I looked out the French doors at the three small pups. My heart, which had shattered not that long ago, broke again, seeing them. Someone had created a den for them on the deck, near enough that we could easily see them from where we were in the house.
“They have gone through a tough time.”
The tall man on my right stood with his hands shoved in his pockets. He was watching the three wolf pups sleeping on a blanket in the sun, outside of their den. Their little legs would twitch every so often, but not as if they were running or playing in their dreams. No, it was more like they were having a seizure or were trying to remove their legs from someone’s hands. A few whimpers floated up before they would move closer together and fall back into a deeper sleep.
I stood beside him, studying the pups. I could count every rib on all three of them. Even from where I stood, at least five feet away. I didn’t know why they were in this condition yet. The men had just said it was confidential and they would tell me once I had arrived here, if I would come. So, here I am.
These pups were worse off than my employers had revealed, and what they had said had told me they had been in a bad situation.
I would do whatever I could to make these little ones well again.
A large bowl of water sat next to them, along with a bowl of small meat cubes. Neither were touched, though. I had watched the doctor, who was standing on my left, put the bowls out when I had first arrived only ten minutes ago, but the pups hadn’t awaken.
The smallest pup seemed to stop breathing every so often, the pause long before she took another shuttering breath. I breathed with her, counting out the seconds of that pause, urging the little pup to take a breath each time. I gasped.
The doctor, Max, shook his head, touching my arm gently before dropping his hand.
“Don’t watch Lexi breathe. She has a respiratory issue going on that I haven’t yet figured out. Everyone who watches her end up breathing in sync with her, trying to get her to take that next breath whenever she stops breathing. It only makes us hyperventilate.”
Lexi. I wondered exactly what Lexi and her siblings had been through when the man on my other side continued.
“We rescued them from an experimental laboratory that had taken them after killing their parents. All three were in a cage too small for even one of them. They had been poked, prodded and tested upon.” His voice was like a low growl.
I glanced up at him, my eyes flitting from his silver hair to his silver eyes to those sensuous lips. Those lips that were now pressed into a firm line. He had an unique attractiveness. His strange hair and eye color were mesmerizing. I felt myself leaning towards him. Wanting to study him in more detail.
No, it was too soon. I pulled my clinical persona over my broken soul, to study the man beside me.
This was a man who had experienced things that had marked his soul. His face looked too young for him to have silver hair, and yet he did. I wondered if it was natural or if it resulted from trauma. I knew that trauma did strange things to people.
I felt more than heard the soft whine in my head. Not now. I had been hearing wolves in my head since my husband had died. I wasn’t sure why. I pushed the thought away, ignoring it. Don’t go crazy now, Holden.
Sighing, I turned back to watch the pups. Even with his strange eyes and hair, something was familiar about his face. I just wasn’t sure what it was. I wasn’t sure if I wanted to know. Not now. But I was sure I had met him before, at least for a fleeting moment. The thought tickled my mind before I pushed that away. Now was the time to learn about the pups, not me. Not my problems.
He didn’t seem to notice that I had been watching him since he continued talking.
“Max examined them after we had gotten them out. Those idiots had taken a lot of blood and had injected the pups with various toxins, as their blood tests shown. It had taken us a few weeks before we were even sure they would survive. There may be long-term issues that we can only speculate about. Only time will tell.”
His intense anger filled the room with the emotion and strangled me. This was another one of those things that had changed recently. Feeling the emotions of others. I could feel his anger beating against my skin and almost taste it on my tongue. I had felt an emotion like this before, but nothing like this. My husband had been easy going, except his anger had been this quiet burn, slowly growing. At some point, it would come out, filling up a room and smothering me with its intensity. I wasn’t sure if I was just empathic or if everyone could feel emotion like this. At least a little. I couldn’t tell if I was feeling the pups or this man right now. It was such a mixture of anger, sadness, sorrow, and hurt.
“Shane.” Max chastised, his voice controlled and low. Shane exhaled, releasing the tension that had been filling the room. Interesting. I glanced at Max, wondering if he had also felt the emotion. If there was someone else like me. Well, he was a doctor. I suspected he knew a little about mental illness.
I inhaled deeply. I would not ask him about it, though. In fact, now that I was standing here, I wasn’t sure I was ready to be here, taking care of traumatized pups. But… I was here now. And having seen the pups, I knew I couldn’t leave. Something inside me reached out to them. I needed to do something, anything, for them.
Shane turned away from the doors, his large body slumping in dejection. His silver hair fell into his eyes and I unconsciously reached out to brush it back. I caught myself as my hand rose and instead pushed my own reddish-brown hair back around my ear. Wisps of curls always came loose from my braid and would fly around my face. It was an easy save.
“PTSD?” I wondered aloud. I wasn’t sure if I was talking about the pups or the man beside me.
Max nodded. “Some of it, yes. Some of it may just be depression or grieving. We found their parents dead in their den. Probably killed in front of them.”
He shook his head, turning to face me, leaning against the door frame. He was tall, just not as tall as Shane. He had shaved his dark brown hair close on the sides with the top left long to curl over his forehead. His eyes were hazel with strong tints of yellow in them. He was handsome, but I didn’t feel any of the attraction I felt towards Shane.
Then again, I haven’t felt attracted to anyone since my husband had died six months ago. Not until now.
I glanced up at Shane. He continued to stare out at the pups as if he could will them to thrive.
Looking back at the doctor, I searched for a question. “Are they eating?” Stupid one, Holden, given the untouched bowl of food next to them. My cheeks felt warm. I was off my game.
He shook his head, appearing not to notice. “Not really. It was fine when we had them strapped down and were giving them IV fluids. Now that they are up and moving around, we have been trying to get them to eat for themselves. They won’t. They barely drink. We have tried almost everything.”
The frustration in his voice caused my heart to ache. It even broke through to Shane, who looked over at Max before turning and walking over to a couch and sitting on one of its arms.
“It is why we invited you here, Dr. Black. You are one of the foremost experts on wolves in the nation. You are also the closest, and were available.”
I shivered. I was available only because I was at the end of my sabbatical, extended after my husband’s sudden death. Foremost expert, though? I wasn’t sure they could call me that.
“I understand. What do you want me to do?”
Max shrugged. “Help us figure out why they are not thriving. Help us get them well, so we can reintroduce them into a Pack. Wolf pups need a Pack. These young ones have already gone a while without one. I am not even sure if they can assimilate into a Pack at this point.”
He sounded worried, but I knew why. Lone wolves had a much harder time in the wild. Pups only a few years old? That was basically a death sentence without a Pack to protect them. I just wasn’t sure what I could do since I wasn’t an animal psychologist. These needed more than medical or behavioral help.
Shane leaned forward, clasping his hands, his muscular forearms on his knees. He watched me for a moment and then he sat back up.
“We understand that you were planning to take at least another month on sabbatical. Take it here. Work with the pups. We will pay you well to be their nanny. If you can figure out something that can help us acclimate them, that would be great. If not, then we are no worse off than we were before.”
While his words were straight forward and casual, his tone showed the strains of sorrow. And a touch of hope. I wasn’t sure how I knew this, but I did. This man cared deeply for these pups. He didn’t want to give up on them.
Because of that and the pups themselves, I couldn’t walk away. Perhaps it also will be a good distraction for me.
I nodded. “Okay. I will become their Wolf Nanny. Here’s hoping it helps.”
The feeling in the room lightened somewhat. I guess both men thought I might have turned their offer down. They were obviously betting so much on me. What had I gotten myself into?
I glanced out the doors again and noticed that two of the pups were standing, nudging the third.
“Something is wrong.” I moved to the door, but Max beat me, pulling open one door and moving swiftly towards an oxygen tank I hadn’t even seen sitting next to the den. In the next moment, Shane was holding the smallest pup while Max placed a mask over her nose.
“Come on, Lexi. Breathe for us.” Shane cajoled the pup.
Max let out a frustrated groan. “Holden, come hold the mask for me while I get..”
I rushed over and squatted next to them, my hands holding the mask steady.
Max stood and moved to a table nearby, that was in a three-sided enclosure in the back corner of the deck. There were several medical devices and vials there. He picked up one vial, read the label and then put it down, moving to another. Holding this one carefully, he pushed in a syringe and drew out some liquid before turning and coming back to us.
Kneeling close to me, he injected the pup and then waited.
The pup started breathing again, shallow breaths at first.
Max exhaled. “Trying to scare us again, Lexi girl?” He smoothed back the reddish fur on the tiny female. The other two pups yipped softly and Shane lowered her enough so they could sniff her and check her out.
“Hey, kids, your sister is okay. Thanks for the warning.” Shane freed one hand to stroke a finger along the pups heads.
Max stood, taking the empty syringe over to the table before returning with three more. “Might as well give them their antibiotics now. They would need them within a half hour.”
He quickly injected the three pups before disposing of the empty syringes.
“What is wrong with her?” My voice was soft. No one had told me to remove the oxygen mask, so I kept it close to her face still.
Max stretched out his back. “Acute respiratory distress syndrome or ARDS. Whatever had happen in that lab had hurt her lungs the most. The other two don’t appear to have it. We hoped that it would have cleared by now, but she still has setbacks like this.”
Lexi opened her eyes and looked up at me, struggling to come closer. Shane let her go and she scrambled onto my lap. She stared, her eyes a bright green.
“Hello, Lexi. I am Holden.” I looked over at the other two who had settled down but still had their eyes on their sister. “The black-red-tan one is..?” I glanced up at Shane.
“That is Soren. The lone male.”
I studied the pup. He had an unusual mottled fur and serious gray eyes. He was a little bigger than the sister he was laying besides, and both were larger than little Lexi on my lap.
“So that one, the dark brown one with blue eyes, is Betta?”
He nodded, standing up, the movement fluid and easy.
I patted Lexi before moving her between her brother and sister. The two larger pups nuzzled their sister, sighing as if in relief. Lexi looked up at me and yipped softly. I got the impression she was saying thank you.
“You are very welcome, Lexi. Take a nap. I will be here when you wake.”
The pup looked like she was giving me a small grin before snuggling in with her siblings and closing her eyes.
Max and Shane exchanged a look before Shane put out a hand to me.
“I take it you are staying, Dr. Black.” It wasn’t a question, but I treated it as if it was.
“Yes, I think I am.” I wiped my hands off on my pants and walked back into the house.
