Desired By The Alpha Tiger

I later found out that he was gay.

I didn’t know whether to be happy or sad about that. We never hooked up in the three months we dated and I get now that it was because he was gay but was he repulsed because he was gay or because I was simply repulsive.

Blackpaw’s car is already parked outside. I like her. For a big woman she is light on her feet and that hair! Caramel woven in a strawberry blonde sundae. I know it sounds creepy bordering on lesbian but that woman has fly hair.

“You’re late,” Sonya Blackpaw is feeding pureed peaches to her eight month son. He’s got disconcerting green eyes. They’re the color of a jungle cats. “Better not let the boss find out.”

“I just got eviction notice by my landlord,” I tried not to whine but I whined a little. “So Brennen could cut some slack, you think?”

“He’s too much of an asshole to do that,” Sonya says, wiping peaches off of her son’s chin. I always forget his name: Toby, Tobias? “Isn’t he Forrest?”

Forrest, right.

“Why did you get evicted?” Sonya asks. She crinkles her nose every time she asks a question. “Did you need help with rent? You should have asked me! Maybe we can pay now and get you your house back.”

“I paid rent,” I’m offended by how irresponsible she thinks I am. “The landlord wants to give the apartment to some cousin of his so he’s throwing me out with only a weeks’ notice.”

“Isn’t that illegal?” she asked.

“Would it matter in the short term?”

“You could get a stay order and keep the house while you look for another place,” she piled too much peach sludge on the spoon because she was concentrating on my problem. “It will allow you about a month to look since you’ve already paid this months’ rent.”

“I’m not overly attached to that place to fight so hard for it,” Forrest’s mouth is a peach stain. “Aren’t there any listings where you live?”

“Shifter Grove?” she looks alarmed. “I don’t think you’d like the neighborhood. It’s all woods and cabins; the animals will keep you up at night.”

“I love animals,” I lie. “Please, you’ve got to help me find a place.”

“I’ll talk to Diesel,” she is the picture of reluctance and it’s pissing me off a little. “I think he’d know more than I do.”

“Thank you!” I say with more enthusiasm than I feel. This was going to be a bad week; I could feel it in my tiny, awkward bones.

The clients start to pile in and Sonya takes her son to her office while I filter pets and their owners on to the vet offices one by one. There is a mangy cat smell in the air today. A dog with a banged up leg whimpers in one corner. I send him in to Brenner’s office as soon as he’s free.

I pick on my nails absentmindedly till Brenner calls me in to assist. I don’t have a degree to practice but I’m pretty handy in times of emergency. I’ve been stitching cuts and wounds since I was five; a valuable skill taught by my mom. She was an animal lover and we’d rescue birds and hungry mutts on our walks.

The bogs leg is a chewed mess. It looks like it got in to a fight with a bear. Brenner’s got his amputation face on but I think he’s being forced to save the leg. He loves chopping limbs off the sadistic bastard!

“He got out of his pen yesterday,” the owner was blabbering. “We’re very careful but he got out and zipped through the woods towards Shifter Grove; and you know what kinds of animals are abundant there.”

That didn’t sound too promising for my rental prospects and I guess Sonya was being truthful. Yet why would she insist on staying there with her baby if it were such a dangerous place?

I help staunch bleedings and hold the wounds open for him to get to the torn up muscles. Then when he’s done I stitch up the wound and dress it. Brenner pumps it full of morphine and we’re done.

I clean up in the staff bathroom; it smells antiseptic which is oddly comforting. When I come back out there are five patients with disheveled pets in the waiting room and Sonya Blackpaw is talking to her very handsome, very butch husband. Diesel Wake looks like those men you see on the posters of action movies.