Healing Hands: A Wolf Shifter Romance

by E. V. Winter

  “We have to transform to get this done.” Blaine said. “I’ll think it over and make a plan.”

  He left the kitchen just in time to miss Mario yelping as Juan removed the bullet from his thigh. Juan poured antiseptic over it and bandaged him up.

  “She got that place like a fortress.” Macho said.

  Kyle poured himself a glass of wine and beer out for the others. “Maybe Blaine is right. Maybe we’ll do better in transformation. Two girls being enticed to buy something at the door by some cute guys.”

  “So you’re not planning on being there?” Macho joked. Kyle frowned, sipping his wine.

  “You’ll be laid up for a week with that leg wound so I will take someone else with me.”

  “She was gorgeous. You see her Kyle? I’m kind of glad I won’t be there.”

  “You have a she-wolf waiting for you in Quarry Hills.”

  Macho nodded. He understood the rules but sometimes, he couldn’t help but admire the human women, especially when they looked like his shooter.

  *******

  The wolf howl woke Eve up first. She ran straight to the window but then realized it was coming from inside the house. It was Red. India stirred and dragged herself out of bed, pulling on her nightgown from the back of the door.

  “You want any help?” Eve asked.

  “No, you go back to bed.”

  India switched on the lights, took a quick look outside across the yard, just in case, but all was quiet.

  She opened the surgery door, the fleeces she’d laid on the table were on the floor and he lay prone. Only his head and neck moving as he yowled. She loaded a syringe with sedative and checked her logbook for how much he could have. He’d already taken a lot in the last twelve hours. She injected enough to settle him but she knew the dose might not last long.

  “Come on Red, settle down now. It’s three in the morning. I am so tired,” she said, injecting the needle in his ass. The whimpering and howling continued for some time. She sat in the chair beside him but far enough away to be out of his reach if he attacked. She noticed a little blood on the throat wound and squirted iodine at it from a safe distance, turning his fur a dark purple.

  He eventually lay down, breathing more rapidly than she’d like. His dreams came at him again. He was still running away. He’d heard the howling earlier, and he knew those voices belonged to the Quarry Hills pack. In his dreams he spent most of his time running. Running towards the road where she’d found him, to the woods and his cabin and sometimes, running towards her. She didn’t wear the mask in his dreams. She was still scarred but she was unafraid to show him.

  India felt her eyes close again and checked one last time that Red was settled. She rose from the chair and switched off the light, going back to bed where her sister snored in a deep sleep. India felt a little envious of Eve. She took off her mask and got into bed, still smelling the iodine and the faintest memory of Red’s scent on her skin.

  Wolves were hard work. She regretted rescuing him but now he was with her, all she could think about was saving him. She touched her scar and wished she could be restored to the way she used to be before everything had changed and her world grew so much smaller.

  CHAPTER TWELVE

  Eve was not a breakfast person so lay in bed long after India rose. The yard was frosty. India could feel the crunch of her shoes into the frost as she let out the chickens for their morning feed. She released the pigs, and they followed her around for a while to see if she might give them extra food. She threw down the leftovers from dinner and it was no surprise that the pigs really loved vegetarian pizza crusts. The kennels were opened, and she freed the mutts. She was, as always, licked and loved and fussed over once they’d emptied their bladders. She refilled their kibble and water. Her routine all revolved around the other animals being tended before she could get in to check on Red.

  What awaited her knocked her off her feet. She slumped into her chair and put her head in her hands. Red was gone.

  She went up to the bedroom and stirred Eve. “I need some help.”

  “Yeah, I know but just give me half an hour.”

  She shook her sister again. “This is important Eve. I really need some help.”

  “India! Leave me alone.” Eve said, shaking off the blankets with her feet. “I’ll be down in five.”

  “Now.”

  India dragged back the blankets and the cold hit Eve like a bullet.

  Eve dragged on her jeans and sweater and followed India downstairs into the surgery. The wolf was gone and in his place lay a man.

  “What the fu…”

  “I know.” India said.

  He was asleep, still with cuffs on his arms and a collar on his neck. India moved the collar to reveal the dressing covering the throat wound.

  “Same guy?” Eve said. “What the heck. He’s a shapeshifter.”

  “A what?”

  “He’s a wolf who shifts into a man and a man who can shift back into a wolf.”

  “They really exist?”

  “Well now we know they do.”

  Eve went closer to take a better look at him. “Wowzer, he’s got a lot of scars.”

  India looked as well and saw that Eve was right. His arms, legs and chest bore many small scarred, bite marks and sliced flesh. Eve went round to face him where he huddled up in the fetal position. “He’s not a boy who needs to be shy in the shower room,” she said, smiling.

  “Eve, don’t do that. Give him some dignity.”

  “When I was behind him, his ass was in my face. Where was his dignity then? Wow, he is well-hung.”

  India threw her dressing gown over him to shop his shivers. It surprised her to find he almost looked the same, even as a man. His hair was auburn, he had a fine chiseled jaw in need of a shave, though the hair was fair.

  “He’s kind of athletic,” she said.

  Eve smiled. “Oh, you noticed, did you?”

  “What do we do?”

  “Well I need some coffee, then we wait until he wakes up.” Eve left the room and shook her head as she did so. She’d heard rumors about shape shifters but they would only ever be Sci-Fi or Fantasy characters to her. She knew a proper one now and she couldn’t tell anyone, damn it.

  India stayed, sitting in the chair, cold from not having her dressing gown. Eve reappeared with blankets from the linen closet. She took the dressing gown off him and covered him in the blankets. “That should keep him warm for a while. Come and get some coffee.”

  “No, I want to see if he changes back.”

  “Well yell if he does. I’ll maybe film it on my cell phone.”

  So India was alone with him again. Her wolf absent, maybe not forever but for now. He looked more comfortable on the table though she imagined he was cold, despite the blankets. She wondered about the wolves at the fence last night, were they shifters too? How might she tell? The thought scared her that men could turn into wolves because how could you tell? She worked with guys who loved to hunt, might they be shifters? What determined their ability to shift?

  He murmured, and she went round to see if he was waking but he had REM, his eyelids fluttered so she left him to his dreams. Was he dreaming of her?

  Rex opened his eyes and saw that his humanity had returned. He knew from the lack of movement in his limbs he could not change back this time. He let out a low sob and looked at his wrists and hands in the cuffs. He wanted the masked girl, she would help him. He sniffed the air and hoped to gather in her scent of roses and vanilla but he was alone.

  India returned and saw his eyes were open. She pulled the chair closer and took the spoon of cereal to his mouth. He took it and chewed, hungry for more. He ate it all, and hers too and then devoured the toast. She offered him coffee but he could not hold the cup.

  “I’m not sure about taking off the cuffs,” she said.

  “I’ll leave them on then,” he said.

  It felt strange hearing a voice coming out of this being, who until this morning had h
owled, whimpered and growled every day. He sounded calm. She gave thanks for that. When he’d been wolf, she had feared him, but only sometimes.

  “Can I thank you?” he asked.

  “Thank me?”

  “For saving my life.”

  She lowered her head. “I was just doing what anyone would have done…”

  “No, you did it with a good heart,” he said. “I know you have a good heart. I’ve felt your hands on my skin, your company has sometimes been the difference to me going on or giving up.”

  She looked into his blue eyes and smiled. “How are you?”

  He shook his head. “I’m not sure.”

  She put the bowls down on the chair and felt his head with her hand. The heat to her hand was immediate. “You need some analgesics. I’ll get some.”

  “Please India, sit with me for a while.”

  “You know my name.”

  He smiled. “I heard a lot of things when I was someone else.”

  “You heard Eve?”

  He laughed. “Yes, boy she curses a lot. Yes, I know how close you guys are and how she’s been here for you.”

  “It’s been strange,” she said. “Caring for a wild animal.”

  He nodded. “I’m not so wild now though, huh? Just a normal guy.”

  “Except you’re not.”

  “No, I’m not but it was no choice of mine. It’s a genetic quirk.”

  “Not a gift?”

  “I’m not sure you can call it a gift it you didn’t ask for it.”

  He placed his head back on the bed. She could see he was exhausted. She got a glass of water and some aspirin and fed them to him. He took them with thanks.

  “I hope I have been no trouble. I didn’t hurt you?”

  “Never.”

  “I would never hurt you India, you need to know that. You’re special to me now, forever.”

  “But when you’re a wolf, you might hurt me.”

  He shook his head. “I hold you here.” He tried to reach his heart with his hand but the cuffs would not stretch. He looked disappointed but then smiled. “In my heart.”

  India touched the back of his hand, a strange electricity going through her body. Could a man’s touch do this to a woman? She had no experience so this all felt so new. “I’ll let you sleep. I’ll call in later and check on you.”

  “Thank you for your kindness,” he said, a smile on his face which lit up her mood, her heart full of joy. Who was he? Did he use magic? What could a shift shaper do?

  “You’re welcome.”

  She took the bowls and coffee out with her, her heart in her throat, thumping like it never had before. She was his doctor, his vet, she needed to remember that. This was the strangest day of her life but she was still very, very glad he was in it.

  CHAPTER THIRTEEN

  “You can’t tell anyone about this.” India told Eve who was eating cereal in the kitchen.

  “He’s kind of cute for a ginger guy.”

  India smiled. “And I was calling him Red because of his wolf coloring. I was right though. Damn, I didn’t ask him his name.”

  “He might be called Butch or Fido or Snoopy…”

  “Knock it off.”

  “We need to tell him about those wolves last night. If anyone knows about wolf behavior, he does.”

  India poured herself more coffee. “He’s sleeping now and who knows, he may be turned back into a wolf when we next see him.”

  Eve looked at India’s face. She was daydreaming and Eve could guess what about.

  “Will that disappoint you?” She asked.

  India looked up from her coffee. “It might be easier to get him out of here if he was a human.”

  India tended to her chores, let the dogs out for pee time and chicken pester time. The chickens were quieter today she noticed. She wondered if they’d sensed the wolves at the fence last night. She cleaned out the kennels and washed the dogs in the old unused hot tub in the yard.

  Eve busied herself, tended to the dishes and washed the kitchen counters and floor until everything gleamed. She could be useful once in a while.

  Red’s scars fascinated her. She guessed most of those came from scrapping as a wolf in the hunt. She remembered again the two wolves throwing themselves at the fence to terrify her and India. It worked. She felt uneasy about it now. She wondered if they were shifters too. If they were, she and India needed to be careful of attack on two fronts.

  India looked in on Red at lunchtime. She’d made a Spanish omelet for him and cut it up in front of him. His tummy growled, and he laughed. He was naked apart from holding the blankets around his privates to spare both their blushes.

  “I’ll take one hand out of the cuff so you can eat.”

  “Ok, that’s great,” he said. “I’m left-handed if you could set this one free.” He said holding up his left hand.

  “Me too,” she said.

  “We have something in common already.”

  She smiled at that. He wasn’t flirting exactly but it was clear he enjoyed the talking.

  She loosened the cuff and released his hand. He picked up the fork and dug in.

  “It’s real tasty,” he said.

  “I expect you eat a lot of meat.”

  “No more than any normal guy when I’m being a normal guy,” he said. “But in the hunt, it’s the purpose for us. We kill to eat.”

  “But you don’t really, do you?”

  “It’s innate,” he said. “I don’t get to choose how I live my life. My genetics are in charge. Both my parents are shifters. I was born to be like them.”

  “Did you never rebel?”

  He smiled again. “It’s in me India. I wish I could explain it. Being a wolf is all about the hunt and protecting territory. It’s about the pack and brother and sisterhood.”

  He finished his food and drank some water.

  “I need to do some scans and x-rays. I hope you don’t mind. You have a lot of scars,” she said, pointing to a variety of them across his body.

  “We both have scars.”

  She turned away, self-conscious now that he mentioned her disfigurement. Had he seen it?

  “You could see me when you were a wolf?”

  “There was once night. I think I woke you and you came to me with the mask off. I saw that another wolf attacked you. I recognize a wolf bite.”

  She collected the plate and turned away.

  “I think you should take off the mask. You’re a pretty girl.”

  “I can’t talk about it.”

  She left the room, a tear welling in her eyes. This was all so confusing. She thought no one would call her pretty now not being this grotesque. She cried when she got to the kitchen. Eve hugged her. “Did he hurt you?”

  “No far from it. He said I was pretty.”

  Eve rubbed her back with her soft hand. “You are pretty.”

  “Sure,” she said, dragging off the mask. “A wolf did this to me. A wolf like him.”

  “He’s a special wolf,” Eve said. “He didn’t bite or claw you. He didn’t hurt you when he was a wolf and all he seems to want to do now is to be beside you. Don’t be so hard on him and stop being so hard on yourself.”

  India pulled the mask back over the scar and returned to him. He was flexing his left wrist. It must have felt so good after being shackled for so long.

  “I don’t know what to do next.” India said. “Eve wants to talk to you about some wolves we saw the other night.”

  “Here?” She heard the panic in his voice.

  “Yes.”

  Eve came in and looked him over again. He was like the boy next door but with more muscles. A complete juxtaposition to his lupine form. She was more of a girl next door kind of girl but he was cute in a non-sexy way to her.

  “The wolves came in the dark and they kind of moved in circles in a big patch of brush out beyond the back fence. That fence is very safe and tall so nobody has ever breached it. We know nothing about how good wolves climb so w
e fired some shots.”

  “She fired some shots.” India corrected.

  “Anyhoo, we scared them, but they came back and two of them jumped at us through the fence, teeth bared, growling and the works.”

  “Can you describe them?”

  “They were gray wolves, that I know. No red ones like you.” Eve said.

  “And I thought I saw them two nights before, the night I brought you here when I rescued you.”

  “From the woods near the interstate?”

  India nodded. “Yes, there were six of them.”

  “Quarry Hills pack,” he said. “Or their omegas, there are six of them too.”

  “You know them?” Eve asked.

  “Yes, they’re rivals I guess. They have territory near us. They are shifters too. Where are we?”

  “Hale County.”

  “Ah, that’s their territory too.”

  “Here? In our town?” India asked.

  “In the woods and leas. The rural parts of the county. You have plenty here, it’s a pretty, wild little park. I see the authorities have let it go a little.”

  “What authorities?” Eve joked.

  “Did they come here looking for you?”

  “Maybe. My own guys will find me soon enough I guess.”

  “They haven’t yet.” Eve said.

  He grinned “But they will.”

  “And then what?” India asked.

  “I’ll go back home when I’m well enough and get out of your hair. You’ve gone above and beyond for me, I already know that.”

  “Were you fighting them the night I found you?”

  “We were out hunting and saw them on our land so we made the usual stare down. Usually, that works. Wolves understand the rules of the land. They knew they were trespassing but they attacked and they outnumbered us. That’s another no-no. Usually, a wolf will make a match against another opponent, one on one. I got two on me.”