Medic and the Wolf

Sorrow

Kate

I woke up in a daze smelling honeysuckles all around me. I’m warm and cozy. I looked around the room and didn't recognize it. The sun isn’t up yet. I hear soft breathing next to me. I freeze trying to remember what happened yesterday. I look down and see I’m in a big T-shirt, obviously not mine. I slowly turned and saw Jake's face soft and relaxed like no care in the world. I slipped out of bed and looked around the room for my bag. I can't find it. I start to panic a bit. Then I see I have a splint on my arm. Did I hurt it? It doesn't hurt now though. I try to remember yesterday… Then it hit me like a ton of bricks, the fight with Jake, the flood and losing the pup. I closed my eyes tight at the last thought. Taking a few deep breaths, I held back the tears. I remember my bag in my car with close in it and my keys. I padded quietly out of the room so not to wake Jake up. Looking down the hallway, I realized I was at the station. I made my way down the stairs looking for any of the on-duty crew so I could avoid them. I peeked around the corner and saw the coast was clear and made my way to the back door. I’m about to pass the dispatch room and stop at the sound of voices. I look in the window and see they are turned to the screens. I duck down below the window so they won't see me and I won't have to try and answer embarrassing questions. I duck walked past and out the door and sprint to my car. I slip on a pair of shorts under the oversized T-shirt and drove to my hotel room.

I get into my room and take a shower. I’m washing my hair when everything hits me again and I sob my eyes out. I cry for that little pup, for what might have been, for his brother and sister, for his mother who will never know what happened to her babies. I cry for him because he didn’t have enough time in this world and I cry for myself. I lost another one. No this time it wasn't a person, but every life is special and hurts just the same. With a heavy heart, I finish and slide into bed, I close my eyes and let the darkness take me.

Kate Kate.. I hear my mom's voice calling me. I open my eyes and groan, the sun is shining bright through the window. I saw her standing at the door of my room.

“ It’s time to get up, it's late and you have work, don't you?”

“ No mom I’m off today” I groaned again, pulling a pillow over my face.

“ Oh sorry go back to sleep then” she says with a giggle and leaves.

I swear she loves doing that to me.. I lay there thinking about doing just that when the smell of bacon and eggs hit my nose. I’m UP, I think to myself. I go downstairs and see her in the kitchen making breakfast. My son is there too, smiling and joking with her. I sat down at the table with my cup of coffee just enjoying the banter going back and forth. All of a sudden, everything shifts… Mom is on the floor unconscious with blood coming out her mouth. I’m doing CPR trying to save her, waiting for the ambulance to come. They finally arrive and put pads on her chest to see if she has a heartbeat. She doesn't, they continue CPR, give her medication and shock her a few times. I’m in the corner watching all this horrified. After a while, they stop…. Why are you stopping? I yelled at them. They looked at me with pity in their eyes and I knew, I knew why, I just couldn't bear to hear it. NO,NO,NO. I screamed at them. DO SOMETHING. GET HER BACK!!!! They just put their heads down. I know they can't, I just can't acknowledge it. It felt like my heart stopped and I couldn't breathe.

I woke up with a jolt, my heart racing and gulping for air, trying to fill my lungs. I’m shaking and sweating. I haven’t had a nightmare in a while. The sunlight peeking around the curtains looks bright. I look at the clock and see it’s late, too late to go to training. I don't have it in me to even go anyway. I go to the bathroom to wash up and huff at myself when I see myself in the mirror. The dark circles under my eyes are back and I’m looking pale again. I decide I’m too tired to do anything, so I go back to bed, praying for a dreamless sleep.

Jake

I woke up to sunlight shining in my face. I kept my eyes closed, not wanting to face the day. I reached next to me but only felt the empty bed. My eyes flew open and saw she was gone. I hauled myself out of bed with a huff. Why didn't she wake me? Muttering, I go into the men's locker room, wash up and start the day. I’m sure she will not miss training today and I’ll ask her.

I made my way down to the kitchen to say good morning to the crew. I sat down at a table with Troy, Sam and Ron. I take a sip of my coffee, I look at their faces and notice they have a stupid grin on. My face screws up in confusion, “ So what's up guys?” Troy winks at me and the other two lower their heads, blushing.

“ What was that for?”

“Soooo how was last night?” Troy is the only one brave enough to ask, maybe because we have been best friends since we were pups.

“What do you mean by that?” I asked in a low growl. I know full well what he is applying.

He gave a boyish grin. “ You spent the night with Kate, how was it?”

“ It was fine,” I stated through gritted teeth.

As I got up to get another cup of coffee, the nurse that treated Kate the night before came rushing in. She caught the attention of everyone in the room. She stops right in front of me. “Sir is Ms. Stone still upstairs?” She had a concerned look on her face. I nodded my head no. She huffs, scanning the room for her. When she doesn't see her she looks me straight in the eye, which is out of character for her. “ WHERE IS SHE?” she asked out loud. I raised an eyebrow at her. She tells me to follow her, I’m hot on her tail and Troy is on mine, he is my second in command.

We reached her office and she handed me some papers. I look at them, it’s lab work. I look at the nurse not understanding. “ Thats Ms. Stones labs” she stated, like I’m supposed to know what it means. My confused look still on my face she elaborates.

“ Remember I drew some blood from her to check if she was healthy? Everything came back normal for a human.. Except this” She tapps to one line. “ This comes up as a recessive trait, a wolf trait. We ran wolf tests this time.” She handed me another paper. “ As you can see, nothing came up but this.. It’s a marker. It looked recessive many generations ago. This number should not be this high for being that old.” She takes a deep breath, her brows furrowed in a deep line. “ I don't believe she is a wolf, she doesn't have any other wolf marker but this ancient one. But I’m not completely convinced she is only human either.”

“ Do you know what this is?”

“ Not entirely. I would like to send it to a friend of mine who is one of the top geno scientists in the country. He will keep this private, knowing the information could be dangerous for the pack.”

“ How can this be dangerous for the pack and what do you need from Kate?”

“ Well, we don't know what this is and can’t take the chance of other packs finding out until we do. We don't know if she has any mystical abilities or not and we can't be sure if she is a danger to us or not. What I need from her is her family lineage. I haven't been able to find anything out about her at all. Not on Google, newspapers or any search engine, it’s like she doesn't exist.”

I listen very carefully to everything she has told me. ‘What can this mean? Should I ask the counsel about this? They know about all the prophecies and strange things like that. But then they will want to know who it is and take her away from me. I can't let that happen. She is my mate whether she knows it or not and my duty to her is to protect her even from the council themselves. So how can I keep the pack safe and her safe? If she does have mystic abilities, then she might not know about them and I can use that to our advantage.’

“ Send it to your friend and make sure he keeps it TOP SECRET. I don't want this getting out to anybody, not even the council . Redact her name off the file and tests just put Jane Doe and wipe the computer. I’ll start doing research on her and see what I can find. NO ONE is to know only us in this room. Keep as much info from your friend as possible.”

They both nodded at me in understanding. It’s time for us to start the class, Troy and I go to the classroom to start the day. Everyone is here except Kate, it is past the start of the day and she is usually early, so for her not to be here is unusual. I’m just hoping she overslept and will be joining us soon.

It’s now lunch time and Kate has not shown up. The rest of the class had started to voice their concerns. I had to tell them I gave her the day off to calm them down. It seems everyone has gotten attached to her without her even knowing. I show calm on the outside, but on the inside I'm very worried. I had Troy try to call her a few times away from the class. He got no answer. During our break, I tried calling her and it went straight to voicemail. The concern and anxiety rose in me. I have no other choice. I sent Sam and Ron to go by her hotel and see if she was there. We will continue with the day as scheduled.

A while later, Sam and Ron come back. I see their heads are hung low and won't meet my eye. I walk over to them agitated, all I want is for them to tell me she is OK. After standing in front of them for a long minute, they look at the ground. “Well” I say motioning for them to speak. It was Ron who started.

“ She’s not there Sir.”

My face turned red and fists clenched at my sides, “What do you mean she's not there? Did she leave?”

Sam this time states “ She never checked into the hotel we use for the students. We checked a few others in the area but came up with the same thing. We don't know where she is staying Sir.”

I am infuriated!! Why is she not in the same place as the others? That's the only reason I didn't worry about her at first, thinking the others would be there and looking out for her. But if she was never staying there to begin with, then where has she been staying? I think to myself as I chew on the inside of my cheek. I let out a huff and walked to my office. I had no choice but to call her Chief and see where she was put up at.

I sit behind my desk and get her file out. Looking through it, I still cant believe her bio of s*x and age is not filled out along with no pitchure. I looked for her station contact and saw Chief Wills' name and number. I settled in my chair and dialed the number. RING RING…

“ Station 4 Steve speaking, how can I help you?”

“ Yes, I would like to speak to Chief Wills please.”

“ I’m sorry Chief is in a meeting right now. Can I take a message and number?”

“ No, this is Jake Hayes from Southern Rescue Squad…”

“ Oh yes how's our girl doing down there?” he cut me off with a high-pitched chirpy voice. My hand clenches the phone, I don't like to be interrupted and I don't like how he said OUR GIRL.

I grit my teeth, “ That's what I need to speak to the Chief about. Can you get him out of the meeting? Tell him it’s very important.” I’m trying to stay calm and professional.

“ Is she ok? Is she hurt?” I cut him off “ GET THE CHIEF ON THE PHONE NOW!!!!”

I hear a clunk and background noise. After a few minutes, I was told he would pick up the call from his office.

“ This is Chief Wills.”

“ Hello Chief, this is Jake Hayes from the…”

“ Yes, yes I know who you are, is Stone OK?” he cuts in. I can hear the concern in his voice.

“ That’s what I’m trying to find out. She didn’t report to training today and was not answering her phone. Where did you arrange for her to stay? She’s not at the place we use for the trainees.”

“ HMM.. Did something happen?”

“ Yes, yesterday. What hotel is she staying at so we can check on her.” I repeated my question, staying calm.

“ What happened yesterday?”

“ Why won't you answer my question, Chief?” Now I’m getting more agitated.

“ I will once I know what happened. Stone is very complicated and how to handle what's going on now all depends on what happened yesterday. I don't want to tell you her whereabouts, so you can hang up on me and not know what to do for her.”

I stay quiet thinking about this. He does seem very concerned about her. Maybe he will know….

“ Can I ask how long you have known Stone for?” I had a serious tone.

“ Oh son, I have known her for ten years. I know everything about her before and after. Now, if I didn’t know any better, then I would say you sound like a jealous boyfriend”, he says with a chuckle in his voice.

“ We had a loss yesterday,” I said, not wanting to go into too much detail.

I heard him suck in a breath. “ Tell me everything” in a deadly serious tone.

“ We were out for training, water rescue. Stone and I were upstream from the group and a flash flood hit. That's not unusual for here, but it was bigger than normal. We saw some wolf pups trapped in the water”... I heard him take a sharp breath but not say anything. “ She was the first one in the water jumping from a high tree we were stuck in. I followed and was able to reach them. As a line was thrown to us, a pup slipped from her grasp. She continued to land and I went to the pup. By the time we were able to get him to land, he wasn't breathing. She took him from me and worked on him for a long time. She wouldn’t give up even when we all lost hope. She kept going, pushing through her exhaustion until she finally realized it was too late.” I close my eyes, seeing the scene all over again in my mind, a pang of pain hits my heart.

“ I see,” he says, and silence follows. After a few minutes, I ask if he was still there.

“ Yes, yes, I’m still here. A wolf, you say?” he asked in a whisper like he was thinking.

“ Yes, a wolf pup, a runt from it;s siblings.”

“ Oh boy, OK son, this is what you need to know and understand about Stone…. She is a very good Medic. I have seen her bring back the hopeless with hardly any equipment. She earned the nickname the ‘Grave Robber’ for stealing people who should be in a grave and not. Until the virus hit.. , Since the virus, no matter what she does, she always ends up with the worst of the worse, even with her talents there is no saving them. It’s like she has become a magnet for them. I even pulled every Medics stats to see if it was our imagination, but it’s not, she has had all the lost causes of the city and it gets to her. That's why I sent her down there for a break from all this.” He lets out a long breath. “ Stone is a very tough person, she can handle anything that comes her way, but she also has a very sensitive soul. She takes on everyone's hurt and sorrow into herself. She will need a few days for her to process this, especially if it is a wolf. Since she is down there away from her family, someone will have to watch her, make sure she eats and washes up. She won't do it for herself. All she will do is sleep and stay in bed.”

As I listen to him, my heart clenches and my eyes get glassy. I feel for my mate hearing how much pain she has been in. Then a question pops into my head. “What do you mean, especially since it was a wolf?”

“ For as long as I have known her she has always cherished wolves. She says they are her spirit animal and has even camped in an area with high numbers of them. She said it was like being home. I don't understand it myself but she loved it… She is staying at the High Water Hotel to make sure you take food with you. I doubt she has eaten today.”

My eyes pop wide when he says the name. That's a wolf hotel and only caters to wolves. How the hell did she get a room there? I bid him goodbye but not before promising to keep him updated. I updated Troy before jumping into my Jeep and heading over to the hotel. I stop at a dinner close to the hotel to pick up food for her. I get a few different options since I don't know what she likes yet. I walked to the front desk with the bags in hand and asked for her room number and a spare key. They gave me the room number but hesitated about the key. They finally do after explaining the situation to them. I headed to the elevator and pushed the number for her floor. I note she is almost at the top floor. As the elevator climbs the floors, my anxiety increases. I step off into the hallway and see a few male wolves sniffing at a door at the end. I think a female in heat has locked herself in until it passes. As I search for Kate's room, I get closer and closer to the other males. They start to growl thinking I’m competition. Then her sweet scent hits me, it smells so strong and coming from the room they are sniffing. I stopped and let out a low growl to warn them. They stand their ground flashing their canines at me. I drop the bags and hold my stance ready for anything they will give me. I let loose a death rattle growl from deep in my chest, my canine's flashing claws came out and my eyes glowed. “ Leave or you will die” I clearly stated. They are weaker than me, they know they are no match for me. They put their heads down in submission and back away. I wait for them to be completely gone before heading to the door.