Page 2 of Cursed Wolf

My car jerked to a halt with a squeal of brakes. Everything was still. No noise or movement. Just darkness, the glow of my headlights, and my ragged breathing.

“Shit, what did I hit?”

Whatever it was had been big and moved fast. Possibly a bear, or even a young moose. That impact had felt solid.

Thankfully, I didn’t hit anything else or roll the car or something. My swerve was tight, I’d basically done a U-turn in the middle of the road and was now facing the opposite direction.

With shaking hands, I drove carefully onto the shoulder. That was when I saw it.

My headlights picked up a long, four-legged body lying unmoving on the side of the road. It was covered in gray and black fur, but from this angle I couldn’t tell exactly what kind of animal it was. No bear or moose had fur like that. Maybe an elk, but that still didn’t seem quite right.

I got out of the car without thinking, leaving my lights on, and hurried over. In hindsight, I probably should have been more concerned for my safety, but my animal-loving heart was bleeding. This was my fault, and if I could fix this, I had to try.

When I reached the animal, I could only stand over it and bring a hand to my mouth. “Oh, God...”

It was a wolf. A huge, beautiful gray wolf, which happened to be my favorite animal. The fact that I possibly just killed one on a day that was already shit-tastic made my heart shatter.

“Oh no, no, no...” I dropped to my knees, my hands sinking into that dense, warm fur as I leaned over the beautiful animal. “I’m so sorry. Please don’t give up on me, okay? Let me fix this.”

To my utter relief, he was still breathing, although shallowly. I couldn’t get over how huge he was. By my estimation, he was nearly four feet tall at the shoulder and well over two hundred pounds. Definitely the biggest wild wolf I’d ever seen.

I’d hit him on the left flank and most likely broke his thigh bone, possibly even his pelvis, but I’d have to do X-rays to make sure. He must have knocked himself unconscious when he rolled, but he didn’t appear to have any other major injuries.

There was absolutely no way I was about to leave this wolf to die. The question was just a matter of how I would take him back to the clinic. By myself, no less.

My hand went to my cell phone in my sweater pocket. I could call someone from the night crew and have them come out to help me, but could I afford to wait? Time was of the essence, and every minute this wolf wasn’t receiving care was another minute I could lose him.

He was my responsibility. It was on me to take care of him.

That oddly possessive thought gave me resolve as I strode back to my car. I turned around and backed up as close to the wolf as I dared, then popped my trunk release and got out of the driver’s seat.

“Come on, come on...” I prayed silently as I moved a pile of reusable grocery bags and a blanket. “Yes!”

I couldn’t remember if I’d removed the ramp from my car or not and thanked my lucky stars that I still had it. A few weeks ago, we’d used it to move a tranquilized mountain lion from the clinic to its wild habitat. With the help of a blanket, it was much easier to move a large animal up and down a ramp rather than lift it straight up from the ground. Which was exactly what I planned to do with the wolf.

All by myself.

I didn’t have time to think about how hard it would be, so I set up the ramp, grabbed a blanket, and returned to my wolf’s side. The first thing I did was recheck his breathing.

His ribs continued to rise and fall slowly, so I set to work unfolding the blanket.

“Sorry if this hurts, big, uh–,” I took a quick peek to check and yep, he was definitely male, “–big guy, but I gotta move you.”

I scooped under his hindquarters first and placed his back end on the blanket. “Good boy,” I said, not caring how ridiculous I sounded talking to a wild animal like a dog. This wolf would tear my throat out if he was conscious.

I ran back and forth, scooting his hind legs and then his front to move him little by little onto the blanket. After he was fully on it, I had to stop for a few moments to catch my breath. He wasn’t just big, he was dense and muscular. Lifting just parts of his body felt like picking up boulders.

“Alright, here we go.”

I grabbed the edge of the blanket, dug my heels into the ground, and started pulling him toward my car. “You’re lucky I love wolves so much,” I grunted, hauling him toward the ramp.

I had to rotate the blanket a few times to ensure he wouldn’t fall off the ramp, but after lots more pulling, I finally had him in the trunk of my car.

Physically, the hard part was over, but I couldn’t celebrate yet. I had to keep this wolf alive.

After making sure he was secure, I closed up my trunk and got back into the driver’s seat.

“There’s an actual goddamn wolf in my car.”

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