Guardian Wolf

chapter 8



Grace watched for Simon for the rest of the day, but only saw him at a distance, or in a patient’s room. He seemed to be avoiding her.

She wished that didn’t hurt so much.

But pain or not, she had to talk to him. To warn him. He might not be high on her suspect list, but he could be on Dryson’s—and if Simon was under surveillance, he might get caught by someone in authority, and even on camera, doing something he clearly wanted no one to know about.

How different today was from yesterday, when Grace was full of anticipation about meeting Simon for dinner—and hoping to get him alone to sound him out about the night of the thefts. And, okay, she admitted to herself that she had also wanted to get him alone for other reasons.

Reasons that had gone way beyond her expectations. Making love with Simon once more had been an experience she would relive over and over in her mind—and her sated body—even if it never happened again.

That was part of her pain, even though—or maybe because—she knew it was reality.

But even so, she cared enough to pass along her warning, then leave him alone, the way he clearly wanted. She allowed her most canine senses leeway to find him that day—the distant sound of his voice, his masculine scent wafting among all the usual hospital aromas. She finally got to the point that she delayed seeing a patient of her own to wait for Simon in the hallway, after seeing him enter a room to check on one of his patients—that boy, Eddie.

Was she stalking Simon? In a way. He shot a glare at her as he came out, talking to a nurse.

“May I speak with you, Dr. Parran?” she called.

“Sorry,” he muttered, sounding not at all sorry. “I have to follow up on this now, Dr. Andreas. I’ll talk to you later.”



But Grace knew he intended that to be a lie. Shades of their college days all over again.

For now, she gave up. One way or another, she would catch up with Simon before this day ended and pass along the warning. For his sake.

And then?

Then, she would back off the way she never had in the old days—until they had given up on each other. Despite the wonders they had shared the night before, she was older now, and wiser.

Simon Parran and she would never have a relationship of any kind besides a professional one.

She would live with that. The pain she felt now was acute, but it would soften with time, as it had before. Eventually.

But if there was any way of learning how Simon had shifted outside the full moon, she owed it to Alpha Force to do so.



His duties at the hospital had ended for the day, and Simon looked around before heading along the now-quiet hall on the hospital’s first floor, toward the stairway to the downstairs lab area. It was time now for him to get back to his extracurricular activities.

He wished he could return to them with the same enthusiasm he’d had previously. But too many things had happened to interfere with all he had intended to achieve here at Charles Carder.

The biohazards thefts, for one thing. He’d known of the prior ones, but they had been surpassed by the latest event. Having this severe strain of shigella bacteria in the wrong hands was a potential disaster. And so far, he had been unable to do anything about it.

Then there was Grace. He’d had a hell of a time concentrating on being a doctor that day instead of a man ruled by his private parts.

He had seen her around even before she had waited to talk to him outside Eddie’s room. Smelled her light floral aroma at a distance, too. It mesmerized him, engulfed his senses, sparked recollections of the greatest aspects of the night before.

That aroma seemed to follow him everywhere. He passed a few visitors, an orderly, some maintenance workers as he walked along, yet he scented Grace—or imagined he did. He reached the door to the stairs and took the knob in his hand…and then realized it wasn’t his imagination after all. Grace was hurrying along the hall toward him, the muted sound of the treads of her soft-soled shoes squishing along the linoleum.

No good way to avoid her now. He wasn’t about to hurry down the stairway—especially since she was likely to follow. “Hi, Grace,” he said as she caught up with him. He purposely made his tone stiff, unwelcoming.

She obviously recognized that, since a brief cloud of emotion—pain?—washed over her face before she regained a neutral expression. “Hello, Simon. I know you’re not interested in talking to me, but I did want to touch base with you about bringing Tilly for a session with your young patient.” She leaned toward him, and her scent wafted over him like a soft, caressing shower. “There’s something else you need to know, too.” A couple of hospital visitors passed by, talking quietly and not looking at them, but Grace glanced in their direction. “Can we go someplace more private to talk?” she asked softly.

She glanced toward the door where he had stopped. He wasn’t about to suggest that she accompany him down to the lab area. She might expect an invitation into the room where he worked. “How about my office upstairs?”

His office was near Grace’s—an equally small one with a computer for checking patient records and communicating with other physicians by e-mail and phone. He could talk to Grace there behind closed doors—although he doubted that was a good idea. Maybe he could use the department lounge instead. Moe Scoles and his assistant would probably be gone for the day, and not many other doctors or staff were likely to be present either.

They took the stairs at the end of the hall up to the second floor and walked nearly silently toward the infectious-diseases wing. Simon peered into the department lounge before gesturing for Grace to precede him in there. “I’d like a cola,” he said, heading for the soft-drink machine in the corner of the small room furnished with a few aging chairs of mismatched green-and-yellow slipcovers. “Want anything?” He wasn’t really thirsty, but that gave him a reason to enter the lounge without explaining to Grace that he wanted to be somewhere from which he could leave more easily than his office if their conversation was as difficult as he anticipated.

“No, thanks.”

He slipped some coins in and heard the resulting thunk of the can he had chosen rolling out of its chute. Grace had taken a seat on a chair with another close by, perpendicular to it. She motioned for him to sit there.

“Look, Grace,” he said as he sat. “I really regret that we had such a nasty end to a…well, remarkable night. Being with you was—”

“No need to try to smooth things over, Simon. I didn’t want to speak with you to rehash it. The sex was great, our argument sucked, and that’s that.”

Her lovely face had taken on a hard expression. That should have made him feel relieved that they were simply moving on, but instead he had to quash an unanticipated ache inside.

“There are two things we need to discuss,” she continued. “First, unless you have any objections, I’ll bring Tilly in tomorrow afternoon to do another therapy-dog exercise. We’ll be sure to visit your patient Eddie, see if his shyness is eased a little if a very smart dog gives him attention, okay?”

“Fine. Are you on duty at all tomorrow?”

“In the morning for a few hours, then I’m officially off for the day. This should work out fine.”

“Good.”

The remote look on her face grew suddenly uncertain. “There’s something else you should know.”

He had the impression he wasn’t going to like it, whatever it was.

She hesitated, looking around the room, including toward the ceiling, as if checking for security cameras. “I need to go to my office,” she said. “Please walk with me.”

Whatever was on her mind, she obviously didn’t want anyone else to hear. Were there cameras recording what went on in the doctors’ lounge? He doubted it, but rose and followed her.

She stopped in the hall, putting her hand partly over her mouth, as if to hide it from any prying camera lens. “I’m going to speak quietly.” Her voice was barely above a whisper. He wondered if he would be able to hear it if he had strictly human hearing and leaned down as if needing the additional closeness to make out what she said. “Simon, I’m not the only one considering you a suspect in the biohazards theft. I’m convinced you’re innocent, but Major Dryson of the Air Force Security Forces has you on his radar. You may be under close scrutiny. Very close scrutiny. And we both know what a bad thing that could be for you. Be really careful, Simon, about what you do and where you do it.”

Shocked, he backed up. Was she telling him that she now really knew he was a shifter—and that the surveillance being conducted by the security group could reveal that about him if he didn’t take precautions?

“Grace, I’d like to talk to you more about this. Somewhere else, if possible.”

“Like your apartment, or mine, one of these nights? I don’t think so, Simon. Just be careful.” She turned and walked toward the stairway.



As he sat in the busy hospital cafeteria that evening, nibbling on a sandwich and watching the other diners—Grace not among them—Simon’s frustration was palpable.

Not just his sexual frustration, although he did regret not anticipating an encore session with Grace. Yes, he’d been peeved with her and her suspiciousness. But he could live with that, especially since it sounded as if she was now convinced of his innocence.

Was she also convinced he was a shapeshifter? Was that the hidden meaning behind her warning? She was no longer pushing him to admit it as she had when they were college kids—yet he wasn’t sure that she no longer suspected him of it.

The way she cautioned him seemed suspicious in itself.

Although she had hinted back then that she, too, was a shifter, she wasn’t doing so now. Was that because she was a regular human, or because she didn’t want him to know the truth?

Could she have been the canine presence he had noticed while he, too, was shifted?

If he came right out and asked her, he would have to admit what he was, too—and he still wasn’t ready to do that. Plus, he sensed she’d be the one to get defensive now, and deny it, whether or not it was true.

Yeah, he was frustrated. And those weren’t the only reasons.

He’d also had to limit his activities on the lab floor. Working on his homeopathic and herbal remedies was no problem. But if what Grace said was true, he was under closer scrutiny now. Working on the formulations he really wanted to, experimenting and blending for his own tests—that might not be reasonable at the moment.

“Hello, Simon. Would you mind some company?” It was Grace.

She held a cup of coffee. He hadn’t seen her because his back was toward the large coffee urns.

“Please, join me.” He pointed across the table.

“Thanks.” She sat and regarded him with an expression so sad that he fought an urge to stand and take her into his arms. “I didn’t mean to alarm you before. Or to make old wounds between us start festering by pushing you last night. I…well, I enjoyed what we started between us again. I’m sorry it can’t continue.”

“It could,” he suggested, keeping his face somber instead of letting it light up into a hopeful smile.



“There’s too much baggage between us, Simon. The old attraction is still there, and maybe even more now. But…well, when I saw you here alone I couldn’t resist coming over to talk to you. As impossible as it may seem, I’d like for us to be friends, as well as colleagues. Can we try that for now?”

“Maybe, but—” He couldn’t resist. He leaned toward her over the table, making sure first that no one was near enough to hear over the crowd’s roar what he was about to say. “My turn to ask you,” he said softly. “Grace, are you a shapeshifter?”

Her lovely brown eyes widened, as if in shock. And then she burst out laughing. “After all that I put you through in the old days, Simon, and after expressing my suspicions against you today, I shouldn’t be surprised that you’d try to get back at me now. See you tomorrow.” She grabbed her coffee cup, stood and hurried away through the crowd.

Leaving Simon realizing that she hadn’t answered his question any more than he’d answered hers back in the day.



Grace should be laughing for real over this irony—not the feigned laugh she had shot at Simon.

Oh, how the tables had turned, she thought as she hurried across the hospital parking lot toward the air-force base’s gate. Now she should simply avoid Simon and fulfill her mission as quickly as she could. She had already come up with some ideas to run by her fellow Alpha Force members here before trying them on Major Drew Connell. Ideas that might bring the thieves into the open so she could catch them in the act.

But despite herself, she was worried about Simon, and whether he could keep his true nature secret while the investigation into the biohazards thefts continued. She had the resources of Alpha Force to help protect her and the other side of her nature. As far as she knew, Simon was on his own.

The night air was stifling as usual. Even so, Grace especially looked forward to being with Tilly that night. She had a lot to think about, and the calming presence of her dog, as well as the brisk exercise of a long walk around the base even under bright artificial lights, might help her figure out her next moves.

Which, regretfully, wouldn’t include another passionate night with Simon Parran.