Heavenly Moonlight

~11~

Tara could only stare at the young man, shocked, no clue on what to do.

The guy stared back at her, mouth agape, his eyes wide with a mix of shock, horror. . .excitement?

Was she really seeing excitement in this human's gaze?

It didn't matter. She had to come up with something, and she had to come up with something fast. . .

"Holy shit," the guy was whispering over and over, his voice quivering.

"It's okay!" she blurted out. "I won't hurt you." She cringed, immediately realizing her next mistake. Using her human voice while still in her wolf form wasn't helping any matters.

"Oh god," the guy said and started walking backwards, tightening the grip on his pistol.

Oh, this was bad. This was so bad.

Without warning, the guy abruptly turned around and started running.

"Wait!" Tara yelled out and started to run after him. She had no idea what she would do when she caught up to him, but she knew she couldn't let him run off after what he saw.

He turned his head slightly to look at her. In his distraction, his foot caught on a tree root and he fell backwards. She continued to run forward, not thinking. He gripped the pistol in his hand and she saw his thumb move toward the trigger. . .

She tried to come to a halt, but he pressed down on the trigger, and a gunshot resounded in the air.

She came to an abrupt halt, staring at the guy in shock as she felt a burning, stinging sensation in her shoulder. Time seemed to move in slow motion as she fell sideways. She landed on the ground, the pain of the bullet coursing through her system.

The last thing she saw before her vision went black was the guy standing over her, his jaw dropped in shock.

Adam Smith stared down at the gray wolf unconscious at his feet, unable to believe what he just saw just moments ago.

He'd seen an actual bird change into a wolf - yes, as crazy as that sounded, he actually did see it happen. He saw this wolf be a bird just moments before.

He had no idea what to do. He was obviously shocked, a little frightened, but he was surprised at the excitement he also felt.

His grandfather had told him stories about shapeshifters living in these woods when he was a little boy. Of course, he never really believed the old coot. After all, shapeshifters being real? Get a grip.

But now he'd seen one with his own eyes. He'd actually seen one. And heard one actually talk. Talk! And then he shot it. Accidentally shot it, but he shot it.

He shot it! He whipped the cloth from his front pocket and applied pressure to the bullet wound, trying to stop the bleeding. Dammit, he'd been frightened when it had come after him, but he didn't mean to actually shoot it.

Shit, what did he do now? He was sitting on something big here!

After a moment's debate, he grabbed the wolf's legs and hoisted it on his shoulders and started back toward his cabin. He had the medical equipment to get the bullet out of its shoulder and try to save it. He'd let it heal, then decide what to do from there.

There was no way he was letting something like this get away from him.

Ruben sighed as the nurse left. He wanted out of this hospital so damn bad. He was bored as hell and hated being confined in this room. The nurses weren't giving him any book to read or letting him watch television because of his concussion, so he had nothing to do but stare at the blank wall.

He closed his eyes and leaned his head back. He was counting the minutes - no, seconds until he got out of here. He was also wanting to visit Katherine, but the doctors weren't letting him out of his bed except to go to the bathroom.

He was worried about her. She had some pretty nasty injuries and he wanted to make sure she was healing okay. He wished he'd been there to protect her, to make sure she was safe.

He gave a dry laugh. Agent Katherine Greene was more than capable of taking care of herself, but he car -

He stopped short. Had he almost admitted that he cared about Katherine? He was concerned about her, as he would about anyone with injuries -

Oh, who was he kidding? He did care about her, whether he liked to admit to himself or not, he cared about her. Hell, she was what he thought about ninety percent of the time he was in here. His thoughts were filled with images of her. This was the first time in several years that the thought of a woman filled him with excitement and longing.

After all of these years, he was finally moving on from Laura Lewis. After all of these years.

A knock at his door broke him out of his thoughts.

"Come in," he called out.

Tori Lewis came into his room and his eyes widened when he saw Claire Wayne enter with her. She'd woken up from her coma? He'd had no idea and now she was in his room.

"Hi, Ruben," Tori greeted him as she wheeled herself over to his bedside. "I wanted to introduce you to Claire Wayne."

He awkwardly held his hand up to wave, wishing Claire was seeing him in different circumstances. "Hi. Nice to meet you."

Claire smiled and sat down beside his bed. "It's nice to meet you too, Mr. Erikson. Tori was telling me how much you've helped the kids get by and I wanted to thank you for everything you've done."

"Oh," was all he thought of to say, taken aback by the thanks. "It's no problem."

Claire smiled at him again, and even with the scars on her face, he could still see the beauty she possessed. "It means a lot to me that you took them under their wing. It was such a kind thing you did."

He smiled back. "I'm just glad I could help."

"You did. And I'll be forever grateful. I see that you have some injuries yourself. How are you coming along?"

He sighed. "I'm healing, but I've been bored as hell."

"I can concur to that," Tori said with a sigh of her own. "Beyond nurses checking on me and visiting with you, Agent Greene, Trevor and Christian, I've not been able to do anything."

They talked for a little bit. Ruben got to know Claire a little bit and concluded that she was a very nice, strong, resilient woman.

After a while, Claire stood up. "I'd better get back to Trevor's room and check on him. It was nice meeting you, Ruben."

"It was nice meeting you too, Mrs. Wayne."

Claire smiled at him once more before getting up and exiting the room.

Tori gave him a smile and said, "I'll come by again soon, okay?"

He nodded and she followed Mrs. Wayne out.

Once they were gone, and he was alone again, he sighed and leaned back in his bed. It was nice meeting Claire Wayne, but now that he was alone, he felt an emptiness and loneliness that had plagued him ever since he came to this hospital.

Damn, but he wanted to get out of here soon.