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“That’s easy for you to say,” she answered and breathed through her mouth when she paused. “You didn’t come of age, shift, and realize you were a colossal loser.”
I smiled warmly at her. “You’re not a loser. People have conditions all the time. Our ailments are just different from human conditions, but that doesn’t mean we can’t get it right. That’s what we’re here for.”
She would have grunted if she could breathe through her nose.
“Take this,” I said, giving her a cup of water and an antihistamine pill. “I’ll be right back.” Where was a damn nurse when I summoned one? The button didn’t do anything. What if it was more serious?
I opened the door and stepped into the waiting room, where a bunch of shifters eagerly looked up at me, hoping I would call them next. This place was extremely disorganized.
I walked down the hallway toward the pharmacy.
“Where can I find medical supplies?” I asked the pharmacist.
He raised his eyebrows. His eyes were those of a cat—his animal was a lot closer to the surface than some others I’d seen.
“I don’t work with the medical supplies,” he said.
I groaned. “There isn’t a nurse in sight. Why is this place so poorly run?”
He only shrugged, and I wanted to lose my shit. That wasn’t going to make a difference—the poor pharmacist wasn’t the one in charge.
“Can I help you?” a voice asked behind me, and when I spun around, a woman with dark hair and chocolate eyes looked at me. Her marble skin was blemish free, and her scent, her magic, was different from anything I’d sensed before.
I frowned.
My power rose, probing at her magic.
She laughed. “I’m a bear shifter; if that’s what you’re wondering.”
I gasped. “I’ve never met a bear shifter.” They were the stuff of fairy tales. I’d always known they existed, but I’d met way more wolf shifters, like me, dragons, like Colter, and a few cat shifters of different varieties.
“We’re rare, but we do exist. You’re new.”
“And lost.”
“What do you need?”
“The consultation room I’m in is grossly understocked. I need supplies to draw blood. The pharmacist couldn’t help.”
“Don doesn’t know where anything is outside his shelves of pills. Come on, let me show you. I’m Elaine.”
“Rory.”
I followed Elaine down a maze of hallways to a medical supply room, and I grabbed what I needed, signing a register at the door.
“When are you taking lunch?” she asked.
I glanced at my wristwatch. “Two more hours.”
“I’ll meet you in the cafeteria. Good luck.”
I was grateful that someone had reached out and hurried back to my patient to draw blood. When I got there, she already breathed easier, raising her spirits.
I saw six more patients, all with minor ailments, before it was time for lunch. I followed the signs in the clinic to the cafeteria and spotted Elaine in the line to get food.
“You found it,” she said with a grin.
“I’ll never get lost finding food.”
