Page 44 of Jack of All Trades

The doctor came in, and he and Maltin both swallowed at the same time. Talk about a doctor being sexy—the man was beautiful.

Sunkissed skin that glowed bronze, reddish-blond hair that looked like he was on fire, and as hot as he was, he could have been. Smiling to show perfect white teeth framed in cherry redlips, he nodded to the two of them and said, “I’m Dr. Cleveland Morris, Jack, and…” he looked at the paperwork, but Maltin wasn’t listed.

“Maltin Graves, Dr. Morris.”

“Maltin, good to meet you, Jack.” Looking back at the paper, he asked, “Hellhounds?”

“Yes,” Maltin answered with his head held high. “We both are.”

“Mated hellhounds?”

“Yes, he’s my mate.”

Jack was glad Maltin was there. He couldn’t form words for anything.

“Very nice. Congratulations. I’m a horse shifter, which is why I’m one of the city's leading veterinarian/human doctors.”

Knowing he was a shifter made Jack calm considerably. “That’s…that’s great.”

The doctor stared at Jack for a moment. “You look nervous.”

“He is doctor. We’ve only discovered our shifter animal very recently, and Jack never knew he was a shifter at all. He was…let’s say, adopted into a witch family.”

“Ah, I see. Well, welcome to the family, Jack.”

Maltin winked at him and Jack felt a lot of his nerves calm. “Thank you.”

“It says here you think you may be with child. Well, shifters are very similar in most things, like breeding, but exceptions exist. Avian shifters, for example, have different rules than most, but hellhounds are far different still,” he told them as he sat on a stool. “Have either of you shifted yet?”

“No,” they answered in unison.

“Well, even without an examination, I can tell you that you won’t be pregnant. Hellhounds must shift first at least once before becoming pregnant.”

“Oh?” Maltin asked. “I…I knotted when we made love, so I thought…”

“Of course, and that is how it will happen. You’re the alpha, I’m taking it, and you will knot at times; other times, you won’t. It’s telling you, however, that you will be shifting soon. I can’t tell you when because that isn’t known. Hellhounds find their mates differently; they mate only after shifting at least once, and their gestation is short.”

“Short?” Jack was back to being anxious. “So, what? I can just have litter after litter?”

“No. The other thing about hellhounds is that they’ll only give birth once. That’s why, for one reason, they have more than one child, usually. There’s no guarantee that there will be more than one child; it’s just what has been observed. Believe it or not, most hellhounds are like you, Jack. They are afraid they’ll be misunderstood and they’re not entirely wrong. Some people hear a man is a hellhound, and they…are worried that the hound is coming for them.”

Maltin told Jack, “I read ahead a little in that book. It said a bit of this. I just…I trust doctors more than books, I’m afraid.”

“Yes, but Maltin, we learn much from books. I’ve never met a hellhound, but my mentor met two. They lost one of their children but had three others, so they were able to go on after mourning.”

Jack grabbed Maltin’s hand. “That was me,” Jack said without thinking.

Maltin explained, “He was given to the witch family after the witch mother had a stillborn.”

“Oh? Are you sure?”

“Yes, very.”

The doctor stood and stepped to the exam table as if he needed to hold onto it to steady him. “This is disturbing, to say the least. My mentor passed a few years ago, and…before he died, he toldhis wife he had to confess something. She never knew what it was.”

“I’d bet it was about me.”

Slapping the table, the doctor said, “Can you get up here and undo your pants for me? I’ll do an ultrasound to assure you’re the bearer of the children.”

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