The Wolf Watching Over Me [1st Draft]

The state highway stretched and curved through the ancient forest. Willie Hayes drove ten miles under the speed limit, making what should be a ten minute drive several minutes longer, but she didn’t care. Willie worked for the Fish and Wildlife Service, and it was her job to protect all of the natural world, including animals that might get hit on the road. Her speed was so she could stop more easily if an animal jumped in front of her or she spotted something injured on or near the road. Her pick-up had a cab that allowed her to scoop up animals and take them to the hospital without them being exposed to the weather. At the moment, she was happy to have seen nothing that alerted the eyes always full of concern.

The weather was warm, allowing her to have her windows down, with her left arm partly hanging out the window. Just as she rounded a slow curve, she saw a large wolf – bigger than she’d ever seen – standing in the middle of the road. Their eyes locked once she’d stopped at a good distance away, and her breath simply stopped. It was stunning, and not just because of it’s side. Almost pure black but for silver tips of it’s ears and tail, the blue eyes were enchanting, making it seem almost human. The wolf stared at me for a long moment, then turned it’s head to the left, jerking it’s nose as if it were telling me to go that way. It looked back at me, then back at the woods. One thought went through my mind: sometimes wild animals do seek help.

Willie nodded, then pulled her truck up and over to the side of the road carefully. It was as if the animal knew her intentions, stepping back as it watched her move her truck out of the way before she carefully slid out of the door. She held her hands out, showing herself as no threat.

“Do you need help, big guy? Is something wrong,” she asked softly, not keeping contact with the wolf’s eyes for more than a few seconds at a time. She was familiar with eye language with animals, and hoped that if there was something wrong, she could help it. “It’s okay, it’s what I do. I help animals. If someone’s hurt, show me.”

While Willie didn’t really believe the animal could understand a word she said, the wolf did jerk it’s chin back toward the woods, then looked at her again before turning and walking into the treeline. Her brows shot up.

“Well, here goes nothing,” she whispered, then began to follow the massive canine.

Standing tall, she estimated it would hit her waist, and it’s build reminded her of an American Bully, one of the varieties of pit bulls, but designed for speed and agility. Wolves did not grow that big, so it must be a wolf dog, she mused as she continued moving quickly enough to keep up with the creature. Yet, while it was much bigger, there was no mistaking it’s features. If it was smaller, she would definitely say it’s a wolf. So how is it so damn big? Was this a new species of wolf? Something that lived so deep we’d never encountered it or realized what it was before? Was it rare? Did it need protected?

A whimpering sound pulled her out of her thoughts, and she looked ahead, gasping as she saw the injured animal ahead. It was another wolf that she estimated was close to the same size as the black one, but it’s lighter fur was spiked and rust-colored. She realized immediately it was wounded and gasped. The black wolf stopped in front of her, turning to look at her, then jerked it’s head toward the injured one before it stepped out of the way.

Smart guy.

As soon as he moved, she moved carefully toward the other animal, who whined softly, clearly in discomfort. Willie hurried to the animal and moved around it to knee at it’s side, quickly and gently looking for the wound. When she found it she knew the animal was in big trouble. It’s gut was slashed open and it’s organs were spilling out. A sharp intake of breath was her immediate reaction before she immediately yanked off her tee and carefully slid it under the animal and wrapped it over the middle of the animal, tying it in place enough it would hold things in while she got the beast moved. The fact she was standing there in jeans and a bra wasn’t even something she was aware of, nor was the sharp eye of the dark wolf that stood only feet away.

“Ok,” she said quietly, looking between the two wolves before settling her gaze on the blue-eyed, dark furred one, “you seem really smart. I don’t know how much you understand, but I have to hurry. I have to get a sled to carry this one back to the truck. I don’t want to pick it up and risk hurting them more. So, please don’t chase me as I go running, alright?”

She rose to her feet, stepped around the injured wolf, then sprinted toward her truck. As soon as she got there she yanked the back open, grabbing the padded sled and a blanket before running back to the injured wolf. As the dark wolf watched on, Willie slid the injured wolf onto the sled as gently as she could, whispering apologies and nearly in tears at the whimpers and whines it released as she got it into position. Willie placed the blanket over it, whispering reassurances to it before standing and looking at the black wolf.

“I’ll make sure they’re ok. They’ll be released as soon as they’re healed enough to go.”

With that said, she pulled the straps over her shoulders and walked back toward her truck with the sled in tow. At the truck, she used a plastic ‘slide’ that angled from the tailgate to the ground, allowing her to slide the sled up into the back of her truck. She loaded everything up, then talked to this animal like she had the other.

“We’re going to the hospital now. Hang on.”

She closed the tailgate and the camper top before racing to the front seat of her truck and turning it back on. Just as she turned to look at the side mirror to see if anyone was coming, her eyes caught the dark wolf watching her again. Willie nodded at him and smiled tightly before she made sure the coast was clear and pulled back onto the road, this time, her speed had gone up to about ten miles per hour above the speed limit. Not knowing how much blood the animal had lost or if there was organ damage, she was now driving as if the wolf could die in moments.

It took her six minutes to get to the animal hospital, which was part of the local Humane Society. She ran into the doors and called out to the receptionist.

“Game Warden. I’ve got a disemboweled wolf in my truck!”

The woman looked shocked for a moment, but she was quick and pressed a button. “We have an emergency up front. Game Warden.” Her gaze turned back to Willie. “What is it?”

“A wolf. A big one.”

She nodded and relayed the information. Moments later, I saw two vets hurrying out of the back, rushing over to me where I led them to my truck and opened the top and the tailgate.

“Holy shit that thing is huge,” the older one, Dr. Kyle said, as he reached inside to help pull the sled toward the tailgate.

“Yeah, the other one was bigger. But this one has a huge slash across it’s belly from something and it’s guts are hanging out,” I explained as he looked over the animal a moment.

“The other one,” the other vet, a newer guy, asked.

“Yeah. It was the damnedest thing. It stopped me by standing in the middle of the road, then brought me to this one. Stood back and watched me as I put my shirt around this one, got it on the sled, and stood watching as I drove off.”

“Huh,” Dr. Kyle said. “Animals can be so unpredictable sometimes. It must have known a human could help.” He turned to the younger one. “We’re going to need a gurney out here and a few more hands. This thing must weigh at least a buck sixty, and we need to be gentle. Give me that shot, though.”

“Here you go,” the other man said, passing the syringes over to him before heading back inside at a quick jog.

After climbing in my truck, Kyle looked over the animal, watching it’s reactions as he checked it out. The wolf whimpered a few times, but made no move against him.

“It’s like he’s tame,” Kyle commented. “Alright, big guy, I know you’re in a lot of pain, so, I’m going to give you these two shots,” he said, showing it the needles. The wolf released a weak rumble. “You may not like it, buddy, but it’s going to make you feel better. We’re going to take good care of you,” Kyle said, having managed to give it the two shots without the wolf having seemed to notice. “There you go,” he said, capping the syringes before sticking them in his pocket. “Let’s give that a minute and you’ll start feeling a whole lot better.”

“Thanks, Dr. Kyle. It looked pretty clean, and it was bloody, but it didn’t seem to be bleeding a lot.”

“How long ago did you put the shirt around it?”

Willie checked her phone. “Eleven minutes.”

“Then he’s not suffering serious bleeding, or your shirt would be fully saturated and all over the sled. If it’s just torn open cleanly, then the biggest worry would be infection, which won’t be a problem to address,” he told her, glancing back toward the door as it burst open with the other vet who was pulling a gurney along with two others, both of whom looked a little confused by the need for them. Once everyone got to the back of the truck, though, they saw immediately why so many hands were needed.

“Holy shit that beast is huge,” one of the other guys said, shaking his head. “Is it sedated?”

“Yes,” Kyle said a bit sharply. “It didn’t seem bothered by me, though. If it’s wild, it’s not bothered by humans. He was totally docile.”

“Well, that’s promising,” the other new man said as they worked to shift the wolf as gently and carefully as possible to the gurney before pulling it back into the hospital.

“I’m coming for the assessment,” Willie told him as they both approached the front doors. “You can put me as the contact for the updates, too. This happened not far from my house, and the big one definitely seemed concerned and… I swear it seemed to understand what I was saying. If I didn’t know that was impossible, I might actually believe it’s true.”

“Maybe they were someone’s pets and they are tame. It would explain a lot.”

Willie hated the idea these might be pets. These were wild animals, they weren’t meant to be kept as pets in confined spaces. They needed space to run and hunt and have a pack and their life mate. They weren’t meant to live in houses or eat things that have been processed.

Once they were in the back and in an examination area, Dr. Kyle carefully untied my shirt to get a look at what they were dealing with. When he finally let go of the material, he began examining around the obvious wound to look for any other damage. They turned the wolf over part way, so they could see the full extent of the damage.

“It’s a pretty clean cut, but we need to shave off the fur around it as much as possible. We’re definitely going to need to do surgery. There is a slice in the small intestine and… that’s all I can tell for now. Let’s get him shaved up and get fluids going.” Kyle looked back at Willie. “I won’t know until I can get a clean look. We do have scrubs in the supply room, too,” he added, glancing below her neck a split second before meeting her eyes, a slight smirk tugging on his lips.

Willie looked down and suddenly realized she’d been walking around in jeans and a bra. It only took a sweep of the room to see people struggling not to look at her or wearing amused expressions. Mortified, she hurried into the direction Kyle had indicated. After finding one that fit and taking a few minutes to calm herself down, Willie re-emerged and sucked it up. No one would blame her – they’d have done the same thing in the same scenario.

She returned to where Dr. Kyle had been working on the wolf, but they were not there. Willie almost panicked, looking around desperately.

“Willie,” one of the training vets called. She was a tall, blonde woman named Michelle. “They’ve moved him to do the operation. He told me to tell you he would call as soon as he is done. You should head on to run your errands. Maybe by the time you’re done, they’ll have him in recovery and you can see him.”

Nodding, Willie released a heavy breath. “Thank you. Have you ever seen wolves that big before?”

Michelle shook her head as she stocked the station the wolf had recently been. “I don’t think they can get that big. He’s got to be some sort of wolf dog. Maybe it’s mixed with something like a Mastiff.”

“That was my first thought, but the black one… he was built like a pit, but even bigger than that one. He had to have weighed over two hundred pounds.”

“And he still had wolf features like this one?”

“If not for his size and that extra muscle, it would have been any other random wolf. I’ve never even heard of anything that big,” Willie admitted. “I’ve spent my whole life in the woods and I can say certainly I’ve never even seen a track that would indicate a creature of that size.”

Michelle shook her head. “Your guess is as good as mine, then. As calmly as they acted toward you, from your description, they must have been raised as pets.”

“Maybe,” Willie said, nodding. “I was thinking along the same lines. But, I don’t know. That smelled like wolf to me.”

“Wolves smell different than dogs,” she said, eyeing Willie with a raised brow.

Everyone knew Willie wasn’t like other people. She had a way with animals that would put Caesar Milan in a state of shock and amazement. If she said she could smell a difference, Michelle wasn’t apt to doubt her, she was just surprised there was a noticeable difference.

“Yeah, I think it mostly has to do with their diets. Wolves have a sort of sharper, earthier scent than dogs. It’s hard to describe.”

“If you say you can smell it, I believe you. If there’s anyone who could, it would be you.”

Willie gave her a crooked grin. “I know, I’m weird.”

“The best kind of weird, though,” Michelle said with a grin. “It’s a gift, you have. I’m sure my Grandfather would have had a word for what you are. I’m sure his tribe has stories of rare people like you.”

That made Willie smile. Michelle, while blonde, was actually a quarter Cheyenne. Her grandfather lived most of his eighty-seven years on their reservation.

“I’m sure in some cultures, they’d call me a witch,” Willie joked, rewarded with a laugh from Michelle.

“That could be,” the taller woman agreed, “but I’m sure the Cheyenne have a different view. Nature is important to them.”

“Maybe. It’s handy, though, I have to admit,” Willie said, noting a clock and catching the time. “Oh, shit… I have to bounce. If I don’t get a call, I’ll stop by on my way back.”

They said their good-byes before Willie turned on her heel and strode out of the back room and into the lobby. A minute later, she was starting up her truck to finish her trip into town. From the quick look she’d gotten, it could take half an hour or more just to do the stitches. The bleeding had been steady, but not bad bad, so he’d definitely need to be kept in a kennel at least three days to rebuild his blood cells alone. Best guess, with abdominal injuries on top of it, Willie figured he’d be staying at the hospital for a week to ten days, maybe two weeks.

Poor guy. She wondered what the heck caused those slashes. Surely not a cougar… they looked bigger and deeper that what one of those could do. Though, bears were out and about, but the wolf should have been bitten somewhere, right?

With a sigh, Willie slowed down the truck. Well, hopefully that was the most excitement she was going to have today. At least it looked promising.