Page 33 of Wolf Bane (Marked #3)

Gina Perrin spoke up before I could. “No, let me. I’m a known quantity for them,” she said, leaning back in the kitchen chair and giving Ethan a hard look when he tried to protest. “You’ve barely been there three months, am I right?”

He reluctantly nodded. “Officially anyway.”

“So. Let me. I’m working here now. First day on the job and this happens?” She whistled through her teeth, shaking her head. “I’d be less of an op, you know?”

Tyler smiled. “I like her. She’s smart.”

“And pretty,” Gina Perrin reminded him. “Don’t forget pretty.”

“And pretty,” he repeated dutifully. Justin barely managed to hide his smirk, ducking his face when Tyler winked at him, bringing him in on the banter. The speed with which Justin went from his usual shade to bright pink was, medically speaking, a little alarming.

But also kind of cute.

“Ethan and Tyler,” I said, taking pity on Justin’s blood pressure and drawing Tyler’s attention for the moment, “You two know every were in the area and beyond. Don’t give me that look, it’s true.

I need help making a database.” I hesitated.

“Okay. This is a big ask. I need all of the weres and shifters in the surrounding area, but a special note made of which ones have human ancestry.”

Ethan just stared at me. Tyler laughed. “Oh my God, you’re not kidding,” he groaned when I just stared back at him.

“That’s a huge ask. Doable, but huge. Most of the clans keep records of the families involved.

And I’m sure at least the larger shifter groups do.

It’s not gonna be easy to get ‘em to let me see though.”

“Then you’d better get on it,” Ethan said, saluting him with his mug. Tyler saluted back with a single digit.

Mal raised his hand, chest high. “Um, what do I need to do?”

“Take care of Mariska,” I said. He nodded, but I couldn’t help seeing the hurt that flashed in his eyes. “Listen, it’s not because I don’t need your help. I do.”

“Then let me help ,” he shot back. “I can talk to the parents in the little shifter group she runs with. They don’t cotton much to the weres—no offense, y’all. I get a pass because, well,” he held out his hands in an I’m harmless gesture.

“Okay.” I sighed. “Okay. You have a point. But there’s something else, too… I need your blood. All of y’all. I need blood. Justin…”

Justin’s eyes widened. “What?”

“I have a theory. Everyone who is getting sick, they’re weres and a few shifters, right? What if they’re not entirely …”

“Like you?” Tyler asked, arching a brow. “Why aren’t you sick too, then?”

“Because, as we’ve already determined, I’m a freak of nature. So is Mal. No offense.”

Mal shrugged. “You’re not wrong.”

“Jesus.” Ethan sighed, scrubbing his face with his hands. “We know there’s more than a few partial weres and shifters out there, but as soon as we start poking that bear—so to speak—all hell’s breaking loose.”

“Most of the clans like to pretend the intermarriages between humans and weres either don’t happen or are exceptional.”

“I can’t think of a single mixed family that’s stayed in the clans,” Ethan mused, frowning. “Always moved out of town or something, remember?”

Tyler nodded. “The Rayfords, back when we were in middle school. Their older daughter married that guy then suddenly went off to Tulsa or something.”

“Clans stick together so long as you don’t buck the system?” I interjected, just a tiny bit bitter. “What about the ones that leave, or have to leave? Are they just expected to suddenly be without support after a lifetime of the clan around them?”

Ethan and Tyler exchanged uncomfortable, speaking looks.

“If I were forced to leave the clan,” Ethan said after a long, long moment, “I don’t know what I’d do, I may not be as involved in leadership as our father would’ve liked, but I’m still clan.

There's upstart packs forming in the bigger cities. Hell, some rural communities, too. Not just weres hanging out with weres but packs …”

Tyler let out a low whistle. “Makes sense. Rejected members forming their own packs. That’s not unheard of. Usually, it’s folks kicked out for breaking clan laws, doing harm to others…”

Ethan made a strangled, disgruntled sound low in his throat. Not quite a growl but close. “If there’s renegade packs made up of rejected clan members, that can only bite us on the ass later. In the meantime, we’re having to deal with this giant ball of shit. And that’s gonna take precedence.”

I nodded shakily. “We need to find out which of these affected individuals are were, even just a small percentage. And which are fully human.”

Justin straightened, interest spreading over his features.

“You want to do an analysis comparing were to human genetic material, healthy samples to infected samples? That’s a huge ask,” he said, mirroring Tyler’s comment.

“I’d need a full lab. Assistants. I’d need time .

I don’t know what we’re looking for here, and DNA analysis is insanely fussy.

” Leaning back, he groaned, scrubbing his hands over his face.

I thought maybe… he might also be a tiny bit excited at the prospect.

“We just need to check markers. Something that differentiates human from were.

“Let me talk to Cullen,” Ethan said. “He’s our in with the council. If anyone has pre-existing info, it’s them.”

Justin was practically beaming. Well, okay, it was a tiny smile, but for him? After all these months? I was gonna count it as a full wattage beam. His breath still rasped, his hands shook, but he was engaged. Excited, even.

“No, no, no… Look, Landry, you’re a great forensic pathologist. But you’re not a cytopathologist. What you’re looking for isn’t DNA analysis. You’re looking for infection.”

“Thank you. I’m flattered and I really appreciate it.” I flashed him a bright smile. It really was nice hearing that someone appreciated my work in my first, beloved field of medicine. Not that being a GP wasn’t okay. It just wasn’t pathology.

I’m sure it said something about my psyche that I preferred working with the dead, but I didn’t want to examine that too closely at the moment.

“I need to find out if the council has any information on the disease,” Justin said, getting to his feet.

Tyler startled, half-rising to follow him but Ethan motioned him down.

He sank, reluctantly, as Justin started to pace.

“It’ll be easier than doing a whole damn analysis.

I need to see what they already have but, in the meantime, I can look at the samples, compare them to uninfected samples…

” He trailed off, spinning to face us. “How do we know who isn’t infected though?

What if we’re all carriers but only some of us are symptomatic? Shit. I need a lab !”

Tyler smiled slowly, finally getting to his feet. “I can help you with that.”