by Anne Bishop
This was the reason they had come to Lakeside. This was the kind of human they needed to observe before the migrating humans returned to the places Namid’s teeth and claws had reclaimed for the terra indigene. And they needed to make sure that male remained within reach of the Courtyard.
• • •
Mostly hidden behind Henry’s large human form, Simon studied the human herd that had gathered in A Little Bite. Strange how the addition of one human could change his way of looking at them, change them from a pack back to a herd. Back to prey.
Maybe that wasn’t so strange. Meg’s arrival in the Courtyard had changed all kinds of things, including changing female employees from nonedible prey to a female pack that was approached with some degree of caution. And with the female pack came the connection to the police pack. So a single person could create a lot of changes.
Nicholas Scratch, the spokesman for the Humans First and Last movement, was another example of a human who had set many things in motion. But the ripples Scratch created had ended with many Wolves and humans dying and Thaisia being broken into pieces to keep the humans more isolated.
Now he was looking at another human he instinctively knew had the potential to cause trouble for the terra indigene. But how? This male was related to Miss Twyla and Lieutenant Montgomery, who were good humans, but both had been concerned about what might happen if this member of their family pack arrived in Lakeside. And Meg had seen trouble when she’d drawn cards to reveal prophecy. Not just trouble; an explosion, which was not a small thing.
And yet, he couldn’t see the threat, couldn’t explain why he wanted to drive this male away from Meg and Sam and everyone else in the Courtyard. So he watched as Miss Twyla and the Sierra entered the coffee shop, followed by Kowalski and Debany, who were in uniform. Miss Twyla looked stern, ready to snap at a misbehaving pup. The Sierra, on the other hand, looked ready to roll over and offer her belly in submission.
Was this a fight for dominance of the Montgomery pack between Lieutenant Montgomery and this newcomer, Cyrus Jimmy? Leaving the pups out of it for the moment, Simon considered the two sides. He was sure Miss Twyla sided with the lieutenant, but the newcomer had a mate. That left the Sierra. Lieutenant Montgomery would be the better leader, but Simon had a feeling the Sierra wanted the petting and approval of that Cyrus.
Would other humans here want his approval?
Simon looked at Nadine Fallacaro. She wouldn’t. She was indicating clearly that she wanted to drive that Cyrus out of her territory. Good. And Kowalski and Debany weren’t pretending they had come in for food or coffee. They were watching, waiting for orders. Pack enforcers. That, too, was good.
Vlad, in smoke form, drifted to the other side of the Grizzly.
Vlad shifted to human form.
He’d been expecting this summons ever since Blair told him that they had returned, but Simon still flinched at the sound of that voice.
Going to HGR’s stock room, he stripped off his clothes and hung them on the row of pegs installed near the back door. Then he stepped outside, shifted to Wolf, and ran toward the odd silence near the Market Square.
It didn’t take him long to find the two Elders. Their presence made him uneasy, but it didn’t surprise him that they had returned. After all, their curiosity about his relationship with Meg was the biggest reason they had not already exterminated all the humans living in Thaisia. Was it that curiosity that had drawn them back to the Courtyard so soon? Or something else?
They shifted from their true form and took on the shapes of other predators. The male stood upright, his furred body vaguely human. But he was huge, with powerful limbs and big claws that could score glass and tear through flesh, and he had a head that belonged to some ancient predator. Perhaps being upright wasn’t an attempt to look human. Perhaps it was simply one of the ancient forms no one remembered. The female was some kind of feline, but she was much bigger than Henry in his Grizzly form.
Were these the Elders who had been here during the storm that ripped through Lakeside? Were they the ones who had consumed the Wolf cookies Meg kept at the office for Nathan and Skippy?
A light wind ruffled his fur.
Simon couldn’t see her—she hadn’t chosen to take a visible form—but he could hear her just fine. And he wondered what it meant that the girls at the lake had been aware of the job fair. Under the best circumstances, humans drawing the attention of the Elders or the Elementals was a bad idea. Or a good idea, since the humans rarely survived.
Simon bared his teeth.
Simon tensed.
There was something wrong with Lieutenant Montgomery’s sibling. He knew it. Vlad knew it. Henry and Tess knew it. But could any of them explain it?
He tried to think of something big enough to be considered a reason to get rid of that Cyrus but small enough that the Elders wouldn’t attack all the humans in the Courtyard. A hard thing to admit.
Simon whined softly. The first group of humans from the job fair were already on their way to Bennett. If the Elders sto
pped all migrations, the train with the Simple Life humans aboard wouldn’t survive to reach Bennett. And the professionals who were supposed to take the train tomorrow would never leave Lakeside.
He wasn’t supposed to be responsible for more than the Courtyard in Lakeside, but the Elders were going to decide about every human place in Thaisia based on what they learned here.
How much human would the terra indigene keep? He knew it was risky to let that Cyrus stay so close to his Meg. But if Simon told her what was at stake, Meg would insist on taking the risk. She wouldn’t want to be the one who stopped a human like the Jana Paniccia from having a choice about the work she could do and where she could live. He couldn’t ask Meg to carry that weight, not when she was the Trailblazer who was looking for ways to help the rest of the cassandra sangue survive.
But he was still the leader of this Courtyard. If he was going to do this for the Elders, it would be on his terms. He wasn’t going to take unnecessary risks with Meg or Sam or the rest of his pack. His whole pack.
He felt the Elders swell with anger. They were Namid’s teeth and claws. They were not used to having anything but the world telling them what to do.
Then Air said,
Earth joined her sister, took on human form, and smiled at Simon.
Were they a little too interested in watching Meg? He’d have to warn Nathan to check for the Elders’ scent around the Liaison’s Office.
He felt a terrible silence surround him, but he held his ground. He was leader here; they were guests. Not that such things mattered to Namid’s teeth and claws.
Earth smiled.
Wake up Winter during the last month of Summer’s reign? Wake up Winter and tell her the Elders wanted something that might pose a threat to Meg? Even the thought of how that Elemental would respond made Simon shiver.
Apparently the threat impressed the Elders too.
Having reached that much of an agreement, Simon hurried back to Howling Good Reads and whatever drama was taking place between Montgomery and that Cyrus. He wasn’t happy about this arrangement with Namid’s teeth and claws, but if the survival of the humans migrating to other parts of Thaisia depended on what the Elders learned over the next few days, he’d rather have them watch the female and police packs here than humans elsewhere.
• • •
“What are you doing here, Jimmy?” Monty asked. Gods, this was the worst possible place to have a family reunion. Bad enough to have his men witnessing this contretemps, but he didn’t want to speculate about what Burke was thinking. And he didn’t want to consider what the terra indigene thought about Jimmy showing up here with Sandee and the kids, Clarence and Fanny.
Jimmy had never done an honest day’s work in his life, preferring shady deals and manipulating people, but had managed to stay out of jail for the most part. Communication with Toland was spotty at best, and he didn’t think any cop from Lakeside would get much help from the Toland police force. Despite that, Monty didn’t think it would take Burke more than a day to pull enough strings to have a copy of Jimmy’s rap sheet. And if Burke couldn’t pull those strings, ITF Agent Greg O’Sullivan, nephew of Governor Hannigan, certainly could.
“Came to see family, like I said.” Jimmy’s smile widened as Twyla approached the table. “Mama. As pretty as ever.” He wrapped his arms around her and gave her a smacking kiss on the cheek. “Stand up, boy. Let your grandma have that seat.”
“I want a cookie,” Clarence said, eyeing the baked goods in the display case.
“I want a cookie too,” Fanny said.
“We should all have something,” Sandee said when Nadine approached the table. “I’ll have a diet soda and a piece of pie. What kind of pie you got today?”
“Sit down, Mama.” Jimmy resumed his seat. “CJ’s a big shot now, so he can treat.”
Monty watched the way Nadine looked at Jimmy and Sandee. Members of the HFL movement had burned her business and home to the ground and had intended to kill her in that fire. She should have received counseling. Instead she’d thrown herself into working with Tess, and there had been too many other crises to deal with since the fire, so he hadn’t thought about how well she had handled the trauma. Seeing the look in her eyes now, he braced to block an attack.
And then there was Tess. After that wave of dizziness, he didn’t dare look at her face, but looking toward her shoulder, he could see the red hair coiling.
“Sure,” Monty told Nadine. “My treat.”
“This time,” Tess said, her voice strangely harsh.
“No pie today,” Nadine said. “Have some cherry fruit tarts—and one raspberry tart left. No soda of any kind. No diet foods of any kind.”
“Well,” Sandee huffed. “What kind of place is this that you don’t sell diet?”
Tess laughed, a terrible sound. “You whine about not having a diet drink but you want to eat pie?”
“How about a cookie and a serving of milk for the children?” Monty suggested.
“I want—,” Clarence began.
“If you don’t want what is offered, you don’t have to eat it,” Twyla said. “But you don’t get anything else.”
“House rules, Mama?” Jimmy didn’t raise his voice, but his anger came through loud and clear. “You don’t have a say about my kids.”
“Cookie and milk or cookie and water,” Tess said, threads of black appearing in her hair. “This is my shop, and those are the choices I’m offering.”
She walked away. After a moment, Nadine went with her.
“Hey, you didn’t take my order,” Jimmy protested.
“If you value your life, don’t push her,” Monty whispered.
Sierra moved closer to the table but didn’t join them.
“Why are you here, Jimmy?” Monty asked again.
“You don’t care, so why are you asking? You warned Mama and Sissy to get out of Toland, even paid their way. But not a fucking word to me, CJ.”
“I was told there was no way to reach you,” Monty replied quietly, not looking at his sister. “No one had a working phone number.”
“You could have found me if you’d wanted to.”
“You would have wanted me to locate you through the Toland police?”
No answer.
“Got out of Toland before everything shut down,” Jimmy said conversationally, turning toward Twyla. “Thought we could stay in Hubbney, but too many people were scrambling for a place there.” Now he looked at Monty. “Heard you could put us up while I figure out what to do.”
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When Monty didn’t say anything, Jimmy looked at their sister, and that look accused her of lying to him. Had Sissy lied or just misrepresented the living arrangements because she hadn’t understood the situation?
“Jimmy could stay with me,” Sissy said.
Twyla turned to look at her. “Child, you’ve got two single beds for the girls and a single bed for yourself. You’ve got a kitchen table and four chairs. So I guess Cyrus, Sandee, and the children could sleep on your living room floor, but that’s about all you have to offer right now.”
The look in Jimmy’s eyes was so ugly, Monty wondered if he’d escalated to physical abuse once Sissy had left home. Elayne hadn’t wanted to spend time with his family, so his time with Sissy had been limited to an occasional lunch or times when Lizzy had visited Grandma Twyla and Sissy was there with her girls. When she was with Mama or with him, Sissy was the strong, bright girl he remembered. But her response to Jimmy’s presence wasn’t healthy.
“What about you, Mama?” Jimmy turned to Twyla.
“I have an efficiency apartment. One room with a single bed.”
Now Jimmy turned to Monty, rage in his eyes.
No pretense now of coming to see family. Most likely, the storm that had struck Toland wasn’t the only reason Jimmy needed to leave that city. But he’d come to Lakeside expecting free room and board. He hadn’t considered how little help Sissy would be able to give him.
No one else within hearing of this little drama had said a thing until Captain Burke broke the silence.
“Lieutenant. Your brother—”
“Will stay here.” Simon Wolfgard walked into A Little Bite, flanked by Vlad and Henry.
Seeing Jimmy’s eyes widen, Monty turned in his seat. Wolfgard looked human but couldn’t pass for human. This was a leader staring down an enemy, and there was no doubt in Monty’s mind that a wrong move now would start a slaughter.
