Medic and the Wolf

The hike

We are a few hours into the hike, Jake has been leading us up and down hill, sometimes on a trail and other times off trail. I kept to the back of the group. In my mind I have been estimating the altitude. Most guys are slowing down, regretting having such a heavy meal before starting. I slow my pace to match theirs. There are three instructors besides Jake with us, they are scattered throughout the group. I start getting the feeling we’re being watched. I scan the trees around us more than I have been doing. I caught the attention of the blond-haired instructor who was a few steps ahead of me.

“ Are you getting nervous?” he asked slowly, to walk beside me.

“ No” I replied.

“Then why do you keep looking around?”

“Just keeping an eye out” is all I say. I don't want to tell him I feel eyes on us.

I hear something behind us just off to the right. I look and see nothing but high grass and trees. I stop making it look like I need a break, but really I scan the area. I see the tops of a clump of grass moving slightly, there is no wind at the moment and it's just one small area. I keep focusing on it while the rest of the group continues on. I see the tips of dark brown ears, then part of a white curly tail, it’s moving slowly towards the group. I screamed out WOLF to the group. They turned to look at me instead of the danger.

The wolf then sprints to them. A second later, dropping my bag, I sprinted towards the wolf. The only thing I have to defend myself with is a hunting knife with a compass on the hilt on my waist. The group scatters to higher ground under the direction of Jake. As I closed in on the wolf, I dropped my shoulder and slammed into its side, knocking both of us to the ground. I scrambled as fast as I can to my feet and now I’m face to face with the wolf. It growls at me, showing its teeth. I’m in a fighting stance with my arms out wide and body low, it starts to circle me, staring right into my eyes.

Jake and the other instructors get the rest of the group to safety and make sure there isn't a pack waiting to pounce. By the time they got back to me, the wolf had already lunged at me. I duck down low and let it fly over me.

“ Hey wolfy, I don't want to hurt you, why don't you run along now?”

His ears slightly twitched.

“ I’m skinny, not a lot of meat on my bones, plus I don't taste so good.”

I hear someone yell ‘pull your knife’ just as he lunges again. This time, when I duck low, I wait for him to be over me, just then I punch up with everything I have landing the blow on his soft stomach. I hear a high pitched whine, then a low rumbling growl. He falls to the ground with a thud, lying there for a few minutes. He slowly gets up then trotts off into the woods. I took a deep breath and fell to the ground.

Jake

It’s the day before the start of the training, I’m checking on everything and tying up loose ends when I hear some of the men talking about some lady. Now this isn't strange, they talk about their girls all the time, but what got my ear is when they said she came out of the North Trail. I stop and inquire about it.

“ Ronny, you were on patrol last night, right?”

“Yes Sir”

“Did you see anything unusual?”

“Yes, I wrote a report about it but I’m still confused over it.”

“Well, what was it?”

“ Sam and I were doing our rounds at sunset. We saw an unknown car in the parking lot of the hiking trails on the north side, as we were checking it against the slips thinking someone might be lost. A lady comes tearing ass out of the North Trail. We go to her on alert thinking an animal is chasing her, but no. She just tells us she was racing the light then walked away giggling to herself. We were very confused over the whole thing.”

I listened and thought maybe time got away from her and she didn't want to be in the woods when it got dark.

“ So what are you confused about?”

“She's HUMAN”

I’m shocked… The North Trail is a protected area for werewolves. It's a safe place for us to shift out of the eyes of humans and leads to a healing lake. The lake holds healing properties, emotional and physical. No humans were able to see it, let alone be able to travel it. This is confusing indeed.

“ Are you sure she was a human?”

“Yes Sir, that's why I wrote the report.”

“OK, will you be able to recognize her if you see her again?”

“Yes Sir”

“ Keep an eye out and report to me as soon as you do, I don't care where or what time. Hold her until I come.”

“Yes Sir”

I go into my office to call the witch that originally cast the protection spell, maybe it wore off. This has to be fixed immediately. She assures me that is not possible but she will go check herself, I hope the counsel doesn't hear about this until I get answers.

The next morning, everyone arrives while I’m going over some last details with Troy. He's my #1 Instructor and will be taking over my spot if need be. There is light chatter in the room as everyone is introducing themselves. I looked and only saw ten men, still missing one. The radio goes off and Ronny’s voice comes through.

“ Jake Sir, I have a visitor at the East Gate stating she's here for training. IT'S HER.”

Troy raised an eyebrow at me with a silent question. I tell him I’m on the way to keep her there. How did she get to the gate? That's not for humans and everyone else came in from the south. A girl? I'm waiting for a man… I jump in the jeep with some security and ask a few to shift and be in the woods just in case. As we approached the gate, my wolf was getting excited and stirring around at the back of my head.

I jump out and go to Ronny in the shack, then I smell it… LAVENDER my wolf howls. Ronny tells me this is her that came out of the North Trail. I walked over to her car and asked if I could help her, the smell was so strong I had a hard time concentrating.

“ I’m here for training.”

My wolf growls even he knows our training is hard and dangerous, it's not for everyone and even the best get hurt or worse. It’s definitely not for our MATE. I try and discourage her so she would leave, it only makes her mad and gets out of the car. As she's standing in front of me asking questions, all I can do is stare at her beautiful face with her intoxicating scent swirling around me. She has flawless pale skin, bright blue eyes surrounded by dark lashes, her lips are pink plump and a bit pouty,oh how much I want to kiss them right now. Her dark hair is pulled back in a french braid and how it shines in the sun, almost looks like she is wearing a crown on her head. Finally, I cave and have her pull through. I had her checked by the two who were shifted. To her it looks like a security check, but what I'm looking for is if she is human or not. They finish and link me that she definitely smells human.

We continue on to the station, as I’m leading her to the classroom. I keep glancing at her from the side of my eye. How can I let her do this? I’m knowingly putting her in danger. Maybe she won't be as good as I thought and fail out. I won't make it easy for her, but I’ll have the staff keep an extra eye on her.

We walked into the classroom and I went to Troy. I'm filling him in on the situation of her being my mate. I heard a deep voice tell her she might be lost. My wolf stands at attention, not liking how he is talking to our mate. I keep calm and wait to see what happens. Then the cat calls, CAT CALLS to MY MATE! I’m furious, so is Troy. I spin around and stalk the guy with my fists clenched, it’s all I can do from ripping his head off. When I kick him out, I glance at her and she doesn't seem to be fazed by my anger, starting the class.

At lunch, I go into the kitchen to see all the men chatting and eating heavy meals. They're gonna regret that, I think to myself. I scanned the room for her. She's nowhere in sight, her scent is light. She was here, I followed it and found her outside sitting in the shade. I try to make conversation with her but she's not having any of it. All I’m getting is short answers and being accused of taking a harness. Sometimes we will do that to see how much they pay attention to their equipment, but I didn't order that for this class. I have to check on that. Seeing that she isn't interested in talking, I go to do that even though I’m frustrated, but I’m also happy. She smells me too, I don't care if she thinks it's a plant or not. She can smell my scent.

I had a meeting with the staff and asked about the harness. Everyone reassured me they did no such thing. We go over the details of the hike and climbing. One of the guys asked about the missing harness and if Stone would be participating in the climbing.

“ Let's see what she will do about it first. She if she comes up with a solution or bows out. But bring an extra one with us to be safe.”

They all nod and gather the group. Everything has gone smoothly. We have been hiking for a few hours and now the men are getting tired. I start leading them to the clif where we are gonna climb to save a stranded rock climber. The breeze is blowing head on so I can smell any danger from ahead. All of a sudden, I hear WOLF being screamed. I turned in time to see my mate drop her bag. I ordered everyone to higher ground and was about to confront the wolf that started charging at us. Everyone ran but the one who was in the wolf's sight. I grab him and pushed him with the others. I hear a sweet voice sing song in the air,

“Hey Wolfie, I don't want to hurt you”

The staff and I all went back. My mate is now in the line of fire! I saw her evade the first attack. My breath is stuck in my throat. I can’t breathe, we can't shift from all the humans here. They are watching the entire thing. We started to surround them. The wolf lunges again. She ducks down and delivers a powerful blow to his underside. I let a loud growl rip from deep in my chest. The wolf staggers off and I run to my mate, terrified that she is hurt. We lock eyes, then she falls to the ground. I’m by her side in a flash assessing her for any injuries. I checked her legs. She started to giggle. We looked at her confused.

“That tickles, I’m fine.”

I keep going checking everything I get to her arm and see a slight bruise on her hand from punching the wolf. I frown at it, palpating it for broken bones. I don't feel any, but that doesn't mean it's not. She flexes her hand into a fist as if she's checking it as well. The rest of the guys come down to see if she is OK.

“Stone OMG are you OK? That was the most amazing thing I have ever seen, `` one guy said.

“Holy s**t girl you're not dead” was another.

I, on the other hand, was not excited about what just happened. I sent a link to security filling them in on the incident and to send search parties for this wolf. He has a lot of explaining to do.

“What the hell do you think you were doing? You could have gotten yourself killed?” I asked her.

She looks up at me “ AWWW you do care” sarcastically.

I glared at her, not amused at all. She huffs.

“ Saving your ASS. Your welcome”

I looked at her shocked, it was true we didn't see him or smell him. She was the one who alerted us to the danger and kept him occupied so the group could get to safety. I let out a huff as she jumped up to her feet and collected her bag.

“Are you able to continue on?”

“Yes, are you asking that cuz I’m a GIRL?”

Just as she says that, my heart has a ping of pain. I offended her… again…. I shake my head, stand up and get the group moving. I link Troy to stay with her and if there's any problems or, anything wrong with her, to let me know immediately.