give it a try because she couldn’t let the poor creature lay out
here with an injured leg. They were at the top of the food chain, but still,
another car might hit him, or as a lone wolf and clearly injured, he might fall
prey to a pack.
“I’m
going to take you to the place where I work and we’ll fix you up.” She took off
her coat and laid it flat on the road. “This might hurt but it’s for the best.”
Ally
pulled his body toward her and the coat, hearing him yelp and whimper. She
hoped with a little luck she could merely slide him onto it without having to
lift him. She’d save her energy for getting him into the car.
“Sorry,
so sorry,” she said. He was so big his body wouldn’t even fit on her plus size
clothing, but she did the best she could and slowly pulled him around to the
side of the car and opened the back door. How she was going to get this big
beast up and onto the seat, she didn’t know, but she’d gotten him this far and
she wasn’t going to give up now.
Ally
leaned over and lifted the edge of her coat upward at the same time she put her
arms around his neck.
“Hold
tight.”
She
gradually lifted him up. Half his body was now on the seat, but unfortunately,
a bigger portion was still outside. He yelped one more time as she managed to lift
the rest of his body up and in. She ran around to the other side of the car,
opened the door, put her knee on the seat, and gently pulled so he was now
safely placed on the back seat.
Blanket.
She needed to keep the poor creature warm because he was probably in shock. She
knew she would be if she’d been hit by a car. She kept one in the trunk of her
car just in case she got stranded during a snowstorm.
“I’ll
be right back.”
It
wasn’t unusual for her to talk to all her research animals, but something about
this one told her he understood everything she was doing, and was hanging on
her every word.
She
walked to the trunk, popped the lid, and rummaged under her bags for the
quilted blanket that was tucked in back. She shook it out and then placed it
over the wolf. He seemed to be breathing heavily and she knew from experience
that it was a sign he was nervous.
“I’ll
get you to the research center and Axel should be able to help you out.”
Ally
got back into the car and shook the snow off her hair and shoulders. She put it
into drive and put her foot down on the gas. This being Christmas Eve, she
doubted any cops would be around this far outside the city limits of Kalispell.
Well, hopefully they’d all be opening gifts and she wouldn’t get stopped with a
wolf sitting on her back seat and have to waste value time telling them the
whole story.
****
Kent’s
leg hurt like hell. After she’d hit him, he thought that, just like any other
human, she’d pull him over to the side of the road and be on her way like
nothing had happened. However, this human obviously wasn’t like the rest.
Florence Nightingale had taken it upon herself to put him into her car. He’d
planned to shift, hobble back to his car, and drive to the shifter clinic to
get an X-ray. But now he was being driven out to the middle of nowhere. Where
did she say she was taking him, a research center?
Fucking
hell. That was the last place he needed to spend his evening.
He
lay back, hoping she’d run out of gas or need to answer nature’s call. Something,
anything that would get her out of the car, out of sight, so he could shift
back into man form without her seeing. His clothes and car were miles back to
the west, and it was going to be freezing, but hopefully, he’d manage to get
himself there. However, as the miles piled up and they headed farther into the
mountains, that was looking more and more unlikely. He looked out to see where
they were, but it was dark and snow was now falling, and he’d suddenly lost his
sense of direction.
She
turned on the radio. Christmas music sounded throughout her car. He hated
Christmas tunes. Santa, snowmen, and
candy
Fuyumi Ono
Tailley (MC 6)
Robert Graysmith
Rich Restucci
Chris Fox
James Sallis
John Harris
Robin Jones Gunn
Linda Lael Miller
Nancy Springer