Page 9 of Cursed Wolf

Whether I left of my own accord or got fired didn’t matter. It wasn’t enough that he got the residency and I didn’t. He still saw me as a threat to his position and wanted me gone for good.

If it had been me informing Marcus that I’d have to tell our boss he violated policy, he’d call me a snitch.

It felt like I held my breath for the next three days, but no call came from Dr. Stone to lecture me, let me go, or anything else. In order to keep myself from waiting anxiously by the phone, I picked up extra shifts at Buck’s Peak and applied to roughly a dozen vet residencies all over the country.

I’d grown attached to this little mountain town, especially working with the wildlife. But if there were no career prospects for me here, I had no choice but to move on. The only place I avoided applying to jobs was my old hometown of Tiburon. Just to be safe, I avoided all of Marin County.

I was still dodging calls and texts from my parents, not wanting to deal with their judgment and I-told-you-sos. They knew I was banking on a residency after a year of interning. Time was up. I just knew they were chomping at the bit to hear that I’d been passed over.

Well, I wasn’t about to give them the satisfaction.

After those three days off, I showed up early for work at the clinic. The reception area was dark and quiet. Apparently I’d even beaten Macy and was the only one here. Good. That meant a moment of alone time with my wolf.

I turned the lights on and started a pot of coffee in the break room before heading back to see him.

All seemed well at first. The wolf was in his kennel with a water dish and food bowl in the corner. He lifted his head, ears perked and golden eyes alert, when I came through the door.

“Good morning, handsome.” I flipped on the lights before approaching his cage. “How are you doing? I missed you.”

He rose smoothly to his feet and let out a soft bark of greeting, his tail wagging from side to side.

I couldn’t help but smile as I knelt to his level. “I take it you missed me too?”

His tail wagged faster as he licked his lips and let out a short howl.

He was beautiful to look at, the strength and size of him, not to mention his coat pattern and the wild intelligence in those canine eyes. I was so entranced by him that it took me a moment to notice that his leg cast was gone.

“What the hell?” I stared at his shaved flank. The swelling and discoloration of his injury was gone, like he never got hit with my fucking car three days ago. All that remained was a light scar. Even the stitches I’d made were gone.

I took a step back, utterly dumbfounded by what I was seeing. Hairline fractures didn’t just heal in three days. The head injury I could chalk up to looking worse than it actually was. But this was impossible.

The wolf lowered his head and let out a soft whine, like he was sad that I’d backed away. But no, I couldn’t let myself project human emotions onto animals right now. I had to focus. What remained of the cast and sutures were discarded around his paws. The sutures were in pieces, and the cast had frayed, torn edges like it had been chewed off.

I looked at the wolf’s face. It kind of made sense. Animals often chewed or licked at their injuries because of the discomfort, but not even he should have been able to get the entire cast off, let alone the stitches as well. Someone would have seen it and put a cone on him and replaced the cast if necessary.

He had fresh water and bits of leftover food still in his bowl, so he’d definitely been checked on. How had he managed to hide the state of his leg?

The wolf whined again and turned around in a circle, tapping his paws on the kennel floor when he faced me again. It was like he was showing me that he was completely healed. And it was true, he did distribute his weight evenly between all four legs.

The evidence was right in front of me. And still, it was impossible.

“How?” I asked. “How are you good as new after just a few days?”

He sat, again demonstrating that he had full range of motion in both hind legs, and looked at me imploringly, like a dog waiting for a treat.

He was as far away from a domestic canine as a wolf could possibly be. And yet he seemed to almost…defer to me. Waiting for a command like a pet would.

“I don’t understand,” I said with a shake of my head. “I don’t know how to explain any of this at all.”

The wolf whined softly again and pawed at the kennel wall, those massive paw pads and claws making the wires bow under the weight of them.

“Of course, you want to be let out.” I nodded. “To go back home. You probably have a pack waiting for you, huh?”

He lowered his paw and stuck his nose through the bars.

“I have to get one of the vets to sign off on it. Either Dr. Stone or Dr. Marcus?—”

The wolf growled at the mention of those names and I laughed. From a human lens, it would seem this wolf liked me and hated the two of them. Some animals had a good sense about people, but that was a silly thought to entertain.

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