Page 3 of Wolf Bane
I forced a chuckle, which made Reba’s eyes narrow just a tiny bit more.“It’s not like the box showed up by magic or something.”I mean, it kind of did.Not magically.It just sort of showed up though.It was sitting on my desk the day before the clinic officially opened.Weres and shifters only.Any blood work I couldn’t do in office got sent to the ICW’s labs, the nearest one being Dallas.Weres and shifters were a lot like regular humans, but a few things would ping as off—certain enzyme readings, blood pressure, basal temperature, heart rate, red blood count, that sort of thing.Just off enough to make a regular lab mark it as an issue.
“They’re owned by the group that funded the clinic,” I added, already backing towards my office, hoping she didn’t follow like she sometimes did.
“Still…”
“Their focus is on underserved populations.Some of the patients have a history with this group already so…” I shrugged.“We’re not having to pay for the pick up, so I’m not gonna argue about it, so long as they keep doing their job.”
Reba’s pursed lips told me she was still uncertain, but she just nodded and turned back to the paperwork for the midday pick up.
Shit.This was gonna be a thing.I just knew it.
Not for the first time, I wondered about bringing Reba into the loop, so to speak.She was—sigh—one of my very best friends, she’d been working with me for years now, and honestly if she hadn’t already noticed some weirdness, she would soon.It was going to be almost impossible to keep hiding things from her if this clinic lasted more than a year.
* * *
It was unsettling,seeing patients like a regular doctor.Though I suppose Iwasone now, since I’d done my recertification and all of my patients had a pulse.Stepping out of my tiny office bathroom, I caught Reba’s eye.From where she sat at the front desk, she had a view down the patient hallway to the waiting area.She was currently, very pointedly, not looking towards the patients.
“What?”
She shook her head, lips pursed in displeasure as she cut a glance towards the waiting area.“The Clemenses are back,” she muttered.“They’re walk ins this time.”
I bit back a groan.The Clemenses had rocketed to the head of my list of problem patients on day one and were holding steady almost a month and a half later.They’d come at least once a week for one kid or another, for icks and ailments that frankly didn’t really need a doctor’s assessment, but who was I to turn them away.Though, as Reba reminded me more than once, it was perfectly legal to refuse a problematic patient, but I knew down to my toes that shunning the Clemens bunch would just cause more friction between Ethan and the clan.And maybe Ethan and me.
Still, the temptation was getting greater, what with their frequent late arrivals, treating the waiting area like a playground for rambunctious werewolf kiddos, skating dangerously close to the line when it came to making their true nature known to the humans waiting with them, and frequently demanding second, third, and fourth opinions when they didn’t like my diagnoses.They only came to the clinic, I was sure, because they wanted to make my life hell.Ethan tried to reassure me it was because they could actually see a doctor who knew what they were, who they weresafewith, but he also hadn’t heard Celestine threaten to call animal control on me if she ever saw me shift.
I bet they were also fun at parties.
“All of them?”
“Minus the baby,” she sing-songed.“You ready?”
Groaning, I shook my head but went down the corridor to the exam room anyway, Reba’s soft snort of laughter following.
“About damn time,” Vinnie Clemens snarled the moment I opened the door.
A tall man, I had to crane my neck to meet his glare as he towered over me; Vinnie had been on my periphery for years as someone I should avoid as much as possible if I wanted to keep from getting my ass kicked.
He was one of the handful of shifters and weres in the area that had definitethoughtsnot just on my very existence but on my involvement with Ethan Stone, former sheriff for Belmarais and current(ish) clan leader and local go-to for all the weres and shifters.
And bythoughts,I mean hewished I would disappear and would be happy to make it happen himself.
“Vincent,” Celestine Clemens—matriarch of the Clemens clan and general pain in everyone’s ass, especially Vinnie’s—hissed.“Shut up for once, would you?”
Vinnie stared down at me for a long moment, channeling his inner Michael Meyers, before stomping back to sit on the flimsy plastic chair next to the room’s tiny desk.Celestine shot him a sharp, quelling glare before turning her gaze to me.
“You smell,” she said flatly.“You stink like wet dog.You been rollin’ around with one of the Stone boys?”
“Hey, y’all,” I said with forced cheer, “what brings you to the office today?Melly, how’s that rash?”
Melanie, all of six and about ninety percent dirt, popped her fingers out of her mouth and glared at me.“It’s not a rash.It’s just a beauty mark.”
The oozing rash on her neck begged to differ.
I glanced at Celestine.“Have you been applying the ointment I sent home last time?”
She sniffed again.“It’s human medicine.We don’t need that junk.”
Ah, there’s my headache.Right on schedule.“Then why are you here?If you continue to refuse treatment plans, there’s nothing I can do for you.Unless you’re here to revel in my sparkling personality, which I somehow doubt.”
