Crissa's Mate

Chapter Seventy

Crissa tried to calm herself by looking at the clock on her smartphone. It was thankfully only an hour or so before sunrise. Checking the front door once more for security, she went back into the bedroom to wait out the remainder of the long night for David. She tried to imagine and hoped that he had kept up his stance to not let Julie near him. But instincts among wolves, as she knew, were strong and she could not feel with any certainty that he could maintain his fight against those urges to keep his promise.

She lay back on her bed while waiting, and while super-exhausted, felt her anxious thoughts drifting between consciousness and a dream-like reality. If only she were a wolf herself right now, she thought. She knew she would then have the strength and courage to compete with Julie for David in a more brutal way, if necessary. 

She tried to imagine how it felt to run out into the early morning light and smell the air to find her mate. To have no other worries in the world but to be together with him. To survive as a pair and enjoy the lure and serenity of nature as a home. She also wondered how it would be to sense and detect an enemy at a great distance. To prepare herself for fight or flight. She tried to imagine the joy of being with her partner in the hunt, to feed themselves, and someday to care for their adorable young. All of these intense thoughts were running through her tired mind as she considered where David was and how he might be behaving in her absence.

Then, once again, she heard a scratching on the door. It had become David's signal to her. Running through the living room and standing before the heavy wooden barrier, Crissa listened and then spoke softly.

"David?  Are you there?"

The rapid scratching confirmed this, and she cautiously pulled the door open. To her shock she saw th wolf she loved standing weakly before her. The fur around his ears and nose were covered with blood. She could see open wounds on his forelegs and saw in his eyes that he was in pain. She quickly looked beyond him to see that no other wolves had followed him there.

"Come inside,"  she whispered.

He followed her to the bathroom where she ran warm water in the washtub to cleanse his wounds. David stood by the bathtub patiently as Crissa took a washcloth and sponged off the bite marks on his legs. She then softly rinsed the blood off his ears and a deep gash on the side of his nose. She was angry there were no supplies in the cabin to provide an antibacterial treatment to these injuries but tried to make up for it using and antiseptic soap and water. David was a good patient, not complaining about the sting of the soap or the agitation to his injuries. Finally, she dried him off and felt that his own strong constitution as a wolf would add greatly to his ability to heal. How those injuries would be evident when David morphed back into a man was a concern to her.

Leading him back into the bedroom where she could see the first sunlight beginning to brighten the landscape outside, Crissa got him to lay down next to the bed and try to sleep. Stroking his head softly, almost hypnotically, she stayed with him until he seemed to be sleeping soundly. When her phone began to buzz in the living room she quietly went in and could see that it was Brad calling.

"Hey, Brad . . ."

"Is David with you?"

"Yeah, he made it back in this morning. But he's pretty beat up. He's got bites on his head and legs."

"Serious ones?"

"Not as bad as it could be I supose."

"So . . . do you think it was . . ."

"I don't know, Brad. It might have been Julie. He was rejecting her moves with anger as I saw them. But it could've been any of the competitive males from the clan around here."

"So, is he OK then?"

"He's sleeping now. It must have been a long night for him."

"Well for your sake, I hope that . . . long night didn't include . . ."

"Don't remind me. I've tried all night not to think of that."

"OK."

Just then the conversation was interrupted by the sound of rifle shots somewhere in the distance. Then again they rang out. Five or six high-powered gun shots breaking the silence of the open countryside."

"Brad? Oh my God . . . Did you hear that . . .?"

"What?"

"The sound of rifles!  Out toward the mountains!"

"Does that happen much out there?"

"No!  And there's no hunting season that I know of right now."

Again, the sound . . . Crack! Crack! Crack!  came from the direction of the mountain just beyond the cabin.

"Brad! There shooting out there!"

She got up, walked to the doorway of the bedroom and looked in. The sound had awakened David, but he didn't get up. He just continued to listen intently.

"Crissa, I can tell you what that is," Brad continued. "It's happened up here. After the professor was mauled by a wolf and later died in the hospital."

"Really?"

"The Alaskan authorities approved it. A program to search and kill any wolves near Fairbanks. It was a wolf-kill  project. To make the public feel safe. Some ten or twelve grays were killed. The people of Fairbanks were actually behind it. Everyone had gotten freaked out by Dekker's death. Right in a lab, on campus in the city."

"They would never do that here in BC, Brad. There's too much conservation going on. Wolves are generally respected here. People know of their danger, but it seldom happens that anyone's attacked."

"Until now, Crissa."

She remembered how David had prevented the attack on her fellow member of the wolf-protection group at the college.

"God, Brad! I'm so worried now.  David has at least one more night like this!   If he goes out there and the hunters find him . . ."

"Just don't let him, Crissa. Keep him inside! Even during the day now. If those shooters are with the same mentality . . . with the same bloodsport for wolves . . ."

"I know, Brad. There and hunters of ducks and deer in these communities. And I know how they think. Any excuse to kill a wolf, they'd see as a challenge  . . ."

"That's it. So call back later today, alright? Let me know how you and he are doing. Any sign of Julie out there?"

"No, thank goodness. You know . . . it's so strange. I can barely tolerate her as a girl. But as a wolf, the anger and hate is much stronger now. I see her as my biggest enemy."

"Well, just be careful Crissa. Especially now."

"You mean for the hunters?"

"Yes. But . . . for something else . . ."

"What?"

"You don't think Julie sees you as her  biggest enemy?"

"Yeah, I guess she would."

"Wolves are killers, Crissa. Don't forget that, OK? And . . ."

"And what?"

"And . . . that she's killed before."

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