Adams, Cara - Calling Doctor Wolf [Shape-Shifter Clinic 1] (3 page)

“That was Ambrielle.”

“Yes. I just texted Fergus. I need to watch, though.”

“Huh?” Danny had no idea what Oscar was talking about, but followed him out another door, through a back hallway, and then they circled around through some other rooms until they were behind the reception area and had a good view of Ms. Watson sitting primly in a chair, her purse at her feet and her hands resting on the papers on her knee. She was looking at her hands, perhaps staring at her bright green fingernails that matched her motorcycle and her skirt.

Fergus was one of the nurses at the clinic. He was also a wolf with a red coat, which was very distinctive and meant he could never hide among a pack of dogs. Suddenly Danny understood. Oscar had been way ahead of him and was going to test his interviewees about their reaction to shape-shifters. Oscar could have used Campbell, the other werewolf nurse, who had brown fur and could quite easily be mistaken for a rather large dog. Instead, it was to be Fergus.

Just then the shape-shifter nosed open a door and stalked into the entry area. He was moving slowly and gracefully, not in a threatening manner at all, but quite definitely a presence. Ambrielle seemed to sense him and looked up. Then she smiled and held out a hand. “Well, aren’t you a beautiful boy. Have you come to say hi to me?”

Fergus gave a toothy grin and crossed the room to stand at her knee. Ambrielle bent over, petting his back, stroking his fur, and rubbing behind his ears and under his chin. She kept up a soft conversation with him, telling him how handsome he was.

Oscar nodded to Danny and they silently withdrew. Oscar gestured with his thumb to Danny and Danny nodded, then walked briskly into the entry area.

“Fergus, it’s time for you to go. Ms. Watson, can you follow me please.”

She jumped to her feet, snatching her papers and her purse, then walked beside him into the lounge room. Oscar was standing by a group of chairs, and said, “Thank you, Danny. Ms. Watson, how about you sit here.” He pointed to a chair where both he and Danny would be able to watch her face clearly.

“Thank you for giving us your time today. I see you like animals,” said Oscar.

The woman gave him back bland look for bland look. “My aunt is very fond of cats. All different types of cats. She spends a lot of her time surrounded by them.”

Well, well, well. “Different types of cats,” eh? It sounded rather as though her aunt didn’t just have house cats, but that she either was a panther shape-shifter or lived with some. Danny couldn’t imagine Ambrielle would have used those particular words if the aunt simply liked both long and short-haired cats or various kinds of regular domestic cats. Now that was interesting indeed. It was vitally important their new member of staff accepted shape-shifters and wanted to help them live their lives properly again. A woman who didn’t just accept animals, but who liked shape-shifters would be absolutely perfect for the clinic.

Danny watched the interplay of reactions between Oscar and Ambrielle as questions were asked and answered. He thought she would be able to do everything work-wise and she appeared to be a genuinely nice person as well. Certainly, that little scene with Fergus was revealing. Although there were people who liked animals and did not get on well with other people. He hoped she wasn’t going to be one of those humans.

Oscar’s cell phone beeped and he glanced at the message then handed his cell phone to Danny. Intrigued, Danny read,
She knew what I was and was unafraid. She called me Mr. Werewolf. F.
So he’d guessed right. Ms. Watson knew all about shape-shifters and she seemed to know all about what to do on the job. How amazing that one of the few humans who knew about shape-shifters had applied for the position. Or had she guessed from Oscar’s advertisement? Surely not. SS could stand for anything. Whatever, she’d be an ideal match for their clinic.

Oscar stood up. “Thank you for your time, Ms. Watson. We still have one more person to interview, but I expect to contact you one way or the other tomorrow morning. Should we offer the position to you, when would you be able to start work?”

“On Monday,” she said firmly, standing up as well.

“You don’t need to give two weeks’ notice?” Danny asked, surprised.

“My current employer does not place a high priority on following the exact details of our contracts,” she replied then shut her mouth with a snap.

“I can assure you that any contract we both sign will be adhered to,” said Oscar, sounding more like a Dom than Danny’d heard him for a while.

The woman smothered a grin and nodded.

Oscar escorted her out and Danny stood back from the window, watching her pull on her leather pants, roll up the skirt, change into her boots, change her jacket, bundle her hair into the helmet, then roar out of the parking lot. Once again his dick was aching. Her every action was totally sexually arousing, yet carried out with unconscious grace.

Oscar returned to the room. “So where’s Shaun Morrison?” Danny asked him.

Oscar scrolled through his phone. “I don’t have an e-mail or a text from him, so I don’t know.”

“How are you going to give her your answer if you haven’t judged Shaun against her?”

“Ah, but I have judged him. He didn’t turn up on time and she did.”

“That works for me,” said Danny.

“Now, sit down with me and let’s go through that interview properly. My gut feeling is that she’d be perfect, but it’s time to put your cock back inside your pants and use your other head,” said Oscar.

Shit! Had he really been that obvious? What if she’d noticed?

* * * *

Instead of riding back to her apartment, Ambrielle turned the motorbike toward the mountains and headed out on one of her absolutely favorite rides. The higher up the mountain she went, the narrower and windier the road became, until it stopped at a parking lot and there was just a walking trail ahead. Ambrielle ignored the signs, throttled the bike right down until it was barely moving, then eased between the fence posts and rode slowly and cautiously up the fire track.

Higher and higher she went, until finally she was at the very top of the mountain, with a stunning view out over the city to the north, and over the endless forests of the national park to the south. She switched the engine off, pulled her helmet from her head, and shook her hair free. Then she stood, breathing the fresh, crisp, clean air deep into her lungs, and just looked at the endless green view. Fantastic. It washed away all the endless hours of drudgery and dealing with idiots at work and refreshed her body, her mind, and her soul.

Ambrielle walked over to a huge flat rock, climbed on it, and sat cross-legged, her head thrown back so the sun shone full on her face as she absorbed the peace and silence and clean, tangy scent of the trees. Ah, it smelled so good. Dirt, trees, leaves, and pure air.

When she was ready, Ambrielle let her gaze rest on the far distant skyline, and thought about the interview. It’d gone well, she thought. She’d recognized that big red dog as a shape-shifter instantly. Spending a week every summer of her childhood with her aunt Kitty had taught her to recognize shape-shifters quite fast.

As a little child she’d simply accepted that, just as animals in movies could talk, so the animals at Aunt Kitty’s farm changed into people. By the time she was old enough to ask why and how it happened, and why she couldn’t turn into a cat, too, acceptance of the paranormal was ingrained in her. Although there was that summer when she was nine when she’d cried herself to sleep two nights in a row with disappointment that she’d never be able to turn into a cat and play with the other big cats who were now her friends.

Although there was one other little girl she’d met there a few times, a child the same age as her, who was another human among the many shape-shifters.

Ambrielle blinked her eyes and focused on the interview she’d just had. She’d been able to answer every question and knew she’d be able to do the work. She liked the clinic and now understood
SS
was likely code for
shape-shifter
or something along those lines. And Dr. Thorne was as totally delicious and beddable as his photograph and so was the other man, Mr. Davies. Oh yeah, working with them would be pure pleasure indeed. Although the likelihood that two such completely yummy men were unattached was not high. Their wives would likely stab her with a scalpel if she so much as looked at either of them.

Unfortunately the job wasn’t hers yet. They still had someone else to interview. But she could hope. And the rest of the day was hers. She’d lost a day’s pay, so she might as well enjoy her freedom. Ambrielle jumped up and decided to hike around the top of the mountain since she was here.

Besides, this time tomorrow she might be free to tell her useless manager exactly what she thought of his abilities. Right after she packed her things ready to leave that job forever.
Oh, I so hope I get this job.

* * * *

“Hi, Ambrielle, it’s Oscar, Oscar Thorne.”

“Hi, Dr. Thorne.”

Her voice was sweet and musical and made his cock sit up and dance. He could picture her dark eyes sparkling and her luscious red lips smiling, just from hearing her voice over his cell phone. Oscar got a grip on himself and said, “I’d like to offer you the position of office administrator here at the clinic. Are you available to accept the job?”

“Yes, thank you. I’d love to work at the clinic.”

“Good, good. Are you still able to start on Monday?”

“I am.”

“Shall we say eight thirty then? I’ll show you around, introduce you to the other staff, things like that.” Oscar’s cock wanted to be introduced to her, too, very intimately introduced to her, but he tried to force his mind to be cold and professional. She was his employee. Almost his employee. It’d be sexual harassment if he so much as looked at her.

“I’ll be there,” she said.

He thought he heard a note of excitement in her voice, but wasn’t sure whether or not it was just his imagination. He hadn’t thought of it until now, but how was he supposed to keep his hands off her once she was working for him? Her curves called to him in the most lustful way possible and all he could think of was fucking her.

For years he and Danny had talked about maybe sharing a woman, and Ambrielle could be that woman. She aroused both of them, he knew that. Maybe if they had a brief affair with her and got her out of his system? Ah no, that wouldn’t work. He’d have to see her sad eyes in his office every day, maybe put up with her tears and evil looks once it was all over. And how could he hurt her? She was going to leave her current employer and come to him. There was no way he could put her in the awkward position of not having a job or having to leave the clinic just because he couldn’t be a man and keep his pants zipped.

Likely once he saw her every day she wouldn’t turn him on as much anyway.

Chapter Three

Ambrielle carefully typed up her resignation, checked that she’d gotten the amount of annual leave owing to her correct, and requested it in cash, then copied the e-mail to the human resources manager as well as to her manager. Then she hit
Send
. She knew His Royal Idiotness was in his office right now, but whether he was online or not was anyone’s guess. He was usually very good at ignoring e-mails from all the staff, but one with “Resignation” in the subject line might attract his attention. Meanwhile she went down to the mail room and asked for a sturdy cardboard box which she took back to her office.

Her desk drawers were scrupulously neat, and she didn’t keep anything personal at work anyway, so the box was only half-full when she was finished packing her things. She draped her blazer across the top of it, and made a mental note to pack her shoes when she put her motorcycle boots on, then she was done.

Next she painstakingly deleted her browsing history and made sure no personal files were left on her computer, but she was very careful to delete those regularly, too, so that only filled in another few minutes.

Her office door slammed open and her boss was standing in the doorway, his face red. “You can’t resign!” he shouted.

“Yes, sir, I can. I just did.”

“Your contract says you have to give me two weeks’ notice.”

“But we aren’t abiding by my contract, are we? It also says I’m entitled to four weeks’ annual leave and you haven’t approved more than one week of all the leave I’ve requested in the last two years.”

“But you…you…”

“Are leaving at five today and require the money owed to me to be in my bank account by then,” she finished firmly.

“We’ll see about that!” he said, storming out, her door swinging behind him.