AUDREY
We dressed slowly. I didn’t think either of us wanted to leave. It had been such a wonderful afternoon. We laid on the blankets until the sun dipped behind the mountains and the sky changed from pink to purple and finally grew dusk.
The sound of the waterfall blotted out the rest of the world. Made it feel like we were in our own special little paradise, where nothing could intrude. Boyd was right—it was one of nature’s most beautiful secrets.
That was why it seemed only fitting, rather than shocking, when I spotted a grey wolf slinking along the rocks at the top of the waterfall. I gasped, first with surprise, then a little panic, then pleasure at the magnificent sight. “Look!” I pointed to the ridge.
“Oh, shit,” Boyd muttered.
If his response seemed strange, I didn’t have time to register it because at that moment, a shot rang out from the distance, behind us. I startled and slapped my hands instinctively over my ears.
“Hold your fire!” Boyd roared, flying to his feet at the same moment I screamed, and the wolf gave a terrible yelp.
I’d never forget the sound of it. I watched as the poor creature blasted sideways, the bullet striking its hindquarters. It lost its footing in slick moss and water.
“No!” I screamed as the wolf fell over the edge, legs scrambling in the air as it took the drop into the pool. It hit the surface with a huge splash.
Everything happened so fast.
Boyd ran to the edge and dived into the pool after the wolf, which was insane.
“Stop! Boyd!”
Shit! It was one thing to admire its magnificence from afar, another to go after it. Did he not understand it was a wild animal he was attempting to rescue? The creature was badly injured. If it was alive, it would surely tear his throat out when he tried to help it.
I stood at the water’s edge, holding my breath, trying to see beyond the bubbling surface of the pool. Time lengthened. Stretched. It felt like forever but was probably only a moment before Boyd popped from beneath the surface and walked out of the pool holding a lifeless wolf.
“Oh my God, Boyd!”
He dropped the bloody animal on the blankets and instantly started chest compressions. “Shift, kid. Now.”
“Boyd, be careful,” I warned. “That’s a wolf, for God’s sake. He’ll wake up and bite you.” I wanted to help and was obviously trained in CPR, but I wasn’t a veterinarian. This was way out of my wheelhouse.
The wolf jerked several times, water pouring out of its mouth.
“Shift,” Boyd commanded again, his voice louder.
And then bones cracked and crunched and the wolf changed. Into a human!
I stared. Blinked. Yes, I had my glasses on. A naked male. Dark hair, slim build, late teens. Not a wolf.
“Audrey, take over,” Boyd ordered, straightening. Water dripped off him, his clothes clung to him. He was breathing hard, his gaze dark. Fierce. I’d never seen him like this before. His fingers were on the guy’s neck.
“What?”
“You’re a doctor, and he’s been shot. He’s got a pulse, but he’s not breathing. Help him.”
“But… but—”
“Now,” he commanded.
I blinked again and pulled myself together.
I slid seamlessly into his place, dropping to my knees on the wet ground to provide rescue breaths.
Human bodies I could handle—regardless of how they appeared in front of me.
Had he just been a wolf? My training made it easy to go on autopilot, doing everything I could to save his life.
Boyd was already jogging away and up the steep bank along the side of the waterfall. “I gotta keep Markle from seeing him. Do not call 911. And don’t worry about the gunshot wound, just get his lungs cleared.”
I knelt beside the blankets where just a short time ago we were naked and… making love. No, that hadn’t been making love, it had been fucking. But it had been more than that.
Now I was trying to resuscitate a kid who’d been a wolf. I heard Boyd speak, but it took a while for his words to filter in.
Markle.
Jett Markle had shot the boy—wolf. Whatever he was. Whatever the fuck just happened.
I heard Boyd’s voice shout in the distance. “You just shot my motherfucking dog, Markle!”
The sound of the two of them shouting continued, but I missed the rest because the boy at last coughed, and his lungs started to clear. I rolled him to his side and let him work the rest of the water out with gasps and coughs.
“That’s it,” I encouraged. “You’re going to be okay.”
Was that true? The kid just got shot. But Boyd had said not to worry about that part. And then the pieces started to fall into place. It was as if my brain finally understood what had been in front of me all this time. I wasn’t crazy.
I now knew why Boyd’s wound that miraculously healed.
Why he didn’t want me to examine it. How he’d walked out of the hospital right after being gored by a bull.
The way he’d known this wolf was actually a man.
No, boy. I looked at him more closely and guessed him to be sixteen or so. Not much more.
Had Boyd ordered him to change form?
Shift, kid.
Yes. Boyd had known what he was. Known what to do to help him. Knew because he’d done it himself.
That meant… Boyd was one of them. Boyd Wolf wasn’t just a cowboy, a rodeo champ. Wolf wasn’t just his last name. He was a werewolf. Or whatever I was looking at right now.
It seemed far less strange than it should, but I was sure that was because I was in crisis mode.
There was no time to get dramatic. I had a patient to save.
Despite Boyd’s instructions, I couldn’t let the bullet wound go untended.
Breathing had been his first priority, but now that his lungs were clear, I grabbed one corner of the blanket and yanked it up to ball over the wound, providing compression, rolling him to his back to look for an exit wound.
There wasn’t one. Which meant the bullet was still inside.
I needed to get him to a hospital.
The young man reached down. I thought he was going to feel for his wound, but instead he tried to tug more of the blanket around his waist. Oh right. Because he was, well, naked. It seemed wolves couldn’t very well run around wearing clothing.
Boyd stalked back, anger radiating from him, I presumed from his interaction with Jett Markle, who he must’ve managed to send away. His clothes still dripped water as he crouched beside the kid and took his jaw in his big hand. He wasn’t gentle. “Who the fuck are you?”
“Boyd, I need to get him to a hospital,” I said.
“You don’t, Audrey.” He gentled his voice with me, which seemed sweet, considering the circumstances. “If he’s breathing, he’s going to be fine.”
“He’s been shot.” I knew I was stating the obvious, but the obvious was well… strange as hell.
“And I was gored by a bull. He’ll be fine,” he told me. Then, to the boy, “Who are you?”
The young man coughed a few more times, not opening his eyes. “James. James Clifton.”
“You care to explain why you were running in wolf form across my neighbor’s ranch?”
“Visiting—” He coughed again. “—my girlfriend.”
Boyd groaned. “You just endangered the whole fucking pack, my friend. Just so you could get laid.”
His eyes blinked open, and he tried to sit up, but Boyd pushed him back down. “Please—don’t tell my parents. You can call my sister instead. Karen. She’ll pick me up.”
Glancing at Boyd, I cocked an eyebrow, silently asking “who?” He must have caught on because he said, “The woman from the bar.”
Ah, Total Bitch was a wolf? Seriously?
Boyd stilled and stared at the kid. “Don’t tell your parents? I’m going to tell someone worse than that. Your alpha.”
The boy groaned, and I looked him over to see what the problem was but realized he wasn’t happy about Boyd’s words.
“He’s gonna make the decision about how this gets handled. End of story. How are you feeling now?”
The youth had lost blood, and his face was pale, but he pushed himself up to lean on one elbow. This time, Boyd didn’t stop him. “Better.”
“Lemme see,” Boyd said to me, putting his hand over mine where I held compression on the gunshot.
He wasn’t a doctor, but I guessed he knew more about this young man’s physiology than I did, so I let him lift away the pressure.
He pushed and prodded the wound, making the kid flinch, then shook his head.
Most of the blood had washed off in the water, but the area was red and angry.
“Bullet must be in the bone, but it’ll come out on its own.
” Boyd turned his head to look at me. “He doesn’t need care. I swear to fate, Doctor.”
I swear to fate.
Interesting turn of phrase.
He’d mentioned fate when he talked about meeting me. Was the belief part of his culture? Wolf culture?
He reached out, lightly wrapped a hand around my elbow and squeezed. “You okay? I imagine this is a shock.”
“Uh, yeah. Yeah, it is.” I looked at him through new eyes. My sexy rodeo champ was actually a wolf. Boyd Wolf. “You must think me stupid.” I looked away.
He turned my chin back with his fingers. “You’re the smartest person I know.”
“Were you going to tell me?”
He looked slightly guilty. “Yes. I wanted to. From the very beginning. It’s just… forbidden. I was trying to figure out what to do.”
“I won’t tell your secret.” I looked him straight in the eye, then at James, so they both knew they were safe with me. “Doctor-patient confidentiality. I won’t breathe a word. You both have my promise. Besides, who’d believe me?”
“Thank you. That means a lot.” Boyd squeezed my elbow again. “I’ll tell you anything you want to know. Answer all the questions. But let’s get James out of here before anyone else sees him. You have to work tomorrow?”
I nodded. “Office hours.”
He looked down at the boy, a teen, who’d just wanted to sneak away for time with his girlfriend. It sounded so very familiar. Hadn’t it been exactly what Boyd and I had done?
“How are you doing, kid? Can you walk yet?”