Doc Featherstone's Return Read Free

brown hair, but his doe-like eyes were clearly visible along with his baby-like face. All of which were deceiving since Shane was the most dangerous shifter out there.
    He could kill quicker than most could sneeze, and he rarely felt sorry for it either. As a Leopard shifter, it was part of his genetic makeup, but Shane had taken it one step further and honed it to a fine art. It was a good thing that he and Joshua were good friends, or else Joshua would have
been pissing in his pants right then. While he wasn’t a coward by any means, a visit from Shane usually wasn’t a good thing, unless he liked you.
    “What brings you here?” Joshua asked.
    Shane tilted his head to the side. Something he did whenever he was trying to figure out every day common matters. Shane had been raised to kill, not to interact with others. “Maybe I just came to say hello to an old friend?”
    The fact that the comment came out as a question rather than a statement was both amusing and telling. While Shane’s interaction skills were getting better since he’d taken a mate, he still had a long way to go.
    “You could have just called for that,” Joshua pointed out.
    Shane looked around the house and let out a low whistle. “Wow, Doc. You never told me you came from money.”
    “What did you expect, a teepee or something?”
    Joshua asked, knowing that Shane was deliberately changing the subject.
    Shane jerked around and gave him a dirty look.
    “No, I’m not into stereotyping people. You should know I would be the last one who would do that kind of shit. I just never thought a doctor who came from this kind of money would work at a coalition. Don’t you guys usually go into private practice or work for other richy people?”
“Yes, but much to my parents’ disappointment, I wanted to make a real difference in the war against the Ravens, so I joined up with the coalition as soon as I graduated. This is their house, by the way.”
    Shane ran one gloved hand over the mantel of the fireplace. “So, why did you come back here to heal?”
    Because I couldn’t stand the guilt of watching him suffer in pain. Knowing that it was all because of me.
    Since Joshua couldn’t say that part aloud, he only went with half the truth. “Because it was too hard to be there after the massacre. I lost a lot of good people that day.”
    “There are a lot who are still injured, too.”
    Joshua desperately wanted to ask about Ash, but knew that would be too telling. Shane was nothing if not shrewd, and he would pick up on that instantly. “Yes, I know there are.”
    “How are you doing?”
    “Better. Or rather, I should say as good as I’m going to get. My hand grip strength is never going to be the same as it was, and I’m going to walk with a limp for the rest of my life. I’ll still be able to be a doctor, but my operating days are over.”
    That stung badly, too. Joshua had loved surgery most of all. But he would learn to live without it.
    At least he hadn’t died that day, like so many of his staff members had.
“Have they been able to find replacements for the staff we lost?”
    “Yeah. You remember Kallen?”
    “The half-breed Hyena that’s related to Gage?
    What about him?” Joshua frowned.
    “Turned out he has some mad medic skills.
    He’s working in the infirmary now.”
    “Tell me you’re shitting me.”
    They did not have a Hyena loose in his infirmary. There was just no way it could be possible.
    Shane rolled his eyes. “He’s under heavy security, and he’s being a good boy. It’s supposed to help reform him and help him become a good doggy. So far, he’s been doing a great job. He gave me some stitches the other day and did fantastic.
    He even apologized when he gave me a shot.”
    “Probably because he’s terrified of you,” Joshua muttered.
    “So, Doc, how long are you going to wait until you ask me how Ash is doing?”
    Joshua winced. He hadn’t realized he’d been that transparent, but then again he was