Treasure Ch. 36-40

"Relax and don't fight me, I'm going to show you what happened," she said. Rori closed her eyes, and her mind filled with the memories of the attempted abduction a few days earlier. She remembered taking down the man and running, but then the new memories began. The vision shifted lower to the ground, the night clearer but in black and white. She watched as if it was a Go-Pro movie as she ran through the neighborhoods, jumping fences and darting around trees and houses. She could hear and see the wolves chasing her as she went down the hill, then the sudden attack by the silver-grey female. She could smell her in the memory, taste the blood in her mouth, and yet she could only watch things go on. She saw herself run, gauging the traffic, and the desperate leap onto the truck and near-death experience of barely staying on top. "This is what happened, and this is what you are," the voice said. Her memory shifted to a vision of her looking at a window in Seattle, the reflection of her rust-colored wolf.

"That... that's me?" She focused on the memory. "That's the wolf in my paintings, the one on my back!"

"Yes, that is us." Rori opens her eyes, wiping the tears away from her face. "Our mate is right. We are not monsters, I am not your enemy, we are one," she hears. She watches the forest brighten as the sun rises over the mountains, getting up only when her ears tell her that others are up. Moving back inside, she leaves the blanket on the back of the couch and goes into the kitchen to make breakfast. There is pancake mix in the cupboard and a pack of sausages in the freezer, and both are being plated by the time her mom and new stepfather come out of their room.

"That smells wonderful, thank you," her Mom says. They eat quietly, and to Rori's relief nobody mentions all the activities of the previous night. "What do you want to do today?"

"I want to get out and explore," she said. "All that time being in hospitals and hiding in clubhouses, and now we're surrounded by miles and miles of forests and mountains? With views like this?"

"That sounds fun," her stepfather says. "I'm not sure how much walking I'm up for, but I'm up for some exploring." They looked at the map of the property and picked a trail to take that led to a small river and a waterfall. "We should pack lunch, make a picnic out of it. That place is a good five miles away, and it isn't level ground."

"There's plenty of stuff for sandwiches, I'll put together a backpack." Possum got up and started to dig through the refrigerator, setting a block of cheese and some summer sausage on the counter.

"I'm bringing my sketchbook," Rori said. "And my phone. I can at least take pictures, so I can paint later." They meet on the front porch ten minutes later, wearing layered clothes they could remove as the day got hotter. They walked down the trail, following the curve of the land until they reached a small river, then turned downstream. They reached the waterfall about eleven and stopped to admire its beauty. The water crashed down about ten feet, and a deep pool surrounded by ferns and shrubs was under it. Big rocks lined the pool, some warmed by the sun and looked perfect to relax on. They decided to swim before eating, so they left the backpack and their clothes on a rock and waded into the cold water in their underwear. "COOOOLD!" Rori decided to go for the shock treatment, and just dived forward into the deeper water. Her parents took their time, but eventually they were all swimming in the pool.

Rori was swimming up under the spray when they decided to get out and warm themselves in the sun. She watched as he held her hand, helping her up onto the flat black rock, when she saw something in the bushes.

It was a bear, attracted by the food, and it was headed right for them.

The roar of the grizzly caused her Mom to scream, and she hid behind Roadkill as he faced off it. The bear was on its rear legs and had to stand eight feet tall. Rori quickly swam to the edge of the pool, pulling herself out. "Help them," she told herself, and she felt the pressure in her head but this time was different. She didn't fight it, she welcomed it, and this time she was there throughout the shift. It was painless, over in a moment, and her rust-colored wolf was in her place. She howled in warning as she ran forward.

To Rori's human side, this was weird. She was watching, she could see and feel and smell it all, but her wolf had taken over control of her body. The bear had dropped to all fours and was charging towards her parents, but her wolf was fast. She ducked a swinging paw that was tipped with long claws and tore a chunk from the bear's back leg. The bear spun around, but she was too fast and was out of the way again before the claws could strike.

"Jump," Roadkill said as he saw the opening.

"RORI!" Donna yelled but didn't see her daughter. The bear scared her, and now it was fighting a wolf, and all she wanted to do was find her girl and protect her.

"GO," he said as he practically pushed her into the pool. She dove across, and he followed her as they crossed the deeper water to get away from the fighting animals. They quickly swam across to the other side and pulled themselves up onto the rocks. She started looking around for her daughter, not finding her.

The bear roared again as the wolf darted in, taking a bite of her side. This time, the bear was fast enough, and a big paw caught the wolf on her haunches. The claws tore deep furrows down to her tail, and the impact knocked her off the rock and into the river. She started to float away as the bear watched. With one final roar, the bear tore into the backpack and ate the food.

The two watched from the other side of the pool as they hid behind the boulders until the bear lumbered away, back into the bushes. They waited a few minutes after it disappeared before they got out again. "Rori, where's Rori?"

Roadkill dove back in, swimming across to the last place they had seen her. He didn't see her anywhere, and the panic was building with every minute. He spotted some white, and in the rocks he found her underwear, torn and discarded. "What the hell," he said as he held it up.

Possum was frantically looking for her daughter when a whine caused her to look at the woods behind her. The rusty wolf was limping towards her, her fur soaked with water and blood, and her right back leg dragging uselessly. "Honey..." He swam back across, standing in front of her as the wolf limped towards them.

"We should leave," he said.

"No... look at her eyes." Her eyes were looking at them, almost pleading for help. She moved to them, finally dropping at her feet with another soft whine. "She's badly hurt."

"She saved us," he said. "Go get my shirt, we have to stop the bleeding or she's not going to make it. I don't see a collar, but it must be someone's pet." The wolf licked his hand, and he inspected the deep cuts she didn't protest. Donna returned with his shirt, and he tore it into strips, holding pressure on the bleeding wounds.

She was petting the wolf's shoulder, trying to keep her calm, when she noticed something under the matted fur. Moving it aside, she saw the skin was marked with colors. The more she looked, the more she saw, and when she saw the head of the wolf it all hit her.

The wolf was Rori.

Ch. 38

"Baby, look at this and tell me I'm not crazy." Possum looked over at Roadkill, who was tying the last of the improvised bandages on the bleeding wolf. He moved towards her, and she moved the matted hair apart to show the tattoo underneath it.

"That's..." Roadkill kept looking, moving the wet rust-colored fur apart as his hands went down her back. "That's Rori's tattoo." He sat back, staring at his wife. "They're real. She's a fucking werewolf!"

"She's our daughter, and she saved us," Possum said. "I can't lose her now."

"You're the nurse, what do we do now?"

She looked down at her daughter in her wolf form, petting her again as Rori licked her hand. "Can you change back?" Rori closed her eyes, but nothing happened. She whined and shook her head no. "All right, first things first. She needs medical care, and we don't have anything out here. Can you carry her?"

"I don't know, she's a big dang wolf and it's five miles."

"Figure something out, I'm going to get our clothes and phones." She moved until she was at a narrower spot of the river and waded across, grabbing the torn backpack and stuffing all the shoes, clothes and phones in it. The bear had eaten all the food, and the map was torn but still readable. She checked her phone, no service. Holding it all high, she waded back across to where Roadkill was laying out two straight branches, each about six feet long and almost two inches in diameter. "What's that?"

"Stretcher," he said. Taking the bag, he pulled out his sweatshirt and her pullover fleece jacket. He threaded the sticks up from the bottom and out the sleeves, ending up with one on each end. Pulling the sticks apart, it formed a crude stretcher. "I'm sorry, girl, but this will probably hurt. Don't bite me, I don't need to become a werewolf yet." She whined in pain as he picked her up and set her so her head and shoulders were on his sweatshirt while her hips and back legs were on the fleece. "I'm pretty sure this will hold, and it's better than anything else. You take the lead, face forward, I'll take the heavy end." The both got their shoes and socks on as well as their pants and a shirt. Roadkill took the backpack with the rest of the stuff, including his phone. "No service."

"Mine either."

"We'll have to see if we can get to a high point and call."

The stretcher wasn't perfect, but it wrapped around her body and kept her from moving. They were able to keep up a good walking pace despite the extra load, and Rori fell asleep somewhere along the way. They stopped about halfway home, they were on a rise and needed the break. Rori's wolf didn't even stir when she was set down. "I got bars," Possum said as she checked her phone again.

"Call 911... shit, how can we do that? She's a wolf."

"I have an idea," she said. She had loaded Dr. Nygaard's number into her phone, just in case she needed it. He said he knew what she was, that he was like her, and only now did it click what he meant. She dialed the number.

"Hello?"

"Dr. Nygaard, it's Donna, Rori's mom."

"Yes ma'am, I'm so glad you called."

She paused, this would be the crazy part if she was wrong. "I need your help. Rori was injured badly by a bear, we're making our way back to our cabin now, but she's lost a lot of blood."

"Call an ambulance, take her to a hospital," he said.

"An ambulance won't take a hundred-plus pound, rust-colored wolf."

There was silence for a moment. "Is she conscious?"

"No, but I asked her when she was if she could shift back and she couldn't."

"Shit. She probably doesn't know how. Where are you?"

"Near Mount Ranier." She pulled the map out of her pocket and read the address of the cabin they were staying at. "I'm a nurse, but I don't have any supplies. The wounds are deep, they go from the abdomen to her thigh. She needs surgery, it's beyond what I can do."

"We're not that far away," he said. "I'll bring the Pack Doctor and my sister, we'll be there in an hour or so. Get her back home, keep her stable, and do what you can to keep pressure on the wounds until I arrive. Do you know her blood type?"

"O positive."

"Good, I'll bring that too." She could hear activity and voices in the background. "Thank you for calling, you did the right thing."

"Wait for us if you get to the cabin first," she said.

"We will. Donna, don't call anyone else about this. If others find out, they will take Rori away and send her somewhere to be tested and experimented on. Don't trust anyone but me."

"All right." She hung up and looked over at Roadkill, relaying the gist of the conversation.

"Do you trust him?"

"I don't know for sure, I think so. I don't know what he said to Rori or if she trusts him."

He pulled her into his arms. "I do know who I trust with my life, and you do too. The Brotherhood." She nodded, they had proven time and again they were Rori's friends. "I'm going to call Wolfman. He can be down here in a few hours, and he'd never turn Rori over to the cops."

"You're right," she said. "Make the call." He opened his phone and called the Renton chapter, they were still the closest.

-

"Coral, Rori's hurt, I need your help. Meet me at the Pack Clinic."

"Oh shit, I'm on my way," she responded.

Chase was already running across the compound to the building that housed their clinic. "Doc, Dad, Rori's been hurt by a bear. I need Doc to come with me, she's about an hour away."

"Is she on Pack land?"

"No." He gave his Alpha her address. "It's bad."

"You take the motorcycles and get there as fast as you can, I'll follow with Doc and some Enforcers in a van," he said. "Stabilize her and we'll bring her back to the clinic."

"Yes sir," he said as he cut the link. When he arrived at the clinic, he described what he knew from the call.

Doc tossed him a backpack field medical kit, while he pulled IV's and put them into an insulated backpack. "Blood type?"

"O positive," he said, and Doc pulled three bags out of the cooler along with a warmer and put them in the bag.

"Go, I'll catch up."

He handed the second backpack to Coral and they ran out to their Harleys. They entered the address into their navigation systems, then fired up their motorcycles and peeled out of there. At normal speeds the drive would take almost ninety minutes on the winding back roads, but this was not going to be a normal drive at all.

They pushed their bikes hard, often reaching well over a hundred miles an hour on the straightaways and pushing hard through the turns. Coral was struggling to keep up with her brother, who was taking more risks than she thought prudent. "Slow down a little, crashing won't help her," she sent.

"My wolf keeps telling me I need to go faster," he said as he opened the throttle again. It was just under an hour after he got the call when they braked hard and took the turn into the driveway for the cabin. He shut it down and jumped off as Coral pulled in next to him.

"You Chase?"

"Where's Rori?"

"Folllow me, she's in her room." He led them into the vacation cabin, up the stairs to a room with a twin bed. Rori was laid out on the bed, towels underneath her soaked up the blood, and the torn fabric of the improvised bandages was soaked. He could hear her heartbeat, it was weak and thready. "Coral, take Roadkill downstairs, get some water boiling and wait for Doc to arrive. Donna, I need hooks for the IV and the blood." They started moving, and he pulled out the blood warmer and plugged it in on the table next to her, placing two bags on it. Donna used a coat hanger to hang the IV bag while he opened up the backpack and got what he needed. He shaved a small area on her foreleg, found the vein, and started the IV.

"What's next," Donna asked.

"I don't want to remove the bandages until Doc gets here, first is getting fluids back into her system. Did you see how deep the cuts were?"

"At least a centimeter, I could see bone in places and her back leg was useless."

He nodded, that meant muscles and tendons were involved. He hung a bag of blood, then checked her gums for color to make sure she was getting enough oxygen. The first bag of blood was almost in when they heard the van pull up, and a minute later Doc came in with his field surgery kit. "Coral, keep everyone else out of here," he sent.

"That won't be easy, Dad's pissed, you didn't tell him that humans were involved and Rori's in wolf form."

"Nothing matters right now, we have to save her first. Keep them calm."

"I'm trying, but you know the rules as well as I. He's already talking to the enforcers about taking them back to the Pack until the Council can question them, then they'll be killed."

"Just try, sis." He cut the link and together they cut away the soaked shirt strips, exposing the four deep furrows. "The bear really got her."

"I've seen worse," he said. "With what is going on downstairs, I think it's best if we force the shift and then do the repairs. She should be stable enough to take the change, and it will kick-start her healing." He reached into the kit and pulled out a bottle and a syringe, drawing out what he needed and injecting it into the IV line. "When she starts to change, pull out the IV and we'll put it back in when she's done."

"Donna, you might want to leave for this," he said to her mother. "Forcing a shift can be tough to watch."

"No, I need to be here, she's my daughter," she said stubbornly. The drug hit, and the rust-colored wolf started to twitch and then seized up in pain. Her eyes opened as Chance removed the needles, and a whine of pain came from her throat. It took ten seconds for the change to come, and when it was over, a naked and bloody Rori lay on the bed. "It's all right baby, I'm here," she said to her daughter, who was screaming in pain.

"Get the lines back in," Doc said. It took a minute for Chase to get the IV inserted into the back of her hand, then Doc injected a sedative. "We're putting you under for this next part, Rori," he said as her eyes started to close. "You're going to be fine."

He waited until her vitals stabilized. "We need to clean her and get these bloody towels out of here first," he said. Using sterile water, they irrigated the wounds and cleaned the blood from her skin. The bleeding picked up as clots were washed away; it had to be done, just because werewolves could fight infections better than humans didn't mean they had to have one. While they worked, Donna told them everything that had happened in the fight. Chase was proud of her, taking on a bear was a brave thing and they all had survived.

Surgery took about forty minutes; Chase assisted as Doc sewed up muscles and tendons, placing internal and external stiches where needed until the four wounds were closed. All three bags of blood were needed. "She's going to have a bad scar, but she'll be fine in a few days," Doc said as he taped the last bandage down. "She should be up in a few hours. Keep her on her side or stomach, bedrest for the first day. The day after tomorrow she can sit up and move to the bathroom. Chase, you'll follow up with her?" He knew her mate would not leave her side.

"Yes."

"Call me if you see signs of infection or other problems. Congratulations, boy." He packed his kits back up as Donna and Chase cleaned the bed area.

"Can you stay with her for a minute while I walk him out," Chase asked Donna.

"I'm not going anywhere," she said.

He carried the garbage bag out to the van, and his father followed. They loaded everything up before his father took him aside. "I'm sorry your mate is hurt, Chase. I know how you feel about her, but she exposed our existence to two humans. I have to take them into custody now, and they have to be interrogated to make sure no one else knows our secret." Chase winced, 'interrogated' often meant tortured as people might not be forthcoming. "Humans can't be trusted, even if they are her parents. They'll slip up, talk to the wrong person, and we're outed. They know too much, they have seen us. They have to go."

"Losing them will crush my mate, Dad. She's an orphan, Donna has been her mother as long as she can remember."

"We'll make it look like an accident. She'll get over it, you'll be there to help her do that." He put his arm around his son. "What we are requires hard decisions to be made, son. We have these rules for a reason, for centuries they have kept us safe. I'm sorry this has to happen." He looked up at the window where he saw Donna looking down at them. "Eventually she will understand you did what you had to do."