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Nodding, I snagged my key card and put it in my pocket. “I’ll grab Griffin.”
Kai nodded and headed back down to the parking lot while I fetched my second-in-command, who had obviously woken up only moments prior.
We piled into Kai’s truck and headed out. Stopping just out front of a small coffee shop, he told us he’d be just a minute and then got out.
I watched as he went inside and waited in the short line momentarily while the young woman with dark hair from before served him.
He returned not long after with two small bags and a tray of four coffees balanced easily in his hands while he opened the door. I popped the driver-side door open, and he handed the tray over.
“What’s this?” I asked, taking it from him so he could climb back in.
“Breakfast,” he stated simply, bringing the truck to life again. “I couldn’t think over the sound of your stomachs growling.”
We murmured our sheepish gratitude and ate the toasted bagels he had bought for us.
Kai didn’t seem like too bad of a guy after all.
“Who was the girl in there?” I asked curiously, appreciating how perfectly she had prepared the food. “She was there when we talked yesterday.”
Kai reached for his coffee and held it while he drove casually with all the control in the world. “She’s my sister, River. She’s also Finn’s wife, so don’t get any ideas.”
The not-so-discreet warning in his tone came with a slight flare of dominance. Not willing to get in the middle of that, I snickered. “Noted.”
“I gave Soren the heads up that we’d be there today, along with a briefing of what’s going on to give him a chance to look things over,” Kai explained, taking a generous sip. He exhaled with a sigh. “I don’t know how much experience he has with this kind of thing, so I apologize for the lack of a better term, but you’ll be our guinea pigs for the time being.”
While I wasn’t one to enjoy being a test subject, I knew I had no choice in the matter. I was without my powers, and that loss cost me more mental anguish than I ever thought possible.
For my sake, and everyone else’s, I could handle being poked and prodded until we got to the bottom of it.
As we pulled up to the clinic, which was reasonably sized, considering that many of Rose Valley’s residents didn’t even experience the common cold, Kai walked in first and handed the doctor the spare cup of coffee.
“You’re godsent,” he said, taking a sip before even acknowledging we were there. When he perked up at the realization, he put the coffee down on his desk and held a hand out. “I’m Soren, and as I’m sure you know by now, I’m the doctor here.”
“An interesting place to live for someone with your occupation,” I said in response, shaking his hand firmly. “Rowan.”
He nodded and pulled a knowing grin at that. “So you’d think. I had my hands full with sick patients some time ago. It was a good thing I had been here.”
“Fair enough.”
He shook Griffin’s hand next, who mumbled his name in response, and then Soren gestured for us to follow him into a back room.
“So, I hear you two are shiftless shifters, correct?”
The reminder made my heart feel frigid. “Unfortunately.”
“And when did this first begin?” Soren asked, gesturing for me to sit on the examination table.
I did as he silently asked while he reached for various tools. “At least six to seven months, maybe even longer. Before my dad led the attacks here.”
Soren wore a grave expression but nodded as he examined me. “I see. Did you experience any trauma before then that may have caused your wolf to retreat?”
I thought about it, and while my mind went to the day I rejected Willow first, I knew that couldn’t be why. I had been twenty-five when it happened, and while I knew adverse things could happen after a bond was rejected, it wasn’t possible. I didn’t lose my connection right then and there—I could still shift for years after it happened.
The only other trauma I could think of came after the attacks and after my father had taken advantage of the group.
I shook my head. “None.”
Even if I had, it still wouldn’t explain how all the shifters in my pack had lost their connections, too.
