Free Call Me Miz by Gem Sivad

explanation, leaning over the animal as her hands went to work on the small timber wolf. She’d been beaten, her spine broken, one back leg pulverized. She whimpered in pain, begging Miz for help from liquid brown eyes.
    Again, the nasty gray poison swirled toxic and deadly inside the wolf. Miz pulled on the noxious stuff, pretty certain she needed to clear it out before she could fix anything else. She tried to wipe her face with her shoulder to clear away the sweat but Thomas was there, using his handkerchief instead.
    He blotted away perspiration and touched her side from time to time, his presence giving Miz strength. Thoughts floated through her brain. What the fuck is that stuff? I found it in the cat the other night. And just as quickly, Thomas muttered the answer. “Silver poisoning.”
    She had to stop twice to vomit. Each time, Thomas was there hovering next to her, not turning away with disgust.
    After she’d pulled the last of the deadly poison from the wolf and leaned ingloriously over a bedpan spewing out the filth, she was ready to begin pouring her healing power into the bones to reform and repair.
    Miz turned back to her patient and blinked in astonishment. The broken spine had already fixed itself. She went deep again. Tissue and bone knitted faster than anything she’d ever witnessed before. Her heat pulsed one last time and died. Miz slumped against Thomas.
    “I can’t do anything else.” It was a fact that when her hands quit, she was done.
    “She’ll be fine now,” Hank said from the other side of the table.
    “The back leg…” But even as Miz looked at the pulverized back it reshaped and regained substance. Miz watched in horror as the body of the wolf began to writhe and convulse. “Shit, something’s wrong.”
    “If you’re planning on keeping secrets, Wyatt,” Thomas began.
    “Too late.” Hank’s tone was regretful.
    Even as Miz watched, the back legs reformed into human limbs, the torso became human flesh and the wolf became a woman—Jenny.
    “I’m sorry, Hank,” she panted. “I couldn’t stop the shift once it started.”
    What the fuck? “What are you, some kind of werewolf or something?” Miz stepped back, bumping into Thomas as she distanced herself from the table.
    “Later, Miz.” Hank brushed aside her question and asked his own. “Jenny, who did this to you?”
    Two fat tears rolled down the face that had been wolf moments before. She whispered, “Milo.”
    “I don’t believe it. What in hell just happened here?” The words flew out of Miz’s mouth and she grabbed Jenny’s hand. “Who beat you and why?”
    She shouldn’t have asked. Dammit, some things were better left a mystery. Shit, Jenny started talking and everything Miz thought she’d accomplished on her own disappeared.
    Her best friend said, “When you started school, Hank sent me too. When you started talking about moving away, he arranged for our massage parlor to happen. You were too friendly with Milo and Hank didn’t like it. I lured him away.”
    “You sonovabitch. You stole my life.” Miz looked at Hank and dropped Jenny’s hand, seared by the truth. She glared at Jenny. “It was all a lie, the whole thing.”
    Jenny grabbed her hand back and stared into her eyes. “You’re my best friend. That wasn’t a lie. I hated the rest, but…”
    “But Hank said,” Miz whispered bitterly.
    “Milo wants the lumber company in. He owns a bar that’s two heartbeats from closing. I thought I had him fooled. I let down my guard.” Jenny shrugged and Miz realized for the first time she was naked. She dropped Jenny’s hand and gave her a sheet.
    “You might be comfortable lying around that way, but some of us in here are accustomed to clothes,” she said dryly.
    On the other hand, Thomas was watching Miz, not looking at the scenery. That pleased Miz more than it should have.
    “The beating, Jenny. Why?” Hank pushed at the other woman relentlessly.
    “Because he couldn’t find our den