While I scanned, so did Clay. His eyes missed nothing, and he constantly scented the air.

The sun cleared the surrounding rooftops, and its bright rays lit the sidewalk. My hurried walk degraded to a plodding step somewhere along the way, and it took us much longer to get home. No further sign of that weird light reappeared during the rest of the walk.

Because I watched my shuffling feet as we retraced our steps to the back door, I didn’t see Rachel standing on the porch.

“There you are!”

My hand flew to Clay’s thick mane at the same time my heart skipped a beat. The scare distracted me from my second sight, and it snapped closed at my loss of focus. I struggled to reopen it but a sudden pain in my head stopped my attempt. I’d done too much.

“Nice morning for a walk,” she said, moving toward us to pet Clay.

I unclenched my fingers from his fur, not wanting her to notice my death grip. She fingered one of his ears. He shook off her touch. She laughed and bent to kiss the top of his head. He endured the kiss but rolled his eyes at me. Some of my tension melted at their antics. He appeared more relaxed, too.

“I made a call this morning and can get him into the vet for his shots,” she said as she tugged the leash from my loose grasp. “I figured after the way he acted last night, we should have him current...just in case.”

It took a moment for what she said to click. My stunned gaze dropped to Clay. He calmly met my eyes, not giving any indication what he thought of her announcement. I looked back at Rachel. I didn’t know what to say.

“You okay, Gabby?” She looked at me with concern.

No. Not okay. What had started as a nice thank you breakfast for Clay had turned into a dog fight. And now she wanted to take him to the vet? He didn’t deserve that. Besides, after the attack, would he be willing to leave me? Wait. Could a vet figure out he wasn’t really a dog? I tried to contain my panic.

“Uh, I didn’t budget for it,” I blurted, hoping at the very least to put the visit off until I talked to Sam about the risks.

“Don’t worry.” Rachel untangled his leash. “I can cover it for now, and you can pay me back.”

“Let’s all go.” The words popped out of my mouth before I thought about it. What good would that do? Did I think I could block the vet from touching Clay? Rachel would definitely know something was up, then.

“No offense, Gabby, but you look like hell. I think you’d be better off with some quiet time. Don’t worry; we’ll be fine.” She tried to pull Clay toward the garage again, but he didn’t move with her.

Instead, he nudged me toward the back door, almost knocking me off balance. Rachel tugged on his leash and scolded him, but he ignored her and stayed focused on me.

“Would you mind giving him your standard pep talk? I don’t know why he only listens to you. I’m the one that feeds him treats.” She handed the leash over to me. I rubbed my forehead still unsure what he wanted me to do.

“Is it safe for you?” I breathed in his ear as I bent to give him a hug.

He snorted, which I took as a yes. Did he want me to stay here, then?

“I’m so sorry about this. I’ll need to call Sam and let him know what happened.”

I straightened, looked him in the eye, and smoothed the fur on his head. “It’s your choice.” I dropped the leash and stepped back.

He gave me a long look as Rachel moved to open the car door. He sighed then followed her.

“The control you have over him is weird but cool,” Rachel said as he jumped into the back seat.

Control? I didn’t have any control over him. He only listened when I threatened to kick him out of my room or leave him behind.

“Yeah. Just don’t be gone too long. He’ll get upset.”

“The vet’s just a few minutes from here. We should be back soon.” She climbed behind the wheel, closed the door, and rolled down her window.

I couldn’t believe we were actually doing this. What did a vet usually check for? Shots...Age...Neuter... Crap, crap, crap! The engine roared to life.

“Just don’t have him neutered! Or anything that involves blood or blood work. It’s expensive, and I promised him he’d keep his jewels.” Oh how I wished those words back when Clay started to make an odd coughing noise. I could only assume it was his version of laughter. I really needed to start filtering what I said.

Rachel swiveled to check on Clay. “Maybe we should have the vet check his lungs.”

“He’s fine. Think cost,” I said from the deck as she backed out of the driveway.

I went inside and immediately called Sam to let him know about the attack. He assured me of my safety, but I wasn’t worried about that. Paul and Henry had long ago educated me in regard to challenge etiquette. A challenge questioned Clay’s right to me. If present, I needed to stay near him to show my support of his right. Fleeing rejected him. Though rejecting him sounded tempting on the surface, doing so would put me back into the eligible pool. I didn’t want that.

Sam said he would let Elder Joshua know about the attack, too. He also felt certain the challenger wouldn’t try again anytime soon given the extent of his injuries.

A werewolf’s tough hide deflected many things that could damage human skin. What it couldn’t deflect, it reduced in severity. A knife could still cut a werewolf, for example, but not lethally like it could me. On top of the nearly impenetrable skin, nature also threw in a phenomenally fast healing process. A shallow cut would knit together in less than an hour, with no scar visible in less than a day. However, injuries from another werewolf tended to take twice as long to heal. Still faster than a human’s, however.

Talking to Sam helped settle my nerves. Though the werewolf’s odd light still bothered me, I couldn’t bring it up. I’d never shared the details of my ability with Sam. However, I did almost bring up the vet visit. Only Clay’s willingness to go had me keeping it to myself at the last minute. I felt guilty enough and didn’t need to add a lecture to it.

Before I hung up, Sam reminded me that challenges weren’t unheard of and that I had no reason to worry, yet. I agreed, and neither of us said what I already knew. Challenges occurred when more than one werewolf became interested in the same potential Mate and the potential in question didn’t have a preference. So, the challenge was my fault.

An hour and a half later, I had showered, scrubbed the kitchen floor, and vacuumed every room in the house in an effort to keep myself awake.

At the sound of Rachel’s car in the driveway, I ran through the house and out the back door. Rachel parked the car in front of the garage and smiled at me. I leaned over the porch railing in an effort to see into the back of the car. I spotted Clay lying on the back seat with his head down. He didn’t look up at me.

Rachel opened her door.

“How’d it go?” I said, trying to sound indifferent.

“He took it like a champ.” She opened the back car door for Clay. He lifted his head and stood with obvious effort. Then he hopped down with care and pathetically climbed the deck steps to my side. I stared at him for a moment.

“What’d they do to him?”

Rachel shook her head and closed the door.

“He wasn’t acting like this when we left. I swear. I think he’s hamming it up for you.” She patted Clay’s head with a laugh.

He accepted the pat with a defeated grunt, stopped hobbling, and started to walk with his usual gait. I heaved a relieved sigh. He looked up at me and winked. I quickly checked to see if Rachel had noticed, but she had already walked away from us and into the house. I shook my head at him before we followed Rachel in.

“So what shots did he get?” I poured some orange juice from the refrigerator and took a drink to keep myself busy. Clay’s eyes never left me.

“Just rabies. The vet had a hard time determining his age by his teeth, but thought him to be in his prime.”