Now what? Darien sure as hell didn’t need to deal with this right now.

“Come into my office, Darien. You might want to sit down when I tell you the latest,” Doc said.

“Wait!” The blonde ran after Darien and Doc and stopped in front of them.

Holding out her hand, she gave them a broad smile. Totally faked. Human, pretty, with the biggest and clearest blue eyes Darien had ever seen.

“Hi. You might not know me, but Doctor Oliver set my broken leg when I was ten after a whitewater rafting accident and after that, I always wanted to be a nurse. I earned a nursing degree in Denver, and here I am.”

Hoping to nip this in the bud from the outset, Darien didn’t shake her hand. She quickly dropped hers to her side, her smile fading. “I’m not new at this. I trained well before I returned home.” Her voice had taken on a tinge of annoyance. “My parents still live here. Dad’s a carpenter. Mom has a home business and sells pottery crafts. I’ve never wanted to work anywhere else, but the lady at the front desk won’t give my résumé to the doctor.” The blonde shoved her résumé at Darien. “I’m Carol Wood, by the way.”

Darien didn’t take the résumé. “Check with the school. They can use a nurse. Just tell them I sent you.”

The perky woman’s face fell to the floor. “But…”

“The staff’s full here. We don’t need anyone else.”

She folded her arms. “I’ve heard there’s been a lot of trouble. Gunshot victims. More people moving in.

You’ll need more staff. At least, try me.”

“Apply at the school. If someone quits here…” Darien shrugged. “You might get lucky.”

She glanced at Doc, but he confirmed Darien’s decision. “Mr. Silver is right. We don’t need any more nurses for the time being.” He motioned for Darien to follow him.

“See the school principal, Miss Wood.” Darien headed with the doctor down the hall.

The woman’s blood pulsed at a quickened pace, and she wasn’t happy with his decision. He highly suspected that wasn’t the last he’d hear of it either.

Doc led Darien into his office and shut the door.

The lingering aroma of chocolate donuts filled the air and a paper plate with remnants of chocolate glaze sat in the middle of his otherwise neat oak desk, everything in its place as usual, the heavyweight brass caduceus sitting on a stack of medical notes he’d transcribe later.

“Carol Wood sent me letters before she finished nursing school. I didn’t mention it to you before because so many of the students drop out before they finish their programs. She’s persistent, if nothing else.”

“We can’t have a human working in the hospital. Not when our people heal so fast.”

Doc sat down at his desk. “What about assigning her to human cases only?”

“Too much of a nightmare to keep up with. What if she checked on a lupus garou patient like Larissa because the rest of the staff was busy? Can you imagine what she’d think if she saw the injuries, then Larissa leaves the hospital so soon after? If Larissa had been human, she would have died from the massive injuries she’d sustained.” Darien shook his head and looked out the window at the majestic mountains. “Having one of their kind on the hospital staff isn’t feasible.” He took a deep breath and switched topics. “What did you want to talk to me about?”

“Because of her injuries, I ran tests to see if she was pregnant. She wasn’t. Then I examined her to see if she was a virgin.”

Knowing damn well why he was checking, Darien scowled at him. He wasn’t mating with the red.

“She is a virgin. Which means she doesn’t have a mate.”

Although he fought feeling anything about the situation one way or another, Darien felt relieved. He told himself it was because he didn’t want to have to deal with her irate mate if he came looking for her.

Doc leaned back in his leather chair. “The other news is someone tried to strangle Larissa after she’d been shot.”

Darien felt he’d been kick-dropped off a cliff. “Why the hell didn’t you tell me this before?”

“She needs rest more than anything—not a lot of questioning. I’ve already asked her if she saw who did it. But she was probably unconscious or nearly so and didn’t remember anything. She said a snake strangled her, then slithered away when she heard voices. Yours and Jake’s.”

“A snake? We don’t have anacondas or boa constrictors here.”

“Her barely conscious imagination. He left bruises on her throat. Since she was wearing a turtleneck, you wouldn’t have seen the marks. She was so battered from her fall, you might not have noticed now that she’s wearing a hospital gown. Either he thought he had finished her or he heard you and Jake approaching and vanished.”

“Hell, Doc, I need the area we found her in combed for evidence. I thought only Jake and I had been there with her. If we can find other footprints, size of shoe, scent, anything…”

“I asked your uncle to investigate, but not to tell you until I had a chance to discuss this with you.”

Darien would not have this insubordination! No one withheld information from him that was this important! He opened his mouth to say so when Ritka shrieked from the direction of Larissa’s hospital room.

Chapter 9

SILVA AND RITKA FOUGHT WITH EACH OTHER NEXT TO Lelandi’s bed, as she tried to ignore the yelling. Jake leaned against the doorframe, shaking his head.

Until Darien and the doctor stalked into the room and Darien shouted, “Enough! What the hell happened?” He appeared somewhat rattled, his face slightly drained of color, and he studied Lelandi a little too closely. Her neck actually.

She took a deep, settling breath. Good, peace and quiet now that the boss man has arrived.

“She hit me!” Ritka screamed.

Yeah, and if they hadn’t restrained me, I’d do it again!

“We can see,” Darien said calmly. “I want to know why.”

Lelandi fought to find the words, but the IV was hooked up to her arm again, and she figured heavier duty drugs were pouring into her veins because she could barely concentrate on what was being said, let alone keep her eyes open.

“She ripped out the IV and when I tried to stop her, the bitch hit me.”

“You grabbed her sore arm and yanked her back so hard, pain filled her face. That’s why she hit you,” Silva scolded. “Haven’t you ever heard of a good bedside manner?”

“Yeah,” Lelandi said, slurring her word.

Without taking his eyes off Lelandi, Darien said to Ritka, “What did you say to her?”

Ritka shrugged. “Nothing of consequence.”

“I just bet.” Darien glowered at her like she was next on the head-chopping block. “Why isn’t she any better, Doc?”

“Low-grade fever. She needs to stay until tonight at least. I’ll see then how she’s doing.” The doctor motioned for Ritka to leave.

She glared at Lelandi, then stomped out of the room.

“Did Larissa say anything to you, Jake?” Darien asked.

“Not a word.”

“Talked… ‘bout… you… an’… me.” Lelandi tried to scowl at Jake.

Darien shifted his attention to his brother, whose ears immediately tinged crimson. “You and I’ll speak later. Did she say anything to you, Silva?”

“Nope. And whatever Ritka said to her happened before I arrived. She looks pretty glassy-eyed, Darien. Don’t think she’s really with it.”

“What did she say to you?” Darien reached his hand out to touch Lelandi’s, but then he seemed to think better of it and shoved his hands in his pocket.

“About… green… dep’ty.”

Darien’s eyes rounded. “She told you about the deputy sheriff from Green Valley?”

She managed a slow nod.

“Shit.” He looked back at her neck and shook his head. “A snake, huh?”

Lelandi closed her eyes and hoped she’d be able to keep her mouth shut until they took her off the pain medication. Otherwise, she’d have to make up wild stories to mix in with whatever else she said.

Then she remembered her damned donut and lifted her finger at the wastepaper basket. “Donut,” she mumbled.

After she fell asleep, Darien motioned to Jake to come with him. “I want to know what the hell you said to Larissa.”

Jake shook his head. “She’s a wildcat. Where Lelandi was too much of an angel, this one has the devil in her.”

They walked into Doc’s empty office to talk.

Jake shut the door. “But I really don’t think she should go to our home.”

“It’s the safest place for her for the time being. But that’s not what I want to talk about. What did you say to her?”

Looking defiant, Jake shoved his hands in his pockets. “I told her you’ve already been through hell with her sister. You don’t need to have to deal with her, too. As for taking her to the house, you know how the rumors will fly.”

“I’m not interested in having her for a mate, but it’s my business, not yours. I’ll deal with her as I see fit. Understand?”

“Yeah,” Jake said grudgingly. “So what’s the deal with this deputy sheriff from Green Valley and snakes?”

Darien explained everything, and how their uncle was investigating the crime scene where they’d found Larissa. “Did you see or smell anything when we were with her?”

Jake shook his head. “I was concentrating on alerting the rest of our pack that we’d found the lady, and then we learned Sam had been shot.”

“Could the guy who strangled her be the same one who shot the gunman? Distance-wise, do you think he could have made it up there in time?”

“We don’t know when he left her.”

Darien frowned in thought. “Probably when we were drawing close. He heard our voices.”