Page 38 of Wolfish
Peter opened the door, and there were two empty tables. He glanced at Meghan. She shrugged her shoulder.
Silva hurried to greet them. “Which table do you want to sit at?”
“I’ll take that one since it’s for two,” Selena said before Peter could respond.
“Uh, yeah, that’s fine.” Their table was in sight of hers, but not so intrusive that she could speak privately to another wolf.
But when she took her seat, all she could think of was the night she ate dinner here with Daniel and wished she was with him. She glanced around the restaurant, but he wasn’t there. Three bachelor males who had said hi to her before glanced in her direction, smiled, but none of them left their seats to join her.
Had they stopped by the table just for show when she had been eating with Daniel? They hadn’t been all that interested in meeting her? Or was this more of a case that they felt she was with Daniel, even if she wasn’t tonight, and they didn’t want to cause friction between them? Well, this was a sad state of affairs.
Excited that a couple of wolves on a run had come across the black Mazda, Daniel rushed to the forest to see it for himself, but he wanted to make sure that was the right vehicle before he called for backup.
He parked his car a short distance from where the Mazda was. He could see why the wolves had seen it. The top of the car was sufficiently covered with branches, but the bottom was visible. He smelled the three brothers’ scents. One of them had to be the driver of the hit-and-run vehicle.
Daniel reached for his phone to update Peter on the Mazda, when gunfire erupted from the tree line in his direction. His heart raced as a bullet struck his phone, sending it sailing into the fallen leaves on the ground. He was thankful it hadn’t hit his hand. In one quick motion, he drew his weapon and dropped behind the Mazda's frame for cover.
Squinting against the muzzle flashes that revealed the brothers' positions among the shadows and foliage, he returned fire into the woods, but he couldn’t actually see the men. Damn, these guys were loose cannons.
He howled as a human for help, hoping someone would be near enough to hear him and come to his aid. He couldn’t reach his phone safely, though he suspected it was shattered and wouldn’t work even if he could.
He sure hadn’t expected an ambush, or he would have taken a couple of deputies with him, which made him wonder why the brothers would try to murder him because he’d found the Mazda.
More shots were fired in Daniel’s direction, still from the same distance and location. So they hadn’t tried to circle him or ambush him. He returned fire, hoping he could incapacitate them. Then a couple of wolves began growling in the direction of the men, and shots were fired at them. He hoped neither of them would be hit. With the wolves distracting the brothers, Daniel finally reached his phone, but it was shattered, and he couldn’t turn it on.
Stumbling to reach his vehicle, he finally managed to unlock the car door and fumbled for the medical kit stashed beneath the passenger seat. The blood from his wound had already soaked through his shirt, warm and sticky against his skin. His vision narrowed to a pinpoint of light, then darkness swallowed him whole.
Suddenly, Peter got a call at the tavern, and he stood up from the table. He leaned down to kiss Meghan and spoke to her, his face grave. She responded in kind, then he walked over to speak to Selena. “Daniel is in the hospital with a gunshot wound.”
Selena gasped. “How bad is it?”
“Bad enough to end up in the hospital.”
“Can you take me there?”
“Yeah.”
Her heart pounding, she hurried to leave the table, and Meghan went with them. “Where was he shot?” Selena asked, horrified over the news.
“In the right arm. He howled for help, and others went to his aid. He was too far away from this location for us to hear him,” Peter said.
“Where was he when he was shot?” She just felt he was invincible and felt terrible that she’d even been considering dating anyone else. Even if he wasn’t interested in mating her yet, he’d proved he was a good friend tenfold. And if he never wanted to marry her, she wanted to continue their friendship.
“A couple of wolves found the black Mazda hidden in the woods and called it in. Daniel hadn’t taken backup because he wanted to make sure that it was the real deal before he called anyone else in.”
“And it was,” she said.
“Yeah.”
She wiped away tears.
“He’ll be all right,” Meghan said. “You know how we are with our faster healing.”
As long as they didn’t bleed out before they could heal fast enough.
They soon arrived at the hospital, and Selena, Peter, and Meghan hurried inside.
“Where is Daniel?” Peter asked the receptionist.
