Phyllis smiled bravely. “That’s one less thing to worry about.” She held the door open for Tora and Harlan as they entered the house.

Just then, the ranger’s cell phone began to buzz, where it sat on the hall table by the front door. With the ranger on the house phone in the kitchen, Phyllis rushed over and picked it up.

“Hello?” she said, unable to mask the panic in her voice.

“Hi, Phyllis,” the familiar voice replied.

“Sergeant Martin. Garrett’s been trying to get hold of you.”

“Well, if he’d get off the phone for a minute, maybe he’d receive a call or two.”

“We heard the shot,” she said. “And Argus should have been home by now—”

“It’s him,” the sergeant said, without hesitation.

The words hit Phyllis like a hard punch to the stomach.

“What?”

“Argus,” said the sergeant. “He was the one who was shot.”

Phyllis began waving frantically at the ranger to hang up the phone and listen to the sergeant on the cell.

“How bad is he hurt?”

The ranger joined her, leaning in close so he could hear the sergeant.

“He was shot in the leg at fairly close range. Lucky for him, Ernie Ilson had been drinking and his aim was off. If he’d been sober…”

“So you’ve seen Argus?” asked the ranger.

“Of course I’ve seen him,” answered the sergeant.

“The wound, I mean. You’ve seen it?”

“Yeah, but why’s that important?”

The ranger already knew Argus would be all right. What he wanted to know was whether or not Argus had tried to speed up the healing process by changing his form from human to wolf and back again. “I just want to know…if he’ll be all right.”

“Well,” began the sergeant. “His leg was bleeding pretty bad at first, but the doctor patched him up and said he should be fine, except he won’t be doing any more running for a while.”

“That’s good news,” said the ranger.

“Very good news,” echoed Phyllis, on the verge of tears.

After a pause, Garrett said, “I’m wondering if you could do me a favor.”

“Anything, of course.”

“I want you to stay with Argus until I get there.”

“Will do.”

“And don’t let him out of your sight for a minute.”

“Okay, I get it,” the sergeant said, a little annoyed. It was, after all, a pretty straightforward request.

“Thank you, we’ll be right there.”

* * *

They were at the hospital a little over a half hour later. It was well after dark, and an icy chill seemed to hang in the air, biting through their clothes as they got out of the car.

Noble ran across the parking lot, leaving the others behind. He wanted to speak to Argus alone for a few moments.