Page 3 of The Healer and the Wolf: Part One

I felt quite a bit accomplished when the wolf moved on to mouth at some of the deli-meat. It would probably take a bit of energy to chew, and I hoped the wolf would be able to simply swallow it down.

“There ya go,” I murmured softly, crouching slightly. “Just do what you can.”

It had to be my imagination, because it was far too soon for there to be any difference, but it looked like the wolf was breathing at a healthier pace. Then again, maybe my presence was just pissing it off.

“Come on, Ven, you’ve done enough here,” I said, falling back into my habit of talking to myself. Considering I spent the majority of my time alone or with my cats, sometimes it was the only conversation I had. It wasn’t as if my aunt ever wanted to talk to me anyway. That had ended when I was a child.

It was time to call the rangers. They could be of realhelp to the wolf. Hopefully, I’d given it enough of an advantage to last until they could arrive. Honestly, that was probably the best-case scenario.

I pulled my phone back out from the pocket I’d slid it into—so much for being prepared to call 911—and thumbed through my emergency contacts for the ranger number I’d saved a while back. I went on enough hikes in the woods that I figured I should have it on hand, just in case. If there was one thing in my life I’d learned, it was that the worst tragedy one could imagine was often right around the corner at any time.

Before I could hit the number, a noise sounded in the bracken of the forest.

That wasn’t entirely unusual. It was a forest, after all. But the way the hair on the back of my neck stood on end had me whirling around, my hand already reaching into my pack.

It turned out my instincts were correct, too, because there were two very angry-looking bears about twenty or so feet away from me, and I didn’t mean the fun, leather-clad kind.

That wasn’t good.

I breathed in slowly through my nose and considered my options. I could run, but that would draw their attention to me and trigger their prey drive, which I definitely did not want. However, their focus seemed entirely on the wolf and nothing else.

Were… were they the ones who had hurt him?

It was ill advised to get involved in the matters of the animal kingdom. It was a cruel world, and sometimes interfering caused more harm than good. In reality, I should have just left and let nature do what nature wanted to do.

Instead, I reached into my pack and pulled out the flare gun I kept for emergencies. Sometimes I biked back from work extremely late, and one never knew what could happen in the darkness of the night.

“Get away!” I screamed as loudly as I could with my heart downright thundering in my chest. Oh, God, was I going to show up in the news as some moron who thought they could take on multiple wild animals?

Maybe, but large predators could occasionally be chased off if you made yourself the loudest, most disconcerting prey they’d ever encountered. I fired the flare, then immediately started waving my arms as I screamed. It was… a real scene, if I was being honest, but I wasn’t sure it was enough, so I stopped waving one of my arms long enough to pull up siren sounds on YouTube.

It was probably just adrenaline and my habit of anthropomorphizing things, but I swore the bears exchanged a reallookbefore turning around and ambling off, disappearing into the verdant green.

“Holy shit. Did that actually work?”

I couldn’t believe it, and I allowed myself a single victory cheer before remembering there was a wolf behind me. Right.

I whirled back around. The wolf had finished the water and the food, its head nestled on the ground, and its eyes closed. If not for the steady rise and fall of its side, I would have thought it was dead.

I needed to get it professional help. The whole bear thing had distracted me. Looking back at my phone, I dialed the number, but it didn’t connect.

“What the hell?”

I tried again, then saw the I had no signal. Rolling my eyes, I grabbed my pack and started to head toward the road.

“You’re not allowed to die,” I called over my shoulder. I couldn’t believe I was having casual conversation with a real, actual freakingwolf.“I put too much work into you, got it?”

Of course, it didn’t, but it made me feel better as I marched to the road. Thankfully, my bike was still there, and I sat down next to the tree as I called the number.

Explaining the situation didn’t take very long, and I was relieved when they said they were sending a couple rangers my way. Hopefully, they wouldn’t euthanize the wolf instead of helping it, but I knew better than to ask. Sometimes it was better to stay in the dark.

Twenty minutes later, two rangers pulled up in a truck, which was much faster than I had expected. I had been down to wait for an hour, which really would have ruined my plans for the evening, but it was what it was.

“Can you show us where the creature is, ma’am?” one of them asked after we’d exchanged polite greetings.

“Yeah, right this way.”

I followed the trail exactly, the bloody patches browner than anything else, but when we passed through the cluster of foliage that led to the wolf, there was nothing there.

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