Healing Her Wolf: Paranormal Werewolf Romance (2 page)

This gorgeous woman looked more like she would be part of a rescue team, all tall and confident, dressed practically, and didn’t even smell scared or nervous. Judging by her frown, though, she was confused. Konrad didn’t blame her, he knew that he wasn’t acting as scared like a real wolf would, but who could blame him when he had just met his mate? She was beautiful, and he couldn’t wait to get his hands on the body hiding underneath those baggy clothes, couldn’t wait to run his hands through her blonde hair and kiss her breathless.

She smelled like other animals, and also the unwelcome sharpness of strong cleaning products, but underneath that her own natural scent was undeniable, and it made his mouth water. He didn’t just want to get his hands on her; he wanted to get his
tongue
on her.

“Okay, you’re coming with me,” she said, and Konrad moved a few more steps forward, then realized he had just obeyed her command like he was her pet dog. Definitely embarrassing. At least he had his tail under control; it was hanging down and had stopped wagging. Was she with the local pound? Some sort of animal rescue society?

She looked at the catch pole in her hand, then at him again, and Konrad stood frozen as she looped it around his neck. He let out a pitiful whine, following her after she gave a gentle tug, but hated the feeling of being restrained like this, even if it was by his mate. Perhaps he could return the favor later, with some handcuffs or scarves…

His mate — and he really had to find out her name soon — led him to an old pickup truck. He had some trouble jumping into the back, and his humiliation was complete when she led him into the dog crate. He lay there as she unhooked the catch pole, thinking to himself that he would never
ever
share this part with his friends and family back home. Being wounded was bad enough, but locked up in a dog crate? Nope, that would stay between him and his mate, thankyouverymuch.

There was nothing for now that Konrad could do. It was a full moon, and all shifters were stuck in their animal form if they had chosen to shift that night. That had been one of the sources of werewolf legends, but fortunately Konrad and his fellow shifters weren’t compelled to change into an animal under the full moon.

The only reason he had shifted was because he knew his mate was nearby, and as a wolf his nose was much more sensitive than as a human. His plan had been to scout the area, find out where she lived, then return as a human. That other damn wolf shifter had messed up his plans.

They finally stopped, and Konrad allowed her to lead him out, once again on the catch pole. While his wounds were a little better after resting, he was still limping after her. Intellectually he understood why his mate felt the need to take precautions, but as a wolf he felt insulted and wanted to snarl at her for treating her mate this way.
She doesn’t know
, he told himself.
Just wait and be patient
.

He was led into an animal clinic, and the scent of blood, cleaning alcohol, medication and yes, also death, hit him hard. He whined, tried to pull back and away from this horrifying place, but his mate kept dragging him further and further inside, his claws useless on the linoleum floor. Oh no, was his mate a vet? Not that he had anything against vets, they did great work, but he also didn’t want to be left alone with one while he was a wolf. He didn’t need any shots, and he hoped she would do nothing more than simply inspect and clean his wounds.

“Hey, hey, behave, it’s for your own good,” she told him, eyeing him as he whimpered again. “I need to check you out, okay? Get you nice and cleaned up, see if you’ve got a chip anywhere on you.”

He had to fight hard to conquer his wolf’s anxiety and actually listen to her.
She’s our mate, we can trust her
. The wolf wasn’t so sure. The wolf was tired, hurt, and just wanted to curl up, preferably at her feet while she ran her hands through his fur.

And while his mate did do the latter, she was wearing latex gloves and using some terrible-smelling fluid on him to clean up the blood left from his fight. It stung, and he whimpered and winced as she spread it across the wounds. While he healed faster than other humans, bite wounds from other shifters healed more slowly. If it had been a regular wolf, the wound would’ve been healed by now. Fortunately, his mate deemed the wound small enough not to need stitches, which was at least something.

There was just one thought that consoled him, and that was that since tonight had gone terribly, tomorrow could only go better for the two of them. Who knew, maybe in ten years or so they would laugh about it.

*

It took a while to get the animal cleaned up. Under the harsh, bright lights it was obvious that it was indeed a wolf, and Maddy still couldn’t understand how he ended up in the shed. “If only you could talk,” she muttered, wiping off some more blood.

Eventually, she had done what she could for now. It was nearly midnight, and she was exhausted. She’d have to call Tyler or one of the other local rangers tomorrow to see if they could take the wolf instead, and rehabilitate him. Tyler and her dad were good friends, and had worked together dealing with dead or wounded wild animals, so Tyler would know what to do.

She ran her gloved fingers through the thick fur of its neck. The wolf’s golden eyes met hers, and she almost thought those eyes looked disappointed and accusatory. No, she was clearly seeing things. “Come on, let me show you where you’re gonna sleep.”

She didn’t even need to use the catch pole this time, the wolf seemed more than happy to follow her into the hallway and towards the separate room where the overnight patients had to stay. There were several crates placed around the room, two cats in one corner, one dog in the opposite corner and a ferret who hissed angrily at anyone who came near it.

As soon as Maddy entered the room, the wolf following her, the animals went ballistic. The ferret started shrieking; the cats were hissing and yowling while the Chihuahua let out a constant stream of sharp, high-pitched barks.

Maddy looked down at the wolf, half-surprised the noises weren’t coming from him. Instead, he looked up at her as if to say ‘well, I’m not staying here.’ She didn’t blame him; she had never seen animals react like this unless they were seriously threatened. But the wolf hadn’t made any threatening moves and had kept his distance. “Okay, you can’t stay here; you’d be stressing out the others way too much.”

It would’ve been so much easier to ignore the protests from the other pets and lock the wolf up in one of the bigger dog crates, and safer, too. While this wolf had clearly been domesticated, he was still a wild animal, wounded, and didn’t know Maddy. For all she knew, he might panic in the middle of the night. “Come on, you’re with me.”

She locked the door behind her, and led the wolf down the hallway and through the door that connected her dad’s clinic to her parents’ home.

“I hope you’re house-trained,” she said, glancing down at the wolf, which had followed her into her parents’ living room. She closed the door behind her, and the wolf stayed by her side. She would’ve expected him to start sniffing around or even hop onto the couch. “Let’s see if we can find somewhere to sleep for you, hm?”

The wolf butted his head against her thigh, and then looked up at her.

“What do you want, boy?” she asked. “Food? You must be hungry.”

The wolf let out a soft whine, and rubbed his head against her leg again.

He definitely wanted food, and while that did mean a quick trip back to the clinic, fortunately her father kept plenty of dog bowls and kibble around. It probably wasn’t what the wolf was used to, and she hoped he didn’t have any dietary requirements, but she figured that anything was better than having a hungry wolf in the house.

When she put the bowl with kibble in the kitchen, right in front of the wolf, he didn’t even sniff at it. He just looked from the bowl back up to her, as if to say ‘that’s it?’.

“I don’t know what you’re used to, boy, but whatever it is, you’re not getting it from me.” She gave him a shrug. For all she knew his owner raised him on raw meat or game, and she definitely didn’t have that around. “It’s that or nothing.”

The wolf sat down in the kitchen and watched her fill a bowl of water, which he did drink from.

“Or maybe the fight made you lose your appetite, huh?” she mused, watching him drink. “Or the stress from being in a strange environment?” He didn’t look stressed, though. His body language was relaxed, with his tail was hanging down, though his ears twitched when she spoke. Still, at least he wasn’t scared or aggressive, and hadn’t taken to peeing everywhere.

Maddy left the wolf to his drinking and hopefully eating, then went into the guest bedroom to find an old blanket for him to sleep on. When she returned to the living room, he was already waiting for her, his tail wagging once by way of greeting. He was looking up at her, tongue hanging from his mouth, every inch the happy pet. It was kind of weird to see a wild animal behaving like this, and she was getting more and more curious about his owner.

“Okay, boy, you’re gonna sleep down here tonight,” she told him, walking back into the kitchen and spreading out the blanket in the corner next to the window. She patted the blanket once, and the wolf came over to sniff her hand. “Okay? You stay here. Stay.” If he really was as domesticated as he appeared to be, he had to understand that command.

She stood up, the wolf watching her, and took an experimental step back. The wolf kept standing next to the blanket, but as soon as she turned to go into the living room, she heard the tell-tale sound of claws across the kitchen tiles as he followed. “No, stay,” she told him firmly.

He whined, nudging his head against her hand.

“Stay.” She tried to sound firm, but her fingers were already running through the fur between his ears, and she knew she didn’t sound nearly as authoritative as she should. Maybe she should simply ignore him and go to bed herself. She had done everything she could for the wolf, and it was getting late.

Maddy wasn’t even surprised when the wolf followed her up the stairs and into her old bedroom. It had changed since she had left home, the posters of movie stars and animals that used to adorn the walls were all pulled down, and there were a lot more college textbooks in her bookcase than before she had left, but her queen-size bed was still the same, including the pink and purple duvet covers that were more suited to a teenage girl than an adult woman. “No,” she told him, when he sat down on the dark purple rug at the foot of her bed. “You were meant to stay in the kitchen.”

The wolf stayed where he was, tongue hanging out, clearly content to spend the night in her bedroom.

“You are a very bad dog,” she said. “I hope you know that.”

He let out a soft whine, then nudged his head against her hand until her palm was running through his fur again.

Despite herself, she had to smile. “You are a charming one, aren’t you?” She ran her fingers through his fur, leaning down to pet his back. “You know what? Fine, stay here. I don’t care.” She ran her hand over his wounds carefully, and didn’t find any blood on her fingertips. “And I guess if you do start bleeding again, at least I’ll be nearby.”

She was being ridiculous, and she knew it. She hadn’t been this softhearted with an animal since her first year in college, and she usually found it a lot easier to ignore pleading eyes or pitiful whines, but there was something about this wolf… “I bet you’ve got your owner wrapped around your paw, huh?”

The wolf stood up to move closer, leaning his body against her legs, his tail wagging when her hands ran down his back again.

“I hope you’re a quiet sleeper,” she murmured, giving him one last pat on his side before standing up. “Y’know, Mom told me it was fine if I wanted to have anyone spend the night, but I’m not sure if she’d approve of you.”

The wolf barked once, then sat down on the rug, watching her.

*

He was definitely being a bad dog, sitting here, watching his mate get clothes from her wardrobe and hang them over a chair for tomorrow morning. He should respect her privacy and go back downstairs. But the sheer thought of that made him whimper quietly.

She turned away from the framed pictures in the bookcase she’d been looking at. “Oh, don’t worry, you’d probably charm my mom into approving,” she told him, and moved over to scratch him behind his ears.

He closed his eyes, leaning into her touch; not even his wolf was embarrassed he was behaving like a beloved pet now. She was his mate, and she could pet him all night like if that was what she wanted. Mm, maybe if he rolled over on his back she’d scratch his belly… He jerked his head in confusion when she stopped touching him, and watched her leave. A few seconds later, a light went on further down the hallway. Of course, she had gone to the bathroom.

Konrad lay down on the rug, resting his head on his crossed paws. The room smelled like her; it was wonderful and much better than the living room, where her fragrance mingled with that of her parents. And it was definitely better than the smell of the clinic. He shuddered at the fresh memory, immensely relieved she hadn’t forced him to spend the night there, with those panicking animals.

He turned his head when she returned, and his eyes grew wide. His mate was gloriously, beautifully naked, and every inch of her was perfect. Her breasts looked soft and inviting, and like they would fit in his hands perfectly; the curve of her hips was enticing, and when she turned around to grab something from her wardrobe, he whimpered at sight of her heart-shaped ass. He was the luckiest man on the
planet
. He was on his feet before he could think about it, and his mate turned around, a pair of black panties in her hands, and she laughed at him.

The realization that he was stuck as a wolf the entire night hit him like a bucket of cold water. His mate was beautiful and naked and there was nothing he could do but sit there and watch.

“What is it, boy? I’m guessing you haven’t seen a lot of naked women?” she asked, then put on her clean pair of panties.