Getting Jumped and Left for Dead

He caught her rich scent right then. It was subtle at first and mingling with the scent of lavender shampoo, among other scents she wore. Her scent did things to shock his instincts. The surprise of the sudden and intense reaction to her scent had him blurting out the word. “Mate.” She was human. He could smell that. How? Why her? Who was she? Was she a witch or some other human presenting a supernatural creature? His mate couldn’t be just a human. He was an Alpha, and it wasn’t appropriate to have a human mate. They were the weakest creatures going that could speak. They carried no magic at all. Gods, what would he do with this knowledge? If she was his mate and human, how would he explain to her his world? A world she didn’t know existed.

         “Oh, uh, my name’s Rebecca Allen. I’m the new vet in town. Hold that thought. I just need to do one more thing, and then I’ll be out of here.” She didn’t run. No, she flew in a blink of an eye from where she stood to the clinic’s door. She struggled to find her keys and lock the door before she returned at the same speed.

         Becky felt a little relief being out of his shadow for a moment or two. But his presence confused her enough that she couldn’t keep her mind on what she was doing. It took her several attempts to get her keys out of her purse. Becky didn’t know why she bought a purse with such a small opening that when her hand was in the purse, she couldn’t see inside it.

Rebecca. The town’s new vet, Robert, couldn’t believe it. One of the gods was playing a nasty joke on him. She didn’t return to him, instead she jumped into the truck’s driver seat and waved to him before she tried to start the truck. Was she trying to run away from him?

He was sure she expected the truck to start and just drive off into the dawn. But that wasn’t what happened. It tried valiantly to start and promptly died.

Sam was waving at him in question now, and Rob gave him a calming gesture that he was handling it. He walked to the open driver’s window of her truck and calmly said. “Pop the hood and I’ll have a look at what’s going on.”

Rebecca gave off the most beleaguered sigh he’d ever heard, and his heart melted. His mate was having a bad day. Rob’s first instinct was to help make her day easier.

She pulled the latch inside the truck, and he looked under the hood. The old truck desperately needed work. His pack maintained the local auto repair shop in town. They handled everything from cars and trucks to farm equipment. It was a lucrative business. So, he knew a thing or two about her vehicle, among others.

He had it running in no time flat. But he didn’t let her go right away. “You need to get this truck serviced as soon as you can. There’s a lot of work that needs to be done under there.”

“That’s what I was afraid of. It’s not happening anytime soon. Unless someone pays their bills on time. What did you mean when you said mate? I’ve never met you in my life before today.”

“We’ll talk about it later. Give me your phone, I’ll put my number in it. If you can’t get it started again, call. I’ll get someone out there to help you. My brother runs the repair shop.”

She blinked at him twice before she handed him her phone. His phone rang a moment later. So he had her number, too. “We’ll talk later. Go get your appointments or rounds done before you’re too late.” He tapped the side of the truck to bring her out of her confused state. She was driving off before he got to the end of her truck. Rob winced as she nicked the corner of his truck as she headed out. All he could do was wince for now and wave her on. He would need to teach her how to drive as well, it appeared.

Rob walked Sam and his truck back behind the Wolf’s Den. There they unloaded the alcohol delivery, and Sam quickly got back onto the road. Happy he could continue with his deliveries.

Rob was moving the delivery into the bar’s basement as his mind lingered on his mate. His very human mate. Gods, what was he going to do about that? The elders will have a field day with all the reasons he couldn’t and shouldn’t make it work. It wasn’t like there was a tried-and-true method to tell a human mate about the existence of werewolves and fated mates. Let alone the rest of the supernatural world. Rob had heard many stories about such events going horribly wrong and the mate putting the entire pack in danger because they couldn’t come to terms with their new life or the changes in their knowledge of the real world.

Rob just couldn’t get over how beautiful she was. With all that blonde hair and big blue eyes. She didn’t even reach his shoulder. He couldn’t focus his anger on her for the way she parked or for scratching the corner of his fender.

He heard more noise outside and went up to investigate it. There’d been vandals over the past few months, but he thought it odd for them to show up this close to morning to do their dirty work. But he’d scare them off for now.

He strode out sneering as he looked around himself for the reason of the noise. As he entered the early morning light, Rob growled when he caught sight of an unknown wolf at the edge of the wooded area out back of the bar. This was his territory, and he didn’t appreciate this invasion. But he didn’t get to do anything about it, because they suddenly attacked him from all sides. He’d missed spotting the other with his head so filled with the knowledge of his new mate and all the complications that came from having her.

With at least six wolves attacking him at once while he’d still not been able to shift fully, it wasn’t a fair fight. Every single one of them was a coward. By the time he’d fully shifted and destroyed his clothes in the process, he received far too many injuries to fight effectively. He gave it his all, but with the amount of blood he’d lost and the fact he now possessed several broken bones, it was a failed attempt and he blacked out from the blood loss and pain.

                  *                         *                         *

         Rob wanted to groan, but he soon realized as he returned to consciousness, he wasn’t in his human form. So, the sound came out as a whimpered chuff expressing the pain; he was in. When his eyes finally opened, the first thing he looked for was Rebecca. He need to know she was safe. The events in his head were all jumbled. Wait, he’d been alone when he was attacked. Rebecca should be safe.

Rob wasn’t though, he should be dead out behind the Wolf’s Den. The cowards attacked him. They didn’t give any warning or message before or after they attacked. Now, here he lay just inside the tree line somewhere along some lonely stretch of road. If he wanted help, he needed to move closer to the road.

They left him here to die, and they’d done an awful job. He wasn’t dead yet.

Rob’s mind kept flitting back to Rebecca and her mass of long blonde hair. He now found a reason to pull the strength from deep inside to move. Every bone and muscle in his body screamed, and he slowly dragged himself toward the road’s edge.

With these injuries, they trapped him in his wolf form until they healed enough that they wouldn’t get worse if he shifted. That could be hours or days from now. So, he prayed that a crazy pack of hunters roaming this region didn’t find him and think he was an easy trophy.

Rob couldn’t tell how long he clawed his way toward the road. He prayed someone who knew their supernatural secret found him first. Or at least someone who was kind enough to take him to the local vet. Rebecca. Rob knew just watching her pack that truck with as much as she did, she loved the animals under her care. She’d be gentle with him.

Rob finally dragged himself onto the edge of the pavement of the road with the last of his strength and he lay his head down on his front paws, losing consciousness again.

         *                         *                         *

The sun was falling at the end of another day. Becky drove home with Jane Ann in the seat beside her with music on the radio and the windows open. Becky could relax for the first time in the day. She couldn’t enjoy it, though. Her mind kept wandering back to all the police, blood, and that gorgeous man missing. How could someone that large and strong go missing like that? Was it a bear like the officer said?

A lump at the side of the road caught Jane Ann’s attention. “Becky! Stop! Something’s there. I saw it move.”

“What where?”

“Stop! There! Look!” Becky stopped the truck at the side of the road, and she left it running as they both climbed from the vehicle. “Oh gawd. Becky! It’s a wolf, and it looks like a truck, or something hit it. It’s still alive.”

“I’ll get me kit, hold on.”