Page 10 of The Rabbit's Foot
“And you’ve lied about so many other things. In fact, of everyone here, you’re the most intransigent.” The doctor put the blade to Alp’s wrist. “We need to learn more about your kind, and that takes research. And research takes great risks to achieve the best rewards,” he said, right before he pressed the saw into Alp’s flesh and Alp started screaming.
“Hey, what’s wrong?”
Mal’s voice. Deep and soothing. Alp burrowed further into his embrace, hoping to blot out the memories that threatened to overwhelm him yet again.
“You’re shaking.”
No shit, asshole. What would you do if you couldn’t get the images of them taking your hand out of your nightmares? And worse? The sounds as they hit bone, then continued.It was unlike anything Alp had ever heard in his life.
When they were done, they threw the fucking hand into a jar of some sort and took it off to study, then did some cursory shit to stop the bleeding. And there had been so much blood. Then they shocked him with prods to force him to shift again before they stuffed him in the tiny cage they kept him locked away in. He lay on the stinky towels, licking his paw… well, where his paw should have been, until the sedative wore off and Alp passed out from the pain.
“Do you need my wolf?” Mal asked.
Though he was ashamed to admit it, Alp did. The wolf might not be his First, but he was a First. He nuzzled Mal’s hand.
“I’ll take that as a yes.”
Mal stood and stripped off his clothes, folding them and laying them on the chair he’d been sitting on. Alp was amazed at how fluid the change from man to wolf was. When he finished, Mal picked Alp up by the scruff and pulled him down to the floor, then curled into a ball, with Alp in the center, surrounded by warmth and fur and musk. It was several long minutes before Alp’s heart stopped thudding and resumed a rhythm. It was also then that he noticed Mal’s subvocalization. For humans, it was the words in your head when you read something, but for shifters, it was something more. A thrum that settled inside their bodies, sorting out the chaos and bringing peace, as well as comfort. Alp shoved his face into the fur and let the warmth seep into his body.
When the warm tongue slid over Alp’s face, he knew Mal had heard his snuffles and was trying to comfort him. Why did this have to happen to him? Alp had wondered that so many times in the last few years. Sure, he wasn’t what anyone would call settled in his skin. He didn’t know any other rabbits that wanted to live outside their community, but Alp had wanted that with a desperation.
Now? He’d give his other hand to be at home with his parents, sitting down to dinner with everyone gathered around the table, arguing over whose turn it was to do dishes. Every nightmare he’d had while in the lab had centered around him being taken from his family. How the men who held him were cold and cruel. How the guy in the lab coat—Hyde—acted like none of them were human, that they had no feelings and were things to be experimented on. Alp had seen old men die during these heinous experiments. He’d also witnessed babies cut from their mothers, then discarded after they’d served whatever purpose Hyde and the others in the lab had used them for. And they did it with such… glee.
Mal’s tongue was more insistent now. Apparently he’d realized it wasn’t calming Alp at all. That didn’t stop him from trying, though. And that was the closest Alp had come to kindness since they’d taken him. He closed his eyes and lay there, breathing in Mal’s scent. The one that promised safety. That calmed him enough to let him doze.
When he jerked awake, Alp could smell coffee brewing and the sounds of someone in the outer office talking to themselves. He and Mal were still shifted. For him it was fine, but what would the vet do if she found a wolf in her clinic? Worse, what would happen when she found him with a rabbit? Alp leaned over and gently bit Mal’s ear. He opened one sleepy eye, sighed, and then his eye drifted closed again. In a panic, Alp smacked his head against Mal’s. The solid thud was enough to make Alp dizzy, but it got the desired effect when Mal blinked, which was followed by a yawn, and then his eyes went wide. If Alp thought he’d jump up and dislodge Alp, he was wrong. Mal took his scruff in those powerful jaws before he stood and placed Alp gently on the chair. He shifted quickly, then grabbed his clothes.
“Fuck, I can’t believe I fell asleep,” he groused. Once he was dressed, he cupped Alp in his hands, then put him back in the cage before closing and locking it. A few moments after that, the door opened and a woman stepped into the room. Her eyes widened when she saw Mal.
“Oh, I wasn’t expecting to see you here,” the vet said, but as far as Alp could tell, there was no suspicion in her voice.
“I’m sorry,” Mal said, casting a gaze in Alp’s direction. “I was sitting here last night and talking with the rabbit, and I must have fallen asleep.
She smiled, and it seemed genuine. “I’ve owned this clinic for fifteen years, and only once in all that time has anyone been worried enough about their animal friend to want to stay. So tell me again how you’re not a good man.”
Alp knew teasing when he heard it. Mal must have said something to her, and she wasn’t buying it. Neither would Alp. Mal had saved him—ripped four men apart for him—and no matter the fact that he was a wolf, Alp trusted him with his life.
“I have donuts in the break room, if you’re hungry.”
“I should really get back to—”
“I called Rebecca, my friend with the motel, last night. She has a room all ready for you. It’s twenty-five a night, which is about a third of what it normally costs.”
“Dr. Hamilton, I—”
“Lydia,” she said, peering into the first cage. “To call me doctor feels pretentious. It’s a small town—I grew up with these people. Went to school with them. Around here no one calls me anything other than Lydia.” She grinned. “Well, there are a few names that aren’t as nice, but you get the point.”
“Lydia,” Mal started again, “I shouldn’t—”
“And I called the sheriff. He told me to tell you he’s grateful you were at the bar, because he hates having to do any kind of paperwork, and according to everyone he spoke with, you stopped what could have been a big fight.” She arched her eyebrows. “Next excuse I can shoot down for you?”
Mal sighed and his shoulders slumped. It was kind of funny seeing a First being browbeat by a human. All his life, Alp had been told to stay away from both predators and humans. His parents insisted he should stick with his own kind, that humans were dangerous and that any predator would snatch you off the lawn and make a meal of you before anyone could blink.
Alp had never believed it. He’d known to his soul that humans weren’t as wicked as his parents made them out to be. Boy, Hyde had taught Alp that it was a lesson he should have listened to. But this vet? She seemed so kind and open. And she took care of him, brought him back from an infection that by all rights probably should have killed him. Alp grabbed the bars of the cage with his teeth and rattled them. The doctor smiled.
“Someone is feeling better,” she said cheerfully. “And I’m willing to bet he wants you to stay too.”
It defied rationality, but Alp didn’t want Mal to leave. He wanted him to stick around until Alp could shift, then to head back to the burrow with him in tow to show his family that not all wolves were bad. No, that wasn’t right. He wanted to introduce Mal as the wolf who’d saved him. He wanted all of them to sit down to dinner together, to watch as Mal tasted his first mouthful of Mom’s cooking. To eat until he was so stuffed, he could scarcely move. Then he’d head into the living room with Alp’s father and listen as the two of them bickered about football and who had the better team this year.
