She eyed the departing ambulance, Gina Perrin, Ethan, then back to me. “Be careful, Landry. Please.”

I watched Reba hurry to her little blue Honda, almost running really, and peel away like the hounds of hell were on her bumper. “Shit,” I muttered. “I think she might know now.”

Ethan sighed gustily. “It was bound to happen, working with you like this.” He glanced past me to Gina Perrin. “Who are you?”

She smiled, shoving out her hand for him to shake. “Doctor Gina Perrin. The council sent me to get some on the ground experience in rural and suburban were and shifter populations. This clinic is the first one really up and running, so while they work on phasing out the human patients?—”

“They what?” I whipped my head around to face her. “Excuse me?”

“Landry…” Ethan closed the distance between us, putting his hand on my bicep and giving me a soft squeeze. “This isn’t how I wanted today to go.”

“You think it was how I wanted it to go either?”

“I wanted to surprise you, come home early and, I don’t know, take you out to lunch or something.

” He huffed softly. “Have a happy reunion, you know? But I was halfway back here with Davis and Kenner—the two you kept calling Bossy and Overbearing—when Cullen called to let us know all hell was breaking loose.”

“Why were you traveling with them? They your new bodyguards now?” I sniped, unable to keep the annoyance out of my tone.

“Fucking hell, Ethan, you know better than anyone how I feel about being just a freaking pawn to these people! And that’s exactly why this feels like Shut up, Landry, you’re not on the need-to-know list Landry, you wouldn’t understand Landry ! ”

“That’s not—” Ethan clamped his teeth shut on that.

“Um, you guys?” Gina Perrin hedged in. “Maybe take this inside?” She nodded towards the small cluster of people still lingering across the street. “Doctor Babin, your phone is ringing.”