Free Her Viking Wolves: 50 Loving States, Michigan by Theodora Taylor

the exact same place.

11
    O kay , so somehow I end up making my way into the clinic after everyone else scatters. Grady, Mag, and Rafe head back up the mountain to find out what the hell is going on, and Alisha stays outside the clinic with Uncle Tikaani. Totally back in Alaska Princess mode as they try to calm down the new, but much more insistent batch of kingdom wolves who’ve come to inquire about the second flash.
    I follow an ominous whirring sound through the tiny lobby and find Dr. Leesma standing behind Olafr, who’s propped up on his right side. The doctor is using what looks like an electric medical bone saw to cut off some of the arrow shaft protruding from his patient’s back.
    “Good, they sent me someone to assist,” Dr. Leesma says, when he sees me in the doorway. “Stand there in front of him. Make sure he doesn’t fall forward.”
    I do as he says, watching with wide-eyed horror as he switches over to a small knife and begins cutting away at the skin surrounding the partially embedded arrowhead. I can’t see much from my current position but a small puddle of blood begins to form on the floor beneath one side of the table. Eventually, the doctor grabs what appears to be a pair of needle-nosed pliers, latches them on to what remains of the shaft, and with one slippered foot braced against the side of the table, yanks the arrowhead out in a quick jerk.
    The speed at which he does this doesn’t make it any easier to watch. The arrow comes out with a wretched sizzle, accompanied by the smell of burning flesh. The stench of it makes me want to retch. It also makes me really happy the wolf-bound Viking is still unconscious. I wouldn’t want my worst enemy to be awake for this.
    But after the arrow’s out, I take one of the Viking’s large hands in mine. I’m somehow unable to deny the strange desire to comfort him. Even though he’s still knocked out. And even though I’m not a huge fan of physical contact—I mean I could barely stand to participate in Aunt Wilma’s mandatory family pre-party family hugs before this truly surreal night.
    “Don’t worry,” Dr. Leesma tells me as he removes his surgical gloves and picks up a huge syringe from a nearby counter. “Poor guy should return to wolf form soon, then I’ll give him something to help him sleep this nasty wound off.”
    But he doesn’t change back. We wait and wait, with Dr. Leesma braced to hit him with a whole lot of tranquilizer as soon as he goes wolf. But Olafr continues to lie there, motionless as a corpse.
    “Why hasn’t he shifted yet?” I ask the doctor after twenty more minutes of watching the unconscious male on the gurney.
    He answers me with a worried frown. “Unfortunately, I don’t know much about this condition since we don’t have any wolf-bound shifters here in Wolf Lake. Also, I’ve never heard of a case of a wolf-bound shifter changing into a human, so I’m afraid this is all new territory to me. But it might be that whatever kept him from transforming back into a human, is now keeping him from turning back into a wolf.”
    “So then…” I squeeze the stranger’s hand inside of mine. “Maybe you should think about patching up the arrow wound?” I don’t know much about infections, but I binge-watched like a million seasons of Grey’s Anatomy while coding Viking Shifters and I’m fairly certain you’re not suppose to leave patients lying around with open wounds for too long.
    Another frown from the doctor. “That would require stitches…and maybe some kind of cauterization, I think.” He pulls a phone out of his back pocket. “Let me make some calls…” After fiddling with his phone for a minute, he says, “Dammit, I can’t get enough bars in here. I’ve got to go outside.”
    “Are you serious?” I ask him, feeling more than a little alarmed.
    He just gives me a weary sigh. “Listen, I went to what amounts to a special version of vet school. Wolf docs are trained in the bare bones of