Wounded (Dogs of War MC Book One) (2 page)

“Ok, ok, easy now, I’ve got you,” she helped him get on his feet but he did most of the work himself, “Steady now boy, just a little lift into the Jeep and I’ll get you home and all fixed up, come on, come on.” Amazingly, it was as if he understood what she wanted, he got himself mostly into the back with very little effort on her part. Which was good, considering she’d probably have thrown her back out trying to pick him up, not to mention the pain her inevitably clumsiness would have caused him. Maybe he could sense that she wanted to help him. “Alright brave boy, we’ll get you straightened out,” she patted him quickly before closing the hatch. Now all she had to do was get him home, unload him, get him into the house, sew him up, bandage him, and spend the rest of the night worried he was going to tear her throat out in her sleep. Easy peasy.

The second half of her nightly commute was considerably more interesting than the first half. She’d driven very slowly since every bump or turn she made caused a whine of pain to emit from behind, reminding her that she had a very large patient in the backseat, and bumps were hard to avoid. The old Jeep wasn’t known for its superior shocks, after all.

Getting him in her house had been easier than she’d thought it would be, again he seemed to sense what it was she wanted from him and only needed minimal help getting himself out of the backseat and into her kitchen, where he was taking up the majority of the floor and panting heavily. The short walk had probably taken the last of his energy. Watching him limp into the house, whimpering with each step almost brought her to tears. He was trying so hard.

“It’s alright now boy, we’ll get you fixed up,” his golden eyes stared up at her, full of what she imagined was trust and thanks. She had a problem with anthropomorphizing her patients but she couldn’t shake the feeling that this one really was different. Be-gloved, sterilized and surrounded with all of the equipment she could scrounge up from around her house and car, she began a more thorough examination. Broken leg, probably broken ribs like she’d guessed, and large gashes around his throat area and stomach. Her immediate assumption had been that he’d been hit by a car, but that was wrong, he had been in a fight. What in the world could do this much damage to an animal this size? He must have gotten away and collapsed on the road, his body just too beat up to continue.

After she’d given him a good dose of pain medicine, she began talking to him as she gently cleaned his wounds and sewed them up. Working slowly and steadily, she hoped she wasn’t causing him any more pain than necessary.

“You know you really shouldn’t be fighting anything big enough to harm
you
. Who’d you pick a fight with? Big Foot? The Abominable Snowman? Godzilla? You should be at the very tippy top of the food chain and yet here you are, broken and bleeding all over my kitchen floor. It’s a shame really, that good sense and size in mammals doesn’t have a higher correlation.”

Finished with her ministrations she rubbed his head between his ears, his eyes blinking as he fought off unconsciousness. “You really are a beautiful boy, with all this red and cream hair. Cleaned up you’re probably a sight to see, majestic as hell, king of the mountain, hmm?” He made a sound deep in his throat, “Oh you like that description do you? Well, next time try not getting your ass kicked and laying down in the middle of the road where someone without the compassion of a saint might run right over you without a thought in the world.”

Sidney stood up and surveyed herself and her surroundings. She was covered in blood and wolf hair and so was everything else in the kitchen. Letting out a huff, she started cleaning up the mess strewn around the large sleeping shape on the floor, “No good deed goes unpunished I guess.” 

Showering had felt marvelous after such an exhausting, and dirty, experience. She wrapped a big fluffy towel around herself and another one around her hair and walked into the kitchen to check on her patient. He was still lying on the floor but upright instead of on his side, his eyes alert and on her. A shiver of fear raced down her spine. How stupid was she to have brought a wild animal, a wolf, into her house? Very, she concluded. She was a very very stupid girl. The pain medicine she’d given him should have knocked him out for at least half the night, but obviously she hadn’t given him a large enough dose, because it had only been an hour since she last checked on him and he was fully alert. It was hard to gauge for an animal that size when she was used to treating 25lb yippee dogs and 35lb lazy cats. At least he still had the muzzle on.

“Um, hey there buddy, awake already?” He wagged his tail. “So you must be thirsty huh? Maybe a little hungry too?” Did she dare take the muzzle of to let him eat? Did she dare let him get hungry while he was in her house? She pondered her choices. She would definitely take a full wolf in her house over a hungry one. Careful not to make any sudden movements, she walked around him to the freezer and shuffled through the pitiful contents. Among the graveyard of half eaten pints of ice cream and unwanted Lean Gourmet dinners, she found one pound of ground beef, a solitary chicken breast, and some fish sticks. Well it’d have to do, she pulled it all out and laid it on the counter, at least she’d given up on being a vegetarian in high school or she’d really have a problem.

“Well it’s not fresh off the bone and bloody, but microwaved and lukewarm will have to do for you tonight.” She unwrapped the food and deposited it all on a plate before shoving it in the microwave. Leaning against the counter while she waited, she studied the wolf and the wolf studied her.

“I don’t know what I’m going to do with you. I can’t keep you here and when you’re better I can’t just release you into a neighborhood full of people. And tasty children.” What was she going to do with him? She should think things through better before acting so impulsively, this lesson, if nothing else, should have hit home by now.

“Maybe I can teach you how to do tricks and sell you to the circus. Can you sit?” The wolf seemed to quirk an eyebrow and painstakingly raised himself into a sitting position.

Sidney gaped. Was that a coincidence or did this freaking oversized dire wolf just obey a command. “Are you being serious with me right now wolf? Because this is nothing to joke about.” The wolf sat there staring back at her. “Okay, can you shake?” She lowered her hand in the universal ‘shake’ gesture and he shifted the weight on his haunches and put his massive paw in her hand. Slack jawed she stared at him and it all began to make sense in her head. How easily he had trusted her and followed her to the car, then into her house, how calm he had been when she’d treated his wounds, even now, how patiently he was waiting to be fed and tried his best to obey her commands, even while he was hurt. Fury surged through her body, the wolf noticed it and his body tensed. She dropped his paw and tried to calm herself. “Its ok wolf,” she reassured him as she sank down to her knees and looked him directly in his huge glittering eyes. As she slipped her hands around the back of his head and unbuckled the muzzle she made him a promise, “Nobody will ever hurt you again, not while I’m around. No more fighting dogs for someone’s sick entertainment, you’ll be free soon.”

Sidney had had a rough night. Sleep had eluded her as she lie awake thinking about the vile humans who had used the wolf as entertainment. She wondered how many dogs they’d had to put into the ring with him to injure him so badly. How many dogs had died because they wanted to watch two animals tear each other apart? So that they could bet on the lives of noble creatures who were just doing their best to obey, even if it cost them their lives. She had tossed and turned, furious with being the same species as the filth that would do something so low to another living creature. In Sidney’s mind all living things were brothers and sisters but she just wished some of them weren’t such jackasses. Some humans, some monkeys, some dolphins… jackasses. It seemed like the smarter a species got the more likelihood you had of producing a douchebag.

The wolf had slept peacefully on her kitchen floor, or so she guessed, she hadn’t heard anything out of him overnight. She’d left him unmuzzled but had locked the kitchen door in a last bid effort to restrain herself from her own stupidity. When she had taken him out that morning, with a pitiful leash made out of two belts, he’d seemed fine. He had trotted as best he could with his bandaged leg and sore ribs, and went back into the house without incident. Hopefully he hadn’t destroyed the house while she’d been at work, she felt herself getting jittery as she approached her door. She’d given him all the food she could scrounge up for breakfast but he hadn’t had anything since and her arms were full of the raw meat she’d bought for his dinner.

Cracking the door open slightly she peeked inside. Everything looked ok, the kitchen cabinets hadn’t been ripped off the hinges, no signs of a mad wolf demolishing everything in sight… but also no sight of a wolf at all. She gasped and hurried in, realizing she had left the door to the rest of the house unlocked and her bedroom window was open. Throwing all of her purchases on the counter she made a mad dash towards her bedroom only to come up short when she found the wolf sitting beside the couch looking for all the world like she’d just caught him being naughty.

“What are you doing in here? How in the hell did you open the kitchen door? With your mouth?” scooting closer to him she held out her hand, palm down, she meant no threat at all to this big boy. He nuzzled her hand and wagged his tail looking like nothing more than an overgrown dog. Sitting down on the couch she ran a hand up his neck, moving hair around so she could see his wounds. Amazingly they were healing much more rapidly than was expected or normal. She started to comment on it when she noticed the clumps of hair and dirt on her beige couch. So that’s why he looked guilty. She grinned at him and his tongue lolled out of his mouth, she couldn’t begrudge a sick creature any comfort they could find, even if it meant spending a couple of hours vacuuming and disinfecting the couch.

“If you’re going to be lounging around on my furniture, you big boy, are going to have to have a bath.” His tail thumped enthusiastically in agreement, or at least that was her interpretation. “Let’s have dinner first and then we’ll give you a good scrub,” and without further prodding he was off to the kitchen. She stared after him amazed. What person would take the time to socialize an animal so thoroughly that it knew the word dinner meant food and felt guilty about sitting on a sofa and then throw it into a ring to fight for its life? Shaking her head she followed him into the kitchen.

After watching him gobble up a five pound hamburger, cooked just this side of raw, she told him to get in the tub and he hoped in without complaint. Sidney just marveled at him as she worked the Dawn dish detergent into his fur.  “If you’re going to stay I’m going to have to call you something other than ‘Boy’ or ‘Wolf’ won’t I?” Stay? How had that thought crept into her brain? She lathered him up again, being extra careful around his wounds, and mulled over the thought of keeping a half ton dog in her house. It would be different, but not bad, maybe it’d take away some of the ache of being new and friendless. “But you don’t want to stay do you boy? You want to roam wild and free through the hills, running deer and scaring the bejesus out of hunters. That’s the life you need.” His cold nose touched her cheek and soon after a huge, rough and wet tongue slurped against the side of her face. She crinkled her nose as she shrugged, wiping her face against the fabric of her shirt, “Ewww. Wolf kisses. You better not have the hydrophoby. I’d hate to have to put you down like Old Yeller. Come on, hop out and let me dry you off.” She was beginning to take for granted that he was going to do what she said, and wasn’t surprised at all when he hopped out of the tub directly onto the towel she’d laid on the floor. She just shook her head, he was obviously a mind reader. She might need to call the Dog Psychic and make an appointment.