Caged

Chapter 3

I stripped down so I didn't get caught up in my clothes and then let the shift take over, my skin prickling briefly before I was closer to the ground. I shook out my large body, getting used to being a wolf. I didn't shift as often as the others dead. I was usually too busy with work at the hospital and missions for the Academy to have a chance to change into my wolf form. I couldn't exactly heal someone with my paws.

I let out a little howl to let Sang know I was going into the woods. Hopefully she didn't attack me on sight like Silas seemed to think.

I followed her scent from her clothes and into the woods, following it for quite a few miles. For someone who was hurt, she really got far. Was she running away? We were still on our pack territory and she wasn't going straight to our borders. Her scent overlapped with a deer's at one point.

Oh, no. I hoped she didn't try taking on an adult male deer on her own. They could be dangerous for one wolf. She could be hurt, getting hit by a deer hoof or by their antlers. I didn't want to see her guts spread across the ground. No doctor was that good. I took in a deep breath. There was blood in the air but I couldn't be sure about the source.

I picked up my pace until I came to a clearing. A large male deer was dead and a beautiful wolf paced back and forth. I could sense her agitation. She ignored me but I knew she knew I was there. She was already on alert when I came into view so she must have sensed me a ways away.

How good were her senses?

I lowered my belly to the ground, not wanting to spook her. This was not a moment about who outranked who. We would save that for when she wasn't vulnerable and if she was going to be sticking around. I just wanted her to come back so I could check her over and help her heal.

She finally stopped pacing and faced me. She really was a gorgeous creature, her wolf was a nice blend of white blonde, blonde, red, and light brown. Along her head and neck were swirls of different shades reds and browns, and as the fur went towards her tail, it lightened into a white blonde color, with light peppering of all her colors. Her deadly eyes were a beautiful jade color. Adult female shifters in wolf form were generally around six feet long, but I could tell she was smaller than that by a few inches. She should weigh around ninety pounds to be at a healthy weight but from what I could see, she barely weighed seventy-five.

I tried linking to her since as wolves, shifters could talk to others outside of their pack but I hit a wall. That wasn't good. That meant she was closer than any of us realized to becoming wild.

Wild shifters were dangerous. Trauma usually causes it and their minds go crazy, their wolf and shifter mind combining together in a dangerous blend of insanity. A wild shifter was a cocktail of all the bad emotions of a human with the instincts of a wolf. They no longer hunted for food. They hunted to kill. To deal out the same pain they felt.

I eyed the deer. I couldn't tell if she was going to eat it or not. If she weren't, then she was in the early stages of going wild. She just wanted the kill, the adrenaline shot a hunt like that would provide.

The fact that she wasn't attacking me right away was what had me deciding to turn back into my most vulnerable shape. Hopefully having Silas's scent on me would keep me alive. So I allowed myself to go from my wolf, who was stronger, to my human form, who was too vulnerable in this situation. I stood tall, not caring that I was naked before her.

She snorted her agitation but didn't attack me just yet. We had hope after all.

"My name is Dr. Sean Green," I said, raising my hands to my side. "I'm part of Silas's pack."

Her ears twitched so I knew she was listening. She took a moment to scent the air but didn't do anything else. After a few long moments, I took a step closer to her but she stiffened, her haunches raising. She wasn't growling and while others saw that as a good sign, I didn't. She wasn't giving me a warning, she would just attack as soon as I was in range.