She continued, “Zach said that because of my medical background, I might have an idea of how to help.”
Zach must really trust Steph. “He knows you’re a nurse, right?”
She bristled. “You have something against nurses?”
“Not at all. It’s just that nurses aren’t usually into research. They’ve been more about patient care, in my experience.”
“Listen, Doctor.” Her temper flared, eyes flashing at him. “Nurses have brains. We observe and process and think. Just like doctors.”
“I didn’t mean it like that.”
Steph folded her arms across her chest and glared up at him.
“Honestly,” Rex said, smiling. “I would appreciate your thoughts. If you’d care to share them.”
“Tell me more about the disease and maybe I will.” She softened, relaxing her arms and leaning against the elevator wall.
“Do you really want to help?”
“Of course. Amy is one of my closest friends. Anything that effects her effects me too.”
“I have a seven o’clock meeting this morning, but if you swing by my office later, I’ll walk you through my research.”
“Deal,” Steph said. “I’ll stop by during my break.”
The elevator door slid open and he strode towards his office, trying to ignore the feeling that he didn’t want to leave her. He shook it off as best he could. He had so much work to do and lives hung in the balance.
Rex dove into his busy schedule. His meeting this morning was with Liam, an alpha from the Seattle wolf shifter clan. Zach had insisted they meet to see if a disease the wolf shifters were experiencing was the same as the bear shifter disease Rex had been studying.
It seemed unlikely, but since Zach was the one asking, Rex had agreed to the meeting.
Liam arrived right on time. He appeared to be a healthy shifter, tall and a bit shaggy, as if he’d just come in from a two-day hike. He gripped Rex’s hand with a strong shake.
Rex offered a chair, but Liam stayed standing, pacing back and forth across the office as he spoke.
“I’ll get right to the point,” Liam said. “My clan has an infectious disease.”
“Why do you think I can help you?”
“We need a doctor who can deal with shifters. You know of anyone else in Seattle?”
“No,” Rex admitted. “But I’m busy with a bear shifter disease. My work load is intense.”
“Maybe I could help you and you could help me. What if wolves and bear shifters are suffering from the same disease?”
“Describe it. What are the symptoms?” Rex sat down behind his desk, pulling out a pencil and rolling it between his fingers.
“Sudden onset of delusional and violent behavior. Self-loathing and loathing of all shifters. Forgetting who they are and working to destroy shifter communities.” Liam stopped pacing and rocked back and forth on his heels.
“Hmmm. There is some overlap,” Rex said, nodding.
Liam finally sat down on the couch. He looked relieved, and no wonder. There’s nothing worse than seeing loved ones seriously ill and not being able to do a damn thing about it.
“The disease I’m studying,” Rex said, “which I’m calling Illness X for lack of a better term, causes bear shifters to become delusional and forget who they are, but they don’t try to destroy their own. They just disappear from the shifter communities, believing themselves to be men or other magical creatures.”
“Couldn’t there be a connection though?” Liam demanded, his voice getting louder.
“Maybe. Tell me more. When did it start?”
Liam nodded. “It began for us last year. We’d heard about the bear shifter disease, of course. But didn’t experience anything like it until a clan of wolves from northern Canada moved into Seattle. They appeared to be permanently shifted to men and the only reason we knew they were wolf shifters at all was because of a mutual acquaintance who happened to spot them.”
“Were they the violent ones?” Rex asked.
“Yes, you read about that, right? They were shot. The police told the public it was bath salts that had made homeless men crazy, and never said anything about wolves, but we’re worried about what the police actually believe. We never recovered the bodies of those deviant wolves. What if the authorities know about shifters?”
“Your ‘deviant wolves,’ as you call them, attacked my family’s properties across the Pacific Northwest. Why?” Rex had never understood what motivated the attacks.
“Billionaire bear shifters seem like an easy target to these ill creatures. Remember they hate shifters when in the delusional state. Humans may not know your family members are bear shifters, but the other shifter communities certainly know. You are visible and wealthy and popular. Easy targets.”
That made sense. Of all the shifters, bears were definitely the most integrated into human communities around Seattle.
“Any idea what caused the disease to jump to your clan?” Rex asked.
“None whatsoever. Once that group moved to Seattle, the disease started showing up in my family so I assume it’s contagious. It’s devastating. Sick wolves get so violent and stupid that they end up pissing off someone dangerous. They come to violent ends. I’ve lost two family members and barely saved another last month when he attacked your cousins, Zach and Diana. He’s the one I want to bring to you for an examination. His name is Mitchell.”
“I’ll look at him. But if the disease isn’t the same I can’t take it on. You have to understand that. I can’t be distracted until I find a cure for Illness X.”
“Are you close?” Liam jumped up and resumed pacing.
“I have some leads. I’m following them.” Rex didn’t want to give Liam false hope.
“When can I come back with Mitchell?”
“Immediately. Come tomorrow.”
Liam stopped and shook Rex’s hand. “Thank you for your time. You won’t be sorry, doctor.”
“I appreciate that.”
After Liam left, Rex checked the clock. He’d given an hour to Liam and the wolf shifters. He was no closer to the cure for Illness X than he’d been six months ago.
No one knew except for him. Rex couldn’t stand to let his family down.
He took a deep breath. He just had to work smarter and harder.
Rex returned to the database. He was looking for infected bears to bring in for his experimental treatment program. He needed to find infected bear shifters to make progress.
If Mitchell, the wolf shifter, did have the very same disease and he responded to treatment, it would be a breakthrough that Rex needed desperately.
When Steph appeared two hours later, Rex looked up from his computer like a man who had been dreaming.
“Am I too early?”
“I’m so glad you’re here,” he said, jumping up and pulling out a chair for her. She was like an angel visiting him from heaven.
“I can’t wait to hear about your research,” she said as she sat down. He sat on the edge of his desk, not wanting to put the expanse of wood between them.
“How is your day?” he asked.
“Pretty quiet. Patient outreach mostly. I’ve been in the children’s wing all morning.” She nodded and smiled.
“You look happy. Seems you like children.”
“They’re the greatest. So brave. Such wonderful, small people.”
“You’ll be a great mom.”
She just nodded and frowned a little. “Tell me about your work. What is this disease?”
“Good question. I wish I had the answer. I’m calling it Illness X for now. My research is centered around locating the source of contagion. At the moment, I’m assuming the disease is passed directly from individual to individual.”
“Why?”
“The pattern follows. The disease affects small groups, families. Typically, the father or husband is hit first. He becomes delusional and often abandons the family unit. If the father doesn’t leave the family, the cubs and
kids are susceptible to the disease. Finally, the mother or wife.”
“So whole families are being devastated. What are the symptoms?”
“It begins with confusion coupled with fevers and fatigue. Patients tend to forget they are bear shifters and quickly lose the ability to shift. The males believe they are men and join the world of humans. Kids and mothers who are affected become confused and sad, trying to shift but being unable to do so. As if they’re forgotten how. After the delusion, patients suffer from fevers and fatigue. I’ve designed a treatment program but need to test it on new patients, so those are what I’m looking for at the moment. If I can identify the source of the disease, I know I’ll make progress.”
“How many are affected?”
“About two dozen Seattle bear shifters right now, most of those still missing, and dozens more across the US and Europe. Quite a few in Russia. Interestingly, I’ve just met with a wolf shifter who believes the same disease is affecting his clan.”
“It’s jumping species then. Maybe. Has there been much contact between the wolves and bears?” She lifted her eyebrows and looked up at him.
She knew so little about shifter worlds. He decided to tell her all that he knew.
“No. It’s very unusual. Wolf shifters and bear shifters are ancient...I don’t want to say enemies. It’s just that we don’t get along. We don’t choose to associate with each other.”
“So not enemies. But not friends.” She nodded.
“Right. Just living in the same place at the same time.”
“What’s your next step?”
“I’m locating sick bears around the world to compile a database and track the disease’s progress. It’s a lot of outreach actually.” He laughed. “You’d be good at that. Wish I had the funding for a nurse.”
“I have a lot on my plate right now, too. Although I do like a good mystery.”
“It helps just to talk it through with someone, to be honest. My physician colleagues wouldn’t understand a bear shifter disease obviously, so I’m going through this on my own.”
“Any time. Although right now I should go back to work.”
“My car will be another day, so I need a ride home. You game?”
“Sure. I’ll swing by on my way out.”
Knowing he would see Steph later helped Rex focus on his database and by the end of the day he’d found two promising leads of potentially sick bears.
Could there really be a connection between the wolf shifter and bear shifter diseases? He actually found himself looking forward to his appointment with Mitchell and Liam the following morning.
He felt good about the progress he’d made today.
Finally packing up his briefcase, Rex let himself feel excited to see Steph. When she showed up in his office to give him a ride, he decided not to wait anymore. His body jolted alive the second he saw her. His bear urged him forward.
He wanted her.
“Were you serious about that friends with benefits thing? Because we’re friends now,” he said. He felt certain he could melt her defenses.
“I told you, you’re too hot.”
“You’re hotter.”
“Seriously?” she asked.
“Look at you,” he said. She had on immaculate short-sleeved hot pink scrubs and carried a jean jacket, the jewel tones perfectly setting off her caramel skin and chocolate eyes. She was delicious to look at. Her soft curves called out to him, and he felt it hard to resist pulling her into his arms. “Do you seriously not know how gorgeous you are?”
“Look at you. You’re like a hot model on the cover of a hot magazine for hot men.”
“Okay, we find each other hot. That’s good for people who are discussing having sex,” he said, moving closer, reducing the distance between them to just a few inches. “Even more reason to move to the benefits stage of our friendship. Then we’ll see what happens.”
“Wait...see what happens? No. I don’t want to fall in love. That’s the whole point.”
“How about if we establish ground rules? To prevent love.”
“Fine.” She crossed her arms over her chest.
“Fine.” He reached over and stroked her bare arm, smiling until she relaxed. He brushed a strand of hair off her cheek. “You’re in charge. You can set whatever rules you want.”
“Rule number one. We’re just friends. It’s just sex. No dates. No games,” she said. “Not now. Not later.”
“Done.”
“No sleepovers. You get up. You go home.”
“Deal. Or you get up and you go home.”
“Right. And no being emotionally supportive. Just be a normal, male friend.”
“Something’s wrong if your friends aren’t emotionally supportive, don’t you think?”
“Well, my girlfriends are emotionally supportive, of course.”
“Not the dudes?”
“Eh,” she said. “Not really. But they are fun.”
“Okay, I’ll do my best to be emotionally shallow.”
“Just keep being you.” She grinned.
“Gee, thanks.” He grinned back. He could play. As long as he got to touch her.
“Okay,” she said, “the day after we touch below the waist, we don’t call each other. We take a 24-hour break from friendship after every benefits encounter.”
“I don’t like it. But okay. Let’s do this,” he said, wrapping his arm around her shoulder and leading her to the couch. “You ready?”
“What? Now? Here?” She glanced around his office. It was private and the door was closed, but still.
He could see she was uneasy.
“No time like the present. What? You’re not nervous are you?”
“No.” She wiped her palms on her pant legs. “I mean, don’t you need a ride home from me?”
Sweaty palms? That was a sign of extreme nervousness. He could smell her attraction like a wildfire. Why did it make her nervous?
Rex reached over and massaged her shoulders. He would calm her. But he would still have her. No way she was getting away from him. Not when she was so close to being his.
He felt his bear ready to growl.
Rex dipped his head down and grazed her lips with his, feeling the magnetic attraction flow between them. His arms wrapped around her soft curves, hugging her close, pulling her deeply into his kiss.
“It’s okay,” he said, finally pulling back. “I promise I won’t ask you to do anything you don’t want to do.”
“No, I want to do this. Just not here where I work.”
“Let’s go to my condo. I’m your friend. I promise I won’t hurt you.”
He slid his hand up to the soft hidden part of her neck and watched goosebumps explode over her arms.
Oh, yeah, his bear said. She’s ours.
Rex had to agree.
He kissed her again, gently, with great confidence, as if they had all the time in the world.
His desk phone rang suddenly. Annoyed, he reached over and pushed a button to put the call on speaker.
“Yeah.”
It was Diana. “Thank goodness. You’re here,” she said.
“Diana,” he said. “What’s up?” She rarely called anyone on the phone.
“Lawton is sick. We’re in the lobby. You need to get down here. Now.”
5
Text Messages
REX:
This elevator is empty without you. My arms are empty without you. It was a mistake to leave without you.
STEPH:
Hope your nephew is okay. Keep me posted?
REX:
Actually, I changed my mind about asking you to wait. Will you come to the lobby? I might need backup and no one else knows about the shifter thing.
STEPH:
Sure. Be right down.
6
When Steph arrived in the hospital lobby, she saw a group of concerned doctors and nurses huddled in a circle.
In the middle of them all, Rex held up his hands like he was arguing. He lo
oked distressed but confident, as if he expected to prevail.
On a sofa nearby, Diana and Lawton sat together, Diana’s arm around her nephew’s shoulder. The lobby was small and cozy for a hospital of this size, and Steph was once again glad for the intimate feel that could support and comfort patients when they were distressed, as Diana obviously was. Lawton looked exhausted, with his big blue eyes drooping shut.
Steph slid next to Diana. “Hey, nice to see you again. Wish it were under better circumstances. What’s going on?”
Diana said, “The other doctors want to admit Lawton into the ER, but we can’t let that happen for obvious reasons. We just want to see Rex for an exam.”
“I’m fine. I told you. I just haven’t been sleeping well.”
Steph held a hand up to his forehead to check for fever. He felt cool and clammy.
“Sleepy?” she asked him.
He nodded.
“How old?” Steph asked Diana.
“He’s seventeen. Too young to be graduating from community college.”
“You must be some kind of child genius, am I right?” she said to Lawton, smiling.
He smiled back and shrugged.
Lawton’s strawberry-blond hair and pale eyes made Steph suddenly wonder if he was a spirit bear, one of the pale brown bears from Canada. She had seen one when kayaking in the Great Bear Rainforest as a child and never forgotten it. The spirit bear had been stunning and so pale that it looked like a ghost. She’d gotten shivers.
It was hard to reconcile the fact that these men and women she was chatting with—Lawton, Diana, Rex—were also bears.
Immense, wild, powerful creatures.
She just couldn’t really think about that right now.
She tenderly patted Lawton’s shoulder. “If you can hold on for a few more minutes, Lawton, we’ll get you to a place where you can rest.”
“Honestly, I just want to go home.”
“I understand.”
She joined the group of doctors and nurses. They seemed to have come to an agreement. Rex turned to Steph.
“We’re taking Lawton to my condo, instead of admitting him.”
Shifters in Seattle: Box Set Books 1 - 5 Page 9
