Page 3 of Guarding the Doctor
“Yes ma’am.”
“My former commanding officer, General O’Brian, has a daughter who’s a doctor here in Seattle, name of Kathryn. She stumbled onto something she shouldn’t have, something big, and the General figures his daughter might be a target. Given what she found, I tend to think he’s right.”
“Are the cops putting her into WITSEC?” Bella asked.
Lois shook her head. “No. After she told the General what she discovered, he told her to come to us instead. The cops can’t help with this, and those incompetent assholes in Witness Security are not effective in these kinds of situations. Or any situation, arrogant assholes.”
Lois hated traditional law enforcement. Depending on the department, they were either too corrupt or too rule-bound for her taste. It was only from sheer necessity that she’d developed cooperative agreements with the cops here in Seattle.
“What is the situation?” Cassie asked impatiently, trying to get the boss back on track.
Lois gave her a glare that would make a grown man pee himself.
“I’m getting’ there, newbie,” she growled, a hint of wolf in her voice that made my muscles tighten.
“A doctor is running some unsanctioned human experiments at the hospital. General O’Brian thinks one of the secret government agencies is involved, or possibly a foreign agent. He wants us to keep an eye on his daughter until we know what’s going on.”
I bit my lip to keep from asking what kind of experiments. Lois would get there in due time.
“Looks like they’re tryin’ to turn humans into shifters.”
We all stilled. Humans and the supernatural population had long had an alliance. Most humans pretended they didn’t know we existed, and the supes all minded our own business and avoided doing anything to freak out the humans, like shifting in public. It worked for us. But this – turning humans into shifters – not only was it dangerous, it had the potential to disturb the delicate balance between our worlds. It could lead to all-out war.
When the silence stretched I asked, “What’s my assignment, boss?”
“You’re going undercover in the hospital as Dr. O’Brian’s medical assistant. Your focus will be on keeping her safe. Martha will be placed in a temp admin job in the Emergency Department so we’ve got eyes on the ground. Meanwhile Wanda will be doing her magic computer shit to get the information we need to stop this before things get out of hand.”
By ‘magic computer shit’ Lois meant hacking into the hospital systems and security cameras.
“What about me?” Cassie asked.
“You’re on comms with Bella,” Lois told her. “You two will need to be available for relief shifts.”
I could tell Cassie was disappointed to be tied to a desk, but she was wise enough to keep quiet about it.
“One more thing, Pavlovski,” Lois said, looking me in the eye.
I resisted the instinctive urge to lower my gaze in submission. “Yes ma’am?”
“No dating the client. Or anyone else at that hospital. I’m sick to death of all you idiots falling in love on the job. I want your focus completely on your assignment, do you understand? None of this ‘I found my fated mate’ bullshit.”
I resisted the urge to point out that several of my coworkers finding their fated mates while on a job was one hundred percent out of their control. I also didn’t comment on the fact that Lois herself had met her fated mate while working. I valued being alive, and there was no way I was going to upset my boss. She wouldn’t hesitate to wolf out and tear out my throat if she thought I was maligning her mate.
Besides, she didn’t need to worry. Fated mates were rare. Sure, my sister had found hers, and a bunch of my coworkers, but that didn’t mean I would too. I wouldn’t be that lucky. I was always the overlooked one.
We all paused as we heard a knock on the door.
“The client’s here, boss,” Wanda announced.
She walked in with a woman who immediately caught my attention. The client was thin but curvy, with generous breasts and a trim waist -- strong but womanly looking. Her curly hair was pulled back in a ponytail, highlighting her sharp cheekbones and bow-shaped mouth. But it was her eyes that caught my attention – brown, curious looking, and fixed right on me.
She looked familiar, even though I’d never met her. As our eyes connected, I knew why. I leapt out of my chair, knocking it over with a clatter. My heart was pounding a mile a minute, and my fangs were lengthening, pressing against my lips as a single word roared through my body with a force that made my breath stutter.
Mine!
“Damn it! What did I just tell you, Pavlovski?”
Not even Lois’s annoyed yell could draw my attention away from the woman I now knew was my mate. My fated mate. I felt it in every cell of my body. Keeping my eyes fixed on her, I approached the woman, buzzing with a sense of excitement.
