Page 44 of Wolf Bound

“Yeah, welcome. Though I’m sure you would rather have a happier encounter with our fair town,” William said.

“Capturing one of the three kidnappers is a good thing though,” Fisher said.

“Absolutely,” Kira said.

“I’m Mandy Jones and I’ll take you back to an exam room. My mate is Ricky, one of the deputy sheriffs helping with your case,” the nurse said, smiling at the wolves and jaguar.

“Oh, thanks,” Fisher said.

The RN led Fisher into a room and took his vital stats. Kira didn’t even ask if Fisher minded if she was in the room with him. If he was going to continue working for them, she wanted to know if he was physically able to continue working on the case.

“Your pulse and heart rate are normal. No sign of a fever,” Mandy said, as another nurse, Elsie Miller, took the kidnapper to an exam room. Demetria and Dan went in with them. Then Kate came into the exam room to see to Fisher’s shoulder.

He winced while he was taking off his shirt and Kira went over to help him out of it.

“Are you sure you’re going to be alright?” Kira was genuinely concerned about him.

“Yes. I want to continue to work this case with you.”

She knew he did, but she didn’t want him to end up having real trouble if he didn’t heal well enough. Even though wolves healed in half the time that humans did, they didn’t heal instantaneously.

Kate checked his shoulder over. She touched the area around the wound.

Kira saw he was holding his breath.

“Breathe,” Kate said. “If you want to keep working with the USF, I don’t want you to pass out on me and how would that look to Kira?”

Kira smiled at Kate. She really liked the cougar doctor.

Fisher took a deep breath and let it out.

“You have bruised ribs from the fall. You were shot here, and”–Kate looked at his back—“the bullet exited here. And it’s only been four days? You look remarkably good for going through all that. But I would suggest no more running as a wolf for about a week and see how you’re feeling by then.”

“He said he started hurting when he was swimming in the river as a wolf,” Kira offered, to see if maybe the swimming had made it worse.

“Ahh, yes, that could make it worse. But I would say running as a wolf will irritate your wounds and injuries also,” Kate said. “I’m sure your doctor back home would agree with me that you shouldn’t be running or swimming as a wolf.”

“The doctor is his brother Heath,” Kira said. “I’m sure he didn’t think you would be doing either, or he might have given you some restrictions.”

Then Kira got a call from Everett, and she hoped it meant his team had caught another one of the men and they were headed back in with him. That would be the reason he had shifted back into his human form, she assumed. She put it on speakerphone so that Fisher could hear what Everett had to say. “What happened with all of you?”

“The one we were following ended up at a location where we found tire tracks the size that a Suburban would make. We believe he got into the vehicle and took off. We haven’t heard from the other team that was chasing down the third guy, but Demetria called to say you all caught the youngest of the three men.”

“Yes. Once the doctor patches him up, we can interrogate him and learn who the others are.”

“Demetria said Dan had everyone’s backpacks. Did you find anything in them that would tell us who they really are?” Everett asked.

“No. None of them had any ID. The prisoner also had a gun and he tried to shoot us until Dan took him down. Boy, I knew you jaguars could jump further than us wolves, but I didn’t realize cougars could leap so far,” Kira said.

“I heard you bit him,” Everett said.

“Yeah, he deserved it, and I knew I didn’t have to worry about turning him because he’s already a wolf.”

“Royal or more newly turned?” Everett asked.

“I don’t know. We really didn’t get anything out of him, and he rode with Dan back to Yuma Town. Dr. Rugal is patching him up now,” Kira said.

“Demetria told us that Dr. Kate Hill is checking out Fisher.” Everett sounded a little concerned.

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