Page 19 of Witchbane
I frowned at him. Did the fae want my mother to know that?
“A werewolf?”
“Something along that line.”
“But I called around, insisted Sebastian was seen by the best. How…?”
Likely Wesley had people working in lots of areas to bring up red flags if my name showed up. He was the sort of guy who had lackeys. “They will know what I am,” I assured her. “How to treat me better than a regular human doctor would. I won’t have to worry about vanishing into some government lab to be experimented on.” As long as I avoided being alone with fae doctors who might think I was better off chained to some secret fae overlord.
“I would never let that happen to you,” my mother stated.
I said nothing, since I’d already been in government custody once, and had them watching me. They had not been fooled by the media spin. There had been a lot of late-night calls and private meetings between Liam and a handful of government officials. The government, or at least parts of it, has known about shifters for a long time. Liam was in negotiation for how that knowledge was used in the future. Mostly because I’d done some middle of the street reveal, forcing both sides to step up to bat again.
I reached out and wrapped a hand around Liam’s elbow, calmed by touching him.
“Maybe they’ll know why you’re constantly tired,” Liam said.
My mother sputtered behind us, but I ignored her. “Don’t leave me alone with them.”
“Don’t plan to.”
The rest of the long drive was spent with my mother going on about possibilities of why I was ill. Everything she looked up online on her phone indicated I was dying.
“I’m not dying, Mom.”
“You don’t know that.”
If something was going to kill me, it would have already. But I didn’t bring up the many mishaps of the last year, including and culminating with Felix’s transformation and theWild Huntbeing sicced on my ass. It occurred to me then that my luck was shit, and this doctor’s trip would probably plunge me down another rabbit hole.
I sighed.
“What?” Liam asked as he pulled us into the lot of what appeared to be a very large and professional looking clinic. Had the fae set this up on short notice or did this doctor always work here?
“Thinking about my bad luck.”
“Maybe they’ll have some answers.” He was getting very good at ignoring or politely deflecting my mother’s rants. “Let’s head in.” He found us a spot away from the door and got out. I slid out my side and rounded the front to reach for his hand. My mother followed, but I could feel her eyes on my back, and squeezed Liam’s hand harder. Parents shouldn’t be this difficult to deal with, right? Sure, she’d given birth to me. But then she’d given me up at the first chance she saw. What did I really owe her?
I added it all to the mental list of things I’d need to bring up with the therapist I was working with. Probably not necessary for the doctor here to know that I had mommy issues.
Inside the lobby was nice, a typical clinic in a high-end area, with a long stretch of tile and carpet, very clean, with big desks and several receptionists. I headed to the nearest available one.
“I’m checking in,” I told the woman behind the counter. Most of the time when I ended up in the hospital it was for emergencies. I couldn’t recall the last time I’d been in a clinic. As a kid maybe? I knewApahad a couple of doctors near the pack who knew pack business, and I’d seen them a few times over the years for vaccines and general checkups. Since he’d been unsure of how human or not, I might be, he’d treated me as if I were a human child when it came to medicine. But I’d also learned to control my shift long before I ever met regular people.
“ID and insurance, please,” the woman said.
Insurance? I had my ID. I dug it out and glanced at Liam who handed me a plastic card. The woman took them both.
“I have insurance?” I whispered to Liam.
“It was in part of the job paperwork I made you fill out.”
That made sense. I hadn’t much looked at any of it since I’d been used to working under the table. Being official with tax forms and the like had been odd. Oberon had taken care of a lot of that for the pack when I’d still been inApa’scare, but on the run, life had been all about cash.
The woman handed the cards back and passed me a clipboard of paperwork. Liam pulled out his wallet and handed her a co-pay she indicated. Man, healthcare was expensive. No wonder I avoided doctors. Twenty bucks for what? Wasn’t the insurance supposed to pay all that?
“Head over to section D and the nurse will take your forms when they call you back,” the receptionist informed us.
“Thank you,” Liam told her and guided us toward a seating area with a large letter D on the wall. Other than having separate doors for each section, none of the areas seemed any different. Maybe this doctor specialized in nonhuman type patients. How that would be determined from phone calls and paperwork done by humans, I wasn’t certain.
