Page 98 of Visions, Paws, and Claws

“Well, I’m glad you’re here.” He peered at Doc. “You were friends with Dellan’s dad, Jake, weren’t you?”

Doc smiled. “Yes.”

Something in that smile….

Hashtag leaned in. “So I guess the question is are you here for us—or for him?”

Doc turned to face him. “An astute question indeed. And to answer it, I’m here in my usual capacity, to patch up any of our troops who need it, but I’m also here because there are going to be a lot of shifters who will need medical—and psychiatric—help.”

He blinked. “Psychiatric?”

Doc arched his eyebrows. “Think about it. A shifter is given a drug—without their consent—forced to shift, again without their consent, then forced to breed. There’s another word for that, isn’t there?”

Hashtag sighed. “Yeah, rape.”

“Exactly. So how do you think all these shifters feel when they produce offspring who are then taken from them to be raised by adoptive parents and sent to schools to be indoctrinated? And let’s not forget about the men.”

On the other side of the plane, Dex snorted. “What do they have to complain about? All they did was take advantage of an opportunity to make little tigers, lions, panthers, whatever. And think of the positives. No child support.”

Doc stilled, and Hashtag recoiled at the fury blazing in those usually cool eyes.

“Are you for fuckingreal, soldier?” he barked, and there was steel in his voice.

Dex froze, his eyes wide. “Sir?”

“How do you have the unmitigated fuckingnerveto make forced mating sound like a good thing? Because from where I’m sitting, it’s so far beyond awful, they’d need to invent a new word for it. Do you think they had any say in what happened to them? Who’s to say any of themwantedto be fathers? Especially fathers to offspring that they’d probably never see.”

Saul let out a growl. “It’s a fucking good thing you’re a better fighter than a thinker, Dex. Next time, put your brain into gear before you put your mouth into action. Otherwise, your section leader is gonna tear you a new one.”

“Section leader?”

Saul gave him a cool smile that didn’t reach his eyes. “Yes. Duncan’s in charge of your section. Got a problem with that?”

Dex’s face underwent a swift change, and he stiffened. “No, sir.” He coughed, then buried himself in his book.

Hashtag placed his hand on Doc’s arm. “You okay?”

Doc swallowed. “Sorry. I just saw red.”

“Hey, no apology needed, Doc,” Saul told him. “You did good.”

Dellan leaned forward in his seat next to Horvan. “Doc’s right, though. There are going to be a lot of questions once this is over.”

“But how can we bring all this to an end?” Eve remonstrated.

Horvan gave her an inquiring glance. “Having problems seeing the long-term picture, Eve?”

She swallowed. “Yes, sir. We’re facing all these camps, the schools…. If we’re going to make any changes, then as a wise man once said to me, we shouldn’t be afraid to fight dirty.”

“We’re about to get ourselves a VIP,” Saul said. “A Very Important Prisoner.”

Crank snorted. “I was thinking a Vastly Insufferable Prick, but hey, I can go with your version.”

Horvan tapped his earpiece. “Copy that.” He stood. “Okay, folks, your attention, please. We’re about to land at Estcourt Station Airport, which is also the northern-most airport in Maine and less than a thousand feet from the Canadian border. We’re gonna set up camp in the forest south of the airstrip. Some of you will be joining Team B, led by Johan Deerling, oneof Aelryn’s men. Once we get to the site of our camp, I want everything running like clockwork, you got that?”

There was a chorus of “Sir, yes, sir!”

“More troops and medics will meet us at the airport. Now just because we have a day or two before we see action, that doesnotmean you’re all on vacation.”

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