What Now? Ch. 03

The two males blinked and slitted their eyes, flattening their ears to their heads as two vehicles pulled up, sirens blaring and lights flashing.

As three males climbed out, one human, the two wolves crouched, hackles raised, growling. Erich moved forward, interposing himself between them. Gathering himself, he shifted to human and stood, waiting.

The commissioner hesitated, not quite certain of what he'd seen but sure there was a naked man backed by two snarling wolves. He concentrated on the man's face. "Are you in charge?"

"Here, yes, at this moment. Our .. leader can be here, if you wish it."

"No. That's not necessary. Were you all here when it happened?" His eyes flicked behind him then back to Erich's face.

"No. Only our dead ... male member and a young female."

"Can I speak to her?"

"Yes. Just a minute." Erich went quiet, looked like he was thinking. "Samuel will bring her. She's been shot."

The two Severn wolves were looking at the roadway for clues and walked over as another man walked out of the darkness with a whining dog in his arms. This man was also naked.

He laid her carefully on the ground as one of the officers pulled off his shirt. "Officer?"

The shirt was placed over the dog. Erich looked at the commissioner. "This will hurt her more." He turned his attention to the ground. "Mercy, the policeman needs to talk to you. Please shift to human."

Samuel crouched, stroking her hand, trying to be comforting.

The commissioner watched, this time seeing a little more clearly the change. The legs straightened, lengthened, lost hair. The snout shortened, head rounded, hair lengthened. The whining became whimpering.

Samuel arranged the shirt and, carefully, raised Mercy to a sitting position. The girl had brown hair, green eyes, and blood on her right shoulder. "You saw what happened?"

Mercy took a deep breath, winced. "Uh huh."

"Can you tell me what happened?"

"We, uh, came to the road. We're supposed to cross as human but Jamie,.." she sobbed and started to cry. She was only a girl, well, young woman.

Erich faced the commissioner. "Can she do this later?"

"Best sooner, rather than later." He turned back to the shuddering girl. "Anything you can tell me now helps us get this guy."

Mercy sniffled. "Male. Human. He, um, Jamie, um..." she cried harder, was hard to understand, "stuck his, his head out. Looked for cars. I, I heard it, heard it hit him. It... he... I told him we needed to run but he said he couldn't. I heard, uh, steps. He told me to look at the car. And he shot me. I tried to get Jamie to move and he told me to run. I heard the feet, closer. So, so, I, I," her voice dropped, "left him." She wailed and half-collapsed into Samuel's arms.

Alex and Justin lifted their muzzles and howled again. Erich said, "Jamie's father and twin brother."

"Young lady? Did you see the car?"

"Blue. Car."

"Two doors? Four?"

"Four, I think."

"And the guy? What did he look like? What was he wearing?"

"Jeans. Boots, like humans wear at work. Jacket, dark."

"How about his skin color, eyes, hair?"

"Officer.."

One of the Severn wolves spoke. "He's the police commissioner, Beta. Sir, colors are not the same for wolves. There are yellows, blues, some green, maybe." He looked to Mercy. "What's your name?"

Samuel replied. "This is Mercy."

"Mercy, light, dark, medium skin?"

"Light."

"Hair?"

"Medium."

"Glasses?"

"No."

"Tattoos?"

"I dunno. Can I go now?"

The commissioner responded. "After we get you to the hospital and get that bullet out."

Scared and startled, Mercy looked up to Erich. "Beta? Do I have to go?"

One of the Severn wolves stepped forward again. "Sir, there is a doctor on his way to the house. He will be able to recover the bullet for us." The commissioner looked at him, considering. "He is quite capable, sir, and she would be more comfortable at home."

"What if there's a problem? Or she needs blood?"

"Won't be a issue, sir."

"We'll also need the bullets from..." He turned to look at the large creature lying dead by the ditch, flanked by two more, one larger than the other.

"You're sure it's... he's dead?" Nods from all. Mercy started crying again. "Aren't you supposed to change back when you die?"

"The change is voluntary, sir. Volition is lost at death."

The shirtless officer said. "One in the chest, one in the head, sir."

"Where was the car?"

"Fifty yards, opposite shoulder."

"Casings?"

He held up the evidence bags. "Well, then, let's get this young lady back to the house."

There was some difficulty in figuring out who was going in which vehicle. The ambulance came into view and the call was cancelled before it reached them. Erich sat with Mercy in the back of one squad car and Alex sat in the back of the other, stoically cradling the body of his son. Blankets covered skin that should be covered. As a van with a dish atop it rolled up, the police cars left. The van followed until they turned into the den's drive.

The others ran home.

The commissioner watched as the naked man pulled the creature from the car and a woman flew out of the house, screaming and crying. "Oh, my baby! Oh, Jamie, no!"

She looked like any grieving human mother. Brown skirt. Light green blouse. Shoulder length brown hair, highlighted silverish. Muddy green eyes.

Two others came out of the big house, grim, the air of authority about them. Two others followed with the worried look of parents.

"Commissioner... Reynolds. The doctor has arrived. We'd like to have Mercy seen to."

Strange. He hadn't given them his name. "And you are?"

"Randall Wyeth. My mate, Ariel. We are the Alphas, the leaders here."

The girl crawled out of the car, making noises of pain. "Mercy, sweetie."

"How badly is she hurt?"

The parents quickly came over and the mother put her arm around her daughter. The pair inhaled deeply and turned to look at the officer who had given his shirt.

"Mr. Wyeth, Mrs. Wyeth, I would prefer we do this at the hospital but, since you insist on doing this here, we need the bullets as evidence."

"In watching the news and the constant presence outside our gates, I'm sure she'd be better here. There would only be people looking to take pictures and make a sensational story out of this tragedy. She will be fine here."

He noticed his officers, looking around and acting skittish.

Randall watched him, saw that he was making observations about them, trying to figure them out. How the pack worked. It worried him that they didn't want to take Mercy to a hospital. He noticed that her parents were taking her inside. "If you'd follow us."

He followed them into the large house, something he would expect to belong to millionaires. The foyer was huge and he saw, and felt, a lot of eyes on him. The children hid behind adults but peeked out. A couple of young dogs, puppies, essentially, ran up, sniffed him, and wandered off. He was taken downstairs where the young lady was on a bed with a man examining the wound.

"Doctor...?"

Dr. Worthy glanced up, then back to what he was doing. "Worthy."

"We'll need the bullets for evidence."

Another glance up and a grunt. Mercy whimpered as her mother held her hands and the doctor pressed around the area, feeling for the bullet's location. He straightened. "You shifted." Mercy answered with a "Mm hm." Worthy snorted in annoyance.

A syringe was produced and Mercy quickly relaxed. With deft strokes, Dr. Worthy made an incision and quickly popped out the bullet. The area was wiped off and stitches put in place. A woman, mid-thirties, with a babe in her arms, assisted.

The bullet was transferred over. "I'll need the other two, as well."

There were glances between individuals. "If you want any prosecution for the ... death, I need those bullets." He couldn't quite bring himself to call it a murder since, by all appearances, it was a dead animal. Even though he'd seen some of them change in front of him.

He watched something pass between the the couple in charge, the Alphas. It took a few minutes but a man descended, carrying the dead one. It took a second for him to realize it was the man who seemed to be in charge at the incident site.

The woman who had been assisting the doctor took one look and sobbed. "Oh, Jamie." Another man came up behind her, turned her, and held her and the baby close.

She recognized it, him, when he looked like that.

The sounds of crying cascaded down the stairs and into the room.

"Wade, do you have rib spreaders?"

The older man sighed, detached himself from the woman, and crossed the room to pull something from a cabinet.

The doctor sliced through fur and placed the device at the edges, then cranked the chest cavity open. Plunging in a hand, he fished around for the bit of metal. "Mmm. Both lungs."

"Excuse me?"

"The bullet passed through one lung and into the other. He would have had a lot of difficulty breathing. Mm." His hand, bloody, came back out, the bullet between his fingers. He placed it on the side of the table.

"Would it have killed him?"

"Perhaps. But the other one definitely did."

Jamie's face was a ruin, the right side a mass of bloody tissue, broken bone, and fur. His intact eye looked out of the inert form, the bullet having entered just behind it. Dr. Worthy sighed again, glanced at the Alphas, and proceeded to feel for the third bullet.

Finally, grotesquely, it was produced, and Mercy began to come around. The doctor looked at her and then at the Wyeth healers. He nodded to Mercy. "Do you need anything from me?"

The woman with the baby replied. "What she needs you can't give us."

Dr. Worthy grunted, nodded, and turned to wash up. A blanket covered the inert form on the table. The commissioner had one of his officers gather the bullets.

He looked around. The place looked like a small clinic. These people, people, huh, looked to be pretty self-sufficient. He wondered what the rest of the place was like, what secrets they had. It was enough that the young girl was running around at night. He could probably bring them up on charges about that. Child endangerment?

Hmm. And they didn't want to take her to the hospital. But, then, there were some religious groups who wouldn't go to a doctor either. But, there was a doctor. He wondered what things the doctor was a party to. His mind was awhirl with possibilities.

One of the officers cleared his throat. "Sir?"

He came back to the task at hand. "We'll leave you now but we may need to talk to the young lady again."

The two leaders nodded and the older man rested his hands on the edge of the table, looking at the body as they left the room.