The Doctor's Five Alphas (Steamy BBW Werewolf Pack Menage Romance) (4 page)

“That’s quite a tale,” I told him. “This is interesting. Last night, you could barely move, and today you’re fine but obviously passionate about these delusions…strange that the affliction goes from body to mind…”

“Delusions?” Dane turned on me, his face glowering. “You think I am making things up…well, such is the outer world, I suppose. You have forgotten, you and your people. All you care about is your gadgets and your toys.” He was jabbing his finger into his palm, as if typing on a smartphone. “The magic is gone from your lives…such a shame. But Harry Chairman sends
you
, and I wonder why…surely there were others. You are so young. Perhaps he thinks you can learn.”

“And what is it that the Chairman would have me learn?” I asked, feeling the urge to antagonize him.
How DARE he make such sweeping observations of me, especially after terrifying me in the middle of the night?!

“Who knows what the man thinks? All his life I have known him, and he is a mystery even to me.”

“You mean, all
your
life,” I corrected. “The Chairman is an old man.”

“Is he now? How time flies,” Dane remarked. “I remember him when he was so young. Such an interesting boy, Harry Chairman. But there was such goodness in his heart. He got this from his father.”

“Dane, you’re only a few years older than I am,” I told him in an exasperated voice. “This health thing has seriously rattled your head. We need to get you checked out fast.”

“You patronize me,” he glared. “You
know
that shifters do not bend to the rules that you humans do. I was learning to protect this countryside when your mother was still laden with child.”

“
Shifters
?” I asked, my eyebrow rising ever higher.

“Yes, shift–” he started angrily, before cooling considerably. “I…I see. Harry Chairman, he did not tell you of these things. That would explain much.”

“What things?”

“I will show you, and perhaps you will then understand.”

Dane pushed open the backdoor, and I hesitantly followed him out into the concealed plot of land behind the hut. Standing next to the well, he flashed me a small smile.

“What you are about to see, do not be afraid. But in my condition – it will hurt me. Be prepared to help me, please. And now…let me take your small world and change it forever.”

As he leapt forward, I felt everything I knew – every foundation in my structured, stable worldview – come crashing down around me.

~

Leaning against the doorway, I watched him with aroused curiosity. Within the instant, his forward leap started as a man but ended as a massive wolf, landing powerfully on all fours in front of me.

“
Jesus Christ!
” I gasped in panic, clutching the doorframe. “What the hell
are you
?”

The wolf stared me down before stumbling in place, trying to steady itself. It spun around hazily as it changed back to Dane in a troubled blur. Clutching his sides, he dropped to his knees in the dirt, and I rushed to steady him.

“What…I don’t understand…”

“Water,” he pleaded.

Bolting inside, I scooped another bowl of water and returned to his side. Placing the lip at his mouth and lifting it up, he thirstily drank the cool liquid before sputtering and dropping to his palms in the earth.

“What’s going on? The
curse
you mentioned?”

“Yes,” Dane spoke, his body trembling. “The damned witch…it hurts the wolf part of me. When I change…it bites into my soul. When night comes…it cripples me.”

“We’ve got to get you inside,” I told him, trying to pull him up from his hands and knees. It was only a matter of time before his strength gave out – and then I’d never get him back up.

Dane’s body shook, but he was able to pull himself to his feet. Sliding his heavy arm around my shoulder, I pulled him towards the doorway, letting him stop to conserve his strength against the doorframe.

“It’s getting worse, isn’t it?” I asked. “The pain.”

“Yes,” the shifter conceded. “Every night, it is stronger. I will die soon.”

“Is there a cure?”

“Only one that I know…but I am a protector, not a hunter…there must be another way.”

“What is it?”

“No,” he told me. “I will not harm you.”

I let the sentiment drop, seeing the pain in his eyes. “Alright then…I’m going to run a few tests on you, but I don’t have access to any equipment. I wish I could have examined you back in the States…”

“No planes,” Dane told me. “No hospitals.”

“I see…I don’t know if I can save you. I don’t have medicine, or drugs, or anything here. There’s nothing I can give you for the pain…but maybe there is a way to examine you…”

Dane chuckled. “That is a shame…I thought Harry Chairman would send you…better prepared.”

“I thought so too,” I agreed sadly.

~

Glancing over my instruments, orderly spread in a neat line across the bed, I realized how absolutely unprepared I was for diagnosing any sort of supernatural illness within my patient.

The syringes were useless for testing his blood, as I had absolutely nowhere to process it.

The stethoscope and blood pressure sphygmomanometer gave me bizarre readings that probably had something to do with his altered shifter physiology.

As for the remainder…I checked his ears, his pulse, his eyes, reflexes, everything. But I had not realized I was being sent to save a dying man, nor had I been aware that I was traveling out to a remote village, far from proper medical supplies and processing.

It was as if I had been sent specifically to be involved in whatever “cure” that Dane was aware of, although he was loathe to elaborate on what it actually
was
.

Grimly, I removed the buds of the stethoscope from my ears. “I don’t know what to do, honestly. Your vitals are all crazy, but that could be your shifter body, or it could be the illness…”

Dane gave me a slight look.

“…Your
curse
,” I quickly corrected myself. “If only I had other figures to compare! I wish I could have gotten some data on you before this happened to you…”

Something clicked in my head.

“Wait. You said something about a pack…are there
others
like you around here?”

“Yes, my pack…” Dane answered. “I am the alpha male of a small pack of wolf shifters…the others are near.” A look of concern crossed his eyes. “You wish to test them?”

“If I can see what kinds of readings I get from them, I can compare that to you. How many are there?”

Pausing a moment, he finally answered: “Four. I can call them to me.”

“Four? That should be enough, I think,” I murmured.
Not one but FOUR shifters?
This trip had seriously started strange, and was only getting stranger…

~

Five minutes later, I was surrounded by a group of handsome, rugged men, all shirtless and gazing mournfully upon their fallen leader.

“Pack, be gentlemen…introduce yourselves to our guest,” Dane motioned towards me from his position on the bed.

“I am Hansel,” the tallest and slimmest shifter spoke, giving a slight nod towards me.

“Lucas, my lady,” the broadest and strongest looking shifter graciously spoke, a wistful smile crossing his lips.

“My name is Anton,” spoke the third shifter, with the most pronounced musculature and chiseled jaw.

“And that leaves Gried,” added the final shifter, with a devilish grin and a spark of fierceness in his eyes.

I gazed around all five of them, feeling an odd sense of arousal flicker at the back of my mind. They were incredibly attractive, the entire bunch of them, but even in their prime physiques they paled in Dane’s presence.

“Can you save him?” Lucas spoke quietly, gazing upon the strained alpha. “Is that why you are here? Why we have been called?”

I decided to answer truthfully. “I’m not sure. But I want to try.”

“What do you need us to do?” Hansel asked.

“I need to get some readings from all of you,” I addressed the group. “I didn’t know shifters
existed
until today. Without the proper data, I won’t be able to tell what’s the matter with him, scientifically. I need control samples – namely, readings from shifters who are similar enough to him but
not sick
.” I motioned to them all. “That’s where you guys come in. Do you think you can handle that?”

“What kinds of ‘
readings
’?” Anton asked suspiciously.

“Blood pressure, heart rates, simple statistics like that. If you have regular, human readings, then I’ll know that he’s off the charts. But if you guys have crazy stuff going on in your bodies too, that’ll help me narrow down some things.”

“You think this is best?” Hansel turned to Dane, who moved uncomfortably in the bed.

“Harry Chairman sent the doctor…” The shifter alpha grumbled, wincing with pain. “I trust Harry Chairman…and so I trust the doctor.”

“Very well then,” Lucas quietly answered. “Let us have these ‘
readings
’ taken…”

~

Each shifter allowed me to perform an improvised examination, and I found that my mild arousal was building up as I studied their bodies. I found myself licking my lips more, my chest heaving lightly with mounting lust. But I was unwilling to humor how I could feel my pussy moisten, or how aware of my breathing I was becoming.

I did my best to focus on my work instead. After all, I had a life to save.

Unsurprisingly, the readings were fairly strange from everyone, and even between them. They varied wildly but were clearly
not
running on what would be normal for humans…which basically made my job that much harder.

“What do you think?” Dane asked quietly from the bed.

“I’m stumped,” I told him, throwing everything down. “I don’t know what to do about this. I don’t want you to die on my watch – but this is beyond me. I’ve never heard of any kind of disease that works with the night cycle…if I had access to any equipment back home, I could run some more sophisticated tests.”

The shifters looked glum. It was Gried who eventually spoke.

“Why did you not mate him?”

I have never been so glad to not be drinking something than at that moment. “…Excuse me?”

“Did you not tell her?” Gried turned to Dane, who was pulling himself up on the bed. “Would that not solve it? If the village did not hate us over that infernal witch, we could have perhaps gotten someone to mate you before…”

“No…I will not take advantage…of this outsider,” Dane told him angrily. “It is not…my place.”

My curiosity was aroused – and that’s not all that was. Although I was doing my best to ignore the sensation that had started building as soon as I was surrounded by these insanely attractive men…

“What do you mean? What aren’t you telling me?”

Dane looked guilty as he stared into my eyes, but whatever he saw in them made his words confident. “Shifters…we spit in Death’s face. We can heal any wound, almost, with mating.”