“Wow. Universal health care for all werewolves.”
Selene approached a young doctor with a thatch of brown hair and stocky build. “Dr. Mark, this is Dr. Rachel Becker, Howard’s daughter.”
Rather than the sniff greeting, he put out his hand. “I’ve been looking forward to meeting you.”
He acted human, but Selene said her father was the only human doctor. Rachel shook his hand. “Nice to meet you, Dr. Mark.” Werewolves can learn to shake. She smiled. “For a minute, I thought you were human.”
“I’m a beta, but prefer to act human around humans. Call me Darius. We werewolves prefer using our first names.” He snickered. “Probably the only non-formal thing we do.”
Selene turned to her. “Darius is Howard’s doctor and the one who saved his life.”
“Thank you,” said Rachel.
“After all the weres he saved over the years, I’m happy he survived near lethal wounds.”
Who knew? Howard deemed a hero in the twilight world of combat werewolves. “I would love to see my father’s medical chart.”
Darius smiled. “Come to my office and I’ll let you look over his records before you see him.”
“I’ll meet you back in Howard’s room and make sure he’s awake,” said Selene.
“Okay,” said Rachel.
They walked to Darius’ large office. His shelves included all the usual medical texts, along with texts about lycan medicine. Getting a look at those would be worth working at this hospital. Above his desk hung a large painting of what looked like a half-man half-wolf wizard conjuring smoke from a caldron. The piece reminded her of fantasy art work. “Is that…Stallo?”
“Yes, Stallo the Wolf Wizard, our creator. The painting has been in our family pack for several centuries.”
“Cool.”
He handed her the tablet. “Here you go.”
Rachel looked over her father’s medical chart. The bullets had hit vital organs and barely missed his heart. The surgical procedure was impressive. Yet, what brought her back to the reality of falling into the rabbit hole was the mention of his healing bite taking its course. Like Lev’s bite brought her back from the brink of death. She smiled at him. “Brilliant surgery.”
“I learned gunshot surgery from your father.”
She glanced back at Howard’s chart. Not sure about the biting a patient bedside manner, but kept an open mind. “Your bite helped.”
“Only alphas have the healing bite.” He grinned, baring long canines. “Rylee, our pack alpha, did the honors.”
Okay, really creepy. Rachel shivered. “When did you go to medical school?”
“Never. Your father trained me on human medicine.”
“You didn’t go to medical school?” She regretted asking, since they probably had their own training not recognized by any medical board.
“Actually, veterinary school, but after that I specialized in lycan and human medicine.”
Rachel regarded him, but then averted her gaze, remembering pack rules. She handed him back the chart. “How many humans live amongst your kind?”
“In this pack, just your father and you. Team Greywolf works with human contacts in the field, but the majority of humans who live within packs are few. I’m the doctor they normally see. Mia, a few months pregnant, will deliver her baby here. Luna is an excellent midwife, but it will be nice to have another human doctor such as yourself to help if things
get complicated.”
“I’m an epidemiologist, but I’ve delivered plenty of babies.” Just not pups. But delivering a lycan human hybrid was not her area of expertise. By the sound of it, it wasn’t Dr. Mark’s either.
“We don’t have an OBGYN on staff since our kind have offspring in wolf form. Our midwife has some experience delivering human babies, but most of the time she helps she-wolves deliver.”
Poor Mia. It was scary enough to have a first baby, but expecting a human/lycan baby must be disconcerting. “I’ll definitely help when the time comes.” That is if she decided to work at the lycan hospital until Mia’s last trimester. If, Mia’s baby grew for nine months. Or would her gestation period be more akin to a wolf’s? She furrowed her brow. “Are there other women on record to get an idea of gestation period and other issues?”