Kennel Club

by Geonn Cannon

  “Where’s Gwen?” she asked.

  “Upstairs,” Mia said. “Milo convinced her to lie down. Probably the only sleep she’s gotten since Ariadne was arrested.”

  Dale kicked herself for not considering that. She was glad someone was there to take care of Gwen. She was still a little surprised it was Milo. “So... they’re still...”

  Hannah grinned. “Surprised you, huh? When Gwen came to London post-manoth, we thought she was going to hook up with Anton, our pack leader?” Dale nodded; she remembered the older wolf well, even though he hadn’t played a part in their war. “But I guess the heart wants what the heart wants. Milo’s actually been monogamous with her. I was more shocked by that than anything else.”

  “I’m not,” Owen said. “Gwen’s hot.”

  Benji held up his hands. “Okay, let’s give Milo and Gwen the privacy we’d all appreciate from them if our roles were reversed, hmm? I’m sure Dale is hungry, and Tarun has made a delicious breakfast for us all. Let’s eat and talk about how we can help Ariadne.”

  The cluster broke apart, but Hannah slipped an arm around Dale’s waist to walk with her into the kitchen. Tarun had cooked enough food for a platoon. Bacon was piled on one plate, with a mountain of scrambled eggs beside it. Another plate had sausage patties and hash browns. And, “out of deference for our Yank hosts,” he had brewed a pot of coffee. They each made a plate and then crowded around the table. Mia chose to stand against the wall behind Hannah’s chair and steal food from her plate rather than making her own.

  Owen said, “I think our top priority should be figuring out what to do about the wolf. There must be other canidae in prison, and none of them have ever been caught transforming.”

  Dale said, “A few years ago, Ari helped arrest some canidae thieves. They’ve been in jail ever since, but neither of us ever thought about how they were keeping the wolf a secret. Unfortunately, I don’t think they’ll be very willing to offer us advice.”

  “So we know there’s an answer,” Mia said. “We just have to figure out what it is.”

  “Have you ever arrested a canidae?” Dale asked.

  Mia nodded. “A couple of times. The subject of what happens during imprisonment never came up. You have to understand, Dale, we just don’t think about stopping the transformation. It’s not just that we don’t want to - although we don’t - but it doesn’t occur to us as an option. The wolf is part of who we are. Female canidae only have to think about it when we become pregnant. Our bodies know it has to protect the baby, so the wolf just... goes to sleep.”

  Dale said, “So the wolf will protect you if necessary?”

  Tarun shook his head. “You’re still thinking about it wrong. My wolf doesn’t protect me. It is me. It’s protecting itself. Or rather, a female wolf is protecting itself during a pregnancy.”

  Paige said, “Men don’t have to worry about it. Just one more way biology is anti-woman.”

  Owen said, “I suppose it’s too late to get Ari pregnant.” Paige glared at him. “What? It’s not an unreasonable solution.”

  Paige rolled her eyes. “We’ll call that Plan Z.”

  “The point is,” Benji said, once again stepping in to get everyone back on track, “pregnancy is the only time a canidae naturally pauses its transitions.

  “That’s not true,” Dale said.

  Everyone looked at her. Benji looked sheepish. “To be fair, Dale, I think we know a little more about it than you do.”

  “You just said you don’t think about it. I’ve been thinking about it, and there is a way to stop the transformations. You said it stops during pregnancy to protect the baby.”

  Hannah nodded.

  “Would it also stop if the body changed in another way? I know that transforming into the wolf affects your muscles and skeletal framework. What if...” She closed her eyes and forced herself to ask the question. “What if Ari had a broken bone? An arm or a leg or some ribs. Would the wolf... I mean, would she stop transforming long enough for the bone to set?”

  Paige looked at Owen. “You broke your leg when you were a kid, right? How long did it take to heal?”

  “I don’t remember,” he said. “A couple of weeks. But she’s right, I never transformed at all during that time. It was probably longer than a month and I just didn’t notice.”

  Tarun had taken out his phone. “This says a broken leg takes about ten weeks to set, at a minimum.”

  Dale said, “Great. So to put off her transformations, Ari just has to get the shit beat out of her.”

  “Maybe there’s another option.” Hannah reached out to put her hand over Dale’s.

  “One we can come up with before it becomes an issue?” Dale asked. “One that we can implement while she’s already in prison? It’s making me fucking sick to think about it, but it’s the only way we can be sure she won’t transform in her sleep.” She looked at her food, which she suddenly had no stomach for. She pushed the plate away. “I’m sorry, Tarun.”

  He shook his head. “It’s fine. I probably couldn’t eat under the same circumstances.”

  Dale looked at Mia, the only cop at the table. “Realistically, what are we looking at?”

  Mia looked toward the stairs, obviously hoping either Gwen or Milo would come save her. “I spent the flight reading all the news I could find about the murder. So far it seems like everything they have is circumstantial, but that could change. I read somewhere that the police have a theory that Ari was having an affair with the victim.”

  “Bullshit,” Dale said immediately. “But it’s hard to deny their accusations when I can’t explain where Ari goes three or four times a week when she should be in bed with me. On the outside it does look like she’s hiding something because she is. But she wasn’t having an affair.”

  “Are you positive about that?” Owen said, glancing toward Paige. “Cause sometimes, you can be absolutely sure about who your partner is, and realize it’s total bullshit.”

  Paige winced.

  “I’m sure,” Dale said, ignoring whatever drama they had going on.

  Mia shrugged. “Okay. So they basically have a bunch of toothpicks. But if you put the toothpicks in the right place, you can still build a pretty solid wall. This Cecily Parrish woman sounds like she’s a pretty good architect. I read about some of her other cases. She’s put people away for life with a lot flimsier cases.”

  “Life,” Dale whispered.

  “You asked for realistic.”

  “I did. And I appreciate you being honest with me.” She stood up. “Thank you all for coming. I can’t tell you what it means to me. Ari... she’s going to be blown away by this. She always tells me she doesn’t want a pack, she never needed a pack, but I know sometimes she wonders what it would be like to have a group of badass wolves watching her back. She’s going to be so happy to know you’re all here.” She ducked her chin to wipe at her eyes. “I need some fresh air so, um, I’m going for a walk.”

  She hurried from the room and went out through Gwen’s back door. Before she could get to the gate, she heard someone come out behind her.

  “Dale, wait.”

  “I’m fine, Mia. I just need to be alone right now.”

  Mia said, “I get that, but there’s something I want to say.”

  Dale turned around to face her. Mia pressed her hands together and looked across the back yard, over the fence, at the mountains in the distance. She took a moment to figure out what she wanted to say before she looked Dale in the eye again.

  “The last time I was in Seattle, I saw my world shattering. I saw the woman I love more than my own life get hit by a bullet, and I saw her fall in the street surrounded by hunters. I knew there was nothing I could do to save her.” Her eyes filled with tears. “And then I saw a human... a-a woman who until that point I had considered annoying at best... I saw her jump out into the line of fire to save my Hannah. I know we both thanked you before we left, but we’ve never stopped thinking about you. About how we could pay you back.�
��

  “There’s nothing--”

  “Shush,” Mia said. “Listen to me. I look kind of like Ariadne. We have similar builds, our hair looks the same. If I confess...”

  “No, I can’t...”

  “I told you to shush,” Mia said. “If I confess to the crime, they’ll have to let Ari go. I’ll go to prison in her place.”

  Dale was shaking her head, lips pressed together.

  “It’s no different than what you did for me. For us.”

  “Your career as a cop would be over.”

  Mia nodded slowly. “Probably. I’d be willing to do that for her.”

  “No,” Dale said. “Ari would never let you make that sacrifice. But thank you.” She opened her arms and Mia stepped into the hug. “I’d do it again, you know. In a heartbeat.”

  “I know,” Mia said. “And I meant what I said. I can never repay you.”

  “You’ll never have to.” She kissed Mia on the cheek. “I’ll see you in a little bit, okay?”

  Mia nodded. “We’ll be here when you get back.”

  Dale squeezed her hand, then turned and left the backyard. She didn’t know Gwen’s neighborhood well enough to have a route in mind, but she already felt better being out of the house. She and Ari had a routine of running and, even though she wasn’t dressed for it, she started jogging when she reached the sidewalk. She thought maybe there was a jogging path near Lake Washington. If she could get that far she could just follow the shoreline without actually setting a destination. She would keep running until Ari was able to join her.

  Chapter Nine

  After breakfast, Ari learned she had been assigned to work in the library. Segura was assigned to assemble office furniture so they said their goodbyes when Vogel came to escort Ari to where she needed to be. She was surprised at how reluctant she was to leave Segura’s side. Her cellmate had been like a security blanket and now she felt adrift again. She glanced back and saw Segura was watching her. The other woman smiled, winked, and held her fist up to show her support. Ari grinned and winked before facing forward again.

  “So, the library,” Ari said.

  “You have a problem with books?”

  “No. It just seems like there would be a long line of people trying to get a job like that. No hard labor, just shelving books all day.”

  Vogel said, “It’s harder than you think. It just happens to be one of the jobs where there’s an opening, and you got lucky. One of the women you came in with yesterday got assigned to the cafeteria. She found out when we woke her up at three o’clock this morning so she could begin her shift. You should thank her for your breakfast when you see her again.”

  Ari said, “Was her three a.m. wake-up call as entertaining as mine was?”

  Vogel spun to face her, apparently on the verge of violence. Ari tensed as Vogel scanned the corridor to make sure they were alone before locking eyes with her.

  “Would you like to make a comment on what you think you saw, Inmate?”

  “Not at all,” Ari said. “Segura told me it was consensual, so that’s all I need to know. I was just, you know, being a smartass. It’s just something I do from time to time.”

  The tension visibly faded from Vogel’s face. She swept the hallway again with her eyes, then gestured for Ari to follow her into the library. A black woman who looked to be in her sixties was behind the circulation desk. She had a pair of eyeglasses hooked on the top button of her uniform and she brought them up to her eyes when she saw Ari and Vogel approaching.

  “Who you got here, Melissa?” the woman asked with a thick Haitian accent.

  “Celestin, you know the rules. You can’t call me by my first name.”

  The librarian smacked her lips and focused on Ariadne. “Everyone in here so formal. They think only using last names makes it like we’re not really people.”

  “No,” Vogel said, “it’s because I’m a CO and you’re a prisoner. I don’t want to write you up for something so silly, so remember it next time. Okay?”

  “I’m not a child. I’m Gladys Celestin. Who are you?”

  “Ariadne Willow.”

  Gladys raised an eyebrow. “Ariadne. Good name. I like it. Ancient. Goes all the way back to the Greeks. Are you Greek?”

  “Not that I know of.”

  “That’s okay. I’m not prejudiced, just curious.” She held out her hand and flapped her fingers at Vogel. “Okay, you can go now, I’ll show her everything.”

  Vogel sighed, exasperated. “You don’t get to dismiss me, Celestin.”

  “Oh, you’re young enough to be my grandchild, and you think you give me orders? I’d like to see you try. Go. Leave me to my books.”

  Vogel turned to leave but paused long enough to whisper, “Every single day...” to Ari before she walked out of the library. “Keep her out of trouble, Celestin.”

  Gladys made a quiet cheeping noise under her breath and shook her head. She went back to the books she’d been stacking when Ari and Vogel arrived.

  “So, what have they locked you up in here for?”

  Ari said, “I was framed for murder.”

  Gladys pursed her lips and made a bird-like sound. “Someone gets murdered, that means they’re important. Someone gets framed for murder, that means they’re important and scary. Means whoever did the killing was too afraid to hurt you directly.”

  “I like that philosophy,” Ari said, “but in this case it’s not quite accurate. The person who did it wants me alive so she can use me. Not sure how, but that’s her goal. I’m not worth anything to her dead. How about you? Sorry, I don’t really know the etiquette. Is it okay for me to ask why you’re in prison or is that frowned upon?”

  “Oh, I don’t care,” Gladys said. “I actually did kill someone.”

  Ari didn’t know how to respond to that. “Oh.”

  Gladys smiled. “I grew up watching my mama fix people who came to her for help. Learned her tricks, started following her example when I grew up. Officially, I ran a little restaurant in Redmond. But I never felt like giving all my money to some school, so I didn’t have a license. Eventually someone was too sick for me to help and he died. His family decided to take their grief out on me.”

  “Wow. I’m sorry.”

  “Don’t be. I helped a lot of people. If God sees fit to punish me for not helping one of His creatures, then I’m not going to question His judgement. Besides, I’ve done a whole lot of good for the women locked up in here. So maybe I’m right exactly where I’m supposed to be.” She patted Ari’s hand. “Maybe you are, too. You’ll figure it out in time.”

  Ari said, “I hope so.”

  “For now, you’re exactly where I need you.” She pushed the stack of books across the table. “You know the alphabet?”

  “I think I’ve heard the song.”

  “Good enough. Shelve these.”

  Ari picked up the books and moved them to a cart. It wasn’t going to help her get out of prison, but at least it would keep her mind occupied.

  #

  Gwen woke slowly with the realization there was someone in her bed. It wasn’t a completely alien experience to her, although she’d never considered sex to be much of a necessity, but it still took her a second to remember who it had to be. She slid her hand across the pillow, rubbed her palm across her face, and twisted her neck to see Milo watching her sleep. She smiled, and Milo stretched to press a kiss to the corner of her mouth.

  “Good morning.”

  “Hi.”

  Of all the surprises in Gwen’s life, Milo was one of the biggest. It was also the one she had fought the hardest. When the war ended, Gwen realized she suddenly had the opportunity to enjoy her life for a change. So when the British pack introduced her to their leader - a man, age appropriate, handsome - she accepted his invitation to London so they could get to know each other better. They ended up not having anything in common, but Gwen didn’t regret taking the chance. She booked a flight home with no hard feelings. But then, on a whim, she de
cided to drop by Milo’s apartment to apologize for the way she had tried to use her as a pawn.

  That visit ended with them in bed.

  Gwen had never considered being with a woman, especially not one who was the same age as her daughter. But Milo surprised her in more ways than one. The sex was incredible enough that Gwen explored when she got back to Seattle. No one made her feel the way Milo had, but every experiment was good enough to convince her that she was bisexual. But that was just a title, because the only person she was fantasizing about was Milo. Gender suddenly didn’t matter because she only had eyes for one person.

  To her shock, Milo reciprocated her feelings. Long emails and online conversations evolved into phone calls, which quickly became sexual. Gwen made a few trips to London, and Milo had come back to Seattle, and their desire only seemed to grow the more time they spent together.

  Gwen pushed her hand into Milo’s dark hair and pulled her in for a proper kiss. Milo’s bottom lip teased Gwen’s, pushing her mouth open for a quick, teasing brush of her tongue. Gwen sighed and let her hand slip to Milo’s shoulder.

  “Thank you for coming.”

  “You needed me,” Milo said. “I was just pissed that I had to wait so long for a flight.” She traced a freckle pattern on the skin exposed by Gwen’s slipping shirt collar.

  Gwen said, “You came at lightning speed. And you’re here now, that’s what matters. Ari’s going to be so grateful you came.”

  “I didn’t come for Ari,” Milo said. “I mean, I did. Ari’s great. But I came because you needed me. The rest of the pack came for Ari, to see what they could do to save her, and I’ll lend a hand however I can. But the reason I hopped on a plane and flew across an ocean and a continent in the middle of the night was to be here, right now, where you need me. And I kind of hate saying all of that because it seems so desperate, and this... I’m not... I’ve never been a support system. I always run from the first sign of neediness. But I wanted to be needed by you.”