Way of the Wolf: Shifter Legacies 1 Read Online Free PDF Page B

room. “What do you want me to say? I’m a doctor. I had to stay and save someone’s life. I’m sorry if that messes up your social schedule.” He winced as soon as that came out. He wished he could take it back, but it was too late and he knew it. He headed for the drinks cabinet knowing he would need one.
    “I have a life too, David.”
    “I know you—”
    “My life doesn’t revolve around your work. If you think that I’m going to make an appointment every time I want to see you, you have another think coming.”
    “I don’t think that.”
    “Well that’s what it feels like to me.”
    He poured himself Glenlivet over ice and threw it down his throat in one gulp. “I have something to tell you and I don’t want you to interrupt.”
    “What is—”
    “Hoberman asked me to work over at Mercy and I said yes,” he said in a rush and winced waiting for the explosion. He turned to see her standing as before. “Well?”
    “I’m waiting for the punchline.”
    “It’s not a joke.”
    “How could you? You know what this will mean.”
    He rolled his shoulders trying to dispel the tension building there. “It means I’ll be out from under Hoberman.”
    “He’s a friend of my father, a really good friend, and you knew that! Daddy will find out!”
    “I don’t care if he finds out. In fact, I have a good mind to tell him right now. This is going to be good for me. I just know it.”
    Michelle stared at him, appalled. “How could you let this happen? You have to tell him you changed your mind. Daddy will—”
    “I want to marry you , not your father. You know my feelings. I won’t go back to Hoberman and beg for my old place back! I didn’t go through med school to toady to the likes of him.”
    “Do it for us. Daddy says he can get you a place with him, but he won’t do that if he hears about this. Think what people will say!”
    “You’re not listening to me. I don’t want to work for your father. Hoberman wants me out of his playground. I’m more than willing to give him what he wants.”
    “Why are you so weak! ” Michelle stormed. “You’re always so damn accommodating!”
    He stilled. “Is that what you really think of me—that I’m weak? Well is it? ” He roared the question, stiff with anger. Michelle remained silent. “I see,” he hissed and slammed his glass down. “I better go.”
    “David?”
    “Yes?” He looked back from the doorway.
    “Please say you won’t do it. Daddy can fix this.”
    “I really would be as weak as you think me if I allowed that.” He couldn’t help slamming the door on his way out. Petty, but he felt a little better for it.
    Alex Brauer as it turned out was a harried looking man in his late thirties. David could see Hoberman had not lied about him needing help at least. Attracting good administrators and staff couldn’t be easy with the hospital’s reputation for treating non-humans. Everyone working here was holding down two jobs and sometimes three. Brauer officially headed up the emergency department, but in real terms, he was senior surgeon effectively running the entire hospital alongside its undermanned and underfunded administration department. It was a heavy burden for a team of experienced doctors, let alone one man and a couple of juniors. He wondered if Brauer knew that his newest addition was also lacking in experience. Probably not, he thought when he saw the smile of relieved welcome.
    “Doctor Lephmann?” Brauer said shaking hands. “I’m so very glad to meet you. I must confess that when I heard the news, I thought they were just fobbing me off as they usually do.”
    David retrieved his hand after it had been wrung a dozen times or so. “They?”
    Brauer waved a hand at the ceiling. “They. You know they? Them . The powers that be—the almighty arseholes that cut my budget for the last four out of five years. Them .”
    “Oh them .”
    Brauer meant the mayor and the bureaucrats responsible for the health care of