Falling for Shifters: A Limited Edition Autumn Shifters Collection

by Lacey Carter Andersen

  The elevator dinged and the doors slid open, "What makes you think he'll understand?"

  As the doors closed behind them and the car began to move, Aleah turned to look at her lover, "Nothing really. I'm just hoping that he has gone through something like this and will remember that when I tell him what happened. I never said he would actually be helpful, but he needs to know about the confrontation with William and the other specialists. He needs to know that there is strife amongst his employees and, no matter what else he may be, he is going to have to act like the boss and make a judgement call. Hopefully one for the better."

  She sighed again as Wyatt took her into his arms, "He has to see reason, doesn't he? You agree that it makes sense to bring the other members of the team into the research, don't you? I mean he is the one who said that we would be doing the research, from the very beginning I might add, so why doesn't he just bring them up to speed already? It's not like we're the only ones who know how important this research is. And he did pick some of the brightest specialists in their fields, so it only makes sense to have them conducting the research they are good at. Blood is a start but it isn't everything."

  Wyatt kissed the top of her head as the elevator car came to a stop and the doors slid open, "So approach him with that, sweets. Leave your emotions here in this elevator and approach him with logic. That way you can be sure that he sees reason."

  Aleah nodded, pulled away and picked up the collections box, "You're right. Let's go get these tests run, and then we can talk with the Director."

  They exited the elevator heading in the direction of the lab. As they entered the room, they noticed that Dr. Morgan wasn't there. Aleah made her way to the Micro hematocrit Centrifuge and pulled the vials of blood out of her collection box, placing two of the five vials inside and starting it up.

  "I wonder if he headed upstairs to check on the patient," Aleah thought out loud as she set up a blood smear film to check for antibodies.

  Wyatt walked over to her, "It's possible but I thought he had said you were to collect the blood samples and bring them down here so that he could help you run the tests."

  She nodded, "That's what he said but he's not here, is he? It's okay; I've been doing blood tests for a long while now so I think I can go it alone."

  Aleah took her blood smear film over to the microscope and looked at it.

  Nothing looked out of place, but she had no way of knowing if that was a normal smear for a vampire, “Damn it, Dr. Morgan. Where are you?”

  The male shifter came up behind her and began to massage her shoulders, "I'm sure he'll turn up, sweets. Anything out of the ordinary?"

  She was about to answer him when the muted ding of the Micro hematocrit Centrifuge machine interrupted her. She pushed away from the microscope and made her way to the machine. Pulling out the two vials, she looked at the blood with astonishment. Though the blood smear seemed normal these samples were less than.

  "Wyatt, come take a look at these," Aleah said as she closed the lid to the machine.

  The male shifter made his way to where she was standing and looked at the vials she held out.

  Taking one in his hand he turned it over and asked, "What does this mean?"

  Aleah shook her head, "I don't know. Now would be a good time for Dr. Morgan to make an appearance."

  "Did I hear someone ask for me?" The Director replied as he breezed into the room as if he had been there all along.

  The couple whirled around in surprise, "Dr. Morgan!"

  It was said simultaneously, and the Director smiled at them. He had his own secrets that he was protecting and thought it was funny that he had scared the two specialists.

  Aleah was the first one to recover, "Come look at these blood samples, Dr. Morgan. Something seems off."

  The Director chuckled as he made his way over and took the vial she was holding out, "Of course something is off, my dear. This is a blood sample from a vampire. Their tests aren't going to come out normal no matter what you might have thought. Did you get a blood smear?"

  She nodded and led him to the microscope, "It's under the microscope already, Director. But it seems fine."

  Dr. Morgan took a look of the sample, and muttered under his breath, "It does indeed. That is odd."

  He turned away from the microscope, "We need more samples. Do you think you can collect some?"

  Aleah nodded, "But these vials weren't easy to get. His blood is extremely thick, almost like motor oil, and dark. I had to have him drink water just to get the blood to loosen up so I could collect these."

  The Director nodded, "Yes that sounds about right. Well we will just hold off on that and get him down to X-ray. Let's get a CAT scan and an MRI and see what the results of those tell us."

  The couple nodded and moved to the doorway.

  Aleah stopped and turned back to the doctor, "Before we can order those, Wyatt and I need to speak with you about something that happened."

  The Director let out a frustrated breath, "And that is?"

  The female shifter looked to her lover for help. He nodded encouragement and leaned against the wall, not saying a word.

  Way to be supportive, Wyatt, she thought as she turned back to the Director.

  She moved a little further into the room, standing in front of her boss, "There have been a few confrontations today. Earlier, before Wyatt and I joined you down here to meet Mr. Crabtree, William confronted me and Dr. Masterson. He was upset for his own personal reasons but what it really comes down to is the fact that I didn't choose to sleep with him."

  Dr. Morgan nodded, "But you did choose to sleep with Dr. Masterson here. So, I can understand his frustrations."

  Aleah shook her head, "It wasn’t like that, Dr. Morgan. I have never found William attractive. In fact, the shifter makes my skin crawl. I don't know what it is about him, but there is something wrong. He's missing a few parts to be a well-put together building and I never would have chosen to sleep with him. The fact of the matter is this, Wyatt and I were instantly attracted to each other; there is something there on a deeper level. And we literally just started sleeping together."

  She rushed to add, "But that won't compromise our integrity when it comes to this research or our work."

  The Director held up his hand and narrowed his eyes, "That is neither here nor there, Aleah. I understand that you can't choose your attraction, especially as a shifter, but one of the major rules in any hospital is no fraternization, and the two of you have broken that rule. Now, that is bound to happen with people who are working so closely together, and you're adults, so I'm not going to tell you what you can and can't do. I'm not the father of either one of you. Was that confrontation resolved?"

  Aleah shook her head, "It was on our end, but I believe William isn't quite as willing to let it go as we are."

  Dr. Morgan nodded his head, "And the other confrontation? What was that about?"

  Wyatt pushed off the wall and stood behind the female shifter with his hand on her shoulder, "That one was between Aleah, Deanna, Rosa and Alfred, er Doctors Bates, Devlin and Barstow. It was about the special treatment they perceive she is receiving from you with all of the disappearing she does and being called away. It wasn't very pretty."

  Dr. Morgan turned his attention back to Aleah, "And what did you tell your disgruntled coworkers, my dear?"

  Aleah hated it when he trained that look on her, it always made her feel as if she had done something wrong, but her voice didn't waver when she answered him, "I didn't tell them anything. I informed them that if they want to have that discussion it was best to have it in the conference room away from the patient because that's where the confrontation started. The patient took it all in stride, but it was still very unprofessional of Deanna, I mean Dr. Bates, to air out all of our dirty laundry in front of him. The three of them are waiting in the conference room for Wyatt and me to return from running tests on our patient. What would you like me to tell them?"

  The Director pursed h
is lips and tapped them with his right forefinger, "Hmmm, well if Mr. Crabtree is any indication of the future we are looking forward to, you might be right in filling them in about what has been happening down here."

  He clapped his hands together, "I tell you what, I'll leave it up to your discretion as to what exactly you want to tell them, but I do expect all of you to be filing down here in the next few hours."

  The Director gave her a wink, "Go on back upstairs and talk with your disgruntled coworkers and I'll see you in a little while."

  As they were walking out of the lab the Director called them back, "Dr. Masterson, I've worked with a lot of shifters before, but I've never had the pleasure of working on a Gharial. As with Aleah, being the Servaline Genet that she is, I'm looking forward to running the necessary tests on you."

  Chapter Nine

  Aleah followed Wyatt down a poorly lit, dank hallway, "Where is this room, lover?"

  He chuckled, "Always so impatient, sweets. I love it! It's just a little further. Keep following me."

  The female shifter rolled her eyes, "Wyatt, I'm not being impatient, we just have don't have a lot of time."

  Wyatt stopped and looked behind him, "I'm well aware of how much time we have, sweets. Are you telling me that you are more anxious to get back to our co-workers than you are of releasing some of your tension?"

  Aleah tilted her head to the side, pretending to think about what he had just said, "Of course not, lover. By all means, lead on."

  The male shifter turned back around and took a few more steps before turning to a door and opening it, "There's not a lot of room in here but it should serve its purpose."

  He grabbed her hand and pulled her into the room with him, making sure that the door closed firmly behind them. There was no lock so they had to be quiet, but the room would do for a quickie.

  The two of them came together quickly, shedding clothes as fast as they could, their tongues stroking the other. Aleah pulled Wyatt's scrub pants down, whimpering in her impatience , wanting to feel him deep inside her. Wyatt pulled her pants down in one quick swoop in his hurry to see her without her clothes. He wrapped his arms around her to unclasp her bra, nibbling her neck as he let her bra fall to the floor before taking her breasts into his hands. Tweaking her nipples, watching as her head fell back and she moaned in desire. She reached down and wrapped her hands around his cock, stroking it until it stood at compete attention for her. Aleah moved hands to Wyatt’s shoulders, meeting his smoldering gaze with a passion filled one of her own, she jumped up to wrap her legs around him as Wyatt gripping her ass cheeks so he could hold her weight and she slid herself down onto his shaft until he completely filled her. The two quickly found a rhythm and soon they were reaching for the orgasm so close at hand. When both were spent, Aleah slowly slid off of Wyatt, trying to catch her breath as she began to look for her clothes.

  Wyatt caught his breath first, "I really hate having to be quick, but damn it's worth it. I swear you're trying to suck the energy out of me."

  The female shifter laughed, "That's not true and you know it, lover. Now if you could just help me find my bra we can be on our way and let the team know about everything."

  The male shifter stood, holding her bra over his finger by a strap, "Is this what you're looking for?"

  She snatched it out of his hands, "Yes! Now let's get going. We have some information to share."

  Wyatt chuckled and left the room first, followed closely by Aleah. They met at the elevator and headed up to the fifth floor.

  Deanna was standing by the elevator when the door opened, "I thought you had reconsidered hashing out this problem we have. I'm so glad to see that I was mistaken. Shall we head to the conference room?"

  Aleah gave Deanna one of her sickening sweet smiles, "After you, Deanna."

  The Immunologist turned on her heel and led the way to the conference room, "With pleasure."

  Deanna slammed open the conference room door, "Look who I found, guys. I think we should all have a seat and see what she has to say for herself."

  Alfred and Rosa were standing in the furthest corner of the room and looked at each other before sitting down.

  Wyatt and Aleah shared a look that said, looks like there is another budding romance happening that Dr. Morgan hadn't foreseen.

  As the female shifter looked around the room, she saw that William was still sitting in the same chair he had been in when they had gone downstairs and she sighed. That was a problem for another day.

  She cleared her throat, "As you already know, Dr. Morgan and I have been disappearing at odd hours throughout the day..."

  Deanna scoffed, "No kidding. Just tell us, are you sleeping with him? Why are you pussy footing around? Get to the point already."

  Aleah sighed, "I'm not pussy-footing around, Deanna, but all right I'll get to the point. Do you remember the first day we were in this room? The day we met Dr. Morgan?"

  Everyone in the room nodded as Wyatt took a seat next to his lover.

  She let out a breath and continued, "Well on that first day he mentioned experiments that were going to be needed to appease the humans, help them understand what we are and how we came to be. Well, those experiments have been underway for some time now. Dr. Morgan wanted to wait until he had a little more information before bringing all of you in. Now that he has that information, I've been given the green light to tell you what has been happening."

  Rosa stood, "Are you telling us that you and Dr. Morgan have been conducting experiments in this hospital for months and are only telling us now?"

  Aleah held up her hand, "I'm not trying to upset any of you, but yes, Dr. Morgan and I have been using my blood to conduct these experiments and we finally have some answers. The humans will be getting said answers in the next few days, and it's time for you to come on board. Now we have our first patient in the vampire society of our community, and we are able to conduct some experiments on your kind to see what makes you tick. Rosa, it would be a good idea for you to take the lead with Dr. Morgan on that."

  The Neurologist nodded and returned to her seat, "I was wondering if the good Director would see that logic. I'm glad to hear that he has. Please, continue."

  Alfred cleared his throat, "How long has Wyatt been in on this?

  Wyatt fielded that question, "I was just brought in this morning. And that's only because Aleah is becoming anemic, truth be told. Dr. Morgan is going to need blood samples from all of us to conduct the experiments in the different societies of our community."

  The three specialists began to murmur amongst themselves while Aleah finally took a seat.

  William stood while clearing his throat, turning everyone's attention to him, "Is that right? And while you are gathering these blood samples who will be taking care of our patient? Have any of you even thought of the vampire lying in room 526 waiting on results of tests that have been run on him since we were last in that room?"

  The female shifter scoffed, "As if you care, William? I'm leaving from here to tell the patient what results we have on the blood panels we have run so far, but I needed to take care of this tension between all of us coworkers before I did anything else. Rosa, can the three of you head on down to the lab in the basement and give Dr. Morgan those samples? I'll take the test results to our patient and see that he is comfortable and meet you all down there."

  Rosa nodded and looked at Alfred and Deanna, "Let's go get this done. The sooner we get this out of the way the sooner we can concentrate on our patient."

  The three specialists headed out and Aleah turned her attention to William, "You need to go downstairs and give Dr. Morgan your blood samples as well. I know that you're a shifter, and a rare one like me and Wyatt, but I don't know which one. Dr. Morgan is very good at determining what our animal forms are just by looking at the blood, so it would be good to have your type on file, just in case we should get another one like you in the hospital."

  William stepped around the table, "I'm the best damn Cardiol
ogist in the United States and that's what I signed up to do when I received the phone call stating my skills were needed. For the last six months my skills have gone unused, but you expect me to offer up my blood to the Director for study? When do I get to use my skills? When am I going to be able to prove my worth on this team?"

  Aleah shook her head, "Your skills are needed, William. We have a patient now that we are studying, a Cardiologist is going to be needed so that we can be able to test his heart, find out why it only beats every so often. Aside from the obvious. Until we are ready to conduct those tests, we need you give Dr. Morgan some blood samples so he can finish his research on shifters. The sooner we can give humans the answers they are searching for and get all of our blood samples on file, the sooner we can concentrate on doing what is necessary to help our patient become healthy again."

  William gave a dejected sigh, "Fine, but I want to go on record as resenting this."

  Aleah nodded, "Duly noted. Anything else you have on your mind we can deal with at a later time."

  The Cardiologist nodded and made his way to door, "Agreed. Now go tell our patient what his lab results were."

  Wyatt and Aleah followed William out of the room. The three went their separate ways, William to the elevators and the couple to room 526.

  "Mr. Crabtree? It's Doctors Masterson and Macleod. Are you awake?" Aleah asked softly as they entered the room.

  The patient grunted, "Unfortunately. Are my test results in?"

  The female shifter smiled and nodded as she approached the bed, "Yes, Mr. Crabtree, your test results are back, and everything looks normal."

  The patient sighed, "While that's a relief, my abdomen is still burning. Do you have any theories as to why that is?"

  Aleah shook her head, "I’m afraid not, Mr. Crabtree. Dr. Morgan will be up to discuss other tests that we can perform to figure out your ailment shortly. We'll let you get back to sleep."

  The couple left the room and headed down to the basement to join the rest of the team. It was time to come up with a game plan to help their patient. Aleah had a few theories that she wanted to discuss with Rosa and Dr. Morgan on the matter of the burning in their patient's abdomen but until then, she was ready to knuckle down and find out why the supernatural community were so different from the humans.