Wolf Fever

Chapter 18

WHEN CAROL SAW RYAN’S SHIRTSLEEVE BLOODIED, she frowned and quickened her pace toward the hospital waiting area. “Let’s get you into an exam room.”

“I’m fine. It’s just a graze, for Chr—”

She gave him a look to curb his tongue. He noted the two small girls in the waiting area and snorted. Then he wordlessly went with her down the hall as she held his arm, his whole body tensing. Touching him made her feel so much more secure. Although she was afraid that once he saw Tom and the goose egg he was sporting, Ryan would be more than furious with the both of them.

“What happened?” she asked.

“I was chasing one of the reds as a wolf, and when I located him, he shifted and held a gun on me.”

They approached the exam room as Jake followed behind. “And then he fired a shot at you?”

“A couple, but he missed all three times, dove into his pickup, and vamoosed.”

“Missed all three times?” She touched the sleeve of his shirt, blood spotting the blue and white print.

“He got lucky. One ricocheted off a tree, or he would never have hit me.”

She frowned at him. “You went after him even when you learned he had a gun, didn’t you?” Not surprising, but she didn’t like that he took such risks, either. “You shouldn’t have.”

He gave her a hard scowl back, his hands clenched into fists. She felt his muscle tighten beneath her fingertips. “By lunging at him, I threw him off guard. If I hadn’t, he could have fired several steady shots at my retreating backside.”

“I hope you didn’t continue to chase him,” she scolded.

“While he was driving a pickup? Not likely.”

“I would have thought you might continue to look for clues of the other guys. At least you came straight away here to be treated.”

He didn’t say anything.

She looked back at Jake. “You did come straight here, right?”

Jake shook his head.

Ryan said, “If Jake hadn’t insisted, I wouldn’t be here to be examined by you or Doc. I have a job to do, and being a patient is not on the schedule.”

“Were you this bad the other times?”

His expression puzzled, he frowned at her. “What do you mean?”

“When you were shot the three other times. Did you behave as unruly as a patient before?”

“I was unconscious for two of them.”

Shocked, she parted her lips.

That’s when Ryan noticed Tom in the exam room, and his swollen, red cheek. “Hell, what happened?”

“North tried to take her. My fault.” Tom looked guiltily at Jake.

Jake cursed under his breath and motioned to the break room. “Tell me what happened.”

Silence stretched between Ryan and Carol. She figured he was mad at her already, not even knowing what had happened. She led him into the exam room and shut the door. He still didn’t say anything, which made her more self-conscious than before. “It was all my fault,” she finally admitted. “Not Tom’s. He insisted Matthew see to the patient. But the man was truly sick.”

“He was a red,” Ryan growled.

“Yes, but we couldn’t smell him. For that reason, Tom wasn’t going to let him see me, thinking he was human.” She guided Ryan across the room and held onto his good arm to help him up on the exam table. Once he was settled, she released him, but she remained standing next to him.

“Hell, Carol. If you couldn’t smell he was a red or a gray, Matthew should have seen him.”

“I know. I know. It was my fault,” she reiterated. “I… I just wanted to prove that I could continue to see patients, human or lupus garou, without getting anyone in any trouble.”

Ryan didn’t say anything for a moment, as if he was really considering why this was so important to her.

“He got away.” Ryan sounded resigned and a little weary as he tucked a curl of hair behind her ear. “A guy could get used to a woman fawning over him.”

The way he’d been acting so reluctant to be examined, she expected him to keep up the resistance. This business with North and the way he’d dropped the subject… well, the change in his attitude totally threw her. Maybe in front of Tom and Jake or anyone like Christian who was within earshot, Ryan felt he had to put on a show. Mostly, she was glad he wasn’t angry with her about her seeing North and putting both Tom and herself at risk.

“I’ll be more careful next time,” she said softly, hating to acquiesce but not willing to get anyone hurt on account of her being so stubborn.

She pressed against his knees to unbutton his shirt, but he spread his thighs, pulled her between his legs, and lifted a brow. “Easier to get to the buttons.” He looked like he was attempting to contain a smile. Devilish, desirous, rakish.

She tried to be professional about this while his legs caged her in, his inner thighs touching her flesh, heating her skin through her scrubs, making her nipples tingle. She should have pushed away, moved to the side of him, but she didn’t imagine standing next to his thigh on the outside would feel any less… erotic.

All at once, she was reminded of the way he’d touched her earlier that morning in the canopied bed, the way his hands and mouth and body had teased her into submission. Left her body flaming with desire. Even now with their close proximity, the way his hard inner thighs touched her, his face leaning closer to hers, she was growing wet with need.

Her mind warred with her heart. She wanted to lift her chin and kiss his lips, to wrap her arms around his waist, to hold him close and know he was safe. But Doc would be coming soon.

She meant to reach up and unbutton Ryan’s shirt and take care of him like a nurse was supposed to, but his hand cupped her chin and his mouth lowered to hers. A quick kiss, she thought. A really… quick… kiss.

But as soon as she tilted her lips up to meet his, as soon as she closed her eyes to savor the really quick kiss, she was lost. Lost in the way his hands held her hips, keeping her from bolting, lost in the way his alluring mouth firmly pressed against hers, increasing the pressure and gliding over hers, his mouth coaxing hers open. Creating an intimate path between them.

She moaned and swore he echoed her sentiment, his hands drawing lower and over her buttocks, pulling her against his groin. Despite being wounded, he was hard and wanting all over again. Somehow in her lust-filled thoughts, she heard someone coming as Ryan’s tongue tangled with hers. She paused, momentarily still, rashly wanting to carry on with reckless abandon but knowing she couldn’t.

Ryan released her with a curse under his breath, maybe at himself for losing control, maybe at whoever was headed their way. Maybe at her for getting him all stirred up again.

As quickly as she could manage, she unfastened his buttons, feeling aroused and needy and desperate to finish what they’d started. Then she gently tugged the shirt off his shoulders, her hands brushing against his heated skin. She glanced up at him, hoping he was ignoring her. But he wasn’t. His gaze still smoldered with lusty fascination. She cleared her throat and slid the shirt down his arms, trying not to hurt his injured arm.

He sucked in his breath. “Somehow, I don’t see the nurse removing the patient’s clothes on a regular basis unless the guy’s half dead.”

Her face flushed when it shouldn’t have, but she wasn’t going to let him stop her from doing her job. “You’re wounded, Ryan McKinley. It would be too difficult for you to unbutton your shirt with one hand. What am I supposed to do? Watch you struggle in pain? Besides I’m not taking off your trousers.”

He chuckled wolfishly. Hell, the way they’d been going, she might have done just that!

“What is transpiring between us is strictly business.” At least that had been the plan before he pulled her between his legs and began kissing her.

Whoever was walking toward the room had already passed by, and Carol took a relieved breath. Attempting to ignore the way Ryan heated her to the core and to do her duty as a trained nurse, she wiped away the blood on his arm, glad to see that the bullet had only grazed him like he’d said. Given werewolves’ advanced healing capabilities, the wound should heal sufficiently by morning.

Ryan took hold of her free hand and looked into her eyes as if he was ready to analyze her every reaction.

“Did you see any visions of this or of anything else?” he asked.

Unsure whether he still didn’t believe her, she sighed. “No. If I had, I would have warned you.” She pulled away from him and cleansed the wound. She thought of Rosalind’s call to her, but before that, her mother’s and planned to ask him about both.

“By the way, why did you call my mother?”

Ryan didn’t look in the least bit sheepish, which surprised her. “I called to see if she believed you had psychic abilities after she had sent you to that damned psychiatrist.”

“And if she didn’t believe in my talents?”

“I’d tell her what a marvel you are.”

She stared at him, her lips parted. “Seriously?”

“Seriously. Only she hung up on me, which didn’t bode well.”

“What difference does it make if she believes me or not?”

He rested his hands on her hips and pulled her close to his body. “Because we’re dating. Remember?”

She gave him a ladylike snort. “Right.” Yet it gave her hope he truly did believe her, and her whole spirit lifted.

Before she could ruin the feeling and ask him what he’d said to his sister about her that was not complimentary, Doc Weber opened the door. The doctor raised his brows to see Ryan on the exam table and Carol standing between his legs, ministering to him. She was grateful Doc hadn’t seen them kissing earlier.

She noticed how tired Doc looked, with dark circles under his eyes and his shoulders stooped. He was a red from Lelandi’s former pack, here to doctor the patients until they could find a gray. But he planned to stay until Lelandi had her babies. He’d taken Carol under his wing because she was a nurse, newly turned, and a red like him.

Because she’d been turned by one of his former pack, Doc considered Carol like one of his family. Since he’d never had a mate and no offspring, she and Lelandi were like the daughters he’d never had. That meant he kept giving them fatherly lectures. Since Lelandi was mated, though, she didn’t receive as many as Carol did.

Carol moved a respectable distance from Ryan while Doc examined his wound. “I thought you were posted here as her bodyguard. What happened?” His tone was accusatory. What good would Ryan be if he didn’t stay and watch over her?

“Tom was keeping an eye on her while I took after the men. By the looks of it, I should have stayed. They’re intent on shooting anyone who tries to stop their mission, but they don’t have the nerve to fight wolf to wolf. You probably know them. Three reds from Lelandi’s and your former pack?”

The doc peered closely at the wound and shook his head. “The men who were left behind were decent sorts. None of them would do a thing like this.”

Except North? And the others with him had to be from the same pack.

Ryan pursed his lips tight and didn’t say anything to Doc, but Carol thought he wanted to. How could the men be “decent sorts” when they had taken Carol from the house like they did? And they had to be from Lelandi’s pack. No other red pack lived in the area. And what about this latest clash with North and Tom?

“Not a silver bullet, anyway. So it appears they don’t mean to kill anyone,” Doc said.

“That’s good to know.” Carol’s tone was filled with relief but concern, too, that this wasn’t ending anytime soon.

A flash of memory of the shooting she’d witnessed at the hospital the previous fall suddenly swamped her with regret. The doctor had lain dead on the exam-room floor, his nurse just as unresponsive. She wasn’t sure what had brought the memory back. The attack on Tom maybe. Or the one on Ryan since he’d been shot, or both. Or the idea that it would happen again and be fatal this time?

Carol turned away quickly as tears filled her eyes, not wanting Doc and Ryan to see her like this—unable to control her emotions. Everyone expected her to be strong, both in the workplace and around family. She was the one who held up through any crisis. When her sister died, she had helped her parents get through it. She had to be resilient when others needed her.

Doc cleared his throat. “Just apply some of that salve and bandage it, and he should be back to doing his job.”

“Yes, Dr. Weber.” Carol tried to hide the hitch in her voice. She hated when she got emotional on the job.

“Carol,” Doc said, his voice soft and consoling.

Unable to look him directly in the eye, she fought to hold back the burning tears. “Yes, Doctor?”

He looked sympathetically at her and then patted her shoulder. “Got another case of the flu to look after.” He walked out of the room, his movement slower and stiffer than usual.

She wanted to tell him he needed to take care of himself. That he should get more rest, but she knew it would be futile. She wondered, though, what he’d intended to say. That the other doctor and nurse dying hadn’t been her fault?

No, it wasn’t her mistake, she tried to convince herself. The miner who killed them was the one responsible. But if she’d only raised the alarm somehow before he shot them…

Still, maybe that’s why the memory haunted her again. That it had been her fault, just like Tom’s having been attacked was, too. And if the reds hadn’t been trying to take her hostage, Ryan wouldn’t have been harmed, either.

“Carol?” Ryan said, drawing her from her mental self-bashing. He left the exam table and touched her arm. “Are you all right?”

“They died because of me.” She pulled away from him and stood in front of a supply drawer, staring at it but not seeing it.

“The former doctor and that nurse?” His voice was gentle, and no matter how badly she felt, his tone was like a mental salve. He ran his hand over her back in a gentle caress.

Carol let out her breath. “Yes.”

“I’ve been there, done that, Carol.”

She turned around and stared at him in disbelief.

“Yeah. Only it was my job to protect those who ended up dying. In this case, you were an innocent bystander.”

“Not an innocent bystander at all. I knew they’d come to harm. I didn’t…” She shook her head. “I didn’t save them. Even after they had been shot. I didn’t remove the bullets fast enough.”

He pulled her into his arms and held her tight. The patient comforting the nurse. It was wrong. Everything about this was wrong. But she couldn’t push him away. She needed this. She needed him. The warmth. The security. No pressure. Just concerned friendship. For the moment.

His hand swept down her back, massaging the tension from her stiff spine. “You didn’t know what they were, what we were. You didn’t know that the silver could kill or that if you’d removed the bullets quickly enough, they might have survived. You reacted the way your nurse’s training had prepared you. You couldn’t have known that Doc and the nurse were different from you, or how to take care of an injured lupus garou. You did the best you could under the circumstances.”

She looked up at him through tears and saw his face frowning with concern. “I wish my visions had told me that part of the equation. But they’re irritatingly scant and…” She shook her head. “It’s a curse I have to bear.” Just like having to shape-shift against her will was now. And damn, if she could keep it at bay, she would. She turned, opened the drawer, and retrieved antibiotics and a bandage.

She motioned to the exam table. “Do you want to sit up there?”

“I normally hate anything to do with hospitals,” Ryan said, his tone lighthearted, as if he was trying to change the somber mood. He sat on the table and smiled. “I’ve changed my mind.”

She shook her head, trying for professionalism again. “Here I thought you were going to be a difficult patient.”

“With you tending to me?”

With as light a touch as she could manage, she dressed his wound with the antibiotic and then wrapped the bandage around his arm. He stiffened, but when she looked up to see if he was hurting, he cast her an elusive smile. “On the scale of one to ten, the pain is nonexistent. Your hands are cold.”

She frowned at him and secured the bandage. “I didn’t touch you with my cold hands. You don’t have to be macho for me. I know it has to hurt.” She handed him his shirt.

He pulled it on while she watched, ready to help him if he needed further assistance.

“Do you know why Darien and the others shift in the visions but can’t shift back?” he asked, surprising her.

She thought he already believed her. She folded her arms, unable to avoid feeling defensive. “I don’t know. That’s why it’s so frustrating. I thought you believed me now.”

“Let’s just say I normally don’t put much stock in psychic abilities. Not in supernatural entities, ghosts, or any of that stuff.”

Just as she suspected. “Then if I told you I’ve had a ghostly experience, you wouldn’t believe me?”

His mouth curved up a hint, his eyes sparkling with amusement. “My Aunt Tilda sees them all the time.”

“Ahh, and you don’t put much stock in your Aunt Tilda.”

“Quite the contrary. I find her about the most well-grounded of my family.”

“Except for the ghostly visits.”

He shrugged and winced, and then began buttoning his shirt. “She needs lots of attention. I imagine she conjures them up when she’s lonely.”

Carol leaned in between his legs to fasten a couple of buttons on his shirt. “And me?”

He touched her hair in a loving way. “You’ve just had the one experience?”

“Three, but who’s counting?”

“I do have faith in your abilities, by the way.”

She closed her gaping mouth. She had hoped, but… she hadn’t realized he thought she’d told the truth. Tears filled her eyes again. “You really do?”

He pulled her close, rubbing her shoulders in a gentle manner. “Yeah, Carol. I really do.”

“Thanks.” She sighed deeply. “You don’t know how much that means to me.”

“I imagine I do.” He leaned down to kiss her lips, but she pulled away before they got too involved again. “I’ve got another patient to see, last one of the day. Another case of the sniffles. Everyone thinks they have the deadly flu when most of the cases are colds or allergies. I’ll see to him while you finish dressing.”

His expression hardening, Ryan went back to buttoning his shirt and followed her into the hall. “How am I going to guard you if I’m not with you?”

She harrumphed. “And just how did you get that?” She pointed at his bloody sleeve.

“I was trying to protect you away from your workplace.”

“Admit it. You’d rather chase down the bad guys than play the wait-and-see game.”

He smiled darkly.

When she called out the name from the chart and Ryan saw who her next patient was, his dark expression lightened up a lot.

The gray-haired old man shuffled toward Carol and gave her a small smile. “You brighten an old man’s day, young’en.”

“Hmm, Luciso, you always make my day.”

Luciso glanced at Ryan, took in his bloody shirtsleeve, and shook his head. “Is he the one everyone’s saying is hitting on you?”

“My bodyguard,” she corrected.

Luciso snorted. “Looks like this business with the reds is going to get real nasty. You tell Darien if he needs an old guy to help out, I’m ready and willing.”

“Thanks, Luciso. I’m sure he’ll appreciate the offer.” She heard the doc coughing and glanced down the hall. “Are you all right, Dr. Weber?”

“Going home to get some rest, Carol. Pulled an all-nighter.”

“Sleep well,” she said, but then a sickening feeling washed over her as she envisioned the doctor shape-shifting into the wolf to knock out his illness. She hurried after him, leaving her patient behind in her haste, figuring Ryan would catch up to her. But she had to warn Doc not to shift. He’d think she was crazy, but she just had to warn him.

“Wait, Dr. Weber! I need a word with you!” she said as the door slammed shut.