Page 34 of Ravaged Wolf
Immediately, a memory bursts into my brain, but not one of the usual ones that plague me—not the dirt in my mouth or the broken bones in my wrist grinding together. Not the view of Trevor’s back as my wolf lay limp on the pavement in front of the infirmary.
A vivid picture of Trevor sitting next to me on the counter in apartment 1248 flashes in my head. I was lightly drumming my heels against the cabinets beneath me because of my nerves. I glanced down and saw that Trevor was drumming his heels, too. The memory slips between my ribs, plunging into my heart. Something sharp and hard, something like guilt, leaks into my chest like ink.
Trevor didn’t know what he was doing any more than I did. He was trying to be cool and confident, but he was young, too.
Why am I thinking about this now?
I shake off the memories and sink to my knees beside Harri’s cot. Abertha has paused, giving him a break. She’s only about a quarter way done with the bandage.
I’m not sure what to say to comfort him. I’ve never been in this position before. He’s opened his eyes, and he’s looking at me like I have the answer.
I guess I do. I’ve been in that bed before while a strange female changed my bandages.
“It’s going to hurt,” I tell him. “But only this much.” I hold my fingers an inch apart. “And it’s not going to hurt any worse than it already has, okay?”
He nods and sniffles.
I dig deeper. “It won’t take more than two minutes max. Look up there.” I point to the big clock with the white face and black numbers and the word Standard above the six. Like the smell in the air and the texture of the sheets, theclock face is also burned into my memory. “See the thinnest hand? The quick one?”
Harri nods again.
“By the time it goes around in a circle twice, Abertha will be all done. Okay? It’ll only hurt for that long, no longer, and it won’t get any worse.”
“Are you sure?” he asks.
“I promise.”
“Okay,” he says and grabs my hand.
I squeeze it tight. “Okay,” I repeat.
Abertha unwinds the rest of the gauze, doing her best to hold his hair to give his scalp a break, while Harri and I intently watch the clock. She finishes at the exact moment the second hand ticks onto the twelve for the second time.
Harri blinks at me. “You were right.”
“I was.” Something loosens in my chest.
“Want to see my buffalo?” he asks, his tears already forgotten.
“Sure.”
I admire the buffalo, and then Abertha shows me how to rewrap Harri’s head. Harri’s eyelids droop as she tells me about his arm and ankle, how the treatment of fractures differs between shifters and humans, and how pups, the aged, and the heartbroken take longer to heal.
After Harri falls asleep, Abertha walks me around the infirmary, showing me what’s in all the cabinets and closets. The medics and nurses eventually emerge from the break room and offer us a slice of cake. It’s someone’s birthday.
We both decline, and Abertha says we’ve done enough for the day, and she’ll walk me back to the Tower. Harri is still asleep when we leave. That’s good.
We make our way back slowly along the lakefront promenade. The work day is over, and we’re walking against the flow as people stream from the High Rise and head to themarina for a drink or the shops and restaurants downtown. Everybody is busy. Everyone has a purpose.
About a block from the Tower, Abertha veers off to linger at the low wall that prevents pups from tumbling into the lake. The sunset has caught her attention. I stand next to her, and we both gaze across the lake to where the sun is sinking below the top of Salt Mountain.
“You did well today,” Abertha says, breaking the silence.
“I didn’t really do anything.”
Abertha sighs, long and loud. “Do you know how much I’d get done in a day if I didn’t have to undo all the bullshit that first wolf did?”
“Which wolf?”
