Page 7 of Call Don't Fall

“Yeah. Waking up abducted by aliens is hard,” I nodded, and he laughed.

“I didn’t think the hospital was that bad.”

“It’s not. I guess. Anyway. As far as hospitals go.”

He bit his lip, and I buckled up. My wolf stretched out inside his inner sanctum, along my ribs.

“Where to?” he asked, and I gave him my address.

My wolf rolled onto his back, his tongue lolling out as his tail started to wag.

“How much do you know about the sedation they gave my wolf?” I asked as much to fill the silence as to find out if the furry guy should still be acting this oddly.

“Enough. Probably more than the doctor who prescribed it. They know what it’s supposed to do but we usually know what it actually does in most cases. Don’t get me wrong Bane is a great doctor. You have to be pretty great to work on Hemlock Mountain, but ----”

“I get it!” I laughed. “Nurses know stuff. So, what do you know?”

“What do you want to know about it?” Kirk asked, glancing at me out of the corner of his eye.

“How long will it make my wolf act strange?” I asked.

“Strange how? Under the circumstances, he may act out of the ordinary,” Kirk said.

“I know that. That’s why I asked how long.”

“Well, this is a big change,” Kirk said, glancing at me out of the corner of his eye again.

“Look, diabetes runs in my family. Wolfen diabetes to be exact. So, yeah, I’ve probably had it for a bit. I should’ve eaten more of a wild diet than a pumpkin spice coffee diet, but I don’t think my new diagnosis is what’s causing all the tongue lolling and the rolling around on his back.”

“Obviously not,” Kirk said, his jaw tensing as he finished speaking.

I sniffed the air. What the hell had pissed him off?

“I hate not smelling other people,” I huffed and looked out the window. “I really hate not smelling other people when they’re crochety like they’re grey in the muzzle for no reason.”

“No reason?” Kirk asked.

His eyes drilled a hole into the side of my head as we waited at a red light.

“What did I do to you?” I asked.

“I don’t know what you’re talking about. You didn’t do anything. I---”

“You what?” I asked when he didn’t finish his thought.

My wolf rolled onto his belly and stuck his butt up in the air. I fought off the instinct to face palm and pretended that my wolf wasn’t sending out silent invitations to the hunky nurse who offered me a ride home out of pity.

“Nothing,” Kirk said, his jaw still tensed.

“That looks like a whole lot of nothing. Look, I know I wasn’t nice in the hospital, but I didn’t know what happened at first and you seemed determined to ask more questions than you answered. I know that’s how hospitals work, but it wasn’t pleasant.”

“I’m not angry,” he said and sniffed his forearm as if to double-check his own information.

“Then what are you?” I asked.

“That’s a loaded question,” he laughed as the light changed.

“Do I know you from somewhere?” I asked, facing the front now so I could see him better than watching his reflection in the passenger side window.

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