Visionary Wolf

“Let me know if that changes. I just checked out the discharge from a wound of one of our canine patients. Fortunately, the bacterial count was low.”

“Great,” Rosa said, as Dina left the room.

Sometimes Rosa did have one of the techs handle the blood work, often preparing it to be sent to the official lab. Other times they analyzed other kinds of liquids or discharges from the animals.

But the very rare times there were samples from shifters in animal form, either Melanie or Rosa handled it herself.

Not that the techs or other people who worked here didn’t know, or at least suspect, that some of the patients were not exactly regular pets. Still, though they talked about it a little, everyone around here seemed to understand the need for tact and confidentiality. Now, at least. Rosa had heard that there were some rumors after Melanie had taken over this clinic, as a result of the death of the former veterinarians—parents of one of the officers at Ft. Lukman, Captain Patrick Worley, who happened to be a shifter.

Not wanting any interruptions, after placing the tube of blood carefully on the table, Rosa locked the door and muted her phone.

She then washed her hands carefully once more, as she’d done before extracting the sample.

Finally, using a microscope and other appropriate equipment, she began the process of analyzing the contents of the sample, including the red blood cell count and the blood type. As anticipated, both were quite different from a normal canine’s—even though canines had more blood types than humans did.

But there was more that she didn’t anticipate. She had done only a few analyses of shifters’ blood, since they generally remained in shifted form for only a short while. She figured that those around here might have extra chemicals in their blood thanks to their imbibing the elixir to help them with their shift.

That didn’t explain, though, the additional contents in Drew’s sample. Stuff she couldn’t really analyze. It seemed a darker red than usual, somewhat thicker than the blood cells surrounding it.

She was knowledgeable but not an expert in chemistry, and what she saw might mean nothing.

But she realized that, whatever it was, this might be the evidence of whatever was keeping Drew in his shifted form.

She needed someone else to check it out, though. Someone more skilled in this than she was.

She placed the samples into airtight containers for now. Then she hurried back to the exam room that contained Drew—and Liam.

She slipped in without knocking, which was a good thing. Drew was asleep.

Liam had his smartphone in his hands and seemed to be concentrating as he typed something into it. He heard her, though. He probably would have even with normal ears, not just those of a shifter in human form. He looked at her right away.

She gestured for him to follow her, which he did after aiming a glance in Drew’s direction. Evidently he thought all was well, since soon they were out in the hall together with the door shut.

Fortunately, the hall was empty. Rosa looked up at Liam, into his face. Her concern must have been written on hers since his handsome masculine features tightened into a frown. “What’s wrong?” he asked quietly.

“I guess my worry is obvious.” She kept her voice low, too. “Are any of your Alpha Force people experts in chemistry? I assume they are because of putting together your elixir, right?”

“I think so, but since that’s not my area I can’t tell you much. Why? Is there something wrong with Drew’s blood?”

The guy was apparently smart and astute. But then again, he’d known she had drawn blood and gone off to try to analyze it.

“I’m not sure, but there’s something different about it. I still don’t want to send it to the standard outside places, so I wonder if anyone at your base could take a look and figure it out.”

“Let me check.” He walked to the closest end of the hall, which was a good thing, since Melanie exited one of the exam rooms, and a couple followed her, the man holding the leash of a good-sized boxer. Melanie aimed a quizzical glance in Rosa’s direction, and Rosa just smiled back.

She didn’t have anything to tell Melanie except to report her question.

When she turned back, Liam was just pressing a button on his phone, evidently ending a quick call. “Yes, a couple of our guys, Jonas Truro in particular, may be able to help. Let me take the sample you have to him. I’ve already got Sergeant Noel Chuma, one of the Alpha Force aides, on his way to relieve me here.” He looked up, over Rosa’s shoulder.

Rosa realized she must have looked worried to Melanie, or maybe her boss was just curious—or wanted to see her shifted husband. But from behind her she heard, also in a soft voice, “What’s going on? Why are you both out here?”

She didn’t want to alarm Melanie—or give her false hope that they were about to find any answers. Turning, she said, “I just need a little advice about Drew’s blood test. And Liam checked and found that some of the guys out at the base might be able to help. Unless you’d rather I didn’t do it...”

“No, I’d rather you do it. How is Drew?”

“Sleeping,” Liam said. “But I think we need to wake him up, at least briefly. My contact said to bring the samples you already have, Rosa, but also another one that hasn’t been separated or analyzed at all.”

“Fine,” Melanie said. “I’ll go in with you while you draw that sample and wait with Drew till Noel arrives.” She looked pale, but the expression on her face appeared...well, a little hopeful, if Rosa was reading it right.

“Good,” she said. “And I’m going to the base, too, to talk to your guys there.” She looked at Liam, half expecting him to object.

“That’ll work,” he said. In fact, was that a touch of relief on his face? Admiration? Or was she reading too much into it? “You can tell them what you found and your take on it, and they can do their own kind of analysis.”

“Good,” she said again. “Now, let’s go get that other sample.”

Liam wanted more information about blood tests in general, and this one in particular.

At least that was the reason he gave himself, and Rosa, as he told her he would drive her to the base and back.

He had no other reason to be alone in this smart vet’s presence for the twenty minute trip to Ft. Lukman, or the return trip. She could drive herself, of course.

But she seemed okay with the idea of riding in his black military-issued sedan. Maybe she wanted to talk more about the blood test. Or maybe she felt uncomfortable with the idea of appearing by herself at the military facility.

Or maybe he was reading things into her attitude.

They were on their way now, just exiting the town of Mary Glen on the way to Ft. Lukman. The distance was only about five miles, but it always felt longer, thanks to the two-lane roads lined by tall trees of the surrounding woods.

Liam figured the site of the military base, with its particularly covert unit, had been chosen because of the obscure location.

“So you said you’re not a shifter,” he began, aiming a brief glance at her in the passenger seat, a box containing the carefully wrapped blood samples on her lap. That statement didn’t address the blood tests—but he’d get there. He had other questions he hoped to get answered first.

Their eyes met for an instant before he looked back toward the road. The grin on her face looked wary. Even so, she was still one pretty lady.

“No,” she said, “I’m not. But where I grew up in Michigan there were quite a few wolves, and I learned early on that a few of my school friends and their families happened to be shifters. The existence of real wolves in that area gave them a bit of cover.”

“Makes sense. My family lived in Minnesota for the same reason. But not being a shifter yourself, how did you end up learning that your friends were?” All the shifters he knew were taught from a young age to keep that critical fact to themselves.

“Well, I always wanted to become a veterinarian. I love animals. I always had a dog or two, visited the nearest zoo a lot and—well, I realized at a fairly young age that I heard more wolf howls in the distance on nights of the full moon than otherwise.” She leaned toward him a little. “Did you howl then as you were growing up? Turned out my friends did. One of them, a guy I guess I had a crush on in seventh grade, hinted to me about where to show up at sundown on one of those special nights. He knew I was there, hiding behind a tree, when his family and a couple of others went out into the forest together. It was really amazing to watch when the four of them went from being a regular human family to a small pack of wolves. I never forgot it, of course, though that guy stopped talking to me. Guess his family caught my scent and bawled him out.”

“But you knew then,” Liam stated. He couldn’t help smiling. It must have been quite an experience for a young non-shifter.

“I knew then,” she confirmed. “I hardly ever talked about it—but I just happened to snoop around on more nights of the full moon and saw that a few other friends shared that characteristic.”

“And did they stop talking to you, too?”

“I tried to be a lot more careful. If they knew about me, they never said so, and I never said anything to them, either.”

“But you still wanted to help them as a vet?”

“Sure. When I went to veterinary school I made sure to learn about all canine anatomy as well as volunteering to help the vets who worked with the local zoo. And then, as I learned enough to help, I visited that first guy’s mother one day—he was off at a different college by then—and told her what I knew about them, and how I was learning a lot about working with feral creatures like wolves, in case anyone needed medical help while shifted. She pretended not to know what I was talking about, but—”

“But sometime near then she called on you in her wolf form to come help another shifter who needed medical help that night, right?”

“Exactly.”

Liam could hear her big smile in the tone of her voice. He looked over and grinned back at her. “And from then on they knew you were there to help.”

“Yes, I was. I helped them and myself, and they were the ones to give recommendations about me to Melanie when she put word out—very discreetly, I might add—about how she was a regular veterinarian with...interesting contacts who sometimes needed medical assistance. Since the shifters around me made a point of not admitting their true nature, I thought that the type of organization Melanie hinted about—the US military, of all things—might be a fascinating group of potential patients.”

As he was growing up, Liam had known a couple local people who seemed to recognize what he, his family members and others in the area were, but although they were mostly polite, they didn’t attempt to get to know any shifters better.

He was impressed with this lovely lady who not only accepted the idea of shifters in her life, but actually seemed to appreciate them. Worry about them. Want to heal them.

“I’m sure Melanie is really glad to have your help,” he told her, then shared a brief smile with her before he made another turn on the twisty road.

“And I’m really glad to help her. And the others.” A tone he didn’t quite recognize modified Rosa’s voice.

“Especially Drew,” Liam guessed.

“Especially Drew,” she agreed. “But...I just hope we really can help him.”

“We will,” Liam asserted—hoping it was true.

Chapter 4

Even though Liam had asked her to ride with him so he could ask questions about blood and blood types, Rosa was somewhat amused that they never really got into that topic much. And when they did, all she needed to do was go over a bit of what she had already been thinking about.

Yes, she told him when he finally asked, the blood types of people and regular canines had differences. So did the blood types of wolves in general from shifted wolves. People and their unshifted counterparts, not so much.

And the differences she saw from the blood she had drawn from Drew? Well, she didn’t exactly know what they were, except for the odd consistency and darker coloration. That was why she hoped for someone else’s advice.

She didn’t let him know how concerned she really was, although since she was looking for guidance he probably gathered that.

Would those at Ft. Lukman know whether that blood issue was the cause of Drew’s not changing back? If so, would they know how to fix it?

Liam didn’t seem inclined to talk much more about it, which was fine with her. It allowed her to avoid revealing how inadequate she felt, and instead gave her time to ask him about what he did as a technology expert for Alpha Force.

That got him going immediately—and what he had to say about the online claims worried her, too, as someone who had friends and patients around here who were shifters.

Sure, she had met actual shifters at home when she was young. She had also seen sites on the internet, mostly blogs or social media posts, that speculated whether there actually were such things as shapeshifters, as depicted in horror movies and otherwise. Sometimes people claimed to have seen the real thing, and maybe, like her, they had.

She had even found some references to oddities that had allegedly gone on here in Mary Glen a while back. But she’d also seen posts about how all that got resolved when it was discovered that one member of an offbeat group of people who claimed shapeshifters exist had made unsubstantiated claims for his own benefit. Discovering who it was and stopping him had helped quiet things down in this area—at least as far as the rest of the world was likely to know.

But what Liam was describing could be a lot worse for the ongoing peace of shapeshifters—and Alpha Force in particular. Rosa now lived near downtown Mary Glen, not far from the vet clinic. She had heard nothing at all regarding the claims Liam described about how shifters around here, under the last full moon, had hurt some regular people in this area—badly.

Neither had Liam, he assured her. It was simply untrue.

And it was his job to make sure that anyone who saw those ridiculous posts didn’t believe a word.

He’d already checked on how his aide, Denny, had started dealing with the situation, and believed he was doing a good job. But Liam would take over himself later that evening.

After driving through the thick woodlands, they finally arrived at the gate to the military base. Even Liam had to provide his ID to the guards despite being stationed there, and of course Rosa had to provide hers, as well. Then Liam drove across the base to a building she had visited once before to check on an injured animal Melanie had explained was a cover dog, resembling one of the shifters in canine form.

Most of the time, those cover dogs that needed shots or exams were brought to the veterinary clinic, like all other pets in the Mary Glen area. That was how Rosa got to meet and treat them.

However, they’d chosen not to move that dog, Spike—Seth Ambers’s cover dog—without getting him treatment first. Fortunately, though he’d been bleeding profusely, he’d had nothing worse than a fairly minor cut from a broken bottle he’d stepped on.

When Rosa had arrived, Spike was in a special fenced pen by himself in the upstairs area where the cover dogs were housed when not on duty, his leg bandaged, and one of the aides continuously changing the dressing. Rosa had been able to follow Drew as he carried Spike downstairs to what he’d referred to as the base’s primary lab area, where she’d been able to snip off fur from around the cut, wash it well, soak it with disinfectant and wrap it in sterile bandages after providing topical anesthetic, a few stitches and a larger cover bandage and temporary cone collar to make sure he didn’t chew too close to it. He’d healed just fine.

The poor dog’s injury had given Rosa not only the opportunity to see part of the military facility that housed the amazing Alpha Force, but also to increase her already good reputation, thanks to Melanie’s verbal recognition of what Rosa additionally did to help those shifters who needed medical assistance while in their animal forms.

Liam parked his car and used a key card to get them both inside the building. The guy was either a gentleman or he didn’t trust her not to drop the critically important box containing Drew’s blood samples, since he carried it inside. He then led her to the stairway to the area where Rosa knew the labs, and some offices, were located. He unlocked that door and she followed him downstairs.

A lot, maybe all, of the members of Alpha Force were gathered in a room past the labs where Rosa had been before.

“This is Drew’s office in this building,” Liam told her, “although he’s got another one in the main admin building at the other side of the base.”

It wasn’t a large room, but there were many chairs in rows facing the desk, all occupied. Rosa recognized a few of the people there who’d sometimes brought their cover animals to the vet clinic or had come to visit Drew and Melanie in their home next door.

Even so, Liam introduced her to them all—and most important to her now were Captain Patrick Worley and Captain Jonas Truro, whom she’d already met. They were both medical doctors, but only Patrick was a shifter.

Then there was Lieutenant Seth Ambers, also a doctor, Staff Sergeant Jason Connell, who was Drew’s cousin as well as a member of Alpha Force, aides including Staff Sergeants Ruby Belmont, Piers Janus, and more. Rosa hoped she would remember names, but even if she didn’t right away, she would try to have as good a relationship as possible with all of them, easiest if a solution was found quickly for Drew’s problem.

When he was done with the introductions, Liam told Rosa to join him standing behind Drew’s desk facing the group. “Rosa has come here to give a rundown, especially to everyone who’s a medical doctor, regarding what she found when she conducted Drew’s blood test. I’ve mentioned that to some of you.” He gestured toward the box they’d brought, which now rested on Drew’s desk.

Rosa wondered if the entire group needed to hear this, since she figured only a few would know anything about blood and blood tests and the different blood types of regular people and shifters and all. But considering the fascinated and concerned way they stared at her, she assumed they were all highly worried about their commanding officer and what was going on with him. They wanted him back, as normal for his type as he’d been before.

Plus some of them were shifters, too, and would want to ensure, if possible, that the same thing didn’t happen with them. And fellow Alpha Force members who were aides would need to know how to help the shifters they worked for.

So, yes, for their own reasons they all needed to be there.

She first described how she had been put in charge of Major Connell by the head veterinarian at the clinic—his wife. “Melanie did her own exam first, of course, and I’ve been keeping her up-to-date. But I’m sure it was hard on her to have to check out poor Drew in this situation.”

Rosa then talked about how she had examined Drew, had kept him under her care, had looked for any abnormalities in his canine form—and had, of course, taken a blood test.

“I don’t know that I need to get into much detail here,” she told the group. “I did find what appears to be some irregularity in the consistency and color of the fluid and, not being a chemist beyond the skills needed to be a damn good veterinarian—” she smiled a bit sadly at that, realizing that her own fears of inadequacy were showing in her irony “—I wanted to see if anyone here could help analyze Drew’s blood and determine if it’s the cause, or an indication, of what’s going on with him.”

“We’ll take a look.” Patrick was the first to stand, then Jonas did. “Come into the lab area with us, Rosa, and we’ll start checking things out, okay?”

“Of course.”

She glanced toward Liam, who nodded. He apparently wasn’t joining them, but he was her ride back to town. She suspected she’d be able to find another one, though, if necessary.

Patrick picked up the box. She wasn’t surprised when Seth joined them. It wouldn’t hurt to have all the doctors who knew human patients’ traits getting involved, or at least that’s what she surmised.

Patrick led Rosa next door to the lab areas, where he asked Seth to start the analysis process, getting slides ready for the microscope and more.

“We really appreciate this,” Patrick said, standing with Rosa in the middle of the main room, which was lined with shiny metal cabinets with glass doors. Some had equipment on top—a lot of microscopes, for one thing.

Patrick was a tall guy, dressed in camos like all the people around here but Rosa. His hair was light and short, his face long and nice looking, with a cleft in his chin.

He didn’t resemble Liam except for his height and outfit—and for an instant Rosa missed Liam’s presence. Ridiculous.

“I appreciate it, too,” she said to Patrick. “I just hope you can figure this out.”

“I’m sure you know we want to,” he replied. Seth was already removing the various vials of blood from the padding in the box. Rosa had labeled them with the time collected and whether she had done anything to attempt to examine each particular sample, so she figured they at least wouldn’t have any questions about that.

But what they all really needed was answers.

She hung out in the lab for a while, mostly watching the others, listening to them discuss what to do next. Then Patrick said, “You know, Rosa, this is going to take a while. Why don’t you go back to your clinic, and we’ll let you know what we find, okay?”

In other words, her staring wasn’t making them go faster, but might be causing them some discomfort.

She didn’t want that. Besides, back at the clinic she’d be able to bring Melanie up-to-date, such as it was with no answers so far, and maybe do something helpful there before the day ended. “Sounds good,” she said.

She just hoped that Liam was ready to leave.

Liam was champing at the bit.

He had gone to his own office, upstairs in another part of the building, but only briefly to check on how Denny was doing.

He’d promised to return Rosa to town, and though he figured he could get someone else to do it, he wanted to be the one.

He also wanted to get on his own computer and get busy doing his own thing to start fixing all the absurd and detrimental rumors.

“Here’s what I’ve done,” Denny had told him, and good guy that he was, Liam’s aide had followed his prior instructions and started with one of the social media sites where the posts were among the most awful and accusatory against shapeshifters the night before, including an unnamed military group containing shifters. Oddly, as Liam had previously noted, a few had signed their posts with the names of Greek or Roman gods, like Zeus, Hera, Orion, Diana and Poseidon, and even Cerberus, the three-headed dog. They could be a group of anti-shifters, or just one person pretending to be a bunch. Which frustrated Liam. He hadn’t had the time to start figuring that out yet.

Still, Denny had used one of his own fake identities to make fun of the stupid stuff. That needed to be started even before they attempted to figure out the sources of those posts.

“Good job,” Liam had told him, making his short, young helper grin widely.

“Thanks. You want to take over?”

“Soon,” Liam assured him. “Meantime, keep up the good work.”

He returned to Drew’s office, where some of his fellow Alpha Forcers remained. Could he text Rosa to see how much longer she’d be? He felt a duty to do as he’d promised her.

He also felt eager to see her again, and not entirely to get her update on what the others were doing to assess Drew’s weird blood.

He was delighted when she came back almost immediately after his reappearance. “They’re working on it now,” she told Liam and the others in the room. “Not much I can do to help, so do you think...” She looked at Liam, who just nodded, reading the question in her eyes.