Vicious growls yanked her from sleep. Elise sat up so fast, she knocked Mr. Darcy off her stomach. A look outside showed a pack of dogs attacking an animal.
She rushed to the door and banged her hands on the doorjamb to break up the fight, but none of the animals heard her over the commotion. Then she spotted black fur and realized the pack was attacking the black dog she’d seen before.
The danger didn’t even enter her mind when she grabbed the shotgun from atop her fridge and rushed from the house into the rain. She yelled, but nothing seemed to get the dogs’ attention. Then she fired off a shot into the ground, not to hit the animals, but to hopefully scare them off.
It worked. At least, it did at first. Then a few of the dogs returned to the black one.
“Get out of here!” she yelled and aimed the gun towards the pack, firing into the ground again.
She didn’t want to kill any of the animals, but she would if they didn’t give her a choice. Thankfully, after the second shot, they ran off into the woods.
Elise shook the water from her face but kept her gaze on the woods in case the pack returned. Out of the corner of her eye, she saw the black dog collapse. She’d known he was large, but up close, he was massive. By the look of him, he had some wolf in him.
Yet the longer she looked, the more wolf she saw in his features. But that couldn’t be right. Wolves weren’t native to the area. After her months spent at a wolf conservatory, she knew the animals, and she was looking at a damn wolf.
After several minutes of quiet, she glanced around for any sign of the others. The animal was unconscious, his breathing shallow, and wounds all over him.
She couldn’t leave him out there since she needed to tend to his injuries, but getting a wolf into her house and the room she worked out of would be difficult. Not to mention that if he woke, she might not make it out of the situation alive.
Since she didn’t know the extent of his wounds, she didn’t want to give him a tranquilizer. Which left her few options.
Elise was about to go in and call someone for help when she happened to glance at the water. The rain had caused her to miss the slight ripples, but she spotted the eyes of a gator as it swam toward them. She glanced at the wolf and saw that his back legs were in the bayou.
“Well, shit,” she said and set down her gun to grab hold of him beneath his shoulders to pull his body out of the water and safely onto land, far enough away that hopefully, the alligator wouldn’t follow. She saw the blood pooling from wounds on his back leg that had filled the water with smells the gator couldn’t resist.
She took a chance and continued backing up toward her porch, glancing over her shoulder to check on her progress every few seconds—not to mention keeping an eye on the wolf while praying he didn’t wake and bite her.
When she finally reached the side door that she had put in to lead into the second bedroom that she’d converted for her work, she gently released the animal and leaned against the house for a second to catch her breath before rushing to get her gun.
She was soaked—with both rain and sweat. The wolf was incredibly heavy. She had no idea how she was going to get him up the steps and into the house without waking him.
After taking a few gulping breaths to calm her racing heart, she knew she had to do something before the wolf woke. Elise opened the side door and leaned her gun against the wall as she looked around for anything she could use to get him inside.
Her shoes slipped on the floor, causing her to bang into the stainless steel table. She winced and pushed the button on the side to lower it to the floor. Then she rushed back outside. It would be so much easier if someone were there to help her carry the animal inside.
She was reaching for the wolf when a howl split the air. Elise stood frozen, chills racing over her skin. A moment later, several more howls joined the first. By the sound of them, the pack had surrounded her house.
Swallowing, she lowered her gaze to the animal at her feet. This wasn’t her first time working on wild creatures. She’d gone to Montana to help the local wolf sanctuary with the animals for several summers, also helping the ones roaming the wilderness.
But she was never alone.
After so many years working on farm animals and pets, Elise found her hands shaking. She fisted them and took a deep breath. She could do this, but she had to move quickly because when the animal woke, he would tear through everything.
She bent to grab the animal when the fur began to recede—replaced by skin. Before her eyes, the black wolf changed into a man.
Startled, Elise stepped backward. Her heel caught the edge of the steps, and she began to fall. She waved her arms to right herself, but the next thing she knew, she was on the ground with rain pounding her face.
She hurriedly rolled onto her side and looked at the wolf/man. Thankfully, he was still unconscious.
A howl, closer than any of the others, caused her to jerk in fear. She jumped up and hooked her arms beneath the man’s arms and unceremoniously pulled him inside the house.