Page 28

I woke with a start in a room I’d never seen before.

I was lying on a metal gurney, attached to a whole lot of machines that went ping.

I looked at the IV in my arm, the curtain surrounding my bed and realised, I was in a hospital.

I plucked the shapeless green gown away from my body and saw long rows of stitches.

It was weird, the moment I looked at them was when I felt the deep aches and superficial itches on each wound site.

What the hell… I thought, and then it came back.

The smoke beast had hurt me. I glanced at my wrists and sure enough, there were thick bandages around them from where the animal had clawed me.

Oh, god , I thought, tears beginning to rise.

What had happened to Buddy? “Buddy…” I cried softly, my vision overwhelmed with a flood.

I’d had him since he was a pup, all fluffy and falling all over the place.

I remembered having to puppy proof the fence four times before I could stop him from trying to come to work with me.

Then it was a kaleidoscope of images, of Buddy asleep with his head on my lap, of him running away with a stinking rabbit corpse, not letting me take it, of having to wash him afterwards and him woo wooing as I did so.

Buddy curled up in a ball, sitting on the passenger seat of my car, looking excitedly down the road as we travelled, searching for a new home. “God, Bud,” I sobbed, “I’m sorry…”

Yelp! My head whipped up and my heart felt like it was going to jump out of my chest as I heard the clatter of doggy steps on the concrete floor.

Woo woo! The green curtain was pulled aside as my dog barrelled in, whining and crying so much I started crying too.

He tried to leap up on my bed but it took two goes before he landed on me, whimpering and licking and snuggling in as close as he could.

“Bud,” I said, holding his wiggling body to me. “Buddy boy!”

“I wondered what all the noise was about. You’re feeling better, I hope?

” Doc Hobbes had joined us, pulling the green curtain back to reveal Finn and Kelly as well.

She picked up the chart at the end of the bed and then consulted the various machines around me.

“We’ll leave the IV in for the moment, but I think we can remove these now,” she said, reaching inside my gown to pull sticky sensors from my skin. “Now, would you like a drink?”

“Yeah. Buddy, sit down! Yes, but first, I want some answers. Just what the hell is going on? What was that thing that attacked me? Is that what you are keeping at this place? Is this what the full moon is about?”

“No, no, Julie, please lie down and let Doctor Hobbes finish her observations…” Kelly said.

“If you think I’m going to stick around for the next few weeks to find out what happens on the mysterious full moon…”

“You won’t have to. We’ve talked and we’ll let you know as soon as the Doctor finishes. She needs to sign off that getting news like this won’t impede your progress.”

“She should be fine,” Doc said. “I’ve had a look at her stitches, she still has a day or two before they are ready to come out, but they’re all healing well, no sign of infection.

” She turned to me. “You’ll need to take some antibiotics.

Always with food, and don’t miss any. The infection you’re fighting can be virulent, we’ve already had to give you some intravenously since you were brought in.

I’ll talk to you about how to care for your wounds after you’ve spoken to these two. ”

“Ok,” I said, looking at Kelly and Finn. “Talk.”

Instead, Finn started to pull his shirt off. “Are you serious? Is the answer sexual or a strip show?” I snapped.

“He can leave his clothes on if you prefer, but they will be shredded in the change. In the hope of reducing our clothing bill, we usually strip down before we do this.”

“Do what?” I asked, my eyes flicking wildly between the two of them.

“Can he take his uniform off and show you? He won’t touch you, not for a moment, I promise,” Kelly said.

“Fine.” I wouldn’t have thought it possible, but I watched Finn get naked without a twinge of arousal.

They were scaring the shit out of me. The only things I could think of that they might need to show me nude were porn related or monster of the week kind of stuff.

Apparently, option number 2 was the correct one.

I watched open mouthed as he hunched over, his body moving in a series of lightning fast stretching, snapping, shifting motions until a huge white version of what had struck me down at the gate stood where Finn was.

Buddy was up on his feet, then down at the foot of the bed, sniffing wildly. All I could do was stare.

“This is what the Sanctuary is for,” Kelly said. “This is what we keep safe. This is what we all are, what we believe you are.”

I didn’t waste any time. I yanked the IV from my arm, which stung a lot more than when they show people doing that on TV, and jumped free of the bed.

“Julie!” I heard Kelly call as I ran, pushing aside the curtain and flying down the ward, past empty beds and other cordoned off areas.

I saw the big shed door exit and started to really put on speed, Buddy sprinting beside me.

I emerged out into the light, eyes blinking, looking wildly around to see where to run to next.

Instead I saw my car, idling, just outside the hospital with Brandon sitting in the driver’s seat.

“Julie!” he called and opened the passenger seat door.

He’s one of them! my brain insisted. Yep, he was, and he was in control of my only way out of this crazy place.

I jumped into the seat, letting Buddy into the back, and slammed it shut before locking it.

“Julie, I know you’re panicking. The car is full of petrol, and I have some money for you.

” He handed me a wad of cash in an envelope.

“That’s 1000 bucks. It’ll get you to the next town and keep you going until you can get a new job, if that’s what you want to do.

If you want me to drive, I’ll stay. If you want to go on your own, I’ll get out and you can take the wheel.

What do you want to do?” I looked back at the hospital and saw Kelly and Finn, still in white beast form, emerge in the doorway.

“Just drive!” I snapped.

For a while, all I could hear was the hum of the engine, the rasp of my lungs as I tried to catch my breath and Buddy’s panting.

We peeled out of the Sanctuary complex and headed out onto the highway, back the way I’d originally come.

I watched the trees and scrub flick by, until my heart rate slowed down to normal.

Brandon turned to look at me, as if sensing the immediate crisis was over, and smiled tentatively.

“You’re one of the them too, aren’t you?” I said flatly.

“Yep, everyone you’ve met is in some degree a wolf.”

“So that’s what that is, a werewolf?”

“Not what we called it in the old country, but it will do for now.”

“And the thing that attacked me?”

“Yep.”

“Your parents, Shaun, Slade…”

“Yep, all of them. Some, like Nerida, are genetic hybrids. It can be hard to do, most humans are instinctively repelled by us, but when we live in human communities and raise our kids there, that repulsion seems to lessen. There have been instances of humans having children with us. You are the result of that.”

“I’m going to turn into that…thing.”

“That’s why we wanted to wait for the full moon. You either would or wouldn’t, and then we’d know where you fit in the community, what your strengths and weaknesses are.”

“So what, if I didn’t turn, I’d be given my marching orders?”

“No, but like Nerida, you wouldn’t do any of the frontline jobs. The stronger wolves keep the weaker members safe at the Sanctuary.”

“Obviously not, or I wouldn’t have these lovely scars to show for it,” I said, thrusting my wrists at him.

“If you turn, you’ll lose those scars. But that wolf, it wasn’t one of ours.

It attacked you because of your value to us.

An unattached female is worth more than her weight in gold.

He would have taken you through the gate, to his community.

I can’t tell you how you’d be treated there, but based on the reports from the others, not well. ”

“So, I’m a scrap of meat to be fought over.”

“No one thinks of you like that. If we did, you’d be caged and raped repeatedly, like in some of the fucked up communities.

But part of the urgency for us guys in finding you mates comes from a protective urge.

Mated wolves emit the same kind of repellent vibe to other wolves as we do to humans.

It certainly can be overcome, some sick individuals relish pushing past it and assaulting women, but they are few and far between. ”

“So if I’d decided I wanted a relationship with Shaun or Slade, that’s it, everyone else would find me a turn off?”

“For as long as the affection and commitment lasts. That’s part of Phyllis’s paranoia, that at some point one of her pack will start becoming attractive to others. If that happens, she’ll know that the love has died.”

“I don’t want this,” I said, almost in a whisper. I’d thought my words had been drowned out by the sound of the engine, but Brandon’s hand snaked over and took one of mine, giving it a squeeze.

“I know,” he said, and on we drove.

We pulled over at the first petrol station we saw and got some food and drinks and some clothes for me.

My stomach was just about turning itself inside out from hunger.

Then I remembered Doc’s words, I was supposed to take antibiotics to keep my wounds from getting infected.

I looked over the rows of stitches raking down my body in the toilet mirror, and they all appeared healthy and pink.

If Brandon knew about the medication, he would turn the car around, no matter what I said.

I yanked on the clothes and stuffed the hospital gown in the bin.

Feeling better now with a belly full of food and drink, we drove away and kept on driving, further and further from the Sanctuary.

The next major town was five hours away, but there were a few smaller places that had a pub, a petrol station and a shop a little closer.

We stopped at one, Gordonvale, three hours later.

“Feel like a beer?” Brandon asked, pointing to the pub.

I nodded, glad for anything that might make me feel a bit calmer about today.

We stepped inside, Buddy at my heels. I worried that they might not let him in, but saw other people’s cattle dogs lazing under tables or under their owner’s feet.

“What’ll it be, love?” the barmaid said on automatic, looking up at us and then flinching slightly before recovering her professional smile.

“Two beers thanks,” Brandon said.

She poured the beers and expertly started chatting to us, obviously pushing herself to be polite. “So, you out here seeing the sights?” I thought back to the endless plains of scrub and wondered what she was talking about.

“No, we’ve come from the mine down the road,” I said.

She frowned at this, “The mine? There’s no such place, not for 200k of here.”

“Yeah, there is,” I insisted. “It’s about five hours away, northwest.”

She shrugged. “I’ve lived here my whole life, never been a mine nearby. Must be a new place. Been bloody quiet about it, haven’t heard anything about hiring.”

I nodded, wanting to end this weird arse conversation. We took a seat away from the other punters in one of the corners. “So, what the hell was that?”

Brandon sat on one of the stools and took a long sip of his drink. “The Sanctuary operates in a weird space.”

“Of course, it does.”

“The way I had it explained to me, is it’s like a membrane. Only those things that have permission can see it or go in or out of it, anyone with some wolf genes. Everyone else just sees dirt and trees.”

“So my place of work plays Jedi mind tricks?”

He grinned, “From what I heard it’s witch mind tricks. Cost a lot of money back in the day.”

“So that’s how they knew I was one of you, when I found the Sanctuary.”

“Ah, no, that was confirmed when you saw the ad.”

“Seriously, magic wanted ads?”

Brandon got up and walked over to one of the other tables and picked up an old newspaper there and passed it to me. “Take a look.”

I opened the classifieds and there it was, over and over, the same offsider job advertised in every space. “So why didn’t they tell me what was going on?”

“Because everyone runs, just like you did. Kelly thought it would be better to wait until we know if people can turn, so there’s less time spent chasing after people and making sure they’re OK.

If it turns out you can’t change, and don’t want to stay at Sanctuary, no harm no foul.

If you do, well they deal with that when it happens, rather than freaking people out about something that might not happen.

I meant what I said, the full moon was never going to hurt you. ”

“We should get a room for the night,” I said. I just wanted to climb under the covers and shut out the world right now.

“OK, one or two.”

“One should be fine.”

The beer had hit me pretty hard, I realised as I got to my feet.

I was feeling kinda drunk already, but I guess getting bitten by monster beasts took it out of a girl.

The room was dark and smelled musty, but I dropped down on the bed as soon as we got in the door.

“Are you OK, Jules?” he asked, but I only heard his words dimly.

“Hot,” I said. “Turn the aircon on, will ya?”

A hand was placed on my forehead, and I knew Brandon had something to say about that but I missed it, dropping almost immediately into sleep.