Wolver's Rescue (17 page)

It also made her hungry and what better way
to celebrate than with chocolate. She fished a bar from her pocket,
ate it in three bites, and was starting another when Bull came
barreling up the hall.

“
What the hell are you
doing?” he demanded, looking, Tommie thought, just a little
wolfy.

“
Eating chocolate.” She
offered him a bite, which he didn’t take, and then started to tell
him what else she’d done, but he cut her off.

“
I told you to stay put and
you promised you’d do what you were told,” he said angrily. “I had
visions of you being captured and caged.”

“
Really? I had the same
vision of you.” It was like a sign and she had a sudden urge to
wiggle her tail. This called for more chocolate.

He grabbed her hand before she could reach
another bar and began pulling her along. “While you’ve been
indulging your sweet tooth, I’ve been going crazy looking for you.
There must be a half dozen security guards down by the laundry,
looking for our unconscious friend, no doubt. I’ve got Samuel and
Eli stashed away with him. We need to get gone before they start
checking doors or Eli wakes up.”

“
Eli? He’s alive? Thank you,
oh, thank you. I knew you weren’t a killer.” Tommie threw her arms
around his neck and kissed him.

For a moment, Bull held her so tightly she
couldn’t breathe and then he peeled her arms away and stepped back.
“We’ve got to find another way out and the only way is past the
infirmary to the elevator or the stairs. We’ll be seen. There’s no
way around it.” He lifted his nose and sniffed. “Do you smell
smoke?”

Tommie’s hand flew to her mouth. “Oh my God,
I forgot.” She ran to the red metal square on the wall and yanked
the handle down. The fire alarm immediately sounded.

“
Looks like we’ll have to
take the stairs,” she said.

“
Holy shit, spitfire, what
have you done now?”

“
Found us a way out.” Tommie
began to run and called over her shoulder. “Don’t stand there
gaping, Bull. We have to get Samuel and Eli.”

There were a surprising number of people in
the stairwell, but no one gave their little group a second look,
even though Bull carried the unconscious wolver over his shoulder.
Bull was sure someone would point and scream.

“
There he is! There’s the
one they were asking about!”

Climbing the stairs behind him, Tommie poked
him in the ass with her finger. “Act like you belong,” she
whispered, clearly aware of his discomfort and just as clearly
amused by it.

She didn’t know the half of it. He’d come
within an inch of losing it down in that hallway. Her quick kiss
had been one of gratitude, a thank you he didn’t deserve. His wolf
didn’t understand gratitude. It overreacted to what the animal
thought was an invitation to ‘play’. Bull’s body went along for the
ride.

That he wanted to fuck her wasn’t surprising.
It was the full moon and the call was strong. The need for sex was
normal. His reaction to her was not.

Her body was warm, her lips soft, and she
tasted like chocolate. Tommie’s kiss reminded him of things he
tried hard to forget. He didn’t want to remember blazing fires on
cold nights, or the hot mugs of cocoa held by freezing fingers. He
didn’t want to feel that inner warmth that came not with that first
sip of chocolaty goodness, but with the looks his parents exchanged
as they watched over their cubs. He didn’t want to think of family
and home. Bull had no family and no home. He didn’t want one.

When they emerged from the stairwell, the
flow of human traffic began to merge with those exiting the front
of the building. Hospital staff herded the crowd forward and
shouted directions for where each ward should meet for a head
count. Small fights broke out over pushing and cutting in line.
Bull took advantage of the organized chaos and steered his tiny
group away, ducking into a short hall and quickly turning down
another.

A security guard was checking offices,
turning out lights and closing doors. Just what Bull needed. At
Tommie’s insistence, they’d dragged the previous semi-conscious
guard along with them, claiming he’d fallen in his haste and
whacked his head. Halfway up the stairs, a kindly nurse had taken
over his care. Now they’d have another one to drag along.

When he saw them, the guard looked more
annoyed than suspicious. “All patients need to exit up front.
That’s the rules.”

Bull took a step forward, his body tense,
ready to drop his burden and strike the blow.

“
Rules be damned. We have
injured patients here, Officer,” Tommie snapped. “They need
immediate emergency treatment and I will not have this clinic
accused of negligence. I’ll take personal responsibility for these
men. All you need do is step aside.” Samuel groaned painfully and
she added, “Now, Officer, before we all die of
asphyxiation.”

“
Yes, ma’am.” The guard
stepped aside.

The guard looked like he was going to salute
and if he had, Bull would have lost it in laughter. He shook his
head and smiled. That skinny assed little wolver was something
else. He just couldn’t figure out what.

“
Mate!
”

The smile died.

They exited into the Physician’s Parking lot.
Moonlight bathed the small area to the side of the building with a
high fence around its perimeter and its own guard shack and gate.
Bull lowered Eli to the ground, propping him against the
building.

“
I’ll go see if our exit’s
clear. Samuel, can you handle the gate?”

“
I got it, boss.”

Limping slightly, the older wolver started
for the gate when it started sliding open of its own accord. A car
sped through, barely clearing the opening. It stopped at the end of
the sidewalk in front of them and the driver’s door flew open. A
man in a trench coat almost fell out in his haste.

“
Open the door. I must get
inside,” he shouted angrily and then stopped abruptly, sensing
something was wrong.

This time Bull had no choice. A staff doctor
would immediately recognize that Tommie wasn’t a colleague. He
stepped forward to take charge.

“
Gantnor!” Tommie shouted at
the same time as the doctor yelled.

“
Stop her! She’s a patient
trying to escape!”

~*~

At first she thought the flash of blinding
light was the result of her own flaring anger. Tommie blinked,
heard an incensed animal roar, and saw the dark shape of a wolf
leap through the air and onto Raymond Gantnor who fell back, arms
windmilling. She heard the thunk as his head hit the sidewalk.

“
Down!” Samuel yelled. He
yanked her arm in that direction.

Tommie fell to the ground as another burst of
light followed the first and another wolf followed. This one didn’t
leap, but charged straight ahead, plowing into the first wolf and
knocking it from Gantnor. The two wolves tumbled over and over, a
swirl of black and brown, snarling and snapping viciously. They
broke apart. One turned and tore off across the parking lot. It
sailed over the fence to freedom.

“
Fat’s in the fire
now.”

Samuel muttered something else, but Tommie
wasn’t listening. She was staring at the remaining wolf that was
suddenly surrounded by the blue-white light. She saw, or thought
she saw, its body shimmer and then the light was gone and Bull was
standing where once was wolf.

“
Find a way out and meet me
at the truck,” he shouted, “And take care of Tommie.” He turned,
ran, flared, was wolf, and was gone over the fence.

Tommie sat on the sidewalk, legs splayed in
front of her, finger raised to question. Her initial gasp was still
stuck in her throat. Her mouth opened and closed and opened
again.

“
He...How...Who... Wha..?”
Neither her mind nor her mouth appeared to be functioning properly.
Her questions either tried to come all at once or wouldn’t come at
all. Who could speak after witnessing a miracle?

Samuel tugged on her arm. “Come on, Missy. We
better get a move on. Cora and Molly are probably worried sick.”
When she stood, he left her to check on Gantnor. “He’s alive,” he
said, sounding disappointed. “Though I suppose it’s a blessing. At
least I don’t have to share the trunk with a corpse. Can you
drive?”

She nodded, not quite following. She was
still staring at the fence that seemed impossibly high. Words
finally formed.

“
I can drive, but can I do
that? That flashy thing I mean.”

Samuel sounded impatient. “Of course you can.
You’re a wolver ain’t ya?”

Tommie shrugged. “So I’ve been told, but I’ve
only been one for two days. I still have to learn the ins and
outs.”

“
So you been told? Don’t
know what the world’s coming to, I can tell you that,” he muttered.
He shook his head and continued shaking it as he leaned into the
car, searched for the right button and popped the trunk. “But maybe
we better save this conversation for later, because it sounds like
it’s gonna be a doozie and my Cora’s going to want to hear it, too.
Lord, I’ve missed that woman. Sweetest thing that ever walked the
earth, she is, standing out there day after day so I won’t feel
alone. I kept telling Eli...”

The sentence drifted off when he lifted the
trunk lid and stepped back. “Well, will you look at that? This may
turn out all right after all. Get on over here and shut me in,
Missy. We’re wastin’ moonlight. You may be only two days old, but
if need be, you got enough cunning to get us through the gate.”

Tommie closed Samuel in the trunk, got in the
car and started for the gate, wondering if this was real or she’d
finally succumbed to insanity. She’d been caged and kidnapped, was
witness to two killings and had committed assault. She’d broken
into the clinic and broken two inmates out. She’d become an
arsonist and now a car thief and all in two days.

But the most incredible of all was her
discovery of wolvers. She’d watched a man turn to wolf, and wolf to
man and she couldn’t decide which she found more exciting, the man
or his wolf. If this was the Land of Insanity, she thought she
might like to stay a while.

She didn’t have to use her cunning or
anything else to get through the gate. The guard was too busy
watching the arrival of the fire trucks and other emergency
vehicles to pay much attention to the boss’s car. When there was a
break in the procession, he waved her through, eyes still glued to
the Gantnor Clinic.

It took her a few minutes to work her way
through the traffic and rubberneckers that clogged the road out
front, but the street where Bull had parked was empty. The high
wall blocked the view of all but the roof. She double parked by the
truck and waved to Cora as she got out and ran to the trunk.

“
I’ve got him,” she called,
“I’ve brought Samuel.”

Cora, who was a head taller and many pounds
heavier than her mate, enveloped Samuel, crushed him to her massive
bosom, and began to cry.

“
You fool wolver. I thought
I’d lost you for good this time.”

Samuel maneuvered his head to the side until
it was free. “Now, lovey, you know it’s going to take a lot more
than that to kill me.” He tried to pat her back, but his arms were
pinned. “Let go of me now, Mama. I can’t breathe and you’re
embarrassing the lady. Where’s Molly?”

Cora immediately let him go. “She’s walking
and calling and crying her poor heart out. I can’t get her to stop.
We saw him. We saw Eli. He ran right down that road.” She pointed
away from the direction they came. “Didn’t hear us, didn’t see us.”
Her lip quivered. “He’s gone wild, hasn’t he, Samuel? He’s done it
this time, hasn’t he?”

Tommie wanted to be anywhere but where she
was. As a social worker, she tried to keep an emotional distance
from her clients. Finding a balance between caring and burnout was
a necessity. But Cora was different from the moment she met her.
The heartbreak in this woman’s voice touched her deeply.

“
I’ll move the car. They’ll
be looking for it soon,” she interrupted awkwardly.

Samuel jumped on it. “Not until we empty the
trunk. Help me get this stuff in the truck.”

Tommie got her first good look at the
contents and blanched. When she was finally caught, theft of
firearms would be an additional charge.

After that, it was a matter of waiting.
Tommie sat with Cora in the truck, but Samuel refused, saying he’d
been cooped up enough. Instead, he paced; twenty steps along the
sidewalk ahead of the truck, turn, march back, and pace twenty
steps to the rear. He was like a sentry on duty and it was driving
Tommie crazy. Cora evidently felt the same.

“
Worried myself sick that
they were going to kill him. He’s been back an hour and I could
kill him myself,” she complained to the windshield. “Molly, too.
She knows better than to chase that wolver when he’s on a tear.
He’ll come home when he’s damn good and ready and not a minute
sooner. He’s always been that way. She’s got cubs that need
worrying about. Eli can take care of himself. Always
has.”

She sounded angry, but her wringing hands
gave her worry away. Tommie reached over and covered them with one
of her own. Cora gave her a weak smile.

“
You’re a good girl. I knew
that right off. You have your own worries and here you sit
comforting me. Your man will be fine. He’s a prime alpha if there
ever was one, a prime looking one, too. Don’t you worry. He’ll be
back in your bed five minutes after the moon sets.”