Visionary Wolf

“Do you feel bad physically?” Rosa asked. He stopped moving. “Or are you just frustrated that you haven’t changed back?” He nodded.

Good. At least he seemed to be using human cognition and showed no sign of growing wilder, wanting to attack. He was a human in the guise of a wolf, but for a much longer time than Liam was aware any shifter had remained that way without choosing to stay shifted.

So how were they going to bring him back?

Almost as if he heard Liam’s thoughts, Drew gently pushed Rosa away with his head. He lay down on the table and stared at Liam.

“I think he wants you to bring him up-to-date, as you said.” Rosa looked at Liam with a wry grin on her lovely face, her brown eyes looking both interested and sad. She seemed to really care about her veterinary patient. She probably knew him as a person, too, since she worked for his wife. Liam wished he had something to say that would make her smile.

And Drew, too. Wolves could smile, after all. At least shifters could, somewhat, while in wolf form.

“Okay.” Liam sat down on one of the chairs. Rosa remained standing beside Drew at first, her eyes examining him as the wolf regarded the other man in the room. “Now, here’s the situation—and if you have any ideas we’ll have to figure out a way for you to convey them to me.”

Drew nodded as he continued to lie there. Rosa moved to the chair beside Liam.

“First,” Liam said, “Jonas and Melanie—and maybe Rosa, too—” he looked at her for an instant and saw she was regarding him steadily “—may already have asked you this, but do you know why you haven’t shifted back? I gather this wasn’t your choice. Was anything different this time from one of your regular shifts?”

The response was no, based on the low, grumbling noise he made and the slight shake of his head.

“Okay, then. Here’s what I learned from the conversations at the base before I left.”

Liam started talking about all he had heard and participated in once he had joined the meeting in Jonas’s office. No other shifter had had any problem, so they didn’t believe it was the elixir—the most current version of the tonic that Drew had begun brewing with the changes that had been suggested and tried by other shifters and seemed to work best for everyone. It allowed for all-important human cognition while shifted. There were slightly different versions now being used outside the full moon to give more choice about when to shift into wolf form and when to shift back. A version that wasn’t being used much, if at all, allowed for shifting back to human form when the moon remained full, but it had never been as perfected as the unit members hoped for.

“So,” Liam said, “did you drink the regular elixir we’re now using during the full moon?”

Drew nodded.

“And did Jonas use the light on you?” That was still preferred by Alpha Force members even under a full moon to ensure the timing.

Again, Drew nodded.

“I assume the elixir looked and tasted like it always did, right?” Rosa asked. Liam was impressed that she was jumping into the discussion, as if she knew what she was talking about. And most likely she did, considering who her boss and her boss’s husband were, as well as her own apparent background of at least knowing about shifters.

Shifters other than those in Alpha Force also sometimes attempted to develop their own formulas to help them change when they wanted to. Even some members of Alpha Force besides Drew, including second in command Captain Patrick Worley, and Lieutenant Simon Parran, had brought their own versions when they had joined the unique military unit, or so Liam had heard.

Rosa might have known something about that even before joining this clinic as a veterinarian.

Liam, though, hadn’t brought anything like an elixir with him when he’d joined the unit. As always, he’d been focused on his technological skills. He had been online when he’d first learned such stuff actually existed, beyond the stories and legends, and so did a special, covert military unit that used it.

That was how he had learned about Alpha Force, and the rumors about what and where it was. Why he had shown up at Ft. Lukman one day with a résumé in hand, and had asked to speak with the officer in charge, who happened to be Drew.

Drew had apparently been as impressed by him and his techie skills as Liam had been impressed by Alpha Force. The result had been Liam enlisting and joining the unit—and being taught and mentored by the man before him, the shifter who now couldn’t shift back.

Liam had to figure out how to help him, by assisting the others working on the same problem to succeed or otherwise.

“Well, it would be easier if I could report back to the rest of the gang that you admitted to drinking something besides, or in addition to, our regular elixir,” Liam said, pursing his lips a bit. “But I know they’re all trying hard, without knowing what they’re looking for, to research how this could happen.”

“I’m trying, in my own way, too,” Rosa said, standing again. “I gave him a brief physical before, but would like to do more now, although under these circumstances I’m not sure a regular veterinarian, even with some knowledge of shifters, can help.”

“But we appreciate your trying.” Liam also rose and looked at her. This, at least, was a different angle. “What do you want to do?”

“A blood test, for one thing. And I’d like to take a closer look at Drew’s body to see if there’s something visible, a cut or growth beneath his fur...anything that may be different. Maybe an X-ray, too.”

“Great,” Liam said. “I’ll help.”

Drew appeared to be okay with it as well, since he just stayed limp on the table, which Rosa adjusted to be closer to her waist level. She did the exam first, saying she would draw blood when they were done, then take it into the clinic’s lab to analyze.

“Many vets send blood out to a specialized laboratory for analysis,” she told Liam. “But with this kind of patient I’ve learned to conduct the analyses myself. It’s safer that way.”

Liam wanted to hug this attractive, smart, careful vet, but of course he didn’t.

Instead, he helped her work with Drew, moving him on the table so she could use her stethoscope to check his heartbeat—normal for a canine, she indicated. Also to feel his chest, his limbs, his back, his skin, seeking any kind of lump or other abnormality, but she found none.

With Liam’s help—and also that of Brendan, the vet tech he had seen in the hall before—they moved Drew into another room where the X-ray equipment was kept, but once again nothing unusual was discovered.

Brendan took charge of the move back to the same exam room. There were others in the hall then, including a woman also dressed in blue scrubs like Brendan, whom Liam assumed was the other vet tech Brendan had mentioned before.

Melanie, too, came into the hall just as Brendan got Drew inside the room. “How is he doing?” she asked in a thick voice.

Rosa, who’d been following them, said, “We haven’t found anything yet. He seems tired at times but he—” her voice lowered “—he seems to know what’s going on and communicates with us when we ask questions.”

“That’s good,” Melanie said. “I just wish...” She didn’t finish, but instead hurried away from them, down the empty hall.

Liam looked into Rosa’s lovely brown eyes. She looked sad. No, worse, tormented. He had another urge to hug her in empathy. Better yet, to come up with an immediate answer.

He did neither. But he also didn’t look away from her.

Odd, but he felt they’d somehow bonded over this difficult situation. They both wanted to resolve it. Fast. For similar, but not identical reasons.

Alpha Force needed Drew back the way he was. And Liam needed his friend and commanding officer.

His wife, head vet at this place and Rosa’s employer, mother of Drew’s daughter and son, undoubtedly needed him most of all.

Brendan came out the exam room door. “Okay, he’s situated on the table again. He looks tired.”

Rosa immediately pulled her anguished gaze away from him and Liam felt a pang of...sorrow? “Thanks, Brendan. I’m going to draw some blood now.”

Which was what she did, after entering the room again accompanied by Liam, who helped to keep Drew resting despite the prick of the needle.

But there wasn’t a lot he needed to do. Drew appeared exhausted.

What was wrong with him?

And how were they going to fix whatever it was?

Chapter 3 (#ub6ef44f9-2381-5259-ac8c-d2684b9e78b3)

In a way, Rosa appreciated the break from hanging out with Drew and using her veterinary skills to watch over him for any illness symptoms that the wolf he was now might evince.