Page 54 of Doctor Wolf's Human Nurse

The bear shifters and Lucious helped Sawyer escort the younglings to his clinic. As soon as he got there, he called Abby and asked her to drive to the clinic to help him examine the younglings and calm them. Conner and Rory had already called Beth and Savvy. Beth and Taryn dropped the younger pups offat Rory’s house and picked up Savvy. The three witches were waiting outside of the clinic with Abby.

There were six younglings. All of them were physically healthy, although they were traumatized by their experience. Two of the younglings were from the Angel’s Creek area. The other four weren’t. Two were dragon shifters, one was a wolf shifter, and one was a tiger shifter.

Taryn touched each one of them and smiled at them. Sawyer saw the younglings instantly relax.

“It’ll be okay. You’re safe now. We’ll take care of you.”

All of the younglings nodded and four of them managed weak smiles.

“My mother will be glad to take care of Betsy until we can find her family,” Lucious said. “I’ve already called her. I’ll stay with Betsy until she’s comfortable with Mom.”

“Rory and I will take the other three,” Savvy said. “Amy, Colby, and Rosa will be glad that they can do something for the younglings until we can find their families.”

Amy and Colby were the married couple who were their housekeeper and groundskeeper. Rosa was their cook. The three of them weren’t considered servants – they were important family members.

“I took several canisters of the spray. Hopefully, having a pure sample will help us figure out how to help the shifters. I wanted to look for notes, but didn’t have time.”

Beth took a couple of the canisters. “We’ll figure something out. We’ll camp out at Rory’s until we have a spell or potion that can cure this virus. These guys don’t get to win.”

Sawyer, Lucious, and the other bear shifters went to the wolf shifter pack’s ceremonial hall. They all wanted to see Rick, Dahlia, and the other scientists behind bars.

Dahlia and Rick looked at Sawyer, Zac, and Julian defiantly when they stopped in front of their cell.

“You can’t keep us in here. This is kidnapping and wrongful detainment. I’ll sue all of you guys and press charges,” Dahlia yelled.

Sawyer growled, baring his teeth. “No one is going to care about anything you have to say when they find out that you kidnapped and kept young kids prisoner to experiment on. What in the hell were you thinking?”

“They aren’t children and they aren’t human. Those creatures were nothing more than lab rats,” Rick said.

Rage exploded inside of Sawyer. His fists clenched and he gritted his teeth. Sawyer literally saw red. It was a very good thing that steel bars separated Sawyer from Rick. Otherwise, the man would be dead with his throat ripped out.

Zac put his hand on Sawyer’s arm. “Who are the shifters that helped you out?”

“Why should we tell you anything?” Dahlia spat.

“Because Julian is as upset about the treatment of the younglings as Sawyer is. I’ll open this cell door and you can see what an enraged wolf and dragon will do to you with a quickness.”

“You don’t need to open the door for me,” Julian snarled. His head shifted to a dragon’s and he blew a small stream of fire into the cell.

“We don’t owe them anything,” Rick said, quickly, and gave Zac the names. “They are rogue shifters we hired in Santa Fe.”

Sawyer glared at them. “Is that where you kidnapped the other younglings from?”

Dahlia and Rick stared at him with their lips pressed shut.

Zac waved his arm. “Julian.”

“Las Vegas. They were playing at the park,” Dahlia said. “What are you going to do with us?”

Sawyer was gratified to hear the fear in her voice.

Zac grinned. “Don’t worry. The feds are going to be fighting over you for a long time. What you were doing is considered domestic terrorism. I called a friend who is high up in the food chain in the FBI. They notified Homeland Security and the Center for Disease Control to assist them in the investigation. Everyone is on their way and should arrive within the hour.”

He leaned in closer and smiled. “New Mexico doesn’t have the death penalty, but this is a federal case. The United States federal system has and will implement capital punishment.”

The three of them walked away, exhausted but satisfied.

21

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