Healing Hands: A Wolf Shifter Romance

by E. V. Winter

  Saving Red was her best work as a vet ever, and he didn’t have an owner she could contact and say “He’s doing all right.” It annoyed her that she needed that validation but she did. She was one of the best vets in the city once, and over-confidence led to her misjudging a situation. She touched her mask, feeling the still raised scar underneath it.

  Red would be her turning point, she decided. Getting him back to the wild would be her saying goodbye to her dark past, and re-imagining herself again as a great vet, with the skills and attitude to do significant work, to heal even the sickest animal. Her dream of working on the Appalachian Trail came into focus again. It all seemed so long ago now. Maybe, when this was over, she might work with wild animals. She would face her fear head on and maybe, just maybe, she would be healed.

  CHAPTER NINE

  They were six strong but still a mixed pack. They had two Alphas in the pack which caused its own problems but since Blaine spent most of his time in human form, Kyle took over in the hunt. Quarry Hills Pack territory took in Hale County now and they wanted Brunholme Woods too. It would make them leaders of the entire east side.

  Blaine and Kyle looked at the maps again, the others, all betas, were smoking and drinking beer out on the porch.

  “We took him down here.” Kyle said. “Near Junction 5. There’s nowhere he can be than either dead in the woods or in Hale County. We went to the girl’s house.”

  “The one with the mask?”

  “Yes. Our omegas followed her home but there was no sign of him. Omegas are not the best at keeping up as you know. They saw her fire her gun and when they came back, he was gone. She must have taken him, it’s the only explanation.”

  “Did you see any of the other three?”

  “Someone I know saw them in town last night, skulking around where he fell. So they don’t know where he is.”

  “You’re sure you got his jugular?”

  Kyle thought back and smiled. He could almost taste Rex’s blood now if he concentrated hard enough. “Is he dead? I don’t know but I got him where I wanted him. The girl could have taken him I guess.”

  “Maybe we don’t send the stupid six the next time to check her out, maybe we go instead.”

  Kyle sipped his red wine and watched Blaine perusing the map. The brains of the outfit checking out the groundwork, whilst he and the others did all the dirty work.

  “This is tiresome.” Kyle said. “The sensible option is to dispose of the other three as soon as we can and then there will only be beta and omega in those woods and we’ll sweep them up easily enough. You want the territory but it will come at a price.”

  “It’s that other protection that worries me. If he’s still alive, the others will come out in force and they’ll attack us. We can take on three betas but I’m not taking on packs from other territories to get Brunholme.”

  “But Brunholme is the jewel in the crown. You said so yourself.”

  “I want to know where he is.”

  “We’ll check out the girl’s place again. She’s got a farm or something they said and a few dogs.”

  Blaine smiled. “Maybe she’s one of these hoarders, digging in for the long haul. Get them to kill the dogs if they need to. We don’t have time for this now. I’m on the brink of something major and this is delaying plans.”

  Blaine folded up the maps and placed them in his briefcase.

  “So can I leave that with you?” He asked Kyle.

  “Visit the girl, kill the dogs, and cook her chickens?”

  “Don’t be so blasé Kyle. If he’s there, finish him. If he’s not, we need to find out where he’s hiding out.”

  Kyle drank his wine and watched Blaine put on the jacket of his suit. He had everyone fooled with his designer clothes, his business like demeanor, and his good manners. The others all knew he was wily and untrustworthy. Only his alpha status stopped him from being overthrown.

  Kyle had bitten into the neck of a royal shifter. He may have killed him but Blaine wanted the body found. Only then could he stake a claim as leader of Quarry Hills pack. Blaine wanted the glory. Kyle worried about Blaine’s tactics. All packs had an innate ethical code, Blaine’s seemed to be missing but the others had to do as they were told.

  “I have to meet someone.” Blaine said. “I’ll be back later. Get the job done, Kyle. Find his body or if he’s at her house, finish the job.”

  The door slammed shut and Kyle gave him the finger. He and Blaine built an empire together and sure, he didn’t have the smarts, but he was the one who at least tried to get rid of the only Alpha in their way. Blaine needed to learn that territory was all about power in the hunt, in the woods, on the ridges and in the gullies. It was not about success with a briefcase in your hand.

  The others came inside and sat down beside Kyle.

  “What he say?” asked Macho, the darkest and most powerful of them, six six of pure man-steel.

  “We’ve got to go back to where the omegas went. The mask girl’s house and see if he’s there.”

  “They saw nothing.”

  “Maybe they didn’t look hard enough. We need to get inside her smallholding, or whatever the hell it is she has there.”

  “They said there were only pigs and chickens and a few dogs.”

  Kyle smiled. “All delicious when served fresh on the bone.” He rose from his chair. “At nightfall, we ride to the quarry and then on to Hale County. Turn up hungry.”

  CHAPTER TEN

  Eve waited at the gate for India to buzz her in. She was laden down, with bags of groceries but when she emptied the bags in India’s kitchen, they were full of drugs, ammunition and other assorted items.

  “A flick-knife?” India said, picking it up.

  “It’s tiny look. Small enough to fit in your boot or inside a sleeve.”

  India nodded. They moved in different circles and she knew that self-defense meant a lot to Eve.

  “There’s Ketamine, penicillin, analgesics, saline, eye drops. I got a mixed bag this time and something for me,” she said, pulling out the small bag of pot. There were cigarettes aplenty too.

  “How much do I owe you?”

  “Not sure, I need to work it out. It’s all cheap though, I got a good deal. It was a new guy this time, always seems to be someone new. I wonder what happens to the others.”

  “Maybe it’s too dangerous to get involved for too long. You might like to step back.”

  “It’s a free-for-all India, and there’s a lot I can do to rebel with the money we make.”

  India did not ask too many questions, Eve told her not to because it would only place her in danger.

  “How’s your pet wolf?” Eve asked, lighting a cigarette on the gas hob.

  “He’s not a pet, though he was licking my hand last night.”

  Eve blew out the smoke, a frown across her face. “Be careful.”

  “I was, don’t worry. I sedated him again. He’s poorly at the moment. I think it’s an infection in the throat but I can’t see anything outside, so I may need to go back in and I’m loathe to do that with an artery. The hole in there was a tiny little nick, and you’ve never seen so much blood loss.”

  “I have, I washed your damn car seat.”

  India smiled. “Oh, yeah. Anyway, he’s on antibiotics again but he’s very weak. He’s had no food for 72 hours so energy is low despite glucose, water and a blood transfusion.”

  “Will he live?”

  India shrugged her shoulders. She didn’t know what would happen to Red. She only knew what she could do to at least try to save his life.

  “You want to help me get the chickens in before it gets dark. They were so noisy last night. I will have the neighbors complaining if they keep up with that squawking.”

  “Your closest neighbor is a mile away. The little buggers up.”

  She and Eve went out into the yard and led some grain and seeds back into the pen. The birds were not stupid though, lingering as long as they could to peck every single seed a
nd flake. Eve grew impatient and side-footed one in the ass and back into its pen.

  “Eve…”

  “They’re so slow and they’re so darn greedy.”

  “Come on, I’ll make dinner. I already locked up the pigs.”

  She took one last look around the yard, and satisfied she’d secured the gates, they went back inside.

  Dinner was a simple vegetarian pizza, because of a lack of meat. India wished sometimes, that Eve’s goodie-bags contained some actual food, instead of the empty tins and cereal boxes she used as decoys. India grew her own vegetables at the bottom of the yard, in a fenced enclosure, to keep out the pigs. Lately, she was neglecting it and made a mental note to tend to it.

  “I have to see to the dogs and then look in on Red and we’ll watch some TV.”

  “You got wine?”

  India nodded. Eve smiled. She was rolling a joint at the table, in readiness for a relaxing evening, though she knew she’d go out to the porch to smoke it.

  India took the dogs some kibble and as usual, tidied out their kennels, pressure washing the floors and then placed clean bedding down on their ledge. They followed her along the corridor, each of them growing more territorial when the others went sniffing in their own kennel. It took almost an hour and then she locked them up. They were all happy to be eating and drinking again, their tails wagging like fury.

  “I’m making you all fat,” she whispered, as she passed through with the empty kibble bucket.

  The surgery light was off. She looked inside the door and could see Red laid flat out on the table. He was whimpering again. She put on the light and went inside. She checked his eyes with her ophthalmoscope and listened to his heartbeat. It was faster that it should be for an animal in recovery but she knew as a wild animal, his heartbeat would be rapid anyway, so she made a quick note in her log book. Since he was restless, she gave him a dose of sedative. Maybe he was uncomfortable. She took out some fleeces from under the surgery table and lay one under his head and body. It would provide a little cushioning against the hard steel table.

  She switched off the light and passed Eve in the corridor, brandishing her joint.

  “I’ll make some coffee and meet you out there.”

  “Bring me a fleece. That nice tartan one from your sofa.”

  It was cold enough to see their breath in the air. They sat on the porch swing, close to one another for warmth. Eve took a deep drag off the joint and kept it in her lungs for a few seconds before releasing it into the air. “Good stuff,” she whispered.

  At first, Eve thought she was having some kind of weird high but then as well as the red eyes in the darkness, she saw some movement of the brush and trees. India was sitting blowing on her coffee. Eve flicked the burned end of the joint and raised her fingers inside her coat towards her gun.

  “You finished that quickly.” India said, noticing the ember on the ground.

  “Stay quiet, no sudden movements. We have company, two o’clock.”

  India felt her heart rate increase but did as her sister said. Continuing to blow on her coffee before raising her head. She saw the movement too. She wished she could afford triggered lighting in the yard.

  “Drink your coffee. I’m ready to shoot if I need to.”

  “What do you think it is?” India whispered.

  “Not sure, could be a badger, skunk maybe, rats.”

  “Rats?”

  “Or wolves.”

  India remembered the six wolves and wondered if they were paying a return visit.

  “Don’t move. We play it cool for a little while longer and see what they do next.”

  “You think they can see us?”

  “Maybe not now that my joint is dead.”

  They sat in silence, both watching the slow, subtle movement beyond the vegetable garden

  “If they’re wolves, there’s more than one or it’s got hyperactivity disorder.” Eve said. “Let’s go inside. I’m hypothermic and we can see them from the bedroom window.”

  They jumped up from the swing and ran inside, racing up the stairs and crawling across the bedroom floor in the dark. India grabbed her revolver on the way. From further away, they could see that there were a few wolves there. India and Eve hid behind the curtains and were almost afraid to breathe.

  “You think they’ll climb that fence?” Eve whispered.

  India didn’t know enough about their prowess to offer comment.

  “If they make a move to do that, I will shoot, okay?”

  India nodded. “Just in the air, right? To scare them.”

  “Sure. But if they get over the fence, I’m shooting to kill.”

  “Okay but only if that’s necessary.”

  They waited an hour and watched the constant movement. India looked at her watch. It was only seven pm. How long might they hang around out there?

  “You think they want the chickens? Wolves are predators.”

  “They’re locked up in their pen and they can’t get in there. It’s like Fort Knox for Chickens.” Eve joked. “We could fire off a round or two now and see if they run away.”

  “Okay.”

  Eve opened the bedroom window, swung it wide and fired off a round into the sky. There was a scatter in the trees. She closed the window, and they sat on the bed and waited.

  “We’ll give them fifteen minutes.”

  They looked again but could see the wolves again in the same spot as before. The shot fired did not scare them.

  “I will shoot into them.” Eve said.

  “No, I don’t want that.”

  “We can’t stay here and watch them all night.”

  “We have to, they might kill my chickens.”

  “Then let me frighten them.”

  Eve opened the window and lined up her shot. She shot into the trees. They both heard a yelp and watched the wolves run away.

  “Come on, let’s see if I got one.” Eve said, running away back down the stairs.

  India replaced the safety on her revolver and followed her sister, more slowly. The last thing she wanted was to have to treat another wolf.

  Eve went out back with a flashlight focused on the back fence. She walked toward it until they reached the spot they’d saw the movement. There was blood in the bushes but no wolves there.

  “I got one though.” Eve said. “There’ll be a trail of blood out of there.”

  Out of nowhere came a deafening growl and two wolves threw themselves at the back fence where India and Eve stood. Their faces were so close that India thought they might bite through the fence and attack them. The girls both fell backwards onto the ground in shock as the wolves retreated into the woods. India dropped her gun and shouted out in terror. Eve reached for her gun and fired into the woods until the revolver was empty. She breathed out then and carried on with rapid breaths until she regained her composure.

  “Wow.” Eve said. “Seen nothing like that before.”

  “You want to stay tonight?”

  Eve nodded. They listened to the wolves howling. They were still close but further away from the fence. India picked up her gun and walked back towards the house. Eve relit her joint and sat on the porch swing. India joined her.

  “You think they were the six you thought you saw the other night? The night you brought Red here?”

  India shrugged her shoulders. “They all look the same I guess.”

  “Wolves ever bothered you before?” Eve asked.

  “No. I’ve had a few foxes in the yard but I think they came in through a hole in the fence small enough for a fox. Never had trouble with wolves.”

  “Strange. Makes you wonder why they’d bother here when there are rabbits and deer in those woods.”

  “I must check the fences tomorrow and keep checking the yard. I can’t lose my animals.”

  “You don’t think they can smell Red is here?”

  India frowned. “I don’t know. The surgery is sterile, it smells like disinfectant.”

  “But I bet
their sense of smell is something special. Would they eat their own?”

  “What? You mean like cannibalism?”

  Eve nodded, dragging on the spliff and holding her breath.

  “Not sure. I’ll do some research tonight.”

  “Might be time to move Red along if they are sniffing him out like some kind of prey.”

  They walked into the house, both keeping their guns in their hands. Both ready to shoot if they should get visitors later on.

  CHAPTER ELEVEN

  Blaine was not happy, He thumped the wall in the kitchen when Kyle told him what happened. The others were tending to Macho’s wound. The back of his thigh oozed blood from a gunshot wound.

  “She missed your ass by an inch or two.” Juan, his brother said.

  “D’you see her? She was gorgeous.” Macho said.

  Kyle looked at him and gave him a big-eyed stare.

  “This is no joke.” Blaine said. “What went wrong?”

  “They were armed.” Kyle said. “And the brush there was thick and matted. We couldn’t really get close as we’d like. We got a jump on them. Scared the shit out of them. You should have seen their faces. Well, one of their faces. The other one wore a mask.”

  “We need to do something else. I want Rex out of the picture. Basically, we still don’t know whether he’s alive or dead.”

  “I could smell him.” Kyle said. “There was a scent. It was thin…”

  “You could not smell him. If we could, we’d be all over her car, all over her house. Other wolves would be onto that scent. His own pack would camp outside her house.”

  “What next then?” Kyle asked. “We burgle her house? She’s got alarms.”