Doctor Wolf (The Collegium Book 4) Read Online Free PDF Page B

vaguely.
    “I’ll walk you to it.”
    She folded her arms and gave him the sort of look she’d perfected for use on drug-ravaged patients acting out in her emergency department at the hospital. With them, the hint of wolf in her eyes flipped an instinctual switch in their hindbrains, and most of them quieted, frozen in the way prey hides.
    With Carson, her “look” only elicited a sigh. “You’re going to insist on seeing John, aren’t you?”
    “Yes.”
    “He’ll only tell you to go home.”
    She didn’t bother to answer. Grandfather would never do such a thing.
    In silence, they walked up to Carson’s rented house.
    The front door opened, and Grandfather stood silhouetted by the light from the hallway. “About time you got home.”
    “What’s happened?” Carson asked. He moved to block Liz entering. “You should go home.”
    “No.” Grandfather reached past him and grabbed Liz’s hand. “We need her. Matthew is refusing to go to hospital.” He hauled her into the house. “As to what happened…someone broke into the greenhouse.”
    With Carson looming ominously behind her and radiating disapproval and worry, Liz let Grandfather tow her towards the back of the house and what turned out to be the kitchen.
    A man in his forties leaned against a counter, a pack of frozen peas held to his head, glowering in the direction of the back window. The view from the window was of a substantial, if old-fashioned, glasshouse.
    Liz concentrated on the man in a security guard’s uniform. “Matthew?”
    He grunted.
    Carson’s question of what the heck happened, got a fuller response.
    “I got jumped.” Matthew transferred his glare from the glasshouse to them. Anyone who’d dared to attack him was brave or foolish, or knew no better. Liz could scent the truth. Matthew was a bear-were. But even in his human form he was six foot six and correspondingly broad. “The silent alarm went off, but it goes off most nights thanks to stray cats. That wasn’t strange. I looked around, saw nothing, reset the alarm and came back in here to make a cup of tea.” A jar of honey stood open on the counter. Matthew had been sweetening his tea, as bear-weres liked to do.
    “Then I saw a marmalade cat dash for the greenhouse. The alarm would go off, again, and I was sick of it. I intended to catch the damn cat.”
    “And do what with it?” Liz stood on tiptoe to study his head wound, but Matthew was determined to keep the peas packet over it.
    “My granddaughter’s a doctor,” Grandfather rumbled.
    Matthew sat in a chair.
    The skin hadn’t broken, it was merely a bump. But Liz knew concussion could be tricky, even among weres. “I need my med-kit from the car.”
    Carson walked out.
    Since he didn’t have her keys, she had no idea where he was going. Certainly not for her kit. “Matthew, did you lose consciousness at all?”
    “No. And I wasn’t going to eat the damn cat. I was going to find its owners and return it to them personally, and tell them not to let it out at night.”
    Liz blinked. She imagined the impact of an early morning visit from Matthew in a surly mood. “And if it was a stray?”
    Carson returned with a fully stocked medical kit. There was even a tiny torch.
    “If it was a stray, I was going to take it home.” Tough guy Matthew was a softie. “But when I walked outside, someone hit me. I went down, but I wasn’t out. I thought they’d hit me again, but the ward went off. There were at least three men. Two had to grab the third whom the ward zapped.”
    Carson strode out to the glasshouse.
    Liz checked Matthew’s pupils. “There doesn’t seem to be concussion, but is there anyone at home who can check on you?”
    “My wife. She works from home. Graphic designer.”
    “Good. If she’s at all worried about you—if you’re slow to respond, for instance—don’t give her hassle but go straight to the hospital. I don’t want you driving home, either.”
    “His firm will drive him,”