Bear Vet by Zoe Chant

Epilogue

“This isthe best place in La Puerta for a picnic,” said Raelynn, brandishing an egg salad sandwich like a conquering flag. “Right in front of a portal to other worlds! Thanks for letting us do it, Dad. FINALLY.”

Waylon was regretting it already, but managed a smile. It was true that Rae had been begging for it for years. He and the other vets had only agreed to it because the portal had opened the day before, allowing them to return a sparkling star-rat and a hissing, thrashing, tongue-lashing chupacabra. Nothing had come out of the portal, and it had closed soon after. In the entire time he’d been working there, it had never opened two days in a row, so he figured it was reasonably safe.

All the same, the vets has their tranquilizer rifles, butterfly nets, and cages of assorted sizes within easy reach of the picnic blanket. Though they’d safely returned the armored wolf and caught a brief glimpse through the portal of it being welcomed back to its pack, the incident had left them all very aware of how dangerous the magical creatures could be.

The vets, their mates, and Raelynn were all eating a lavish spread provided by Coffee. They had egg salad sandwiches, chicken salad sandwiches, roast beef sandwiches, and delicate little cucumber sandwiches with the crusts cut off. They had potato salad, coleslaw, and a summer salad of arugula and watermelon. There were brownies, blondies, lemon bars, and raspberry crumble bars for dessert. And to wash it all down, they had watermelon lemonade, cucumber-and-mint lemonade, elderflower lemonade, plain lemonade (which Everly had brought just in case someone didn’t want the fancy stuff, but no one was drinking it), and milk.

Bruiser was happily rolling around in the grass, his little legs paddling in the air. Rock was swooping and diving at the edge of the glen, her blue body and white wings flashing in and out of the green leaves.

“Has the portal ever opened when you’ve been right here?” Judy asked.

“It did once when I was hiking by myself,” Angel said. “A rain bird flew out, created a storm over my head, and got me completely soaked before I coaxed her to come to me so I could calm her down. Only it turned out she didn’t create storms because she was stressed, she did it because she liked to. My back seat has never been the same since.”

“But you never know! It could open at any time, and anything could come out.” Rae clearly hoped it would.

Please no, Waylon thought.

Rock let out a piercing shriek and dove into Everly’s cleavage. Bruiser jumped up, faced the portal, and began to bark.

The portal shimmered silver.

“I knew it!” Rae said delightedly.

“Rae, get back!” Waylon shouted, grabbing his tranquilizer rifle. “Judy, you too.”

He, Angel, and Bryan instantly formed a protective line between the portal and the others, tranquilizer rifles held ready.

A fluffy gray puppy flew out, flapping hard on furry wings. The silver shimmer winked out as the portal closed behind it.

“Oooh,” Raelynn exclaimed. “A flying puppy!”

“A winged wolf cub,” corrected Bryan.

Since he obviously knew what it was, Waylon asked him, “Do they have any special powers?”

“Just wings,” Bryan said.

The wolf cub was circling in the air well above the reach of their butterfly nets, and showed no inclination to come down. Its flight pattern was erratic, sometimes soaring high, sometimes veering abruptly off to the side. The cub whined as it flew, an unhappy sound that went to Waylon’s heart. It clearly wasn’t having fun flying—it was injured or scared.

“Wish I could reach it,” Angel said, holding a butterfly net like a batter waiting for a pitch. “We’ll have to wait for it to come—”

The cub, whose zig-zag flight pattern had led it to one of the tallest trees in the grove, flew straight into a branch. It let out a yelp and began to fall out of the sky.

Everyone rushed forward to try to catch it, but Waylon knew with a gut-clenching anticipation of disaster that they’d be too late.

Cloth tore as a huge gray wolf exploded out of Bryan’s clothes. But even with his wolf’s speed, he too would never reach the cub before he hit the ground.

Furry gray wings unfolded from Bryan’s back. He sprang into the air, arrowed toward the tumbling cub, and caught it in his jaws by the scruff of its neck, his paws outstretched to cushion the jolt.

Everyone stood staring as the winged wolf who was Bryan settled gently down on the ground with the winged cub dangling safely from his jaws. He folded his wings, and they instantly blended into the fur of his back and sides. If Waylon hadn’t already known they were there, he’d never have noticed them.

In fact, unless Bryan had acquired wings very recently, Waylon never had noticed them.

What the hell…?Waylon thought.

The big wolf lifted his front paw and curled it under the cub. In the blink of an eye, the wolf vanished and Bryan stood in his place, stark naked and holding the cub in one hand.

Raelynn let out a shriek and dramatically flung her forearm over her eyes. “Pants, please! I want to look at the flying wolf cub and I can’t when there’s naked men being naked in public!”

Bryan turned around, giving everyone an excellent view of his backside. He seemed completely unselfconscious about his nudity. His entire attention was focused on the wolf cub as he gave her a quick but thorough examination.

“Is the cub a shifter?” Angel asked.

Bryan shook his head. “No, she’s a magical animal. She doesn’t seem seriously injured. Bruised a bit. I think she hit the branch hard enough to stun her, and that’s why she fell. But there must be something wrong for her to have flown into it in the first place.”

“PANTS,” demanded Rae. “IS HE WEARING PANTS???”

Waylon picked up Bryan’s pants from the ground. They were torn but wearable; his shirt had been destroyed. He tossed them over. “Bryan’s putting them on right now. Right, Bryan?”

Most people would look awkward and clumsy trying to put on their pants with one hand while holding a flapping wolf cub in the other. Bryan did it with the quick, dangerous grace which invested all his movements. By the time he zipped up, the wolf cub had calmed down and was trying to chew on his ear.

“It’s safe now, Rae,” said Judy. “You can look.”

Raelynn dropped her arm, and everyone began talking at once.

“A flying fluffy wolf cub,” Raelynn exclaimed. “And Bryan’s a flying fluffy wolf too!”

“Why didn’t you ever tell us you had wings, Bryan?” Waylon asked.

“How did we never notice you had wings?” Angel asked.

“You can’t see them at all when they’re folded,” Everly pointed out.

“Maybe it evolved as a hunting strategy,” Judy suggested. “Prey animals get ready to evade a running wolf, but they don’t know the wolf can fly till it’s too late.”

“But why didn’t you tell us?” Angel asked.

“They’re so cool,” Raelynn said. “I want to see you fly again!”

Bryan glared at them all as he protectively cuddled the wolf cub to his chest. “What are you all staring at? Haven’t you ever seen a winged wolf before?”

* * *

If you enjoyed Bear Vet, have you read Unicorn Vet yet?

Get Unicorn Vet on Amazon!

* * *

And you can read more about Caro, Shane and Catalina, the Defenders bodyguards, and their magical pets in Protection, Inc: Defenders!