He's Here to Save Me

*Hezzlie*

I’m dreaming.
I know it’s a dream. Even though it all makes a lot more sense to me now. I’m traipsing through an enchanted forest, not a care in the window, bathing in beams of moonlight, when I get this itch inside to turn into a wolf.
And I remember, despite the freshness of the concept, that I can do just that. I can leap into the air and contort my body into a fur-covered, long-fanged, clawed creature that can run so much faster than I’ve ever dreamed possible. I can leap over fallen logs, across brooks, and dart around bushes and trees.
I am a wolf–and it’s incredible!
I look down and see jet black fur and realize I’ve shifted without even knowing it. I take off running, doing all of the things I imagine a wolf might do, but it’s not long before the trees turn gnarly and dark, and the same fear that always threatens to overtake me grips my insides.
Something is chasing me, something that wants to hurt me, but I have no idea who or what it is.
I tear between the trees, trying to get back to the clearing where the moonlight reached all the crevices, but I can’t find it.
And I’m running out of time.
“No!” I begin to panic, trying to decide whether or not I should try to change back into my human form or if I should keep running like this. I’m a wolf–I’m faster than humans. But what if I get stuck in this form again?
I tear around another corner and skid to a stop.
I’m not alone.
A large golden wolf stands there. I take a deep breath and know this is Rowan.
The Rowan who saved my life earlier tonight. He’s here to help me. He’s here to protect me. Still, I feel like I’m being hunted. “Rowan!” I shout. “Help! Please, help!”
“Hezzlie?”
It’s not Rowan’s voice I hear. Rather, it’s Dr Bolton’s. I paus a few moments, remember I’m dreaming, and force my eyes open.
James sits on the edge of my bed, his hands on my shoulders. He lets out a sigh. “Thank the Goddess. I thought I might have to resort to something more intense to wake you up.”
I blink at him, lost and then ask, “Were you trying to wake me up for a while?”
He nods. “Twenty minutes. But that’s not uncommon once you’ve fully realized you have your wolf in your dreams. Are you okay?”
I nod, but I’m not sure that’s true. I still feel like I’m half lost in a dream. I do manage to croak out, “I'm sorry.”
“It’s okay. You couldn’t help it. You were trying to wake up.” He picks up his notebook from beside me and starts to write.
“No, I mean, I’m sorry about earlier.” I feel my cheeks heat.
He doesn’t look at me. “Yeah, me, too.”
“I bet you are,” I murmur. I’ve wracked a few guys before at school when they were inappropriate, once at a party, and then a guy who came up to me on the street when I was walking home from a friend’s. I’ve never pounded my knee into the crotch of my physician before.
“Oh. That. Yeah, I’m definitely sorry about that.” He shakes his head and manages a shrug. “I’m a quick healer.”
“Still… Mrs. Bolton is probably unhappy.”
“We both know there is no Mrs. Bolton,” he corrects me. I’m not sure why I even asked it that way. Maybe because I know nothing about anyone? “Hopefully, I will find her one day. At any rate, you should get back to sleep.”
I want to ask him a few questions about my dream, but I know that we’ll have a session tomorrow, and it will probably be lengthy. He checks my arm in the spot where he took blood earlier in the day, nods, and then stands.
As he starts to walk toward the door, I ask, “Will I be leaving the day after my birthday?”
“I don’t know.” He looks at me over his shoulder. “I don’t have any control over that now, Hezzlie.”
“It’s up to Rowan?”
He nods. “The Alpha King will decide.”
I think of my dream. Rowan showed up to save me again–like he had tonight in the forest. He must care about me a little, right? Why else would he let me come here?
“Sleep, Hezzlie,” Dr. Bolton says, and then he’s gone. This time, I do hear the lock turn.
I also hear voices in the hallway. Dr. Bolton’s is one of them. Rowan’s is the other.

*Rowan*

James sighs when he sees me standing in the hallway. “She’s fine.”
I nod. I’m not sure why I’m standing here. I just came inside from my run; it was an exceptionally long one tonight, but it didn’t do me much good. I still feel like my soul is searching for something. Seeing Hezzlie almost plummet to her death, seeing my two most trusted advisors fail royaly in their attempts to acclimate her to this new life, having Dean call me out on the fact that Hezzlie is my mate, and seeing her staring at me from that window like she wants me, like she trusts me, well, it’s enough to make me need a psychiatrist.
“Go back to bed, Alpha,” he says. Then, he looks at how I’m dressed and amends his statement. “Or go to bed, I guess I should say.”
“Did you send the sample off?”
He’s walked past me by the time I get the question out, and I hear exasperation in his tone when he says, “I did.”
“Good. When do you suspect we’ll hear from them, then?”
“Are you asking me how long it will take him to run tests? It just depends on how competent his people are at performing the tests and how many he does.”
“Ballpark.” I fold my arms across my chest, turning to face him.
He doesn’t spin all the way around, only halfway, as he shrugs and considers the question. “I’d say, we’ll probably hear from them by Thursday.’
“Good,” I repeat.
“May I go now?”
“Yes.”
He storms off, and part of me wishes I wasn’t such a pain in the ass, but it’s my job to make sure everyone is taken care of, and that means I can’t be anyone’s friend–not even my two best friends’ friend.
Not Hezzlie’s friend, that’s for damn sure.
I listen to her breathing through the door. I’m a good seven feet away from it, and it’s closed tight, but I can still hear her.
She’s not asleep.
I wonder if she’s envisioning me naked at all and run a hand across my chest. I haven’t seen her body yet, but I can imagine how she looks now that she’s starting to get her curves back. My dick twitches, which is a solid clue that it’s time to go back to my room. I head to my own chambers, absently lowering my hand to that silver gash that starts at one hipbone and runs like a jagged river to the other. I wonder if she saw that? Probably not. It’s not the first thing women notice when they see me naked.
Not that I’ve had time for many women since all of this went down.
In my room, I head to the shower, deciding it’s a good idea to rinse the forest and the night away. Knowing those two, they’ll want to take her back out to the woods tomorrow night. I’ll need to be there to make sure that no one gets hurt.
I tell myself I’m protecting my investment, my opportunity to get Mara back, but the fact of the matter is seeing Hezzlie fall scared the living shit out of me.
I’m going to give her away soon–to her father. Either that, or I’m going to kill her myself. I’ll have to. I already told Darksky I would, and I can’t let him catch me in a lie.
I certainly can’t let him figure out that she’s my mate.
That would be a death sentence for all of us, especially Mara.