With that, the doctor stormed to the front door and let himself out. When he was gone, she locked the door behind him and breathed a sigh of relief. She quickly went back to the desk to finish her work, as she did, she called Amy back and left her a message. It had been a long and trying day. All she wanted to do was go home and have a glass of wine, or two. Lindsey finished her paperwork and grabbed her purse.
As she unlocked the door, she glanced out the door like she always did. It was a precaution built up after years of living on her own. Lindsey froze, she saw some movement lurking around the corner by the dumpsters. She watched for a long time before the eyes disappeared. It must have been a stray dog. Hopefully, he would still be around on Monday, and she could talk the doctor into taking on a charity case. Otherwise, she would end up doing what she had done time and time again, foot the bill herself.
In the few short months that she had owned her father’s property, she had acquired more stray mouths to feed than she had ever wanted. It had all started with a cat. The Captain had been hit by a car when someone brought him in. Emaciated and covered in fleas, Dr. Beyer wanted to euthanize him, but something in his eyes made Lindsey stand up to her boss. The Captain had made a full recovery, Lindsey had footed the bill, and now he was waiting for her in the window of the farmhouse for her to come home.
She stepped out the door and locked it behind her. As she walked to her car, she felt a familiar and unwelcome feeling. Someone was watching her. Lindsey picked up her pace; she could hear someone behind her, and they were closing the gap.
Chapter Two
Lindsey quickened her pace. As she walked, she reached into her purse to fish out her keys. She was only looking down for a few seconds, but that was all the time her stalker needed.
“Well now honey, why don’t you slow down,” said the man in front of her.
Lindsey skidded to a stop with her keys wrapped tightly in her hand. Her heart was racing. She had never been in this situation before.
“See now, that doesn’t seem like a very friendly thing to do,” said the man. “I can be really nice, or I can be awful mean. Of course, I like it, either way, honey.”
“Listen, I don’t want any trouble, I won’t say anything if you just go away now. I have people expecting me,” she said as she backed away from the man.
He laughed sadistically, “the way I hear it, you're free for the next fifteen minutes honey, and that’s all the time we need.”
As he spoke, Lindsey backed up and felt herself hitting something hard, “we?” She whispered.
She didn’t need to turn around, she felt his chest and held her breath. She had to do something; it was two against one. She looked around and realized her numbers were wrong. It was four against one. Lindsey did the only thing she could think of, gripping her keys tightly in her fist; she drove the sharp metal into the man who was standing behind her. He let out a howl of pain and Lindsey started to run. She wasn’t fast enough, though.
The hand that grabbed her hair jerked her backwards, and she fell to the ground. The impact didn’t hurt as much as she had anticipated. Lindsey could feel hands all over her body as she tried to fight them off. She screamed, but it was quickly muffled by another hand being shoved over her mouth. Taking advantage of her assailants’ proximity, she bit down as hard as possible. One of the men cried out in pain before she felt his hand coming down onto her face again, this time, it was a fist, though. The blood started to flow into her mouth as her tears started. She couldn’t fight them off much longer.
Lindsey looked down the alley and saw a dog running towards them, as it grew closer, she was awestruck by its size. When it reached a few yards away, she saw it was no dog; it was a giant grey wolf. She felt the weight on her being eased as soon as the wolf moved from her line of sight. A piercing scream echoed through the parking lot and the remaining men stopped their assault on her to help their friend. When she was able to sit up, her eyes found the source of her rescue.
The men were standing in the same circle they had trapped her in. This time, though, they were surrounding the giant wolf. Lindsey tried to rise to her feet; it was a slow procession. She kept her eyes on her assailants. The wolf was growling, and the first of the men attacked the beast, follow by his friends. Lindsey watched in horror as the men started to beat the animal. She knew that she had to do something, or they would kill the wolf then be back for her.
Her keys were laying nearby. She walked carefully over to them and picked them up. Her eyes never left the group of men as she made her way over to her car. She opened the door and climbed inside before locking the doors. As the engine roared to life, the men turned to see what the noise was. She didn’t wait to give them a warning. Throwing the car into gear, she gunned the engine. The men scattered, but she was able to clip two as they ran. She watched as all four of them disappeared around the corner, two of them were limping badly.
She shifted her focus away from the men and over to where the wolf was laying on the ground. As soon as she stepped out of the car, she knew he was severely injured. She could see exposed flesh at two different spots on his body.
“Oh my god, oh no. You poor boy,” she spoke to him, softly. Her mind was racing; she couldn’t leave him there. She had to act fast though.
“Alright buddy,” she said as she picked him up. She knew that if she didn’t have a surge of adrenaline running through her body because of the attack, she wouldn’t have been able to lift him. He had to weigh at least two-hundred pounds. Never in her life had Lindsey seen a wolf his size, what’s more, the wolf just saved her life.
She laid him on the back seat of her car and covered him with a blanket as she spoke to him, “I promise you buddy, I am going to keep you safe.” She pet his ears back and saw the animal had piercing grey/blue eyes; they looked almost human.
“You saved me, and now I am going to save you,” she said to him.
Lindsey climbed into the driver’s seat and headed out to her house. She knew she had enough medical supplies there for what she would need. As she took in strays, she bought more supplied. She had far more knowledge about healing animals than most. Her mother was a veterinary surgeon; she grew up watching her mother stitch, sew and staple livestock and farm animals. Lindsey had followed another path, though, her love was nature, and it always would be. She had attended college for environmental sciences but had yet to find a good job in the area. Instead, she was working for a man who treated her like crap.
As she drove through the night, she kept an eye on the animal in the back. She thought about the attack, something one of them had said. He said that they only had fifteen minutes. The only way they would know that was if someone had told them. The only person who she had given that fictional number too was Dr. Beyer.
“That son of a bitch,” she said to herself, “that son of a bitch set me up to get raped.”
The wolf in the back seat growled almost as if he was listening to her conversation.
“What’s your story bud,” she said to the wolf in the back seat.
He watched her with his beautiful eyes.
“I hope you don’t mind cats,” she said to him.
She was greeted with another growl which made her smile. Her smiled changed into a frown when she realized she was having a conversation with a dangerous and wild animal that was laying bloody in the back seat of her car. Suddenly she felt like this wasn’t the best plan of action, maybe she had a concussion. The wolf in the back started to whimper, catching her eye once again. There was no way this animal, her savior, was a danger to her. As she pulled into her country driveway, she looked around. She was far more cautious after tonight about her surroundings.
Pulling the car as close as possible to back door, Lindsey fought with the giant wolves’ size to get him into the kitchen and onto the floor. She tried to be as gentle as possible, but it was difficult. Lindsey knew that she needed to act quickly. His temperature was cooling rapidly, and the blood trail leading into her kitchen
meant he was bleeding out fast. Once she had him in the house, she ran back out to her car to shut the doors. As they slammed behind her, a noise in the woods made her pause.
Wolves were howling very close by.
Chapter Three
Lindsey wasted no time in finding what she needed to take care of the wolf. She was able to maneuver him onto an old towel and placed a heating pad behind him to keep his body temperature up. Grabbing her suture kit from the bathroom, she slid onto the floor next to him. He was awake but not as alert as he should have been and his breathing was labored.
“Come on buddy, hang in there.” She said.
She talked to him as she worked, it soothed her and he seemed to like it too.
“I think I heard your friends out there,” she said as she probed his wounds to make sure she wasn’t going to stich up anything in the wounds that wasn’t supposed to be there.
“They seem like nice wolves I guess,” She said to him. The last patch of fur was almost sewn back together. Sitting back to look at her handiwork, she saw his breathing was already starting to return to normal. The last thing she wanted to do was give him a hormone inject that also had the primary immunizations for dogs. She prepped the needle and positioned herself put it in his skin. He started to growl though, and she froze.
“What’s wrong honey? I just stuck you a dozen times with a needle to do stitches and now you are scared of one?” She said as she moved to give him the injection once again.
Again the wolf growled, this time, it was far more vocal and followed by a series of howls from the wolves outside. Lindsey froze, she didn’t know why but something about that needle wasn’t right. Instead of forcing the wolf to submit to the injection, she placed it on the counter. Maybe tomorrow she would be able to give it to him, but tonight it wasn’t happening. She took off her surgical gloves and cleaned up the mess. Knowing she couldn’t leave him alone, she found an old blanket and laid down next to the wolf on the hard kitchen floor.
“You have to pull through, you just have to,” she said to the wolf.
The tears were starting to prickle at her eyes. This was the first time that she had stopped moving since the attempted rape, and the force of what she had survived came crashing down on her. If it hadn’t been for the wolf, she would have been raped and probably left for dead. Tomorrow she would go to the police. What would she tell them though, that she was saved by a wild animal that wasn’t native to this area? She would sound insane. She also had to find out what to do about Dr. Beyer.
Lindsey started to doze off to sleep, tomorrow she would need to find out what to do. Tomorrow, just not tonight.
***
The next morning, she awoke confused and sore. It took her a minute to remember what had happened. Immediately, Lindsey looked to the wolf. He was asleep, but his breathing was returned to normal.
“Thank god,” she said. She stood and found her phone. She needed to talk to Amy right away. After a quick shower and agreeing to meet Amy in town for coffee, she went back to the kitchen to check on her friend one more time before leaving.
“I’ll be back soon buddy, I just need someone to talk too, someone who talks back,” she said.
She lifted his bandages to see how her stitches were holding up.
She sucked in a sharp breath and whispered, “impossible.”
The wounds were almost healed. Once more she looked down at the wolf. Something strange was going on. She had never seen an animal heal so quickly. Lindsey made a mental note to take a closer look at the beast’s blood when she got back. Maybe there was something more to him than just his size. She left the house with more questions than she had answers. She met Amy at the coffee shop.
“Oh my god! You look like hell! What happened?” Asked Amy, shocked at the bruises that covered Lindsey’s body.
As they sat down, Lindsey filled her friend in on everything that happened the night before, including the massive beast laying on her kitchen floor. Her friend listened with anger, then horror. Followed by sympathy, awe, and back to anger.
“So what’s the next step?” Asked Amy, when Lindsey shrugged her shoulders, her friend continued, “are you joking? Go to the police. You said you think that the doctor had something to do with it right?”
Lindsey nodded her head.
“You know, this morning I went to pick up my paycheck and I saw some kid in an ATC jersey walking out of his office with a limp. He looked pissed too. Do you think they could have been frat boys?”
“I know they could be, the one who was talking had on a jersey too. I didn’t think anything of it until you just said something,” replied Lindsey.
She couldn’t believe what she was hearing. Could her boss really be involved with her attackers? Lindsey decided that either way, her best approach would be to involve the police.
“Your right. I’m going to go home and check on the wolf then I am going to go down to the station,” she said as she rose up from her seat.
She looked out the glass windows of the coffee shop, and her face went pale. Across the street from them was Dr. Beyer. Lindsey sat back down and spoke quickly to Amy. Amy saw the look of horror on her face and followed her gaze.
“What is he doing here?” said Amy.
When Amy looked up, her friend was already gone.
Lindsey snuck from the coffee shop through the backdoor, ignoring the cussing from employees insisting she wasn’t allowed back there. When she circled the coffee shop she saw the doctor walking in. Her car was right in front. She ran to the driver’s side door and climbed in just as the doctor ran out of the coffee shop and up to her door, but she had already locked it.
“Lindsey, open the door,” he said.
She looked at him in horror as she fumbled with shaking hands to get her key in the ignition.
“Lindsey, where the wolf? I know you're hiding him.” He said as he slammed his hand down into her glass.
She found her key and stuck it in the ignition before gunning the engine. She pulled out into traffic, electing a round of horns from oncoming traffic but she didn’t care. She had to get away from him. As she sped through the streets, her mind raced. Lindsey didn’t know why but she felt herself being pulled back to her home. Something about the wolf, something about the doctor’s interest in him. Lindsey drove past the police station and onto the highway that would take her home.
When she skidded to a halt in her driveway, she was relieved to see her house just as she left it. The seclusion of the farmhouse gave her comfort and calmed her rattled nerves. She slipped the key into her front door and went inside, tossing her keys off to the side as she went. For the first time, she locked the door behind her and headed directly to the kitchen to check on the wolf. When she turned into the kitchen, she gasped.
The wolf was no longer laying on the floor. He was nowhere in sight. In his place though was a rugged looking man with a perfectly tanned and chiseled body. He had markings on both his arms that looked like tattoos of some sort. His leg and chest had stiches covering up healed wounds. She knew those wounds and the stitches. They were the wounds that she had stitched on the wolf not even twenty-four hours ago. His eyes, stunning and blue were the same color as the wolf.
There was no doubt in Lindsey’s mind, the gorgeous man standing naked in her kitchen was the wolf.
Chapter Four
“Hello Lindsey,” said the man.
Lindsey was unable to move; she couldn’t even talk. All she could do was stand still enough that she wouldn’t pass out onto the floor.
He smiled at her, a seductive and disarming smile, “my name is Jayden. Thank you for saving my life last night.”
“Huh,” said Lindsey, still unable to create full sentences.
She knew he was telling the truth. Something inside of her had clicked as soon as she had touched him the night before. All she had to do was look into his eyes to know he was true and honest.
“You shouldn’t be standing, you’ll rip your sutures,” she f
inally said to him.
He looked down at the sutures and smiled, “okay.” He sat on the floor, waiting for her to speak again.
Like a switch going off in her head, she realized how uncomfortable he must be naked. She went to the laundry room off the kitchen and pulled down a button up flannel of her fathers and a pair of his jeans.
“Um, here,” she said awkwardly to him, trying her best not to look at his massive manhood.
“Sure,” he said smiling and rising to put the clothing on.
She turned back to him when he was done, “I’m sorry, but who are you? Why did you save me last night? What are you? I need some answers dammit!”
She was breathing hard; everything was spinning as she sat down.
“Okay,” said Jayden.
Looking up and glaring at him, she said, “do you even speak English? I can’t get more than one word out of you!”
Jayden raised an eyebrow to her but continued to smile. He moved so he was standing in front of her where she was sitting. Then he sat on the floor in front of her so that their eyes were level.
“My English is perfectly fine actually. I speak it along with four other languages. My pack likes to move around a lot so we all pick up different languages. It’s been my experience, that when someone finds out that werewolves are real, a few minutes of silence is more comforting than trying to force the information on them.”
Lindsey sat there like a fool with her mouth opened. A werewolf?
“If I know my lore, you guys only change at night, when I left this morning you were not a human, I would have noticed,” she said, her eyes drifting to where the jeans were bulging out.
He smiled at her once more, “you are very smart. My kind can only change, or shift, when we have the strength to do so. This morning, I did not have the strength to shift but for us to be in our animal form during the day is unnatural. While we can control what state we are in with the moon out, we cannot become our animal selves during the day. When I shifted this morning, it was very slow and painful. Like your body trying to heal itself but you have no more energy to do so. Does this make sense Lindsey?”
Pursuit: A Bad Boy Romance Page 48
