The Cynic and the Wolf by Julie Steimle (ebook voice reader TXT) 📕

As the wolf backed up, he sat down and began to eat the rabbit, deciding to ignore Audry which was altogether odd. And though that was good for her that he left her alone, she could tell the wolf was in extreme pain. It cringed and lowered its head after a while, as if it were getting a fever. 

There was nothing else to it. She had to do something. She was an animal rescue worker after all.

So, drawing her tranquilizer gun, Audry carefully took aim.

The wolf yelped when shot. His eyes widened on her with human disbelief for a full minute before he lowered his head to the ground, struggling to maintain consciousness.

Audry went out to her rescue kit immediately. Covering the toboggan so no one could see it, Audry crawled back into the den and opened her kit. She took out the muzzle and strapped the wolf’s jaws shut so he could not bite her. Then lying on her belly, Audry dug out a rag to lay his leg on. She searched for other wounds also. What she saw sent shivers down her skin. There was only the fresh one, but Audry found two older bullet wounds in him, which were surprisingly well healed. Gathering out her equipment, Audry went to work.

She cleaned the wound, cutting off the surrounding hair to get to it. With ample iodine smeared around the bleeding welt, Audry dug in with forceps. It took a bit of effort to dislodge the bullet. The wolf yelped helplessly, and twitched a little, but when she did get the bullet out, it came out whole. It wasn't a hollow point, thank heaven. She dropped the thing onto the rag and went for rest of the wound, letting it bleed a bit.

Dousing the wound with rubbing alcohol once more, Audry, pressed bandages to it and wrapped it up. It was all she could do.

She gathered all her things into the kit, even dumping the bullet into it for evidence. Audry then gazed at the animal. It might have survived that shot, as it wasn't in a critical place, but he seemed to be breathing easier already. He was resting his head on the ground, staring bleary-eyed at her. They were almost watering as if he were crying. She was sure she had put it though a lot of pain, but it was better than leaving that bullet inside him. Gently, she petted his fur. "It’s ok. It's out. You're fine now."

As the moonlight reflected into the den again, the hush of snow and wind bringing a calm silence into the space as if that den had somehow become a holy place, she was fascinated by how almost human in color and texture this wolf's hair was. It really was like… auburn. It even felt softer. He had to have been some kind of cross breed, as it surely did not seem to be fully a gray wolf. Yet he had the gray wolf shape. He didn't look like a red wolf. He was too big. His hair was too full. In fact, she thought he was the handsomest wolf she had ever seen.

And while running her fingers over his fur, Audry found more scars. There was one on his foreleg as if it had been swatted away by a bear and the claws had scraped. And there were fresh chicken scratches on his snout. He definitely had been the one eating the chickens.

The strangest thing of all about him was how lonely he looked. There was a sense of a wolf without a pack, all alone, sad, misunderstood, and persecuted. She yearned to know what his life had been like. Where had he encountered that bear? And why were the Deacons so interested in it? And searching the wolf’s body, Audry found no tracking devices at all. Not even a tag. How in the world were those hunters tracking this wolf, let alone the Deacons were tracking it? An RFID chip maybe?

The wolf closed his eyes. He seemed to enjoy being petted, or more likely her tranquilizer had put him to sleep. Once she was sure the wolf was entirely out, yet still breathing, Audry took off the muzzle.

It was time to go. As much as she would like to tell the rangers about this, she didn’t think the ranger station was equipped with animal rescue facilities.

Quietly, Audry gathered up her things and crawled out of the den. Standing in the snow, Audry looked about the landscape. The wolf's tracks were obvious. And she was sure the one who had shot him was still about. And though she had planned to go directly to the ski lanes, Audry realized such people would shoot a sleeping wolf in a den. She had to do something. She could not just stop there, especially after she had rendered the wolf defenseless herself.

So, taking her things, Audry stacked her equipment onto the toboggan, strapped it down, then grabbed something to cover the opening of the den and then to mess up the wolf tracks as she tromped over them with the toboggan, following the wolf trail back towards the rabbits. Under the moonlight, she was exposed. If the hunters were heartless, they were sure to shoot her.

The wolf trail meandered. She had to meander with it, destroying the tracks as best as she could. But eventually they took her to the rabbit warren. Audry jogged up to it to see what was left there.

The night before, the hunters had hidden in wait there, attempting to use the rabbits as bait. But as Audry approached, she could see snow mobile tracks tearing up the snow so that even wolf tracks did not stand out. The rangers probably routed out hunters from that spot a while ago.

Audry went to find her equipment.

Sure enough, the camera equipment at the rabbit warren was smashed. The lenses were no more and the tripods had been bent like someone had a vendetta against them. However, Audry rescued the sim card, which they had stupidly left. Taking up her broken equipment, Audry stacked it onto her toboggan, looked around to make sure she was not being watched, then she headed straight for the ski lanes. There was no way the wolf could be tracked from where she was now.

Besides, snow was falling again. The moon was covered, and it was getting dark once more.

Audry waved to the nearest ranger when she pulled onto the ski lane.

"What are you doing out in that?" the ranger snapped at her. "Didn’t you hear the gunshot?"

Audry nodded. "That's why I am going in."

Shaking his head at her, he even helped her on the toboggan and gave her strong push.

Audry slid slow at first, then went quickly.

Sledding was not her expertise, but Audry hung on and steered as best as she could while going downhill. There weren't many skiers out that night. Audry was sure the sound of gunshot had chased them in. And when she sailed down into the flat area before the lodge, digging in her feet to slow the sled down, the majority of the patrons were gathered there.

Audry got off at the bottom of the hill with a shaky-legged hop, staggering over with the toboggan ropes in her hands toward the ski patrol.

No one was in.

Moaning, Audry dragged her sledful of things around the lodge to the back door. The chicken was still there. But then it would be. The wolf had caught a rabbit, and it was out for the night in the den.

Going inside, kicking off snow, Audry looked around. People were still cleaning up in the kitchen. Turning to go back out to get her things off the toboggan, Audry noticed that Rick's coat was still hanging on hook as if it had never moved. She also noticed a note tacked to the door which said:

Please leave the back door unlocked.

Going out, shaking her head, Audry undid every bungee cord, and in shifts carried everything inside the door.

"Shut the door! It’s freezing!" one of the staff shouted at her.

"Wait a minute," Audry snapped back. "I have more stuff to bring in."

One of them walked over to her. "What are you bringing in? A movie studio?"

"Can you have enough cameras?" another asked sarcastically.

Audry stood to her full height. "This isn’t even half of it. But I can’t get them all tonight because of the storm. And oh, yeah, there are hunters out there—again."

They looked to the door then out, staring. "No way."

"Didn't you hear the gunshot?" Audry asked, carrying in more equipment.

"I thought that was a firecracker," one of them murmured.

Audry shook her head. "No. That was a gunshot. They are shooting at the wolf again."

"How do you know?" one of them snapped.

She almost answered, but one of the rangers marched into the room setting his eyes on everyone. They last rested on her and he said, "Oh good, you are here. I was about to tell you not to go out tonight."

"I was already out," Audry replied, thumbing that way.

He stared at her.

"I came back early because I heard the gunshot," she explained. "And the storm."

The rangers nodded, heaving breaths of relief.

"So you know hunters are back on the lot," she said.

Nodding heavily, he looked back to the front room. "Yes."

"They smashed my rabbit cam," she said.

"Better than your head." He then turned to go out. "Do you know where Mrs. Gruber is?"

Audry shook her head. So did the rest of the staff.

"Don't you think you should be asking where Mr. Deacon is?" one of the staff asked. "We haven't seen him this entire evening."

"I don’t remember him coming back," another chimed in.

The ranger looked to Audry. "Did you see the wolf out there?"

Audry nodded, not quite getting out that it had been wounded. She was too stunned over how preoccupied the ranger looked.

He nodded to himself again and said, "I'm sure Mr. Deacon is busy right now. He has ways of coming and going without people knowing he is there. Now I need to find Mrs. Gruber." He went out again.

Shrugging her shoulders, Audry went back to getting her stuff.

Once the toboggan was unloaded, she stood it against the outside wall where she had gotten it from. Going back inside, Audry carried what she could upstairs and went down for another load. Once it was all upstairs, Audry collected the sim cards and uploaded the data into her computer. The card she wanted to the see most was the rabbit warren. She wanted to find out what really had happened.

Most of it was day footage, following rabbit activity around the shrubbery. She was watching it at ten times speed, so it went quickly from day to evening pretty fast. As the light lowered and the camera was triggered into low-light filming, Audry watched the rabbits head back into the warren—that is until the wolf came in. The wolf hunt was fascinating and terrifying at the same time. It got one rabbit right in its jaws and killed it as quickly as it could. Too hungry, that wolf. And even though he didn't look starved, he acted starved.

And though he started to eat the rabbit right there, she saw the wolf's ears perk up and it quickly hopped to its feet, dashing out of there, rabbit in his jaws.

Then came the gunshot.

She watched a pair of feet run after it in the snow. But then, they tripped over her camera.

Tripped.

Audry stared at it as the picture lay sideways on the ground. The owner of the feet cursed then stomped on the mechanism, and the picture was no more.

No wonder he hadn't taken the sim card. The hunter was in a rush after the wolf. And he wasn't on