Page 89 of Wolf's Chance

Doc waved me off. “Oh, I analyzed it already. One hundred percent human.”

I’d never had any doubt. “Right, and this?” I pointed at the drawing.

“Is not something I will learn from blood work,” he said with a smile.

“Right.” Then why was I here? “So…um…”

“Why are you here?” Ned guessed with a small smile, and it made him seem younger, more approachable. “Doc is one half of the story; you’re here to meet the other half.”

“There’s another doctor?”

“Not exa?—”

“Sure,” Ned cut Doc off. “Another doctor.”

Doc looked away and I sensed there was more that they weren’t telling me. When he looked back, he saw my curiosity before he looked around the room. “Can we ask you some questions, Willow?”

TWENTY-FOUR

Willow

“Surprised it’s taken this long.”I gestured to the bed. “You can sit there if you like?”

Doc sat at the edge of the bed, but Ned remained standing, though he opted to lean against the wall.

I didn’t expect the first question to come from Ned. “You know what we are, what Caleb is?”

Swallowing, I nodded, conscious of their complete attention on me. It felt oppressive. Heavy. But I reminded myself this was a safe space. Caleb may have left me here, but he wouldn’t have taken me here if I was in danger. “I know Caleb’s a shifter, like you,” I answered Ned, my eyes then flicking to Doc, “but not you.”

Doc gave a thin smile. “No, not me.”

“But not like me.” It was a guess on my part, but it didn’t surprise me when Doc confirmed my guess. I wanted to ask, but it felt incredibly intrusive, and I was already dealing with enough. “I know that you belong in a world that I probably don’t belong to, one I didn’t even know existed, but I feel thatit’s somehow tied to me. To my art?” Ned neither confirmed nor denied, and I kept speaking. “Or am I tied to Caleb?”

“Unclear at the moment.” Doc looked to Ned, who hadn’t moved as I spoke. “There is a danger,” Doc began, “a very real one, that you knowing about us, our world as you call it, is a threat.” He licked his bottom lip as he considered his words. “The fact you know is made worse by the fact that you canseeus.” He gestured to my drawing. “Not everything you draw is Caleb.”

I racked my brain as I thought about what he meant. “You mean the other paintings?”

Doc nodded, still being careful of how he phrased the way he spoke to me. Of how much he revealed to me.

“What are they?” I asked, looking between them both. “They were just landscapes.”

Ned snorted softly. “They are far more than that,” he told me, and I could hear the anger lacing his voice. “But most importantly, they are places you, a human, should never see.”

“Oh.” I didn’t know what to say.Sorry I painted some woods and a pond? “I didn’t know they were important.”

“You don’tknowanything,” Ned snapped.

“It’s why I’m here,” I reminded him. I wished Caleb was here; he’d have been…actually, he wouldn’t have been supportive. He’d probably be agreeing with Ned.

“Let’s dial it back,” the Doc’s soft voice broke the tension. “How long have you been drawing, Willow?”

“Um…” I shook my head as I tried to remember. “Since I was eight, maybe nine?”

“And what do you prefer to draw? People, landscapes, still art?”

“I like it all,” I told him honestly.

“Your website is quite basic,” Ned cut in.Gee, thanks, did I say I was a website designer?“You keep images of everything you’ve sold?”

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