2. Wolf-Man

"What the hell?" she cried. The wolf was in the back seat of her car! She tilted the mirror so she could see him. "Getting me killed is not a good way to pay me back for saving your life!" she chastised him.

He dropped his head down and gave her sad eyes.

She sighed and relented. "How did you even get in here?" she demanded. She shook her head, knowing he couldn't answer. "But you did remind me that I need to start looking in the back seat before I get in, again. That guy that came looking for a wolf was creepy."

She pulled into her drive. Opening the back door, she let him out of the small sedan. "Come on, sweety. Let's get inside and bed you down. I'm going to the store, but I'll be right back. You're a good eater, and I'm glad of that, but it means I'm going to need to get some more or you'll be starving."

She inspected his wounds and shook her head. Even his hair was growing back at unbelievable speed. "If I didn't know better, buddy, I'd say you've got supernatural healing. Even my alternative healing methods shouldn't be doing this kind of healing. But I don't mind. If you don't need to suffer, you shouldn't." She hugged him around the neck and left.

When she got back, she called him up onto the sofa. Watching Syfy channel, she brushed him. She was watching the show Alphas when she told him, "You know, once I would have thought this show was total trash. But now that vampires are out and we know they're true, it's hard to know for sure what to believe." She pulled his head against her chest and rubbed his ears playfully. "Maybe with your fast healing, you're an alpha." She took his head in her hands and chuckled at him, "You get it? Alpha wolf?" Then she sighed dramatically. "Ah, no sense of humor, wolves."

She chuckled and went back to brushing him.

The next day, he went to work with her. She decided not to show Carlos the extreme speed with which the wolf was healing. He didn't ask. They spent the day with few to no customers, and finally it was the end of the day.

Carlos said, "I don't know how you manage to pay me. I'm not too sure how you'll survive in this backwoods town."

But Sky wasn't worried. She had created the arterial replacement tube that she had inserted into the wolf to save him. The veterinary world had laughed at her, despite the fact that it was cheap and easy to use and create. The medical world for humans, however, had jumped at it. She would never be poor so long as there was a medical industry.

She just told him, "I want to be a small town, Carlos. I want the gentler pace of life and the ability to spend more time with each patient and his or her owner."

He laughed. "You're lookin' for love in all the wrong places, my girl."

She threw a pad of paper at him, which he deftly caught.

"I've accepted my status as Old Maid, I thank you very much. At least out here in the quiet 'burbs, my parents won't keep throwing 'acceptable young men' at me so that they can pat me on the head and tell me how quaint it is that I'm a veterinarian, and how I won't need to be once we're married," she snorted.

She got up and picked up her lab coat. "Go home now, Carlos. I'll see you tomorrow."

"Hey, there's a vamp bar here. You should check it out."

She shook her head. "I think you might be a little insane, Carlos. I fit bars about as much as pickles fit with cheesecake."

"Now that's just gross shit right there."

"Ah, you did get my point, after all!"

And Carlos was gone. She walked back to find the wolf laying on his back, his paws in the air. Chuckling, she walked up to him. "Are you feeling playful? I don't know if you've seen it, but I have a massive back yard, and a frisbee. Let's go home and check it out."

When she had him in the car, this time in the passenger seat, she told him, "I'm going to want you to potty in the back from now on, alright? I have a feeling that guy who claims to be your owner really isn't, and you are in some kind of danger. You'd be surprised how much such a gorgeous wolf pelt will sell for."

When she got home, she said, "Do you mind if I call you Marrok?" He didn't respond, but didn't seem to be displeased, either. "That's the name of one of King Arthur's knights, rumored to be a werewolf, and extremely loyal-"

His head had lifted and perked up at the words. She chuckled. "A werewolf isn't really the same as you, sweety, but Marrok was an alpha type of warrior. You haven't had a chance to show your colors yet, but my money's on you being pretty loyal and courageous if the stakes are thrown down." She kissed him on the head.

Then she went into the kitchen and started cutting some meat for him.

"But listen, now. I don't want you to get the wrong idea, okay? You're not going to stay here forever. I have a strict no-pet policy. I have to deal with animals all day, every day. And a thousand times a year, I want to bring another one home. If I gave into that urge, I'd have nowhere to sleep for the pets. So don't you get any ideas." She waved the knife at him. "I mean it, now."

He laid his head on his paws.

"You can stay for now." She sighed. "But at the rate you're healing, I'm going to run out of excuses soon."

She handed him his food, pleased to see him eat with gusto. "Let's go outside and play, shall we?" she asked.

She threw the frisbee. He looked at her. She put her hands on her hips. "Are you serious? You're supposed to go catch it. And there I thought you were so well taken care of."

She walked over and picked it up herself. Wagging it at her, she said, "You may think it's beneath your dignity now, mister. But let me tell you something. This is one of the best exercises there are for you. Not only will it allow you to keep your excellent health, but it also will help that knee recover properly. Besides, I'm bored and I want to play. So please?"

He cocked his head and laid down, putting his head on on his paws.

She cleared her throat, making an extremely exaggerated puppy dog eyes face. "Look at me. This is my sad face. I am sad you won't play with me."

He looked up and his tail thumped. Once, then twice.

She grinned and pointed. "Ah, you do have a sense of humor!"

She threw the frisbee, and he gave her a disgusted look. He got up and trotted after it. But she raced past him and grabbed it.

"Slow-ass wolf," she laughed. She threw it again, and then ran after it. He raced her for it and beat her easily.

He brought it to her, and she threw it again, this time backwards. He beat her again. Soon she was breathless from laughing. A while later, she threw it and raced him, and he cut ahead of her. She fell over him, sprawling headlong in the dirt, her brown hair made even more brown by one of the worn spots in the yard that she'd vowed to have sodded.

She sat up, spitting dirt. She found him nosing her, and grabbed him, rolling him over. Laughing, she wrestled him for a few minutes, then let him go.

"Let's go inside," she told him. "You need a bath, and so do I."

She gave him a bath in the tub, having no animal implements besides a few brushes and the bowls she'd bought him that day for his food.

When she was done, she was soaked, and she looked down to find her t-shirt clinging to her body. "Good thing I wore a bra," she told him, "or someone would think I was in a wet t-shirt contest. How in the hell can one wolf splash this much?"

He was looking away from her and she laughed. "That's right, now you're all contrite. It's a little too late now, buster, you've already soaked me." He kept looking away, though. "Come on, you've got to get out. I'm not going to wait all day to towel you down."

He got out and she took the towel to him, vigorously drying him. She checked his ears to be sure she hadn't gotten anything in them, and then rinsed the tub. Letting the shower curtain back down from over the rod, she pulled her shirt off, dropping it on top of the wet towel.

He whined at the door.

"Oh no," she told him. "You're not going out there to wet the furniture. You make yourself comfortable on that rug right there. I'll be done in a minute." He whined again at the door. "No," she told him firmly. She stepped into the tub and turned the tap on, chuckling at the doggie 'gentleman' who wouldn't look at her.

When she got out, she opened the door, and let him escape to the living room. "You stay off the sofa!" she called to him. "I'll be out in a minute and I'll be mad if you wet my furniture!"

Soon she had Pjs on and came out to sit beside him. She brushed him while she listened to some music and turned on the fake electric fireplace.

"This is my concession to vanity," she told him. He looked up at her. She pointed at the fire place. "All that money, and I do nothing but charity work with it. Some people might think it's modesty or some such rot. I just don't really need much of anything. But a fireplace? That's my gift to myself. I'm going to hire someone to put in a real one. Yeah, with wood and everything."

She rubbed his belly and he rolled over. His leg twitched, and she giggled. "You're a very dignified dog, Marrok. It's okay if you let your leg go. I won't ever tell anyone, I promise." She kept rubbing him and laughed as he twitched again.

She went to bed with him lying on the floor on the pallet beside the bed. As she often did, she got up in the early morning and went to go get a 'midnight snack' around four am. She stepped on him and he snarled and growled at her.

"Easy there. Easy. I'm terribly sorry, I didn't mean to step on you." She murmured it gently to him.

Then she realized it wasn't her that he was growling at...

A figure loomed in the doorway. She lunged at the small dresser beside the bed and had the gun out and opened fire at nearly point-blank range. The man shrieked, an unholy sound, and turned to run. Stumbling out of the house, he ran down the driveway.

He stopped midway down her driveway. She leveled the gun at him. "Keep running," she shouted. "Or I'll make sure the next shot kills you. This is your last warning." She fired again, purposefully shaving along the side of his shoulder, the lightest graze.

He ran.

She walked back inside and slumped to the floor, lying against the door. She had to gasp several times, trying hard to get her rampant emotions and terror under control.

Marrok padded over to her, and she buried her face in his fur, gripping him and sobbing. He licked her face and she sat back.

"Now you know my dirty little secret," she said, sobbing. "I'm a crack shot but I have never used it that way before." She leaned forward again and laid against him, draped over his shoulders, sobbing.

Finally, she had sobbed it out, and she sat back. "Don't worry, I'm not having a breakdown. I do this every time I have to put an animal to sleep. It's pathetic, I know." She wiped her eyes. Ruffling his ears and fur, she said, "That's the great thing about animals. You may not understand why I'm crying, but you don't judge me for doing it."

She got up. "So," she told him. "I was hungry. How about you? Are you hungry?"

He perked up his ears, so she gave him some food. She got out some ice cream, but found it freezer burned and unpalatable.

"Someone should break into my house more often so my ice cream won't go bad," she joked. Marrok's ears flickered, but he gave no other response.

"How about a fire?" she asked, redundantly.

She turned it on and then some music. She set her gun nearby. Sighing, she laid down and watched the fire, falling asleep with her arm thrown over Marrok.

The next day, there were reports of shots in the area, but nothing of the man who'd been shot. She took Marrok with her to the quiet, dead clinic. A lady came in that afternoon for a checkup for her cat. That was it, though.

Carlos played computer games all day, and she grinned as she heard him remark as much to someone on the phone, "I get paid to play computer games all day. I'm good."

Of course, he paid for it with late night all night surgeries now and again. But he was paid for those, as well.

She went home that evening and watched some TV, before settling in at the computer. There, she did some research on the local area, hoping to find someone who could install a fireplace for her. She had no luck, because the one construction company in the area informed her that they were booked with local street work for something like six months. If it wasn't an emergency, it would have to wait.

That night, the gun lay on the dresser, rather than in the drawer.

Marrok sat looking at her with sad eyes, which made her cry again.

"Come on," she said softly and patted the bed. He looked down and away. "Please?" He ducked and whined. "I don't want to be alone," she told him softly. "I know I forbade the bed, but what if he comes back?"

He jumped up and laid down at the foot of the bed.

She ruffled his fur. "Good enough." She smiled softly and laid down. A few minutes later, she opened one eye and looked at him. "I can feel you staring." He laid his head down and she chuckled. "Anybody who says dogs aren't smart, never lived with one."

She went to sleep, but woke up several times. In the early morning hours, she sat up in the midst of a scream. She had been shooting people in her dream, the same dream she had of putting animals to sleep, only this time with people.

Marrok crept up the bed to nudge his nose under her hand. She grabbed him and fought back tears until he licked her face. Then she giggled, surprised not to turn to tears. "Thank you," she murmured to him. "Go back to sleep, sweety."

She laid down and managed to follow her own advice. She let him sleep on the bed for a week, before realizing she'd slept the previous night through with the gun still in its drawer.

She took him out for his usual play, and then inspected his wounds. There weren't even scars left.

"I'd like to think that my physical therapy helped you," she told him. "But it seems more like you have a special ability to heal faster than other wolves. Other anything, really. Not even octopuses heal so fast." She stood up. "Let's go inside. I need a shower."

That night, she made herself some roast pork sandwiches. She looked over to find him watching, licking his chops as she ate. When he saw her looking, he turned away.

"Somebody gave you human food, huh? Well. I don't think it's necessarily a bad thing, provided it's rare. But I'm not going to teach you to beg, so you'll have to wait a while."

An hour or so later, she gave him his own sandwich and some mashed potatoes. He gobbled them, and she chuckled. "Good to know you like my cooking. Now if you were just four or five feet taller and less hairy."

She strolled with him in the yard that evening.

It was another week, though, before she admitted to Carlos, "I'm running out of reason to keep him with me." She looked over at Marrok.

"Then just keep him cause you want him. What're you going to do, put up an ad in the paper, 'One white wolf, mint condition'? He'll be butchered for his pelt within hours."

"Not just that," she admitted. "Some guy came in claiming to own a wolf that had been injured. I think he's the one that shot him. If I'm to find another home for it, it would have to be done discreetly."

"Well, since you know all of nobody in either this town or the one you live in, good luck with that," Carlos answered. "Night, girl." He kissed her on the cheek, a surprising gesture from the usually reserved man. "Keep him. You're lonely. You've been better with him around."

They went home that evening. Sky paced the house, considering. She wasn't ready yet to commit to having a pet.

She sat down beside him where he lay watching the TV. She'd figured out, to her great amusement, that there were certain shows he actually liked. When she landed on them with the remote, he would thump his tail. If she moved on, he would drop his head.

She brushed him, talking during the commercials. "I decided to become a vet when I had to have a dog put to sleep as a child. She was struck in a wreck, and injured so badly that she couldn't even be operated on. The vet told us in the coldest, harshest tone to 'wake up' and realize she wasn't going to make it and that all of her suffering would be our fault. When my parents said he could do it, he yanked her leg up and injected her, then dropped it roughly and walked out, demanding someone get the 'carcass' out of the room so he could get on with it."

She wiped a tear away. "I decided to be the vet that would at least try. And if all else failed and it had to be done, I would tell them gently and help their pet pass with dignity and with a loving touch. It hurt most that she died that way."

"I promised myself I'd never have another dog. I had cats for a while, but I had to put one down. I did it myself, and it was harder than any of the others—and those are hard. You're so sweet, and incredibly intelligent. But I'm afraid of that day. I almost already had to do it to you. You were so close to death—if that bullet had moved even a millimeter, your lung would have filled and I would have had to..." She choked up and couldn't continue.

She pointed at the screen. "Watch your show. It's back on." She picked the brush back up to brush him again while he watched, to soothe her own memories.

He licked her face. She pushed him away. "Stop that. Watch your show, I'll brush you. I'm fine." He licked her again, dodging around her hand. A minute later, she was wrestling him and found herself laughing in spite of herself. He wagged his tail and 'woofed' at her, daring her to go outside.

"It's after dark," she told him. "I won't even be able to see where the frisbee lands!"

But they went outside and ran, chasing each other and playing. A while later, Sky collapsed on the ground. "Okay, okay. I'm exhausted. Come on." She patted the ground next to her. "Look, it's Orion. I love Orion."

She pointed out various constellations to him before admitting, "That's all I know. Not a huge repertoire, I know." She pointed at the sky. "How many do you know?"

He barked, a soft, low 'woof'.

"Really? I've not heard of that one. You'll have to point it out."

He laid his head down.

"Giving up so easily? I'm disappointed," she informed him. He licked her. "No... no! Not with the licking again!" She jumped up and ran for the house.

Something very big, very tall, and very terrifying landed in front of her. She ran into it and then backpedaled sharply. "Ahhh!" she shrieked. The vampire hissed at her. She grabbed a nearby fallen limb from the tree across the fence and swung it at him. He grabbed the branch and snapped it.

"Calm down, I'm not going to hurt you. I'm here to talk to him," he pointed at Marrok.

"My dog?" she turned around to look at Marrok.

He shimmered and altered and stood up. "Ahh!" she shrieked again. "Oh my god! Oh... Oh!" her hand flew to her mouth. "You—You're a... you're a man!" Then she felt her face go white, followed by a flood of heat. She went from mouth to eyes with the same hand. "You're a naked man!" She stumbled backward, running into the vampire, who hissed at her again. "Ahhh!" She jumped away.

"She's annoying," the vampire said.

"What do you want, Eric?" came another other voice, rich and fluid and warm.

"If I can find you, they can find you."

Sky turned to go in the house. Her shirt was grabbed by the vampire. "Where do you think you're going."

"I'm going inside and pretending none of this ever happened!" she scowled at him. "Let me go, you cretin!"

"Sky, please-"

"Let me go!" she yelled at Eric. "Let me go!"

"Stop that," he snapped at her. "You can't harm me, and I don't like it."

She stopped, staring at him, her chin quivering. A tear ran down her face.

"Oh stop, I told you I'm not going to hurt you."

"You turned my dog into a naked man!" she yelled at him. "You bastard!"

He leaned towards her, and the other voice—belonging to the naked man that she wanted to look at but wasn't going to—interrupted. "Don't glamor her, Eric. She saved my life, she deserves better."

"Invite me into your house," Eric told her.

"No way!"

"I can make you," he said softly.

Her gaze fell, and she felt utterly defeated. "Come in," she told him.

He let go of her and she half walked, half dashed into the house. She headed back toward her room when she was stopped by Eric again. "Sit down. We all need to have a discussion."

The no-longer-a-wolf man was still disturbingly naked.

"I'd rather stay out of it," she said.

"You're in it now, you don't get the choice."

A moment later, Marrok came walking back out of the bathroom with a towel around his waist. "I'm sorry, Sky. My name is Alcide." He held his hand out towards her.

She blushed and backed away. "No thanks. You're still..." she struggled to get the word out past her embarrassment, "..naked under there still. It's a little... strange." Despite looking away, she'd caught sight of a powerful torso, lean and muscled.

She went over and sat down on the sofa, huddling into herself in abject mortification. The man-wolf dude had seen her taking a shower! And licked her face! And...

"I gave you a bath," she said. Her thoughts went to her breasts poking through her lace bra and wet shirt. She covered her mouth and closed her eyes, trying to get the completely inappropriate image out of her head.

"Kinky," Eric said.

Putting her fingers to her temple, she said, "What do you want, vampire?"