The wolf crouched down, whining, ears flicking forward and back anxiously, her body creeping forward slowly. When Jetta pulled open the zip lock on the baggie, the wolf lifted her head and her whine changed to something deeper.
“Smells awesome, right?” Jetta said, using her left hand to pull the meat from the bag. It looked like a raw roast, big and bloody. With an easy motion she tossed it forward. It landed in a mat of pine needles halfway between the girl and the predator. Jetta’s right hand dipped into her hoodie pocket as the wolf flashed forward, giant jaws snapping up the lump of meat and ripping it in half. With a big gulp, half the meat went down the werewolf’s throat and then she looked down to locate the remainder. As soon as her head dropped, Jetta’s right hand came smoothly out of her pocket and made a short, quick throw so smoothly that it looked almost lazy.
A fat red dart appeared between the wolf’s shoulders and her head snapped up, yellow eyes narrowing, a growl escaping around the meat locked in her jaws.
“Please. That doesn’t hurt, and you know it,” Jetta said, completely calm. “It’s about the same as if I tossed a marble at you.”
The wolf pulled back her head, still chewing but slower, as if she was surprised by the words.
“But you might not want to swallow that lump right just yet,” Jetta said. The wolf lifted her head, tossed the meat up and opened her jaws wide to gulp it down. “And here we go,” Jetta said with a sigh.
The beef went down the throat, but the wolf suddenly dropped to the ground, limbs going boneless, eyes rolling back in her head.
“Mack, I need those tongs,” Jetta said, rushing forward to the downed wolf. Caeco was beside her before she made two steps, then was past her, reaching the wolf first. Grabbing the head, she lifted it and looked up to see where Mack was, but he was already there, arriving alongside his sister, a gleaming chrome surgical tool in his hand.
Caeco pressed on the sides of the wolf’s jaws, arm muscles standing out through the tight black fabric of her shirt, and the mouth opened a little. With a quick motion, Mack reached the tool into the wolf’s mouth and with just a few struggles managed to pull out the hunk of meat. Leaning back, he relaxed and let the beef chunk fall to the forest floor.
“Whew,” was all he said, grinning at the others. “Even werewolves need to breathe.”
“What did you do to her?” Hekla demanded, moving closer to the massive wolf. At her motion, Chief Kent and his officers moved up as well.
“We drugged the crap out of her,” Jetta said. “Easiest way to get her to Change back when you don’t have an Alpha handy.”
“Hekla and Marika come close, so that she smells you,” Caeco said. “Our special cocktail should drug her deep enough for the wolf to relax, but my personal opinion is that comforting odors help too.”
“Look. She’s starting to change,” Jetta said.
The fur was moving, visibly getting shorter, and the animal’s body began to pop and click as the limbs twisted to new configurations. Fascinated, the officers crowded around as Kristin’s mother and friend knelt on either side of her, watching the transformation. Jetta reached back into her pack and pulled out a thin fleece blanket. Within minutes, the wolf had been replaced by a naked teenaged girl, one whose visible ribs and clavicle showed how very lean she had gotten. Jetta covered her with the blanket and then Caeco easily picked her up.
A tiny black drone buzzed out from the trees and landed on Mack’s shoulder. He noticed it but ignored it.
“Okay, let’s get her home,” Caeco said.
“No, we need to get her checked out,” Kent said. “Morris here is an EMT. And you drugged her.”
“So am I,” Caeco said, “and these two are certified for wilderness medicine. Our mixture is herbal, not pharmaceutically based. Her heartbeat is steady, temperature is normal for weres, breathing is unlabored, but she is malnourished, more so than a regular human would be. Were metabolisms are fierce, burning calories extremely fast. Actually, she looks better than expected, so she must have done a good job scavenging. But a hospital won’t know what to look for and it’ll just stress her out. Being home with her mother’s cooking is the best idea.”
Kent looked uncertain but his officer, Morris, who was looking Kristin over as she hung limp in Caeco’s arms, was nodding. “I think she’s right, Chief. She seems pretty healthy but very, very thin. Eyes are good, breathing is good. They’ve been right so far.”
“Alright, but you’re going to need help carrying her. Let me take a stint,” Kent said, moving forward.
Caeco looked like she might protest but then nodded, handing the girl off to Kent, whose eyes widened as he took her full weight.
“Were muscle and bone is denser than human normal,” Mack said. “She’s going to always weigh more than she looks but will never look overweight. Expect your grocery bill to go up… a lot.”
“I notice you didn’t offer,” Kent said to Mack.
“Hell no. Caeco’s a lot stronger than I am,” he said, turning and heading back on the trail, the little black insectile drone still clinging to his shoulder.
A half hour later, they had Kristin resting on the couch in the family room of the shingle-style coastal house that looked out over a rocky Maine shoreline.
Kristin woke up as her mother and friend were maneuvering her into her second favorite pair of pajamas, the first pair having disappeared the same night she did. She looked confused for a few seconds, but her expression dissolved into almost
