#Chapter 106 Doctors and Damsels
Bastien
Dr Kane looks as if he’s been expecting us.
After a thoroughly frustrating visit to the security offices, where we discovered nothing more than twelve hours of blacked out camera footage the night the paternity test was run, my betas and I navigated up to the chief physician’s office on the tenth floor.
We now stand in the doorway of his corner suite, carefully watching the doctor’s reaction to our sudden appearance and finding nothing but a blank slate.
He’s seated behind his desk, his shiny loafers propped up on the sleek wooden surface and a takeout container splayed in his lap. It’s been a long time since I’ve seen the man, and though he’s only a few years older than myself, I can’t help but think he’s aged. His dark hair boasts a few streaks of gray, and the lines around his eyes and mouth are more pronounced than I remember.
“Alpha, to what do I owe the pleasure?” Dr Kane greets me, barely looking up from his lunch.
As far as Alpha’s go, I’ve also considered myself on the more relaxed end of the spectrum. I don’t expect my people to stand on constant ceremony, but it does strike me that most shifters still show a degree of deference out of respect. Dr Kane clearly does not. I can’t decide whether or not it bothers me.
“Dr Kane.” I reply curtly, “I have a few questions for you.”
The doctor gestures to the chair opposite him, “Please have a seat.” He encourages me with a warm smile, “It’s been a while, I owe you much congratulations.”
“Oh?” I prompt, sitting stiffly across from the familiar man.
“It’s not every day a man becomes a father, or finds his long lost mate.” Kane elaborates, as if this should have been obvious to me.
“No it isn’t.” I agree, feeling a sudden spike of anger. “especially when you told me with total confidence that my mate was dead.”
Dr. Kane purses his lips, lowering his feet from his desk and setting his lunch aside. “You have my sincerest apologies Alpha, I’ve already launched an investigation into the matter.”
“What investigation?” | demand, “aren’t you the one who examined the body?”
His expression clouds, “Bastien, I delivered the report to you out of respect for your position and as a courtesy given our Yongstanding relationship. I reviewed every last detail of the case, but the medical examiner conducted the autopsy and
ran all the tests, not me.”
Anger simmers in my veins, this was absolutely not made clear at the time. “Where is the medical examiner now?”
“He left last year, took a job in a different territory.” Dr Kane explains, “but I have always had the utmost respect for him. I can’t imagine him making such a grave error”
“Oh I don’t think it was an error.” I growl.
The physician’s eyes widen. “You mean, you think he changed the results on purpose?”
“I think someone wanted me to believe my mate was dead.” I force the words out through clenched teeth, “Just as someone wanted me to believe her pup belonged to another wolf, and falsified yet another set of DNA results.”
Kane leans forward now, confusion and concern lacing his movements, “What are you talking about.”
Relating our discoveries from the pathology lab as quickly as I’m able, I pin the doctor with my fiercest gaze, ‘The way! see it, one of three things is happening here. Either you have some very incompetant staff here or more likely, we’re dealing with some form of corruption. Whether it’s coming from within the system, or someone has been paying your people off to falsify information, remains to be seen.”
Dr Kane’s features harden, “We take oaths in this hospital, Alpha – sacred oaths to do no harm. To suggest that anyone
Chapter 106 Doctors and Damsels
here would intentionally damage this pack’s wellbeing is a very grave accusation.”
“I’m aware of that.” I rumble, “though it’s curious that you should talk about the pack’s wellbeing, rather than my own.”
“You are an extension of the pack, are you not?” Dr Kane argues, “to harm you is to harm us all.”
“Be that as it may, someone has been working against me.” | assert coolly, “and they’ve used this hospital’s resources to further those aims. Oaths can be broken, and it is your duty to discover who might have forsaken theirs.”
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