Heart of the Wolf Ch. 04

She heard the sound in her mind. 'A howl?' It seemed mournful to her, but then again, most howls sounded like they were in mourning. She had always tried to follow whatever it was that lurked within her and she felt at peace when she caught glimpses. It had never shown itself or made a sound until now. She felt consciousness start to come back as she faded from inside her mind. Before she fully came to, she heard another sorrowful howl.

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Catie came to in a hospital-like setting. She was hooked up to a blood pressure and ECG machine and recognized the beeps coming from it as being her own heart. She listened as the beeping picked up from the adrenaline rush that she now felt. 'Where am I?' She started to feel panicky. The last thing she remembered before she had passed out was the black wolf. What had happened since then?

She decided to calm herself by taking in her surroundings and focused on breathing slower while she did so. The bed she was on wasn't a typical hospital type bed. It was much more comfortable. Her battered body was thankful for the comfort after the rock she had slept on. She was covered in a soft, white blanket and noted that someone had put a hospital gown on her. The room was small but cozy. It reminded her of her mom's house. The walls were a light brown color and there was a window to her left. The blinds were drawn and she decided to try and get up to open them. She tossed off her blanket and started to move to get off the bed. As she went to move her right leg, she almost screamed from the pain. She looked down to see that her shin was very darkly bruised and upon touching it, she cringed and this time cried out some.

To her surprise, a second later, a man and woman burst through the door which caused her to yelp in surprise. She couldn't help but stare at them as they stared back at her. "What the fuck is going on here?" she yelled at them. These were the ones that picked up Luka from the clinic the other day.

"Get out of the way. Let me see her," she heard a female voice say. They moved out of her way and in came a shorter but equally pretty blonde lady. She was wearing dark blue scrubs and had short bobbed hair. She had a no nonsense stance about her. "Please go get Kaine," she said without even looking at them with her pale brown eyes. Without saying a word, they both quickly turned and left as the lady went and looked at the ECG machine and started jotting down notes.

"Who are you?" Catie slowly said as she stared bewildered at the woman.

"I'm Dr. Trina Adams. Just try and relax, Catie. The "owner" of this mansion asked me to come take care of you. His word is law around here, so you are safe. I heard you were in quite the predicament."

Catie just nodded her head. Dr. Adams came up to Catie's left side and held out a thermometer. She took it into her mouth and waited for the doctor to finish taking her vitals. The thermometer was then removed and Dr. Adams started examining her.

"How are you feeling this morning, sweetie?"

"Could you please call me Catie? I don't know how to feel. I feel numb and my leg hurts."

"That's to be expected. Could you please take off the gown? Do you need my help?" Catie shook her head no and removed the ugly green hospital gown. Dr. Adams looked over the entire front half of her. She took note of the various bruises and marks that were on her. She then started looking at her legs. She felt her left leg first and felt no problems with it. Then she started looking at and moving the right one. Catie tensed when she touched her thighs, but as soon as she touched her shin, she screamed.

Just then a man burst through the door, "What the fuck happened?" He was tall and very muscular. His hair was dark and his eyes were blue. Almost as blue as the black wolf's. Catie stared bewildered at the fact that another man was seeing her naked. Unannounced tears then started rolling down her face. At the sight of her crying, he immediately ran to her side and took her into his arms and held her tightly to his chest.

"Kaine!! Let go of her! That's not helping any!" Dr. Adams yelled at him and crossed her arms around her chest.

He released her and noticed that she had started crying harder. "I'm so sorry," he said. Through her tears, Catie thought that she saw shame cross his face. He turned on his heel and quickly walked out closing the door behind him.

"Sorry Catie. That's Kaine. He's the one who brought you here along with the rest. I know he didn't mean to scare you. We may need to think about putting a cast on that leg. We'll get x-rays taken later on though," Catie just nodded and wiped the tears from her face and eyes. "I need to examine the rest of you. I hate to ask this of you, but did they rape you?" She couldn't face the doctor. She felt dirty and wrong. She slowly and painfully nodded her head yes. After her admission, she felt slightly better.

"Ok," was all she said before she left the room. Catie watched her leave and wrapped the blanket around herself. She thought about what was going to happen next and about how strangely some of these people were acting towards her. The doctor seemed to be normal enough, but she was confused about the rest of them. A couple of minutes later, Dr. Adams came back into the room carrying a black case. "Catie, I'm sorry to put you through this, but I need to examine you thoroughly."

Catie understood what was going to happen and shook her head yes. She wanted to be rid of those fuckers and would gladly go through anything to do so. Dr. Adams held out her hand to Catie and in the palm was a small blue pill. "Please take this. It'll help expel any semen that may be inside of you, then I'll do the rest." She took the pill out of her hand and quickly swallowed it and laid back. She closed her eyes, threw off the blanket, and waited for the rest.

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Kaine left the room distraught. He hadn't meant to cause her anymore mental harm, but he had to see what had happened since he felt her broadcast again. He had to face the fact that she was hurting in more ways than one and would have difficulty coming to terms with things. There was hope though. She had been calm to his wolf and had relaxed with him. However, he was puzzled. His wolf was very protective of this human. Similarly to Luka? Or maybe it was something else that attracted his wolf to her. He'd have to think on it some more before he came to any conclusions. Maybe he'd talk to Jake about it.

He decided to walk down to the wing that Luka was kept in and check on him. Along the way, he thought about the girl and wondered if there'd be anyway to help her. He pushed the thought aside. Of course there would be. It would just take time.

When he reached the hybrid hospital ward, he walked into the holding area where Luka was. He was still lying on the bed of blankets that had been made for him in his cage. Zoey had kept him heavily sedated to help him heal and keep him from searching out Catie. She was the veterinarian that was on staff for the hybrids. She was going to be the one to take out Luka's eye, but an emergency had come up with her mother. Now that things were well again, she was back on duty.

"How's he doing, Zoey?"

"He's stable, but I've had to sedate him more. His rib injuries need time to heal and he was starting to come out of the sedation that I had him under. He was mentally screaming 'Cadence.' Is that the girl?"

Kaine nodded his head yes and walked up to the cage that the sleeping hybrid was in. With his advanced eyes, he could see the Luka was breathing slowly and painfully. He had 5 broken ribs on his right side and an injured shoulder. He would heal quickly due to what he was, but he needed to be kept calm. Zoey had him hooked up to IV fluids and laced with morphine to keep him resting.

Kaine placed his hand on Luka's head and felt him stir some. It's ok, Luka. I just saw her. Your master is with her and is taking care of her. Don't worry and just continue resting. As soon as you're well enough, you can go see her. He felt a calmness wash over the sleeping hybrid at his words. You did very well, Luka. He patted his head a couple more times before getting up and heading out of the wing.

He continued on until he walked up the steps to reach the first floor of the mansion. He passed by the hospital wing that Catie was kept in. Curiosity begged him to go in, but respect for the girl kept him out. He walked out of that hallway into the main entrance of the mansion. He passed by several of his pack who nodded at him before continuing what they were doing. Finally, he reached the outside doors. He removed all of his clothing and threw them onto the porch. Someone else would get them later. Then he shifted. He felt the wolf come to the surface and finally take over. Once the shift was done, he took off running into the woods. After the stress of what had happened, the wolf needed to get rid of some extra steam. Also, they both needed to think. He then felt others running with him. His pack felt the stress and they too needed to run.

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Once the doctor was done and had left, Catie allowed herself to cry some more. Dr. Adams said that she saw evidence of trauma, but that Catie looked ok. She would heal and be fine, at least physically. Mentally would take time. Catie had been cleaned out and scrubbed more than she'd like to admit and was thankfully not pregnant by her attackers. She continued to cry until she fell back asleep.

An hour later, she was awakened by her grumbling stomach. She was starving! Catie got up the courage to get up and slowly hobbled to the window. She opened up the blinds and was met by a beautiful sunset. She guessed that she was on the first floor and looked off into the distance at the forest. She felt a sense of awe at the sight and was happy that she was still alive. There were moments that she had thought that she would die down in that basement. She had hoped for it even.

She continued to stare out the window and watched the sun start to sink lower. Suddenly, she gasped in shock at what she saw coming out of the forest. On the horizon running back towards the manor, was a pack of wolves, led by none other than a black wolf. As they got closer, she swore that the black wolf leading the pack was the one that had saved her. She felt herself getting woozy and quickly hobbled back to the bed to lay down. She tightly wrapped the blanket around herself and wrapped her arms around her knees. She started to slowly rock herself on the bed. 'What the fuck is going on here?' she thought to herself. 'I must be insane. Clearly I am.....'

She sat on the bed rocking for what seemed like forever. She was having a hard time believing what she had just seen. Sure there were wolves around here, but why would a pack of them be running back towards here? Maybe she'd ask the doctor about it. Or maybe the doctor would think she was insane, put her on crazy pills, and send her to the looney bin. Catie chuckled some at that thought. Mentally, she felt the urge to see the black wolf again. She felt comforted knowing that it was coming here. 'Yep, I'm clearly insane.'

Catie thought about Luka. She wondered where he was and if he needed help. She was worried about him. After much self-convincing, she got up from the bed, threw on the ugly gown, and slowly hobbled out of the room. She had no idea where she was going, but she decided just to follow her instincts. She slowly made her way down the hallway and looked at the various decorations and paintings along the way. A lot of the paintings depicted nature scenes or typical home-like décor scenes.

She continued her slow trek down the hallway until she exited into what looked like the great room. The room was huge. Around the edges of the room, were large stair cases that led up to the second floor of the mansion. She silently wondered at how large this place actually was. The walls were painted a light green color with white trim running the edges. She looked up towards the center and saw a large chandelier. It looked like a waterfall and was breath taking. She'd never seen anything quite like it before. After staring at it in awe for a few minutes, she continued looking up towards the ceiling. She gasped at what she saw. On the ceiling was an intricate painting depicting wolves doing various activities. They were running, sleeping, fighting, howling, everything she expected wolves to do. It was absolutely beautiful.

"What are you doing out here?" she heard a familiar voice say. She looked down and saw a man standing in front of her. He was shirtless and sweaty like he'd just been running. She couldn't remember his name, but the eyes made her weak and yet they calmed her at the same time.

"I don't exactly know," she started, "I was getting bored and wanted to explore some. Also, I was looking for something to eat and to find Luka." She felt herself blushing some as she rambled. He just nodded and kept staring at her. "Uhm.... I'm sorry, but what was your name again?"

"Kaine."

"I'm Cadence or Catie whichever you prefer. Thank you for letting me stay here."

"No problem. How about we go get you something to eat? Everyone would like to meet you and then we can explore a little," she nodded and slowly started walking. He quickly reached out his hand and grabbed her arm, "On one condition, you let me help you walk and if you start hurting, then I get to carry you."

"Seriously?" she asked without looking up at him. She was secretly trying to hide the fact that she was blushing and appreciated his thoughtfulness.

"Yes, seriously," he said as he went up to her right side and put his left arm around her back to support her. He kept pace with her and led her through a couple of doors until they were in a large dining room. The room was painted a teal color and had several china cabinets that housed lots of fancy dishes. In the center of the room was a large dining table that seated 26. There were some people that were seated at the table already and as soon as she walked into the room it fell silent. All eyes were on the both of them and she suddenly felt out of place and nervous.

"Everyone, this is Catie. She is my guest and under my protection. If anyone has any problems with this, then come to me. She will be with us for as long as she wishes to be." Catie just listened and watched the faces in the room. Nobody spoke up or said anything to Kaine's challenge. They just seemed to accept it and move on.

Kaine moved the both of them to a couple of the middle seats at the table and carefully helped her sit down. "Is there anything in particular that you'd like?"

"I'm fine with whatever. Thank you."

"No problem," he said as he turned and walked threw another door to what she figured was the kitchen. She was suddenly afraid and hoped that he'd be back soon.

"Hello," a small, brown haired woman in a blue sundress said to her from across the table, "I'm Lia. It's finally nice to see you out and about. And this is Jake."

"Jake? You saved me, didn't you?" he nodded his head yes. "Thank you so much. I don't know how else to thank you."

"Don't worry about that. I'm glad you're ok."

"Where's Luka?" Catie asked cautiously. She was afraid of the bad news that she was sure to hear.

Both Lia and Jake looked at each other before Lia finally spook, "He's down in the hybrid hospital ward. I believe Zoey has him sedated right now. From what I've heard, he's doing well."

Catie let out the breath the she'd been holding and a silent tear rolled down her cheek. All to suddenly it was wiped away by someone. Kaine was back and looked like he was ready to murder someone. "Why are you crying?" he asked her trying to hide the anger in his voice. He sat down the plates of food and took the seat to the right of her.

"I was worried about Luka and Lia was telling me where he was at. Could we please go see him?"

He seemed to calm down after her admission. She also felt the tension in the room dissipate as well. "Sure after we get some food into you. You look like you're starving," he said and smiled at her.

She quickly looked away from him to hide the blush on her cheeks. She looked at the plates of food that he'd brought back. One plate was full of fresh fruits and the other had grilled chicken that smelled like it was cooked with lemons and slices of cheddar and swiss cheese. She quickly dug into the fruit and started eating a kiwi. Kaine watched her ravenously attack it and chuckled some. She then ate a piece of the chicken and some slices of both cheeses. While she was finishing her last slice of cheese, a cup of lemonade was placed in front of her by somebody. She looked up and was looking at the blonde that had picked up Luka.

"Sorry that I was kind of a bitch when we first met. Anyways, my name is Syd. Nice to meet you," she said way too bubbly. She bounced away rather than walked out of the room. After she was gone, Catie grabbed the glass that was in front of her and took a drink of the lemonade. It was very sweet and she quickly drank the rest of it. As she went to set it back onto the table, it slipped out of her hands and shattered onto the floor.

"I'm so sorry. I clean it up," she said as she tried to start picking up glass from the floor.

Kaine put his hand on her arm and she immediately stopped, "Don't worry about it. I'll get it." He quickly picked up all of the pieces of glass and threw them into a nearby trash can. He walked back to her seat and offered her his arm. "Do you want to go see Luka?" She shook her head yes and grabbed onto his arm to pull herself up. She winced from the pain and he quickly put his arm around her to support her the rest of the way. She eerily felt safe in his arms.

"Where is the hybrid ward?"

"It's down in the basement. We'll take the elevator. I don't want you to hurt yourself any more than you already are," he said as he started leading her through another doorway and towards an elevator at the end of the hallway. When they reached it, Kaine pressed the button to call it to them. The doors opened and they stepped inside. He pushed the button for the basement and they rode it silently down. When the doors opened again, Kaine started to lead her out of it. She tripped over the edge of the elevator door and was quickly caught by Kaine before she fell on top of her injured leg.

"Are you ok?" he said inches away from her face. She stared bewildered into his eyes and nodded her head yes. He slowly straightened her back up and looked her over. "Sure you're ok?"

"I'm fine. Thank you again," she said. 'What the fuck is wrong with me? Why am I so nervous around this guy?' she yelled at herself internally. Kaine chuckled and this time picked her up. He started walking down the hallway with her effortlessly in his arms. She looked straight ahead, too embarrassed to look at his face and hoped that they'd be there soon.

He walked down the hallway until they reached the end of it. He set her down and opened the door. Inside was a large facility full of dogs? "Kaine, what is all of this? Are these all dogs?"

"Some of them are. Some are wolves and most of them are hybrids like Luka. We breed them occasionally and give and/or sell them to our clients. Only a select few get one of these. Luka is our very best."

All of the animals had an 11' by 7' pen that they lived in. Each of the pens, had a large sized dog bed in the center and an automatic water fountain. It looked like they had and area to go outside into from their pens.

"How do they get outside? Aren't we underground?" she ask as she pointed to the doggie doors.

"Each of those are connected to a tunnel that goes up and outside. All of them have their own outside pens. If they are breeding, then we move them into our large 16' by 20' pens to your right. They will also have their pups in those. We work with each and every one of them from day one, so that the pups get used to commands before their eyes are open."