Operation Wolf Rescue Read online

  Operation Wolf Rescue

  Zoe Chant

  Published by Zoe Chant, 2022

  This is a work of fiction. Similarities to persons, places, or events are entirely coincidental.

  OPERATION WOLF RESCUE

  First Edition.

  Copyright © 2022 by Zoe Chant

  Written by Zoe Chant

  Contents

  Operation Wolf Rescue

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Epilogue

  A note from Zoe Chant

  Also by Zoe Chant

  Chapter One

  ∞∞∞

  The sky through the reaching pines was a granite gray, heavy and threatening to fall on him. Closer than Cassidy Madsen liked was the smell of rain.

  Heavy rain, too, he thought. We're due, and the wheat farmers will be grateful.

  Cassidy wasn't. His wolf lurked just under his skin, growling and threatening to rear up and drive him crazy.

  Go find the cub, his wolf advised. Once you find the cub, everything is fine. Find the cub, find the cub.

  Working on it, he thought, and he jogged along the stream, leaving the walking trails of the state preserve behind him. The park was largely empty today with the news full of the storm to come, no one to see if he shifted, but it didn't do to get too careless. His people had been in Colorado for almost a hundred years, and they hadn't become pillars of both the human and shifter communities by being careless.

  His phone rang, and he had a surge of hope and fear when he saw that it was his sister.

  “Hey Marisol, what's up?”

  “Pete just called in from the Sawickis' place, They're looking now too, but they haven't seen him.”

  “Hell. You think Cody got that far?”

  “You and I got farther at that age. Where are you at?”

  “I'm at Eamon Canyon. I'm going to head west and then south.”

  “Christ, that's far.”

  “It's fine, Mari. We'll find him. We wandered pretty far when we were pups ourselves, like you said. It'll be fine.”

  “Yeah. And everyone's looking. And he'll probably just wander back in smelling like sheep and mud the minute we've all lost our minds.”

  “Probably,” Cassidy said. “It's going to be fine.”

  “Yeah. I've got another call coming in. Stay in touch.”

  “You bet.”

  He hung up, wincing at how tight Marisol's voice was. His older sister had run the ranch since their parents took a well-deserved retirement four years ago, and she could handle everything from stampedes to cattle buyers who thought that they could bargain her down for being a woman. Right now, with her three-year-old son missing, she sounded on the verge of shattering, which would be like watching Pikes Peak shatter.

  Well, then, better do your part to make sure things get fixed.

  He slid his phone into his jeans pocket, and took a deep breath, calling out his wolf. The change was fast today, his wolf ready and raring to go, and moments later, he was on four feet instead of two. The world was much more vivid now, the sounds sharper, the smells painting a picture as boldly as the sights did.. The rain even closer than he had thought.

  Most people seeing him would have simply been startled to see such an enormous wolf. Maybe a few who knew their biology would have been shocked to see a Canadian timber wolf so far out of its normal range. He and his family were larger than the gray wolves that normally roamed Colorado, but they passed well enough to get by.

  Even in the current dire circumstances, there was something purely joyful about running as a wolf. It never got old, the world he saw through his wolf’s eyes, and he took a moment to savor it before putting his nose to the air.

  There was the metallic smell of the storm coming, the sharp smell of pine, the clean water over the stones in the stream and …

  He made a soft crooning sound, nose up and starting to lope. It was a ground-eating stride, but it smelled like he might have some distance to travel.

  Yes, there was something there. It smelled of wolves and family and cubs, and his ears pricked up as if he could already hear his nephew.

  It's all right, Cody, I'm coming, I'll be there as soon as I can.

  *

  Pearl hadn't thought she would be making a run to the edge of Eamon Canyon State Park today. If she had, she would have actually eaten something right after she left her job at the non-profit, and she would have put more gas in the car. As it was, she could only be grateful that she'd left the big crate and a healthy supply of puppy pads in the back of the station wagon. Working with the rescue meant she was on call unless she was actually in the hospital, and that meant being prepared.

  She was ready for puppies. She was ready for the messes that came with puppies. She was even ready for the suspicious look she got from the man whose number the rescue had given her.

  Here it comes, she thought as she handed the last puppy into the crate and latched the door.

  “So, you from around here?” the man asked finally.

  “Yup. I went to Boulder for school, and I worked there for a while, but then I came back just four years ago.”

  For a moment, she thought that that would be enough, but the man cleared his throat again.

  “Your parents from around here?”

  “No,” she said briskly. “My parents are from Bien Hoa originally. That's in Vietnam.”

  “Ah, thought you were Vietnamese,” the man said, as proudly as if he had correctly identified a local insect or wildflower. “You know, back when I was in the Navy –”

  “Oh, I really can't keep you,” Pearl said, turning away. “I need to get these pups to the rescue, and that sky, you know, it's not looking great.”

  The man nodded wisely, gesturing up at the increasingly darkening sky.

  “That's right, looks like it's going to be a big one.”

  She agreed, glad she was escaping a conversation about the weather rather than whatever colorful stories the man had about his Navy days. Some days she could take it with grace, and a lot of days – say, when there was a storm brewing, and she had an unexpected lot of puppies to handle – she had to save her patience for other things.

  Before she started the car, she turned to peer into the large crate she had belted into her modified backseat. Four pairs of dark eyes informed her that she was absolutely the worst and most evil person in the world for locking them away like this. Didn't she know they needed to play in the grass and chew on things and smell everything they could? What kind of monster was she?

  “Sorry, babies,” she said, poking her fingers through the grate. “We'll get you where you're going, and they'll let you play as much as you like, I promise.”

  While Colorado had no state-wide statutes on wolf-hybrids, it seemed like every county and town had its own rules, resulting in a patchwork mess that needed swift action whenever a rescue was required. While her own rescue work had more to do with getting twenty cats delivered for spaying in a single afternoon and fostering disabled animals, she at least had enough experience to get an unexpected litter of potentially illegal puppies to the wolf-hybrid rescue the next county over.

  “No idea how his malamute got mated to a wolf, sure,” Pearl muttered to herself as she pulled onto the road.

  The man probably arranged for an intentional breeding to a high-content stud, a wolfdog with a wolf parent. The result seemed to be puppies that were likely a quarter wolf and still fu
ll of trouble and mischief. Too many people didn't realize that thousands of years of domestication gave dogs a willingness to please that wolves utterly lacked, and that was why as soon as wolf-hybrids entered the picture, regular rescues stepped out and the specialized rescues stepped in.

  “And he told me there were only three of you. A bad liar, and he can't count.”

  She sighed, because if you were going to work animal rescue, you had to accept the fact that people were going to be people, or you couldn't do the job very long at all. She wanted to keep doing this kind of work for a long time, so she took a deep breath and let it go..

  I'll get the pups to the rescue and hole up in Bright's Creek if the storm is too bad to get home tonight. Either way, I'm definitely ordering myself a pizza.

  The first fat drops of rain hit the roof of her car, and she whistled as she drove away.

  *

  He was right. He was right, it was his nephew, and Cassidy was so overjoyed that he didn't even realize what was happening until the small dark-haired woman got in the car and got it started.

  For a moment, he could only stare after her in horror because now that he was close, he could smell Cody packed in with what smelled like other wolf pups.

  There was more than just Cody, they were all packed up in a station wagon with a COEXIST bumper sticker, and the car was starting.

  Cassidy couldn't help a brief howl of dismay as he bolted down the wooded slope towards the road. He had thoughts of throwing himself in front of the car, or leaping on top of it, but then it picked up speed, and he was left in the dust.

  “Hey, what the hell –”

  A man he hadn't seen earlier was staring at him in dismay, and before he could think, Cassidy bared his teeth and let out a blood-curdling growl. It was bad manners at the very least. This kind of behavior could get the local ranchers up in arms about wolves in the region, but right now he didn't care.

  He was coldly satisfied to see the man go stumbling back on the ground, and then he snorted and raced down the road.

  Cassidy knew where his nephew was, and he was going to go get him back.

  Chapter Two

  ∞∞∞

  Pearl had barely made it any distance down the road before she realized that whatever else was happening, she was not going to make it to the rescue tonight. She wasn't even going to make it home. The rain hit her car like a physical force, and she slowed to a crawl as visibility dropped to around ten feet in front of her.

  She'd grown up in Colorado. Storms were nothing new, but you needed to be wary of them when they came on like this. Sometimes, they played themselves out as quickly as they appeared, but given the sustained force of the rain and the high winds whipping the surrounding pines around as if they were made of paper, she didn't think she would be that lucky.

  Could be a fifty-year storm, Pearl thought with a shudder, because that would mean roads washed out, and power lines down. What should have been a perfectly reasonable two-hour drive could turn into something downright deadly.

  In the backseat, the puppies could tell something was wrong. They set up a chorus of howls, high and tinny, and Pearl winced.

  “It's okay, it's okay,” she muttered, clinging tight to the wheel. “We'll get you someplace safe really soon, and then you can come out and play, I promise.”

  Lightning struck someplace close, making her yelp and the puppies howl even louder, and she realized she couldn't drive much longer, not safely.

  She was just preparing to pull off the road and throw on her hazards when a glowing neon sign appeared out of the rain and the mist ahead: Motel – Vacancy. It was the standard little strip of rooms with a gas station and a tiny market along the frontage road, but right then, it looked like a luxury hotel.

  Oh thank goodness, she thought, pulling into the parking lot.

  When she was parked, the puppies seemed to calm down a little, and she took a moment just to sit with her head pressed against the steering wheel.

  Well, so much for getting home for pizza tonight. Maybe I can still order –

  Lightning struck again, and she realized dinner was probably going to be whatever she could scrounge out of the vending machine. At least the man who surrendered the puppies had given her some food to take with her. At least they wouldn't go hungry.

  “Okay, babies, I'm going to be right back. Gotta go lie to someone at the counter.”

  Pearl was under no illusions as to how hotel management might take four puppies, let alone four wolf-hybrids . Given the fact that she had every intention of cleaning up after them and absolutely no intention of sleeping on the road if a room was available, she was comfortable making discretion the better part of valor.

  What they don't know won't hurt them, she thought as she made her way into the office.

  It was, perhaps not surprisingly, crowded with travelers seeking protection from the rain as well as current tenants complaining about leaks in their rooms. The only person behind the desk, a teenager who looked as if an actual nuclear blast couldn't shake them from their apathy, dealt with each complaint with a slow and plodding diligence, telling anyone who didn't want their spot any more that they could leave it. There were after all, plenty more people who wanted rooms, and Pearl, some forty minutes later, felt extremely lucky that she got the very last one.

  She clung to the old-fashioned key as if it held all the answers, and then she battled her way through the wind and rain to get back to the car, driving it around to her assigned spot. Her room was at the very edge of the building, farthest away from the road and backing onto a clear field. Beyond was the black void of the forest and the mountain itself, and she shivered as she waited for her neighbors to get settled before she brought in her contraband.

  Lonely kind of night, she found herself thinking. I could really wish I had someone here to help with that. Or at least to help me get the crate inside.

  Unfortunately, her last ex had been very clear on where he stood with her rescue work –it's cute, but aren't you too old for that kind of thing now?– and it had been a while since she’d had the heart to go looking for someone new.

  Then the puppies set up a fresh howl, and she laughed, shaking her head.

  “Whoever has the time to get lonely when I've got the four of you?” she asked wryly.

  The parking lot quieted. The storm had blotted out all the daylight, and Pearl figured it was as safe as it could be to move the pups.

  “Come on. You guys are going to love this.”

  Something raised the hairs on the back of her neck when she got out of the car, but the rain was still bucketing down, and she was already soaked to the skin. All she wanted was to get the puppies inside and to possibly imagine a world where she got to be dry and happy. Pearl opened the back of the station wagon, unbuckled the crate, and was just pulling it towards herself when she heard a low and unmistakable growl.

  She turned to see half-dozen dark shapes moving through the rain, the smallest the size of lamb, the largest as tall as her hip, and her heart sank. They were closing in, clearly focused on her and the pups.

  Ferals, her mind chattered even as she carefully eased herself into the back of the station wagon, making no sharp movements. Either someone lets them run wild or they've been breeding up in the woods for a few generations, but it really doesn't matter at all, not when there's so many of them …

  She kept her eyes down, watching the pack's progress out of the corner of her eye. Any hopes she had that they would pass her by were dashed when the biggest dog uttered another deep growl, and then he took another step towards her.

  Pearl's heart sunk when she saw the shape of his ears and the low slant of his back. His tail was held straight back rather than up over his hindquarters, and once she saw that, it was impossible to miss the long legs and narrow chest.

  There was no way to ID a wolfdog apart from genetic testing, but given the way the lead dog stared her down with absolutely no fear at all, Pearl thought she might have a candidate
.

  Smart as a wolf without a wolf's normal fear of humans, she thought, and just as she was wondering what in the world she was supposed to do, the wolfdog crouched down and lunged at her, all teeth and fury.

  Pearl yelped and somehow managed to pull entirely into the station wagon just in time, slamming the hatch door down as hard as she could. She made it, barely, and the wolfdog hit the door with a slam that shook the car. Fortunately she had already closed the driver's side door, but now the car was surrounded, and the loud barking of the feral dogs were answered by the puppy yips from inside the crate.

  “Shush, shush, be quiet please,” Pearl muttered, but it did no good at all as the cacophony continued.

  If they're hungry, they'll eat puppies as easily as they'll eat rabbits or mice, she thought, and she squinted through the rain, hoping that someone, anyone, would come out to help. She told herself that at some point, the wolfdogs would get bored and wander away, but right now, she was having a hard time convincing herself of that.

  Then there was a howl that sounded different from the other ones, and the puppies in the crate redoubled their efforts, howling and yelping until the station wagon was wall to wall noise. Terrible snarling erupted behind the car, and Pearl leaned up against the window to see what was happening. The rain, falling even harder now, obscured most of it, but she could see some kind of fight going on a few yards from her bumper. It was the large dog she had seen before and another dog that, if anything, looked even larger.

  What in the world?

  Before she could decide what to do, there was a deafening clap of thunder and lightning simultaneously, the storm directly overhead. It was loud enough that the puppies shrieked, and Pearl wanted to cover her ears. Then, out of the darkness, staggered a man, tall and sturdy, drenched in rain and limping a little.

  Pearl could only think about how big those feral wolfdogs were, and how dangerous, and without hesitation, she kicked the station wagon's rear hatch up.

  “Here!” she shouted. “Get the hell in, quick!”