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Brandy continued dropping meat pieces into the cage, and Reardon ate every morsel. It all tasted wonderful.
When the meat was gone, Brandy disappeared again. She returned with another bowl filled with water. Perhaps Reardon wouldn’t have to wait for her to open the door after all, but she walked to the back of his cage. Awkwardly, he turned around as she unlatched a smaller door—one much too small for him to exit—at the base of the enclosure. She slid the water bowl in and closed the hatch.
Disappointed, but too thirsty to dwell on it, Reardon sloshed down big gulps of water. Soon his tongue didn’t feel so sandy anymore, his stomach wasn’t so empty, and his leg didn’t hurt as much. Simple comforts, but they meant a great deal to him right now.
“Why don’t you lie down, big boy, and relax? You need to take it easy for a little while.”
Reardon lowered to his belly, and Brandy chuckled. The sound vibrated through Reardon and he almost shifted on the spot. Certain she would find a naked man in the cage unsettling, he reined in his ability and closed his eyes. He was sleepy. It was only yesterday he’d fought in a merciless battle, gotten a little drunk, faced an angry goddess, woken up in a strange place, and broken a leg. All that was catching up to him. Now that his leg had been tended to and his belly was full, a nap sounded like an excellent idea.
He’d rather be cuddled up in his human form with Brandy beside him, but he could be patient. Perhaps he’d dream about her at least.
As his eyes were closing, the door Dylan had gone out earlier opened. Reardon raised his head at the prospect of seeing the boy again when another voice—an adult male voice—filled the room.
“How’s our patient?” the voice asked as a man came into view by the cage.
Reardon curled his lips back and let out his lowest, deadliest growl.
A warning. One he didn’t usually have to issue twice.
Chapter Five
“No, no, big boy.” Brandy jogged over to the wolf’s cage. “Parker is our friend. He fixed that leg of yours. You be nice.” She wagged a finger.
The wolf’s teeth were still showing, but he didn’t release another one of those growls—the kind of growl that could make a man’s heart stop. Low and predatory. Alpha.
The more Brandy studied the gorgeous wolf, the more she suspected he was indeed Alpha of a powerful pack somewhere. The notion of reuniting him with that pack didn’t fill her with the usual content though. Something about the green-gold eyes of this beauty made her want to keep him at the sanctuary. Keep him for herself. Combine those magnificent eyes with the thick coat of ebony fur covering a muscular body and Brandy was looking at the most regal wolf she’d ever had the pleasure of meeting. The little piece missing from the tip of his left ear gave him a badass aura as if he’d seen many battles and his opponents hadn’t lived to tell the tale.
“Should I leave?” Parker hadn’t moved since the wolf let out his warning growl.
“Of course not.” Brandy elbowed Parker. “Are you going to let him win?”
“Normally, I’d say hell no, but this guy looks as if he’d love to tear my flesh right off my bones.” Parker slowly pointed a finger at the wolf whose eyes actually looked as if they were electric. That green-gold color didn’t look the same as it had when it was just Brandy talking to the wolf in the clinic earlier. Now they were almost… glowing.
Brandy squeezed her eyes shut and shook her head. This was what she got for staying up into the wee hours of the morning, assisting in surgery, and making sure strange wolves were comfortable.Glowing eyes? Get real.She had to lay off reading that clinical lycanthropy bullshit too. It was messing with her reality.
“He’s not going to hurt you.” Brandy kneeled again by the cage and stuck her fingers in.
“Are you insane?” Parker whispered. “Do you notneedthose two fingers?”
“Oh, stop it. He’s just feeling a little protective, aren’t you, big boy?” She wiggled her fingers and slowly the wolf’s gaze slid from Parker to her. “That’s a good wolf. See, Park, he and I bonded while you weren’t here.”
“Great. So now he thinks you’re his?”
Brandy laughed. “Something like that.” She wouldn’t mind belonging to someone, though she did have someone of the two-legged variety in mind. “Besides, he can’t hurt you from inside that cage.”
“I know, but I’d rather him not think I’m an enemy right from the start. I know you. You’re dying to let him out.”
One of her biggest joys at the sanctuary was watching the wolves that lived there roam through the woods. “I can’t help it. Seeing them caged makes me sad. Wolves are meant to own the forest.”
The big wolf licked her fingers and snuffled around as if to agree with her statement. It infuriated her that most of these wolves had gotten injured or sick due to idiotic humans. The bastard responsible for the traps being out in the woods was undoubtedly the biggest idiotic human she’d ever come across.
Hank Swift owned a farm to the west of the sanctuary’s lands. It used to be a big, thriving farm that grew hundreds upon hundreds of rows of corn and other vegetables and raised both beef cattle and dairy cows along with chickens, goats, and horses. About ten years ago, a person could go to Swift Winds Farm and get everything from fresh tomatoes to prime cuts of beef to soaps and other products made from goat’s milk to a pony for little Suzie’s birthday present. Hank’s farm wasthefarm in Canville, Vermont.
Until his wife, Peggy Swift, left him.
Rumor around town was she shacked up with a younger man she’d met at the local gas station and had run off to California with the dude. Hank never confirmed or denied the stories, but from the moment he’d discovered she had left, his soul had turned black. He drank too much. He smoked too much. He let his crops shrivel and die. He sold off all his livestock and went to Connecticut to gamble.
Well, to lose actually.
