Chapter Two
Lindsey quickened her pace. As she walked, she reached into her purse to fish out her keys. She was only looking down for a few seconds, but that was all the time her stalker needed.
“Well now honey, why don’t you slow down,” said the man in front of her.
Lindsey skidded to a stop with her keys wrapped tightly in her hand. Her heart was racing. She had never been in this situation before.
“See now, that doesn’t seem like a very friendly thing to do,” said the man. “I can be really nice, or I can be awful mean. Of course, I like it, either way, honey.”
“Listen, I don’t want any trouble, I won’t say anything if you just go away now. I have people expecting me,” she said as she backed away from the man.
He laughed sadistically, “the way I hear it, you're free for the next fifteen minutes honey, and that’s all the time we need.”
As he spoke, Lindsey backed up and felt herself hitting something hard, “we?” She whispered.
She didn’t need to turn around, she felt his chest and held her breath. She had to do something; it was two against one. She looked around and realized her numbers were wrong. It was four against one. Lindsey did the only thing she could think of, gripping her keys tightly in her fist; she drove the sharp metal into the man who was standing behind her. He let out a howl of pain and Lindsey started to run. She wasn’t fast enough, though.
The hand that grabbed her hair jerked her backwards, and she fell to the ground. The impact didn’t hurt as much as she had anticipated. Lindsey could feel hands all over her body as she tried to fight them off. She screamed, but it was quickly muffled by another hand being shoved over her mouth. Taking advantage of her assailants’ proximity, she bit down as hard as possible. One of the men cried out in pain before she felt his hand coming down onto her face again, this time, it was a fist, though. The blood started to flow into her mouth as her tears started. She couldn’t fight them off much longer.
Lindsey looked down the alley and saw a dog running towards them, as it grew closer, she was awestruck by its size. When it reached a few yards away, she saw it was no dog; it was a giant grey wolf. She felt the weight on her being eased as soon as the wolf moved from her line of sight. A piercing scream echoed through the parking lot and the remaining men stopped their assault on her to help their friend. When she was able to sit up, her eyes found the source of her rescue.
The men were standing in the same circle they had trapped her in. This time, though, they were surrounding the giant wolf. Lindsey tried to rise to her feet; it was a slow procession. She kept her eyes on her assailants. The wolf was growling, and the first of the men attacked the beast, follow by his friends. Lindsey watched in horror as the men started to beat the animal. She knew that she had to do something, or they would kill the wolf then be back for her.
Her keys were laying nearby. She walked carefully over to them and picked them up. Her eyes never left the group of men as she made her way over to her car. She opened the door and climbed inside before locking the doors. As the engine roared to life, the men turned to see what the noise was. She didn’t wait to give them a warning. Throwing the car into gear, she gunned the engine. The men scattered, but she was able to clip two as they ran. She watched as all four of them disappeared around the corner, two of them were limping badly.
She shifted her focus away from the men and over to where the wolf was laying on the ground. As soon as she stepped out of the car, she knew he was severely injured. She could see exposed flesh at two different spots on his body.
“Oh my god, oh no. You poor boy,” she spoke to him, softly. Her mind was racing; she couldn’t leave him there. She had to act fast though.
“Alright buddy,” she said as she picked him up. She knew that if she didn’t have a surge of adrenaline running through her body because of the attack, she wouldn’t have been able to lift him. He had to weigh at least two-hundred pounds. Never in her life had Lindsey seen a wolf his size, what’s more, the wolf just saved her life.
She laid him on the back seat of her car and covered him with a blanket as she spoke to him, “I promise you buddy, I am going to keep you safe.” She pet his ears back and saw the animal had piercing grey/blue eyes; they looked almost human.
“You saved me, and now I am going to save you,” she said to him.
Lindsey climbed into the driver’s seat and headed out to her house. She knew she had enough medical supplies there for what she would need. As she took in strays, she bought more supplied. She had far more knowledge about healing animals than most. Her mother was a veterinary surgeon; she grew up watching her mother stitch, sew and staple livestock and farm animals. Lindsey had followed another path, though, her love was nature, and it always would be. She had attended college for environmental sciences but had yet to find a good job in the area. Instead, she was working for a man who treated her like crap.
As she drove through the night, she kept an eye on the animal in the back. She thought about the attack, something one of them had said. He said that they only had fifteen minutes. The only way they would know that was if someone had told them. The only person who she had given that fictional number too was Dr. Beyer.
“That son of a bitch,” she said to herself, “that son of a bitch set me up to get raped.”
The wolf in the back seat growled almost as if he was listening to her conversation.
“What’s your story bud,” she said to the wolf in the back seat.
He watched her with his beautiful eyes.
“I hope you don’t mind cats,” she said to him.
She was greeted with another growl which made her smile. Her smiled changed into a frown when she realized she was having a conversation with a dangerous and wild animal that was laying bloody in the back seat of her car. Suddenly she felt like this wasn’t the best plan of action, maybe she had a concussion. The wolf in the back started to whimper, catching her eye once again. There was no way this animal, her savior, was a danger to her. As she pulled into her country driveway, she looked around. She was far more cautious after tonight about her surroundings.
Pulling the car as close as possible to back door, Lindsey fought with the giant wolves’ size to get him into the kitchen and onto the floor. She tried to be as gentle as possible, but it was difficult. Lindsey knew that she needed to act quickly. His temperature was cooling rapidly, and the blood trail leading into her kitchen meant he was bleeding out fast. Once she had him in the house, she ran back out to her car to shut the doors. As they slammed behind her, a noise in the woods made her pause.
Wolves were howling very close by.