He snarled. Couldn’t help himself. “They won’t take you away. What else? He was angry. He has no right to be angry with you.”
Another hesitation. Then she lifted a hand toward the left side of her face. “Does this make you angry?”
“Yes!”
“It made him angry too.”
It took effort, but he took a step back. Montgomery was angry about the bruise? A reaction that matched his own. That was good. That was something he understood about the human.
“Lieutenant Montgomery is waiting for you,” Meg said.
“You called the store. To talk to me.”
“To tell you the deliverymen have seen the bruise and some of them might call the police to report it.”
“Humans do that?”
“Sometimes.”
And sometimes they didn’t. That was the unspoken truth he saw in her gray eyes. He studied her face and the weird hair that had a line of black near the scalp.
“Mr. Wolfgard?”
A creak of the floor above him.
“I’ll be back for Sam at lunchtime,” he told Meg.
Then he left, passing Sam as he went to the back door. The boy’s clothes weren’t buttoned right, but he’d let Meg deal with that, since he and Sam would have something else to deal with once he got the pup back home.
As he walked up to A Little Bite’s back door, he noticed how Officer Kowalski had parked the patrol car so that it was pointed out, and the police wouldn’t lose any time turning around when they wanted to leave.
Montgomery watched him, a lot of things going unspoken behind those dark eyes. Seemed like a lot of things weren’t being said today.
He led them into the shop. Tess’s hair was still green, but now there were brown streaks showing, which meant she was getting calmer. She gave them all coffee and a plate of pastries that, even warmed up, tasted a little stale. Not that any of them commented on that. You either ate what Tess offered or you didn’t.
He and Montgomery circled each other using polite words as they realized neither had much to tell the other. But listening to what was said under the spoken words, Simon understood that Montgomery had more interest in keeping the peace than he did. His only interest was in keeping his own kind safe by whatever means necessary.
And as they talked and circled, he understood that his own kind now included Meg.
Asia pulled her car into the delivery area in front of the Liaison’s Office.
“Thanks for giving me a ride,” Darrell Adams said. He fiddled with the door handle but didn’t open the door. Instead he glanced toward the wall lined with Crows
.
Freaking spies.
She knew Darrell wanted to give her a kiss, knew he wanted to do a lot more. She’d had dinner with him a couple of times now. Didn’t take much to prime his conversational pump, but despite working at the consulate, his well of information was pretty shallow. Okay, he
was
a human working for the
terra indigene
,
so it figured they wouldn’t tell him anything important
.
Still, he was a different way into the Courtyard. Problem was, if she was going to keep him interested and sufficiently agreeable to granting her a tiny little favor, she was going to have to give him sex. Not that she minded using sex as part of a job, but the men she’d slept with up until now had social clout. On the other hand, she needed to send her backers some fresh information soon.
But those black-feathered freaks were watching, and giving someone a ride on a snowy day wasn’t as interesting to report as giving someone sloppy tongue.
“Guess I’d better go in,” Darrell said.
“Guess so,” Asia agreed. “You take care.” She didn’t offer to give him a ride home. She wasn’t about to let him into her apartment, and she didn’t want an awkward scene if he invited her up to his. Besides, as soon as he went inside, she wanted to pop in to see Meg—and hopefully get another look at that Wolf pup.
Before Darrell reached the consulate door and she shut off her car, a patrol car came out of the access way between the buildings, and she was right in its path. Her car wasn’t unusual, but it was parked in the lot often enough that someone might notice it.
So she gave the men in the car a brilliant smile and a cheery wave before she headed for the exit. And she didn’t breathe easy until she was driving away and was certain the police had turned in the other direction.
When Simon picked up Sam, his nephew was back to being furry. Blair had brought Meg’s BOW to the office. Since she planned to shop in the Market Square during her midday break, he took the BOW and drove back to the Green Complex.
Parking in a visitor’s space, he carried Sam across the road, then let the pup lift a leg before they went inside.
He closed the apartment door and locked it.
Being locked in fear for two years made a difference in a lot of ways, but for both their sakes, he couldn’t let it make a difference in the most important ways. Not when Elliot had called to tell him Lakeside’s mayor was still whining about the police’s inability to apprehend the dangerous thief who looked like Meg Corbyn. Not when someone had brought an unknown sickness to the western part of Thaisia. Not when it was so vital to their own well-being that he remain the leader of this Courtyard.
Which meant nothing and no one could be allowed to challenge or undermine his leadership in any way.
It was the cocky way Sam held his head, so sure he was going to get anything he wanted from now on, that snapped Simon’s temper. He was on the pup in a heartbeat, pushing him to the floor before rolling him on his back. One hand pressed down on Sam’s chest while he leaned over the youngster, his fangs growing, his eyes fixed on the vulnerable throat.
Simon snarled. Not again,
Sam. If you won’t obey because you’re living here, you’ll have to live with Elliot in the Wolfgard Complex. If you still can’t obey, you’ll be sent to live with a pack beyond the Courtyard.>
Sam shifted to boy. Simon pressed harder on the chest and brought his fangs closer to that vulnerable throat.
“Why can’t I stay with Meg?” Sam whined. “I wanna stay with Meg.”
“You are a Wolf. Meg is human. There are many things you need to learn that she can’t teach you.
And you don’t get to choose.
” Simon waited, but the boy offered no defiance. “You need to be with other Wolves again. You need to learn again.”
Tears filled Sam’s eyes. “Meg?”
“Meg will be the reward for good behavior.” He was pretty sure that would put him in the wrong with Meg, but he wasn’t going to worry about that. Meg, too, needed to learn. She hadn’t seen an adult Wolf
.
He would have to change that.
As soon as Simon released Sam, the boy shifted to pup and darted into his cage.
That, too, was going to change.
But as he heated up food for both of them, he wondered if he was trying to take away Sam’s adventure buddy because he truly believed it was best for Sam and Meg, or if he was doing it because he felt excluded.
CHAPTER 15
O
n Watersday, Simon put the cash drawer in the register and opened HGR for business. He wasn’t in the best frame of mind to deal with customers, but paperwork wouldn’t have distracted him from thinking about what he was going to do when Meg closed the office for the midday break.
Yesterday had been sunny, and the city plows had cleared Lakeside’s main roads as well as the residential streets. So today all the humans were out and about, as if Windsday night’s storm had closed them in for a week instead of slowing them down for forty-eight hours at the most. The Courtyard’s customer parking lot was full. There were humans working out at Run & Thump, including the Ruthie, who was Officer Kowalski’s mate. Most of the tables at A Little Bite were full, and now that HGR was open, he anticipated many of those customers would be coming through the connecting door to shop or browse or just have a reason to be somewhere that wasn’t home for a little while longer.
Cabin fever, humans called it. A phrase that made no sense to the
terra indigene.
When there was a storm, you slept or stayed quiet somewhere that was dry and warm. When the storm stopped, you went out to hunt and play. There was no need to be frantic about it. Wanting to do one and then the other was wisdom Namid imparted to all her creatures.
Most of her creatures anyway.
Not that he cared. The humans would end up buying a book or one of the limited number of magazines the store carried, and then they would be gone, out in the shock of the cold, heading for the next place where they would flock for a while before eventually returning to their roosts.
John approached the checkout counter, a worried look on his normally cheerful face. “Morning, Simon. I saw Sam at the Wolfgard Complex. Is everything all right?”
“He’s playing with some of the other pups this morning.”
“As a pup?”
Ah, that was the reason for the worry. The Wolves had been told that Sam had finally shifted to human, but most hadn’t seen the boy, hadn’t had a chance to identify by sight or scent who Sam was in his other skin.
“Probably,” Simon replied, keeping his voice mild. “He was supposed to stay human for half the morning, but I think he wore out Elliot’s patience by the time they were done with breakfast, and he received permission to shift.” He couldn’t blame Elliot for making that choice. Letting Sam shift back to Wolf was easier than listening to the continual
Meg did it this way
and
Meg doesn’t do that
.
Meg was now the yardstick by which they were supposed to measure all things human. Of course, the boy had also campaigned for Meg to go with him to puppy school because there were things she
didn’t
know.
Simon didn’t think Meg really wanted to know how to eviscerate a rabbit. He could be wrong about that, but he just couldn’t picture Meg pouncing on a bunny and ripping it open with her teeth.
Maybe if he tried harder to picture it?
“Looks like there’s a gaggle of college girls next door,” John said. “Do you want me to add more stock to the quick-buy table up here or shift and do security?”
He caught the scent of two other Wolves before he saw them. When they reached the front of the store, Nathan was in human form, and Ferus approached as a Wolf
.
Simon watched Ferus take the corner spot that gave the Wolf on watch a clear view of the door and the whole front area of the store. Since he or Vlad were usually in the store when it was open, they typically didn’t have more than one Wolf as added security. It was Ferus’s turn to be the watch Wolf
,
so why was Nathan with him? “Is Blair expecting trouble?”
Nathan shook his head. “Henry said there should be a box of books here for our library. He wants to work with the wood this morning, and I wasn’t doing anything particular, so I told him I’d pick up the box and take it over to the Market Square.” He grinned at Simon. “Besides, tomorrow is Earthday, and I’m looking for some quiet. If I help with setting out the new books, I get first pick.”
“You could always buy one,” John said.
Nathan just laughed.
Since Nathan’s presence gave him an extra enforcer in this part of the Courtyard, Simon didn’t see any reason not to use the Wolf. “Before you pick up the box, step in at Run and Thump and the social center. Check the upstairs rooms; get a look at everyone who’s there today. The Ruthie was there when I looked in the window. She’s mated to one of the police. Keep an eye on her. We gave him—and her—a pass to shop in the Market Square. She knows the rules, but that doesn’t mean someone won’t try to slip in with her if she decides to shop before going home.”
“I’ll look in, let everyone see the Wolves are watching. Marie is keeping watch from above, but most humans don’t think about the Hawks when they try to do something stupid.”
Most humans didn’t think about the Crows either, or how effectively they could sound an alarm that could travel all over the Courtyard faster than most humans could cause trouble.
Nathan walked out the front door. John went into the back room to fetch some books. And Simon watched the first customers enter HGR from A Little Bite. He tried not to snarl when he noticed Asia Crane among those customers. He didn’t have the right temper to deal with Asia this morning and hoped she would buy a book and go away.
“Hello, handsome,” she said as she sidled up to the counter. “Haven’t seen you in a while. You been hiding from me?”
Another scent on her. Something familiar, but it was faint enough and not familiar enough to be instantly recognizable. He wanted to lean over the counter and get a better sniff, but she might mistake that for interest in her breasts, which was usually followed by an invitation to have sex. Since he wasn’t interested in breasts or sex, he chose a different way of finding out what he wanted to know.
“Looking for something in particular, Asia?” Simon asked.
She leaned on the counter, giving him a clear view down her sweater. “Did you have something in mind?”
She let out a very satisfying squeal and almost leaped high enough to land on the counter when Ferus shoved his muzzle between her legs.
“Freaking fuck!” Asia shouted. “What was that?”
Simon took his glasses out of their case and put them on. “Curiosity. At least he didn’t find anything he wanted to bite.” He bared his teeth in a smile and raised his voice. “Kind of crowded in here today. Lots of people looking to stock up on books in case we get another storm. Can my assistant help you find something?”
She looked like she wanted to tear his throat out, and at that moment, he had no trouble picturing
her
ripping a bunny apart.
“I don’t want anything from
you
.” She strode out of the store.
He hoped that was true. He hoped she’d have sex with Darrell and stop sniffing around him.
He stared at the gaggle of college girls who were standing nearby with their mouths open, watching the drama. “What about you? Are you interested in buying books?”
Many assurances that they were there to buy books. They fled to the shelves that would take them out of sight. He cocked his head, listening to John talk to the girls as he came back from the stockroom, catching the tone but not the words.
The girls had gotten what they came for. They would buy a few books as payment for being able to relate to their friends that they had seen,
for real
, a Wolf sniff a woman’s crotch
in public.
Sighing, he pulled the stack of book orders from beneath the counter. Before, he hadn’t had enough to occupy his mind. Now he had too much.
Despite her blatant efforts to flirt with him, Asia was rubbing against Darrell, a human who worked at the consulate. Elliot had voiced no complaints about the man, which meant Darrell was a good worker, but he wasn’t the kind of male Simon would have expected Asia to run after. He seemed too ordinary for a female who wanted to walk on the wild side.
Simon growled in frustration. He was missing something. He didn’t think like a human, so he was missing something.
Unfortunately, he didn’t trust any humans enough to ask one what it was about Asia’s interest in Darrell that wasn’t right.
Freaking Wolf! He used to let her flirt with him. Now he treated her like a rattlesnake he wanted to stomp under his boot. And now that she thought about it, Simon Wolfgard had started being mean to her around the same time the new Liaison showed up.
But he couldn’t be humping that no-looks feeb! From what Darrell had told her—in confidence, of course—Simon Wolfgard hadn’t entertained a female guest since his sister was killed. When Asia had learned that, his refusal to respond to her invitations made more sense. But the way he brought all the wrong kinds of attention to her now could turn into a professional fuckup. And, damn it, she didn’t want to settle for Darrell because Meg was somehow screwing up her chances with Simon.
As Asia reached her car, she glanced toward the street and saw a white van drive by. And she smiled.
Meg looked at the empty dog bed, then looked away and told herself to focus on sorting the mail. She’d already had to go through a couple of stacks twice when she realized she had put some of the mail for the Chambers in with the mail for the Crowgard. If that mail had gone to the Corvine Complex, the odds of the Sanguinati getting it back unopened . . . Well, there really weren’t odds sufficient for that.
Sam needed to socialize with his own kind, needed to spend time with the other Wolf pups. He’d already lost two years, and she had the impression that there weren’t many youngsters his age in the Courtyard, regardless of species. So he needed to be with Wolves, and she was happy to work alone without interruptions.
Sure she was.
She hadn’t known him a couple of weeks ago. How could she feel their—his!—absence when she’d known him for so short a time?
Pay attention,
she scolded herself.
The ponies will be here soon, and they’ll expect you to have mail for them to deliver.
She focused on the work and tried to ignore the silence even the chatter on the radio couldn’t hide.
Simon glanced at the wall clock behind the checkout counter and tried not to snap at Vlad for being late.
The Sanguinati studied the Wolf
.
“Something wrong?”
Simon shook his head. “Just have something that needs to be done.”
Vlad looked around. “Are we providing shelter, or are the humans actually buying books?”
“Little of both. Sales have been pretty good today. Heather campaigned for some books that I normally wouldn’t have in the store because it gives humans too many wrong ideas.”
Vlad looked amused. “You mean the kinds of stories where the Wolf doesn’t eat the female after he has sex with her?”
“After Asia and I snapped at each other this morning, and Ferus shoved his nose into her privates, we sold out all the Wolf-as-lover books. If you drink one of the customers pale, we should sell out the stack of vampire-as-lover stories.”
“Heather should know better,” Vlad muttered.
Simon slipped past Vlad and said nothing. There would be a spike in the number of girls who went out for a walk in the woods and were never heard from again. There always were when stories came out portraying the
terra indigene
as furry humans who just wanted to be loved.
Most of the
terra indigene
didn’t want to love humans; they wanted to eat them. Why did humans have such a hard time understanding that?
“Are you going to come back?” Vlad asked.
He hesitated. “Not sure.”
A lot was going to depend on how Meg responded to seeing a full-grown Wolf
.
Almost time to close for the midday break. According to the grapevine—which, in the Courtyard, meant Jenni Crowgard and her sisters—the new library books would be available today. Since tomorrow was Earthday, Meg expected to have a lot of time on her hands, so she wanted to pick up a couple of books. Maybe she would also stop at Music and Movies for a movie. And she needed to pick up a few things at the grocery store on her way home. Maybe she would call Hot Crust and have a pizza delivered to the office before she left for the day.
Lots of things she could do tomorrow. Lots of things.
Meg turned off the radio and heard the quiet sounds coming from the back room.
“Merri Lee? Is that you?” She had been stopping in at A Little Bite for the past few days, but Tess might have sent someone over with her meal. “Julia?”
What pushed open the door and came into the sorting room wasn’t a human or a Hawk
.
The Wolf was a terrible kind of beauty, and so much more than the pictures she’d been shown of the animal, who paled in comparison to what the
terra indigene
had made of that form. Big and muscled, the Wolf approaching her had a dark coat shot with lighter gray hairs. Meg wasn’t sure if it was the coat or something else about his nature that made him seem less substantial when he moved, made the eyes struggle to
see
him.
How many people had thought they were hallucinating right up until the moment they were attacked?
The amber eyes held a feral intelligence—and an annoyed frustration she recognized.
“Mr. Wolfgard?”
The Wolf cocked his head.
“Simon?”
He opened his mouth in a wolfish grin.
She recognized him. Points for her.
Then she looked at him again. Sam was going to grow up to look like that? “Wow.”
He wagged his tail and looked pleased. Then he began sniffing his way around the room, making happy growls when he poked around in the corner that used to have a nest of mice. She stepped aside when he got to her part of the room, and she had the impression the passing sniff he gave her would have been much more thorough if she’d stood still. So she took another step back and didn’t say anything when he poked his nose around Sam’s bed.