by Lia Violet
Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright
Wolf Healer
About Lia Violet
Other Stories by Lia Violet
Wolf Healer
By Lia Violet
Copyright
Copyright 2020 Lia Violet
No part of this book may be used or reproduced in any manner whatsoever without written permission from the author, except in the case of brief quotations used for review purposes.
This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places and incidents are solely the product of the author’s imagination and/ or are used fictitiously. Any resemblance to actual persons, living or dead, organizations, actual events or locales is entirely coincidental.
The stories in this book are intended for mature, adult audiences only. It contains sexually explicit scenes and graphic language. All characters in this work are 18 years of age or older and participate in consensual sex.
Wolf Healer
By Lia Violet
The sound of a page being ripped from a book is surprisingly loud in a library, especially when you aren’t supposed to do it.
Renee looked at the man who now held a torn page in his hands. He glared at her, and she returned to the volume of Navajo shifter history that she was scanning. When she looked up again a minute later, he was gone.
After a few minutes of scanning, she brought the books she’d been looking at back up to the desk at the front of the genealogy room, and switched them out for a few others on her list.
“I’m sorry, but this one is out,” the young woman behind the desk said. “But I’m sure he will return it soon. Maybe even before you bring these back.”
Renee sighed as she sat with her new titles. She had a feeling it was the one with the ripped page.
For her 25th birthday, her mother had purchased an Ancestry DNA kit. Her adoptive parents did not know everything about her history, just that her mother’s name was Dawn Tso, and she died in childbirth. Instead of pointing to ancestry in Mexico as she’d expected, it showed that she was part Navajo, and part shifter as well.
Renee looked at the chapter about Skinwalker legends in this volume. She was interested in the idea of shifters and how some were healers. She wondered what the pack she was going to visit was like.
Many of the genealogy records were still in print, hence her day in the library. She’d traveled two hours to use this collection at the Albuquerque/Bernalillo County Library Genealogy Center on the first day of her week off from her nursing job.
She was also supposed to look for a new job. She sighed again. She knew better than to date another nurse, but when they got engaged, she thought it would all work out.
“Excuse me?”
Renee had to lean back to look up at this man.
“Do you have the shifter death records from 1990-2000?” He smiled at her.
Renee blinked. She had a vision of herself kissing this man on his lovely, sculptured lips. “Um, no, sorry. I tried to get that one, but someone else had it.”
“Thank you.”
She watched him walk away, admiring his butt and muscular thighs in his black jeans.
He paused, and looked down at the book on the table, the one with the ripped page. He looked back at her before picking up the book and hurrying to the desk.
Renee couldn’t hear what he was saying, but he was angry. The woman shook her head, likely not giving him the information about who took the book.
He paused at her table again on his way out. “There’s a page ripped from the book, and of course it’s the page I need. I hope it’s not what you were looking for.”
“I’m not sure exactly what I’m looking for,” she said quietly as she watched him hurry from the room.
Renee couldn’t believe she was actually here, at the Navajo Shifter Welcome Center. It certainly was a beautiful area. She stretched, still stiff after her long drive.
She yawned. It didn’t help that she’d had odd nightmares all night, either, about hospitals and people dying. That was no real surprise. They’d all been working such difficult shifts with the pandemic.
Her last dream hadn’t been a nightmare, though. The cute dark haired guy she’d seen at the library was holding her hand as they stepped into a clearing filled with sunlight. She snorted. Next she’d be dreaming of running through a field and jumping into that guy’s arms. She should sign up for a dating service as soon as she changed jobs.
She was disappointed to find that the information she needed was gone from that book yesterday. What were the odds that three people wanted the same page of death records? She wasn’t going to let it stop her from finding out more about her heritage.
“Dad, not another one!” Mark said, nearly shouting. “I’m not a tour guide. I have things to take care of in the lab! I went on that fool’s errand for you to the genealogy library yesterday. We are getting very close to finding out what it is that — you don’t care.”
“I know you are trying to find a coronavirus cure for the human Navajo, and nothing is more important to me right now, son. But we may have a new member. She says she just found out that she was one of us from one of those DNA kits.”
Mark rolled his eyes. “We get at least a couple of these a month. Why is this one special? You think she’s fake?”
His father hesitated. “No, I sense she is the real deal. But I have a strange feeling about her. I don’t know why.”
“You’ve met her?”
“No, but I talked with her on the phone. That night I dreamed of your mother.”
Mark knew that when his father had dreams about his mother, it usually meant Something was happening in their lives. “You dreamt about her when the virus started, too, right?”
“Many times. It was very unusual. But then not again until now.”
Mark shook her hand, and pictured a wolf running beside him. There was something powerful about her.
“Renee,” he said. “What it is it you do for a living?”
Renee didn’t pull her hand away. “I’m a nurse.”
“Didn’t I see you in the genealogy library yesterday?” Mark realized he was still holding on to her. He didn’t want to let go. But he did, and he could swear he could feel the separation all throughout his body. “It’s very nice to meet you. I take it you’ve done research about us, then?”
“There isn’t much to find on the shifter section of the Navajo. I did need that damaged book.”
“Me too. I’m sorry they didn’t have what you needed.” Her smiling eyes and quick brain appealed to him. He hadn’t dated in a long time, tired of the people in their group matching him with Marciela, the young doctor who worked in the lab with him. They enjoyed each other’s company, but a few kisses told him and her that there was no spark. They remained good friends.
But she wouldn’t be dating him either, this Renee with her short, dark hair, despite the fact that he was already feeling sparks with her. He looked at her lovely pink lips. “I can see the Navajo in you.”
“Can you? Because my siblings — my adopted siblings — are Mexican and Irish, instead of Mexican and Navajo, like me. They look like me, but they all have curly dark hair though.”
“Have you toured the main Navajo center already? I know they are not taking as many visitors, but they are letting people make appointments for research or classes.”
To his surprise, she shook her head. “I wanted to come right to the shifter area, since I could find so little about you.”
“We live separately for a number of reasons. Our medicine is a bit different, and there is still some fear about wolves and skinwalkers from the old legends, so a separate place was set up for shifters. We actually have members from several different tribes, though being in this a
rea, there are quite a few Navajo among us. Let me show you around. Where are you staying?”
She mentioned a hotel nearby. He knew it was clean and comfortable, and visitors usually stayed there.
“It is very nice there, but maybe you’d like to join us on the grounds. We have a few visitor’s cabins nearby.”
The guard at the visitor’s center started, dropping his phone onto his desk.
Mark cast him a look, and the man said nothing, just looking at Renee.
“That’s very nice, but I couldn’t just spring myself on all of you. I was hoping to attend one of the festivals.” She bit her lip, her gaze dropping to his mouth.
Mark realized with a rush of excitement that she was feeling something too. “We’ve scaled back quite a bit because of the flu. The festival is for the full moon, and is nothing like some of the Nine Days festivals we have. But you are welcome to come. No one will expect anything from you like shifting and running with us.”
Now she tripped, grabbing his arm for support.
He felt disoriented again from touching her, and helped her right herself. She stepped away.
“Do I need my mask?” she asked.
“The shifter branch has been spared the coronavirus, and many of our people are working to help the others. We’ve lost so many.” He closed his eyes for a moment, and she put her hand on his arm again. “You may want to wear the mask when we are indoors, as a precaution of course.”
“I’m so sorry. I did read all about that.”
They stepped into the morning sunlight. He blinked. He definitely had been spending too much time in his lab.
Renee paused when they stepped outside and took in the lovely morning view of the main buildings. “I – I’ve dreamed about this place, of this moment.” She looked at him, and he could swear he saw a blush.
“What happened in your dream?” He could feel that she didn’t want to say.
“I can’t remember all of it.” She reached for her sunglasses and put them on.
He felt the lie, but wondered more about the reason. “Was I in your dream?”
Her lips clamped in a line. “I think so, yes.”
“I love it when women dream about me,” he said, starting to move towards the lab.
“I’m sure,” she said, laughing as they walked on.
“Because of the virus, I can’t take you further back into the labs but this is our main research building.” Because of the virus, he shouldn’t have offered her the use of one of the cabins, but he had a sense about her. “But I’d like to get a sample of your DNA and blood while you are here, so I can tell you more about your family line. Is there anyone in your family you can learn more about your history from?”
“No, my parents were set up to foster me, and they were told only that she died in childbirth. I’d be happy for anything you can tell me,” she said, leaning closer to the plaque on the wall about his genetics award.
“Have you always worked here, Dr. Benally?”
“Please, call me Mark,” he said, though it had been a long time since anyone used his title. It felt good. He saw some of his staff bowing near the door to the residence. Oh no.
“You’re about to meet my father. He is Alpha of the shifter group.”
“You must be Renee.” The large man came forward. He seemed to be studying her. He held her hand in both of his, and Mark realized he was trying to get information about her.
“Ohh, this is wonderful,” Renee said, nearly running into the room after his father opened the secret panel.
Mark still couldn’t believe his father was showing her their sacred texts. Was it because she had been doing research at the genealogy collection?
“What are you doing?” he said quietly to his father.
His father shook his head. “I’m not exactly sure. But I think she needs to be here.”
Renee stopped in front of a framed set of drawings. She leaned closer to the drawing of Dawning Sun, their last healer.
“You are interested in Dawning Sun, Renee?” his father said. “She was one of our recent Healers.”
Renee blinked and looked at them, as if coming back from far away. “I think I’ve dreamed about her, too.”
“We have some of her jewelry in a case in the historical center in town,” Raphael said. “Mark can take you there.”
“I don’t want to be a bother. If you tell me about the place, I can make my own way there.”
She kept looking back at the drawing.
“Father, what’s going on? I’ll have one of my staff take her.”
“Don’t leave her.”
Mark nodded. There was something going on here for sure.
Renee felt as if the drawing was three-dimensional. It stood out from the others nearby. “You said she was a recent Healer. What happened to her?”
Mark wasn’t sure how to explain this. “She died in childbirth. Her son still lives with us.”
“There is more to the story of Dawning Sun, isn’t there, Father?” Mark asked when they were back in his office. Renee went to the washroom.
“I don’t know. It always felt like Tomas didn’t tell us everything. But no one wanted to question a man who was struggling as a single parent with a son. He talked about taking Craig back to Mexico where his family lived, but then he didn’t.” His father shook his head. “It’s why I wanted you to get information. But let’s take Renee to see Dawning Sun’s jewelry.”
“Right now? If you’re thinking she is connected, what will seeing the jewelry tell us? We can just have her give some blood and DNA at the lab.”
“I’m not sure,” his father said. “I just feel like we should take you there. Now.”
Mark did not ignore his father’s instincts. He’d seen too many times when they turned out to be right. “I’ll drive us.” Mark opened the door that led to his father’s quarters and the parking lot for the residents.
Renee was fascinated with the town’s local history center.
“And then there was a plague. We lost over half of the people in town, and three-fourths of those on the main Navajo reservation, even more than we’ve lost with the COVID, which is hard to imagine.” A young man who volunteered in the center was so happy to see visitors that he stayed right with them, chattering along through his mask.
Mark gritted his teeth. “Mr. Nez, why don’t you get the keys for the jewelry.”
That stopped him mid-sentence.
“I can only do that for… ah, I see.” Kevin glanced at Mark’s father. “Of course, Alpha.”
“Thank you so much, Mr. Nez, for your help. Renee is researching us, and I’d love it if she could have closer access to the jewelry.” His father led them to the cases holding the elaborate silver, turquoise and obsidian necklace and arm cuffs.
Mark had a vision of Renee wearing the jewelry and nothing else for him, in his bedroom. Where did that come from? His head started to ache as it did when he got visions, something that hadn’t happened in a long while, not since he saw his sister in a car accident as it was happening. She turned out to have only minor injuries, but still. It had clearly been too long since he’d dated.
The young man opened the case.
Renee realized she was holding her breath, and let it out slowly as he propped up the lid to the case. She leaned in, admiring the multi-chain necklace with the strange black stones in the middle and a pendant that looked like an upside-down U. It was tarnished, but she could see the skill in the beautiful pieces.
“That’s a Naja pendant,” the young man said. “Popular in ceremonial jewelry.”
“Put it on.”
They all froze at the Alpha’s words.
“I wouldn’t want to hurt it in any way…” But Renee’s hand was moving towards the cuffs as if it was not attached to her brain.
The metal felt warm to her. She went to put it on her wrist.
“No, it goes around your bicep.” Mark moved it up to her arm, brushing the sleeve of her short-sleeved sweater out
of the way.
Renee shivered, though whether it was from the band on her arm or Mark’s fingers, she wasn’t sure. She didn’t move as he placed the other one on her other arm.
His father was putting the necklace around her. It was so large it didn’t need to be fastened; it just slipped over her head. When all of the pieces were on, she heard the men inhale sharply.
“It — it looks different,” the young man said.
“Yes,” Mark’s father said with satisfaction. “The tarnish is gone.”
“What?” Renee felt odd, as if her body was humming. “Why would that happen?’
Mark, sensing her fear, said, “The oxidation may be changing after it’s been in the case a while, or it could be you.”
“What do you mean?” Renee closed her eyes as multiple images seared across her brain. She reached out and gripped the young tour guide’s bicep.
His eyes opened wide, and the two looked at each other a long moment.
Mark opened his mouth to speak, but his father stopped him with a shake of his head.
After a moment, Renee let go, realizing her arm was shaking. “I’m sorry. I don’t know why I grabbed you. I felt off balance or something.”
“Why don’t you sit down?” Mark gently removed the cuffs then turned her around so he could lift the heavy necklaces over her head. The scent of her perfume from the back of her neck made him feel a bit shaky. He really wanted to kiss her nape, where the ends of her glossy hair tickled, but he forced himself to put the jewelry back.
As the young man locked the case, he looked back at them. “I had a bad headache before you came in. I get them periodically. But after she touched me, it’s gone.”
Mark thought maybe it was gone because they’d all had a blessed moment of silence from the man’s chatter, but didn’t say anything.
Renee fell asleep between him and his father on the way back, her head resting on the Alpha’s shoulder.