Page 13 of Wolf Bane (Marked #3)

I glanced down, staring at my lab coat pocket like it was new to me.

My phone was definitely trilling softly inside.

“Probably Doctor Norris, huh?” I sighed, suddenly exhausted.

“Yeah, Ethan. We need to talk. At home. I’ll see you there.

Unless you have another meeting to get to?

Some secret thing I can’t know about? Another virus maybe? ”

“Landry, you’re not being fair!”

I held up a finger to silence him. “At home. Gina Perrin?—”

“Uh, you can just go with Gina. Or Perrin if you’re one of those guys that plays too much Call of Duty and likes to call people by their last name.”

“Gina Perrin, where are you staying?”

“Belmarais. I have a rental for the next few months. It’s?—”

“Okay. Give me your number.” I fumbled for something to write it on but she waved me off.

“It's on Reba's desk. I wasn't going to stick around this morning until all hell broke loose. Before,” she gestured to encompass the fuckery that was the day, “everything, I gave Reba my card.”

My phone shrilled again, making us both wince. “Got it. I'll...”

She nodded, turning to go. “I'll be waiting.”.

* * *

“I called you fifteen minutes ago,” Norris grumbled. “I have a busy schedule, Doctor Babin, and placating you isn’t on my to-do list.”

“Having a human patient experience a shift then get kidnapped by your minions wasn’t on mine. But here we are.”

Norris made a sound that might have been a laugh, might have been a scoff. Or maybe a delightful combination of both. “I’m familiar with your history?—”

“You think so, huh?”

“In as much as ICW will provide it. And you should know better than anyone there is no possible way for a human without were genetics to experience a shift, and a human of such advanced years who never shifted before doing it? That’s impossible.”

I closed my eyes, held my breath, and counted to thirty. Then forty. Norris made an annoyed sound down the line when I let everything out in a whoosh at forty-five. “Are you calling me a liar?”

“I’m saying you’re laboring under a misunderstanding of the situation,” he said with thick, false kindness.

“Mr. Robards will be at our facility soon and we’ll begin our examination.

In the meantime, I suggest you direct his partner or family’s calls to us rather than ham-fist your way through this. ”

The urge to hurl my desk phone through the window was strong. Instead, I pushed it away after I hung up on the smug-voiced twatwaffle and dropped my head to rest on my folded arms.

“Hey.”

“Jesus.” I groaned against my wrist. “How did you get in? Why did you get in? Didn’t you go home already?”

Gina Perrin slipped into my office, carefully perching on the patient chair in front of my desk.

“I started to, but I got to thinking… And I need your number so that next time I need to talk to you, I don’t have to corner you in your office when I’d rather be back at my little rental house with my shoes off and a glass of sweet tea.

Anyway, you left the back employee door open.

You should be more careful, especially after everything that’s happened. ”

“Fuck’s sake, what am I? The urban legend for werewolves all of a sudden? Are y’all making a soap opera about my life?”

“No, but the year’s not over yet.”

Damn it, I did appreciate a good snark, and I didn’t want to like her even a little. “What are you doing here, Gina Perrin?”

“Seriously, one or the other. Or Doctor Perrin, if you’re feeling formal.”

“I like the way the double-barreled name rolls off my tongue,” I said, leaning back in my chair. “Why didn’t Cullen tell me you were coming? And what the hell are we supposed to do with you here?”

“Allegedly? I’m here because part of the ICW’s goals regarding were and shifter health include mental health services. I’m a were, I have all kinds of fancy papers with my name on them, and you’re running a clinic that serves a mixed were and human community.”

“And they chose not to tell me because?”

“That’s between you and Cullen. I just got a plane ticket, keys to a rental, and told to report to you when I arrived. Honestly, I’m just glad they sent me here and not Mississippi.”

I snorted softly at that. “Parts of it are nice.” She raised a brow at me, and I shrugged. “They are!”

“Not for queer Black women, and not for lone werewolves who have no interest in joining a pack.” She spread her hands with a tight smile.

“Double whammy here. Look, I get it, you’ve had a shitty year, yeah?

From what I’ve been allowed to know. And it looks like you’re about to get hit with another raft of it.

Trust me, I’ve been working with the ICW for three years now, I know how they can be.

So, let’s make a deal. I’ll help you navigate their bullshit, you let me work out here like I’m supposed to, and when it’s time for me to move on, we’re not besties, but we’re at least solid. Deal?”

When I didn’t answer, she rolled her eyes. “Okay then, how about this… go home. You and your guy sort out whatever the hell you’ve got going on. Call me later and we’ll figure our plan out. Because I’m here, whether you like it or not.”

Gina Perrin pushed away from the desk and stood, already backing towards the open office door.

“I don’t know about the virus either,” she offered. “Just the little bits I’ve heard around the office, rumors more than anything. You’re the first person I’ve heard mention it outside of ICW.” She paused, eyeing me thoughtfully. “Maybe we should compare notes.”

I wanted to be mad, but I knew she didn’t deserve any of it. Did Ethan though? My gut lurched, acid and sad. I wanted to explain myself, to tell Gina Perrin about the absolute fuckery of the day—the week, no month, no… Ugh. Everything. Instead, I just nodded.

“Hey, you said you’re a shrink?”

“A damn good one.”

“I might have a patient for you. Let me talk to him and… Well, it’s a saga. Um. Do you want to come by for dinner tomorrow? We can talk about the entire shit show.”

She hesitated, then gave me a slight smile and nod. “We’ll see.”

I stood, joining her at the office door. “It’s not usually like this.”

“Now, Doctor Babin, you know it’s not nice to lie.”

* * *

Ethan wasn’t home when I got there, but I could tell he had been.

The place smelled like him—the familiar scent of Old Spice he wore, the earth and salt scent of the were he carried inside, the faintest tang of over brewed coffee he’d had at some point between the office and the house.

His fancy loafers that went with his good suit were tucked into the shoe rack by the front door and his worn-in, heavy boots were gone.

I knew without needing to check that his favorite flannel overshirt was missing from the closet as were that pair of jeans that he probably should’ve stopped wearing ages ago but were worn in so well they should’ve been illegal on that ass.

Wait, Landry. You’re mad at him. Hold that thought.

I had a fairly good idea where he’d gone—to Tyler’s.

Even with his new job, Ethan was still head of the clan.

It would take him a while, I knew, to get everything from Tyler and do whatever he needed to do to placate angry weres and patch up any scuffs and snarls that had popped up during his absence, so I took my own sweet time showering, starting laundry, and generally pretending everything was fine and trying not to dwell on my day.

That took me all of an hour and a half.

Shit.

So that meant I had to do my least favorite thing and actually Be Responsible and Take Care of Shit.

Cullen answered on the third ring. “Were you just waiting there, watching my name flash, hoping to drive up my blood pressure?” I asked when he answered with a wordless sigh.

“If I was intending to cause you harm, I’d do it in person,” he drawled. “I do have other things going on in my life, despite how it might seem to you. ”

“Aw, Cullen, I’m not the sparkling center of your universe? How will I ever go on?”

“The way most of your sort do, rolling balls of shit uphill while the rest of us ignore your existence.”

“You sweet-talker, you. Now, I do have to tell you I am happily involved with someone so this can go no further than a little flirting.”

“Are you then? Happy? Because Ethan seemed less than thrilled when I spoke with him earlier. And,” he cut me off before I could get a word out, “before you flop on your bed and start kicking your heels in the air, asking me what he said about you, he didn’t. Not everything is about you.”

“Be a lot cooler if it was.”

Cullen’s answering silence was cold enough to freeze my toes, but I let it stretch to an uncomfortable degree before shifting into the reason for my call.

“Who the hell is Gina Perrin and why are y’all interfering with the way I’m running the clinic?

What the hell is going on with Eustace Robards?

And what’s with the Goon Squad that was apparently lurking around near enough to show up at the clinic in about an hour? ”

“It will behoove you to remember that the clinic is not yours . You are working at it. The council owns it, pays your salary, and provides lab services for approximately sixty percent of your patients. It also paid for a large portion of your retraining.”

Nothing like being chastised to make me feel like I was a nine-year-old all over again, getting chewed out by Mrs. Abbington after my single Cub Scout meeting for being weird and off putting, scaring the other boys.

Face too hot to be comfortable, I pushed down the urge to mumble an apology and hang up.

“All I ask is that I am on the same page, Cullen. I know I’m not exactly well liked by either community, but if you expect me to be useful , then I need information. Especially when it comes to the clinic. Especially when it comes to my patients.”