Page 2 of Rex's Release

“The tiger,” he replied, and cleared his throat. He stepped back as she came out of the house and turned to face the door. “Do you know how to get to the compound?”

As she locked her front door with her key, she answered, “Just go straight down the road two blocks past the hotel. The road dead ends there, right?”

“Yes.”

“Then yes, I know the way. Want to tell me why you have a tiger when it’s against the law to have an endangered species without meeting certain criteria I’m sure your club does not meet?” Her question was more of an order.

“Uh… no.”

“Didn’t think so,” she mumbled, and turned to face him. “We’ll revisit that later. See you at the compound.”

“Meet you there,” he replied and returned to his bike. As he mounted it and started the engine, he told his wolf they couldn’t play until after she fixed up their brother. His wolf gave a whimper but laid down as he backed out of the driveway and headed for the compound.

Rex pretended not to notice the doctor’s skeptical looks as he led her into the apartment building, up the stairs, and down the hall. He hoped she didn’t raise any of the questions in her eyes.

He wasn’t that lucky, he realized, when she asked, “You were so worried about moving the injured tiger that you carried it up a flight of stairs? Tigers are heavy.”

Kicking himself in the ass for not thinking through what he would say when he went to ask her to help, Rex replied, “We found him up here in the hall.”

“The injured tiger came into the building and climbed the stairs while injured? And you guys managed to move an injured tiger without the tiger fighting to protect itself?”

“I guess,” he mumbled, and opened the door to Bullet’s room. “He’s in here.” Rex looked around the door to make sure Bullet was still in tiger form. He was, so Rex stepped aside and let her in.

He tried to follow her in, but the doctor faced him and firmly stated, “Wait outside. If it wakes up, it can be aggressive. I can handle it. I have tranquilizers, but I don’t need to be distracted by worrying over your safety. If you want to help, I could use some warm water and clean towels, white if you have them.”

Rex nodded to the door to the bathroom. “There are clean towels in the bathroom.”

“Great. Wait here.” Then the doctor shut the door in his face.

Rex wouldn’t call her demeanor rude, but it was abrupt, demanding, and confident. What he didn’t understand is why he liked that so much.

Two

Axle

Afterholdinghismate,Gorgeous, until she cried herself to sleep, grieving for her younger sister, Axle carefully laid her on their bed and covered her up. As quietly as possible, he took a shower and got dressed. His intention was to check on the injured and then spend some time holding Nugget, his baby daughter. He needed to look into those beautiful blue eyes of his baby girl and see hope. His soul needed some good, and Nugget was wholly good.

When he made it to Bullet’s room, he found Rex sitting on the floor just outside the door. Stopping, he looked down at his brother. The man was a good ten years older than Axle and had the graying blond hair to prove it, currently pulled back in a ponytail at the nape of his neck, but Axle still looked at him as a brother.

“How’s Bull?”

“Uh… well…” Rex scratched his bearded jaw and avoided looking up at Axle. He’d never heard Rex stammer before. That was interesting, but it also alerted him to something being wrong. “He’s tiger right now.”

“He shifted?”

Rex gave a nod and let out a humorless laugh. “And we didn’t have a free doctor to take care of the ripped stitches.”

“Okay. So, he needs to be stitched up?” Axle turned, ready to go find a doctor.

“No, not anymore.”

Annoyed that Rex was dragging it out, Axle barked, “Fucking say it.”

Rex cleared his throat. “I went and got the new vet from down the street.”

Axle blinked, then he blinked again. “A vet?”

“Well… he’s a tiger right now.” Rex shrugged. “It was the best I could come up with on short notice without having to explain to someone what shifters are or that yes, we’re real and why we’re not evil be–”

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