The Last Shifter’s Baby

He rubbed circles on her back. “Rebecca, we need to stop the fire, before it gets completely out of control.” “Okay, okay, okay.” She repeated the words, wiping her mouth with the back of her hand and pushing herself to her feet. They jogged towards the flames, covering their mouths and noses as the smoke grew thicker around them. Thankfully, because of the cold, wet conditions, the fire wasn’t as bad as they had feared, and they killed the flames by dousing them with snow.

When the last patch had been dispatched, they made their way back to the clearing. Rebecca blew on her fingers, trying to warm them, they were burning from the cold. She coughed into her elbow as they neared the truck, still feeling the effects of the smoke.

Henry was in the window, yipping and yowling to get out. I’m glad to see his injury isn’t affecting him, she thought. She let him out of the truck as the wolves returned from chasing down the dogs, one of those being the pup’s mother. Rebecca winced as she saw them licking the blood from their muzzles, not wanting to think about what happened to Wilson’s dogs. She reunited the pup with his mother and looked around the clearing for Luke, deliberately avoiding looking at the body of Wilson. She found him kneeling beside the body of the dead wolf, fingers stroking down through his fur. She knelt in the snow next to him, ignoring the burn in her knees. She rubbed his arm, “I’m so sorry, Luke. They saved our lives.” “I’ll have to come back to bury him.” He said. “I’ll come back with you.” She said and tried to tug him up. “But we need to go now. We need to call the police and get them out here.” He nodded slowly and pushed to his feet, wrapping an arm around her waist. “How are you? Are you alright?” “I’ll be fine.” She told him.

The drive out of the habit was quiet and as soon as she got a signal on her phone she called the police. She gave them a slightly altered version of what happened though. After she was done, she turned to Luke. “You need to run home and change your clothes. The cops are going to wonder what happened to you and we won’t have anything to tell them.”

Luke nodded and touched her cheek before hopping in his truck and speeding towards his house. Luckily enough, he got back just before the police met them outside the sanctuary, newly clothed and blood free. “What the hell happened here, Luke?” One of the officers asked and Rebecca was relieved to see that they knew each other. That would make their story easier to swallow. “Rebecca and I were out looking for a missing wolf when we noticed the fire. We went to put it out but found this guy with his hunting dogs. I don’t know where he was from, but he claimed he set the fire as a distraction, he had heard how nice our elk are.”  “Damn poachers,” the officer muttered. “His dogs started going nuts, barking, they must have caught the scent of something.” Luke continued. “I guess that drew the wolves and – well – you can see what happened.” “Sounds to me like the bas*ard got what was coming to him.” The officer chortled and Rebecca frowned. She didn’t know how he could laugh when someone was lying dead a few feet away from them. He may have been insane, he may have tried to kill them, but they were still talking about someone’s life. He didn’t have to watch him die, she thought. “Either way, now we have a dead body on our hands.” Luke said. “Look, you both look exhausted and this seems like a pretty clear cut case to me. Why don’t you two get something to eat and get some sleep? The boys are coming from the morgue to get the body and I can have Nora type up some statements based on what you said back at the station. Then we’ll call it a day.” The officer said.

“Thanks, but make sure none of your boys touch that wolf. I want to bury him.” Luke said and before Rebecca really knew what was happening, she was back in Luke’s truck being driven back to her house. “Is it really that easy?” She asked. “What?” “Someone types some stuff on the computer and this all just goes away?” “I guess.” Luke said. “Paul seems to think so – the officer.” He said quickly when he saw Rebecca look. “It just seems…too easy. That after everything we went through, it all just goes away.” He put his hand on her thigh. “It doesn’t just go away though, we’ll never forget this. I killed a man, Rebecca, and I’m going to have to live with that for the rest of my life.” “I saw.” She said quietly. “I watched while it happened. ”He parked his truck in front of her house, unbuckling her belt and tugging her across the seat until he was holding her against his chest. “I am so sorry, Rebecca, for everything that I’ve put you through.” “I haven’t run screaming yet.” She said, offering him a small smile. “No, I guess you haven’t.” He said and pressed a soft kiss to her lips. “You need to eat and sleep.” “So do you. Come with me.” It didn’t take much for him to agree and they went inside together. Rebecca made a quick spaghetti and they ate in silence, savoring the warmth. When they were done eating, exhaustion settled over them, and they crawled into her bed. They were still fully dressed when they fell asleep on top of the covers. Rebecca’s alarm woke them at six, and after only five hours of sleep she wanted nothing more than to hit the off button. However, they had a mountain of phone calls and paperwork they’d have to fill out because of the night before. Not to mention they still had the wolf to bury. They also had Henry to find, again, to check over and make sure his wounds would heal okay. She rolled over to see Luke already awake and watching her. She wrinkled her brow. “Were you watching me sleep?” “No, I just woke up.” He said and covered his mouth as he yawned wide. “How are you doing?” “I’d be better if you weren’t always looking at me like you’re expecting me to fall apart.” “Sorry.” He said, not sounding sorry at all. “After everything that’s happened can you really blame me?” “No, I guess not. This has been the craziest month of my life.” She froze. “Has it really only been a month?” “I’m afraid so.” He answered. “Never mind. Maybe you should be worried that I’ll fall apart.” She smacked lightly at his chest when she saw him looking worried. “I’m joking, but we do really need to get up. I’m getting a headache just thinking about the work we have waiting for us.”

She said a reluctant goodbye to Luke after feeding him a quick breakfast of eggs and toast. She knew he had to go home to change but she still hated to see him go.

After he had gone, she took a long, hot shower and changed into her most comfortable clothes. It was way too cold out for her hair to air dry so she took a chance on her blow dryer, figuring she’d just end up putting her hair up anyway. When she was finally ready she drove down to their main office, steeling herself before opening the door. “Maggie?” She called and squeaked when she was pulled into a bone-crushing hug by the larger woman. “I pulled into work and there were police everywhere.