Aurelia’s head pops up, and she starts wriggling anxiously again, so Zeke puts her gently on her feet in front of him. It doesn’t escape my notice that Aurelia doesn’t try to move away from the hand Zeke places on her hip to keep her there.
“She’s okay?” Aurelia asks hopefully.
“Yes, yes. She’s fine. It was touch and go since she lost a lot of blood, but Axa pulled through.”
“Axa?”
“Oh, yes.” The keeper’s eyes brighten. “That’s the good news. We wanted to thank you for returning Axa home. A few months ago, one of our fences collapsed from a nasty bout of torrential rain, and a few of our wolves escaped. We were able to recapture all but one. Axa proved to be pretty elusive thanks to her failed tracker. After a few weeks of extensive searching, we’d lost all hope of ever finding her alive. She was born in captivity, you see, so the odds of her surviving in the wilds were slim to none. Not only did she survive, but she delivered two healthy pups.”
“Three,” Aurelia corrects a little petulantly at learning Meera had belonged to someone else all along. I know firsthand how possessive Aurelia can get. “She had three pups. And we call her Meera.”
“Ah. I see. Yes. Well, Meera’s pack will be happy to see her again,” the keeper says good-naturedly. “That’s what’s most important.”
“Can I see her?”
“She’s heavily sedated at the moment, so I don’t see why not. If you’ll follow me.”
Aurelia turns to look at us, and I’m the one to nod. “Go ahead. We’ll be right here,” I assure her.
She steps out with the keeper and the door closes, leaving the three of us alone.
“Huh…” Khalil says while scratching his chin and staring off at nothing. It’s only been a few minutes since Aurelia left.
“What?”
“I guess that explains why Meera hid her pups near our cabin when her natural fear of humans should have kept her far away. And why she let Seth pet her.”
Khalil had a point. The she-wolf wasn’t afraid of humans because she’d been cared for by them all her life.
Aurelia had been right after all. Meera was smarter than the average wild wolf because she wasn’t wild or average. Knowing how long she survived on her own while lost in a place she no longer belonged from the moment of her birth made her all the more impressive.
Much like a girl we all know and love.
Aurelia spends an hour with Meera before she returns to the room. The four of us stop by the pharmacy to refill Zeke’s meds and re-up our antibiotics, bandages, and ointment before heading home. We’re on guard from the moment we step out, knowing there’s not only an aggressive pack in the area but a territorial bear as well. It’s nothing we aren’t used to, but with Aurelia to keep safe, it puts us on teeth-grinding edge.
“I’ll clean the weapons and then get started on dinner,” Aurelia offers the moment the door is shut and locked behind us. She quickly collects them from us and then disappears downstairs into the basement before any of us can turn her down.
It’s going to take more than weapons maintenance to get her out of the hot water she landed herself in yet again, but we’re all too exhausted to tell her so.
“Dibs on the shower,” Zeke says to Khalil before he disappears downstairs too.
I tear off my shirt and head into my own room where my jeans follow my discarded shirt on the floor. Despite the fatigue creeping into my bones, I linger in the shower, enjoying the hot water coursing over my sore muscles. When I can barely stand, I turn off the water, wrap a towel around my waist and stare at myself in the mirror. Not for the first time, I contemplate cutting my hair before leaving the bathroom and dropping my towel. I step into a pair of boxers and then sweats before walking over to the bed and collapsing face down.
I’m asleep before I can work up the strength to pull the covers over me.
My eyes fly open hours later when the bed dips. The room is too dark to see, and the only sound is the rain and thunder outside, but I know it’s her.
“Everything okay?” I murmur as I reach out with my eyes closed and wrap my arms around her. She lets me pull her close before she answers.
“Yes. I just wanted to check on you. You didn’t wake up for dinner.”
I smile as I dip my head and bury my face in her neck. “You were worried about me?” I feel her nod, so I lift my head to nip her jaw. “Are you attempting to finesse me, little girl?”
“No,” she lies with a grumble.
I hum and then inhale. “You smell like Khalil.”
“He bent me over the kitchen table and fucked me after dinner.”
