But the virus, and the threat it represented, stopped me cold.
I pulled away and stared once more out the windshield. The restaurant’s neon sign sizzled against the window, trapped like I was.
“Is this some wulf thing?” I asked. “Because I’ve never felt anything like it before.” I put the SUV in gear and backed it away from the restaurant.
“I . . . I have an idea.” Her voice was so soft that even the enhanced hearing of my wulf barely made it out. “But I’m not sure. Josh said—”
Josh said? Is this why she was talking to him? What did he tell her? I opened my mouth to ask, when she spoke again.
“I’ve never felt anything like this either.”
Something inside me danced for joy that she seemed as lost as I was, but my heart ached. Because I remembered Dillon and his obsession with Chloe. Is that what’s happening to me? Is this real or is it the virus?
I pulled onto the highway. “Well, you can’t switch with Garrett. You might bring out one kind of wulf in me, but he’ll bring out another. And that one has bigger teeth.”
23
I was scheduled for clinic duty all day, so when we returned from lunch, I had Sam call Doc Hayek to ask about rabies and wulfan. She intercepted me down the hall from the clinic’s shower facilities—I’d washed the wulf smell off me and done a complete change of clothes—to tell me she’d made an appointment at Beausejour clinic for that afternoon.
“The doc said considering the virulence of rabies, it’s a good idea. Can I take your vehicle?” Her gaze seemed emotionless, like she’d locked herself down.
Darlene was in the clinic, so if we got emergency calls her vehicle and gear were available. “Yeah, go ahead.”
Sam appeared relieved as she headed off, no doubt to tell Mandy that she’d be gone. I watched her walk away before entering the examination room where my next client waited.
I barely saw Sam for the remainder of the afternoon. Once she returned, Mandy had her immersed in her version of “how to be the best—and most unusually profane—animal technician ever.” When I extricated her at the end of the day, she looked a fraction of her usual bouncy self.
“Chris invited us to supper,” she said, slumped on the passenger side of the SUV. Keen reached between the seats to lick her hand.
“You look beat.”
Her eyes flashed with a hint of her usual feistiness. “You’re not supposed to tell a girl she looks beat. Radiant, beautiful, goddess incarnate—all those are acceptable. Beat is not.”
“Those go without saying,” I commented with a wolfish grin.
“That does not get you off the hook.” Her smile acquired teeth, more like my usual Sam.
She’s not yours. Echoes of Dillon’s possessive attitude resonated through me. I concentrated on breathing deeply as I started the truck and pulled out.
As I drove, a silence fell over us, and not an entirely comfortable one. Sam seemed lost in thought, as well as tired. It worried me that the enforcer side of her might be winning.
“You’d better not be thinking of switching with Garrett,” I stated.
She chewed on her lip. “I should switch with Garrett.”
“No. Absolutely not.”
She glanced at me. “Liam, whatever this is, it’s skating us too close to the edge. I’m not behaving in a professional manner, and I can’t seem to stop myself.”
“Not your fault,” I pointed out. “I’m irresistible. One look at my naked chest and women swoon.”
“Not funny. This thing is testing your control. And mine.”
My hands tightened on the steering wheel. “Garrett will push me over the edge, and not in a good way. The man is annoying just standing there.”
One corner of her mouth did a little hitch. “Yeah. He’s a stickler for rules too, but he’s a good enforcer. He’s had my back lots of times and always comes through.”
I wasn’t proud of the wave of jealousy that passed over me. They work together. Stop being an idiot. Fighting to keep my voice calm, I replied, “Doesn’t change the fact we’d be at each other’s throats in no time.”
She sighed. “He does have an issue with animals. They don’t like him. He can bury his wulf like the rest of us, so it’s something else that causes it.”
I remembered Keen and Havoc avoiding him. “Some people just have toxic energy. That could cause issues for me at work.” I glanced at her. “I want you to stay.”
She tilted her head as she considered. “Okay. For now. But any more signs of us losing it, and you’ll have to learn to like six-foot-plus Ken dolls.”
The yo-yo effect when my relief swung me the other way from the jealousy made my head spin. Much as I didn’t want Garrett, I had to admit this thing between Sam and me took me closer to the edge than anything I’d yet experienced.
“I already promised to wear flannel,” I said.
She snorted. “Oh, the sacrifices we make.” She laid her head back against the seat and sighed. “But it might be for the best. Although with my luck, you’ll be one of the fortunate few that looks delicious in long underwear.”
“Well, my other career is lingerie model, you know.”
Her lips twitched. “You could give Garrett a run for his money. I’m sure that’s one reason he doesn’t like you.”
I laughed. “Yeah, right. Vet by day, model by weekend, wulf by night. Now there’s a resumé.”
“Well, you’ve got my vote. You’d have to get over your naked-in-public phobia, though.” She grinned.
“Hey, just because I don’t parade around in the buff—well, not completely, anyway—doesn’t mean I’m shy.” I glanced at her. “We’ve got twenty minutes to Chris’s, why don’t you try a power nap? I promise I won’t wulf out while you’re under.”
“Man, I must look rough. Okay, you drive, I’ll sleep.” She kicked off her runners, squirmed in her seat until her feet were up on the dash, and was out like a
