“Alright, where do you live?” he asked.
“683B Wolverine Way,” she replied.
“Oh, you live on Black Snout pack land.”
“Yes. Is that a problem?”
“No. I’ve got some good friends in Black Snout. I guess we didn’t really talk about our packs. I’m on pack land too, but Ginger Tail.”
“Yeah. I’ve heard of your pack, but I’ve never met anyone from it. I guess I thought you all had red hair,” she laughed.
“We get that a lot,” he said, starting the truck and pulling out of the parking lot and then onto the highway. “I guess I’m looking for a duplex then. The B in your address?”
“No. It’s a small house on my family’s property. The main house is A.”
“Gotcha,” he replied.
Kat felt more lightheaded as they drove. Travis was still talking, but she couldn’t quite make out the words. She had drunk a bit too much to drive, but not so much that it should be affecting her to this degree. Her stomach was in knots as she considered that he had been making her drinks all night. Had he drugged her?
No sooner had the thought occurred to her that everything went black.CHAPTER FIVETravis
Travis laughed as Kat slumped toward him, laying her head against his arm and falling asleep. They were still about ten miles from her house by his best guess, but he wasn’t really sure, as he hadn’t been to the area in some time. With her out cold, he’d just have to find it on his own.
As it turned out, it wasn’t hard to locate. There was one of those large mailboxes in the shape of a house with reflective letters on the side. He pulled into the driveway, noting that it continued past the house, keeping on it until he thought maybe he’d made a mistake. Then he saw a small bunkhouse-style home sitting at the edge of a large pond.
“Sweet place,” he said to himself as he pulled into the gravel drive that circled around back and fanned out into a two-car parking space.
It looked like the front of the house faced the water, so he figured she must go in the back door when she parked back here. Looking over at her, he noted that she was still out cold.
“Kat, we’re at your place. I think,” he said, shaking her gently.
She didn’t move. He checked her pulse. It was weak, and she wasn’t responding at all. Fuck. What was going on?
Okay. Her parents. That was the answer. It was late, but he’d just have to wake them up. Under ordinary circumstances, he’d call emergency services, but he didn’t know who ran the wolf services way out here. He started the Bronco back up and backed out of the driveway, heading back down to the main house and parking on the road by their front porch.
Easing out of his seat, he lay her down in it and then closed his door, running to the front door and alternately banging on it and ringing the bell until he saw some lights go on inside. An older man with white hair and what he could only describe as a majestic mustache opened it and glared at him angrily.
“Son, this better be fucking important unless you want my foot rammed straight up your ass,” he growled.
“I’m sorry. I ... sir, I brought your daughter home.”
“Great. Do you want a goddamned ticker-tape parade?”
“I ... she’s passed out in my truck. I can’t bring her around.”
Now her father looked more alarmed than angry. He pushed past him and ran to the truck, yanking the passenger door open. Travis followed him helplessly.
“Is she drunk?” her father asked as he checked her over himself.
“She had a few drinks, but not enough to make her pass out like this,” Travis told him.
“Help me get her in the house,” her father told him.
Travis helped him pick her up and carry her to the house. Her mother met them at the door.
“Oh, God. What’s happened? What’s wrong with her?”
“I don’t know, Margie. Go open my office and turn the lights on, then get Dr. Jaxson over here.”
She turned and disappeared down a hallway ahead of them as they carried Kat into what seemed to be an exam room. Kat hadn’t mentioned that her father was a doctor.
“Get her up on that table,” he said.
Travis took her the rest of the way into his arms and lay her down on top of the table, then stood back out of the way, feeling more bewildered than he had in a long time.
“You’re a doctor?” Travis asked.
“I’m a vet, which sometimes comes in handy when a patient is in wolf form, but not as much when in human form. That’s why I sent for the doctor. Tell me now, son. Has she taken or been given anything else?”
“No, not that I know of. She was fine, other than having a few drinks. I thought she had just dozed off until I couldn’t get a response from her.”