Wolf Tech 4: The Academy

Chapter 8

When Zane hit the water, he was actually ahead of the female and jerked her towards him as she reached him in the rapids. At the least, he could protect her from some of the rocks they were going to hit. As they headed down the flume of rushing water he felt the impact of rocks on his pack and body. He pulled her as close as possible and wrapped his arms and legs around her. How long it took to reach calmer waters he didn't know.

All he knew was they were being tossed around in the raging waters. He felt the impact of rocks on his body. The frigid water wasn't helping because he could feel the warmth of his body being sucked out by the second. When they hit one rock he felt as much as heard the cracking of his pack. If he had the energy he would have screamed since he felt his ribs crack as they were thrown against another rock.

*****

Zane had to struggle to drag the woman to the shore. It was hard because he knew he had injuries. At least one arm was broken, fractured ribs from hitting the rocks, and maybe even a broken lower leg. His energy was flagging as he struggled to the side of the river. He pulled her out and at the moment she was barely breathing. He tried to listen and had a feeling she had swallowed too much water. Anything else he wasn't sure of now; his mind just wasn't working well. At least he had most of his pack. There had been damage to it but it was still on his back.

He removed the pack before checking on the woman. Her breathing was shallow and not completely even. To check on her he carefully ripped her clothing off as he checked for injuries she might have. She didn't seem to have any chest injuries but as he worked his way lower in checking he found what looked like a leg injury. When he noticed that, he found she was bleeding badly.

Zane ran through his first aid training and it looked like she might have a femoral bleed. That required a tourniquet which he didn't have. Some of his first aid packages had been lost, including anything that could be used to make a tourniquet. If Zane had been more there he would have thought of using her clothing or his to make one. He pressed a hand against her chest and felt her heart starting to almost stutter. Before he even thought about it, he leaned forward and felt his teeth and jaws grow. Unless she was dead he could change her and save her. His teeth bit down on her leg near the bleed and he could feel his teeth inject the virus into her.

When he realised what he had done, he leaned back he started to cry since he had done to her what had been done to him. He hadn't asked, yet turned her if she survived. Since he had changed her he had to take care of her. After pulling the pack close he found he did have the water proof matches. He gathered as many small branches as possible and started a fire. It took a short amount of time to get the fire started and one of the emergency thermal blankets wrapped around her.

He screamed to the night because of what he had done to her. She would probably survive but what did that mean for him? It meant he was like the one who changed him. It didn't hit him that he had saved her and hadn't changed her simply for enjoyment's sake. He had done a forced change and that was that. She would live, he would face the elders, his family, and who knew else and then die. What would happen to his team? They would be humiliated by what he had done and made unworthy. He leaned back and howled out his agony even though he had saved someone. He was no better than that monster who had fucked him over.

*****

Adam was helped up over the edge of the cliff by the pack members that had responded to the call for help, after the humans had been lifted up, and were being transported in rescue stretchers over to a clearing to be airlifted out to a human hospital. Just as he was thanking the wolves for their fast response, they heard an anguished howl, "Zane!" he said with quite a bit of awe that he was still alive. He had gone over rapids that could almost be called a small waterfall, and had survived. He ran off and shifted as soon as he was far enough to not be seen by the last human, even though they weren't conscious. He howled back, "I'm coming!" He weaved around trees, jumped over bushes, and raced across the meadows, using all of his speed and power to get there. He was still recovering from the fight with the rogue, so it wasn't as fast as he was used to his maximum speed being.