Page 36 of The Coyote's Veterinarian Omega

Icouldn’t sleep. i was bone-tired, exhausted even, but sleep slipped through my fingers every time i closed my eyes. i tossed and turned. i shucked off the sheets. i threw off my clothes.

I tried counting sheep. Singing lullabies. If I’d remembered where I put my phone, I would have pulled it out and tried listening to white noise or something, but as it was, all I could hear was the wind sighing outside the ranch house, maybe the occasional notes of frog song from the pond on the other side of the driveway.

I knew I needed to sleep. Tomorrow—or today, rather, since it was already long past midnight—I’d need to go check on the calves at Jed’s. And who knew what else I’d be called to do. It was spring, and all the animals in Coyote Creek were busy with their offspring.

But try as I might, I couldn’t drift off. My skin felt like it was on fire, crawling with an itch I couldn’t scratch—one named Cam. I knew the only thing that would satisfy me would be his claws on me, his lips on my skin, his cock—

Okay, that’s enough of that, I thought. I wondered if I had any tranqs in my kit in the car.Thatwould knock me out for a bit.

I was just pondering if I should go out and check when the crunch of gravel made me freeze. I tilted my head a little, listening.

There was something outside on the driveway. My heart beat a little faster.

Maybe just a skunk or something, I told myself. Or maybe it was one of the brothers. I was in a house full of coyote shifters, after all. Even if Cal and Cam had gone to bed, maybe the twins had shifted and were out frolicking. That seemed like something a couple of teenage shapeshifters would do.

A howl near the house made my blood freeze. I lay perfectly still on the bed, staring wide-eyed into the darkness.

“What the hell!” someone shouted upstairs.

There was clattering and a click, followed by footsteps on the stairs. Light flooded down the hall, creeping in under the guest room door.

“The fuck!” That was Cal, bellowing as he slammed open the front door.

I rolled off my bed and slunk to the window, popping up under the curtains just in time to see the wolf—the same wolf I’d seen at Jed’s yesterday.

He wasn’t a gray wolf, as far as I could tell—he was too small, and even in the darkness, I could tell his coat was reddish. Equally, he wasn’t a coyote—he was too big, a wolf through and through.

The yard lights flooded the area near the door. “Go on!” I heard Cal barking. “Get on out of here!”

The wolf paused for a second, then turned tail and dashed past the garage and the shed, before disappearing into the ditch along the laneway. I clutched at the windowsill for a little longer, before slowly pulling away.

The door banged open. “Are you okay?” Cam asked, his eyes wide and wild.

I blinked at him. “Huh?”

He stormed into the room, slamming the door behind him. “Are you okay?” he repeated as he marched up to me, clapping his hands on my shoulders, like he wanted to shake me.

“Uh, yeah?” Honestly, I didn’t like that I’d seen this wolf twice now, nor that it had been so close to the house, but it wasn’t like I’d been outside and it had attacked me or anything.

“Good,” Cam said, slowly releasing me. I realized he was trembling.

I glanced up at his face. “You guys have trouble with the wolf before?” I asked.

Cam shook his head, dashing my theory that there was some story here. “Never seen him before,” he said. He peered at the window for a moment.

I cleared my throat. “I saw him,” I said softly, and Cam whipped around. His eyes almost seemed to glow.

“Where?”

I shrank back toward the bed. “Today. Up at Jed’s.”

Cam’s face transformed with a snarl; he looked positively feral, eyes flashing dangerously in the dark. My heart picked up its pace again, and my breath came short.

There was a soft rap at the door, and Cal poked his nose into the room. “Everything all good in here?” he asked.

“Out,” Cam practically growled, and Cal reared back.

“Okay,” the elder Carlyle brother said, lifting his hands and backing out of the room. Cam was practically growling at him; if he’d been in his coyote form, his fur would have been on end. Asit was, he took a step past me, toward Cal.