Wild Country

by Anne Bishop

  That must have been the right thing to say, because Kane lowered his head and sighed.

  “You might feel a prick,” the vet said as he approached the table with a syringe.

  Kane either didn’t feel it or was hurting too much to care. But the sound of the clippers had the Wolf rearing up and showing his teeth.

  “It’s all right,” Tobias said, laying a hand on Kane’s shoulder. “The fur will grow back. Right, doc?”

  Maybe it was the sound, or maybe it was the feel of something on his skin so close to the wound, but Kane wasn’t having it until Jana snapped, “Stop being such a baby about this. The vet is going to shave off the fur and stitch you up and that’s that.”

  All three males stared at her.

  She stared back and showed her teeth. “What? Is this Testosterone United?”

  “When dealing with feisty women, we males have to stick together,” Tobias said. “It’s kind of the T.U. code.”

  She might have said something unforgivable if she hadn’t seen the satisfied so there look on Kane’s face.

  She gave them all a “Danger! Angry woman” face. Kane closed his eyes and pretended to ignore her. Tobias winked at her and said nothing. The vet worked.

  After a few minutes, Tobias said, “If you don’t need me right now, I’ll step out and make a couple of calls, find out how everyone else is doing.”

  Jana nodded. After Tobias left the room, she said, “Kane has some cuts on his face.”

  The vet handed her a bowl filled with liquid and a clean cloth. “Wash them with this.”

  As the vet went back to stitching up the worst of Kane’s wounds, Jana carefully washed the cuts on the Wolf’s face and the gash in one ear.

  “When you train to be a cop, you know you might have to shoot someone in the line of duty, but I’ve never fired a weapon at another living thing until today. Gods, I’d never fired a weapon anywhere but at the firing range.” Her breath hitched. “I’ve never killed anything before. I’ve never gone hunting or anything like that. I know it was the dogs or us, but . . .”

  She didn’t realize she was crying until Kane raised his head and licked her face.

  “I should put a dressing on this, but I doubt he would tolerate it,” the vet said.

  “He’ll want to keep it clean his own way.” Jana leaned forward until she and the Wolf were nose to nose. “But he promises not to pull out the stitches. Right?”

  “Grrf.”

  She took that as agreement.

  Tobias slipped back into the room. “One man was bitten and is being treated by a human doctor. Nobody else had any serious injuries from that attack.”

  “Was there another attack?” Jana asked, alarmed that the dogs might have injured someone else in the town before reaching the square.

  “Man was brought in from Stewart Dixon’s ranch. He’s at the doc’s office now. Once we’re done here, we’re supposed to bring Kane back to the sheriff’s office, and you’re supposed to join Tolya to take someone’s statement.”

  She nodded.

  “Is that where Mr. Wolfgard will be? The sheriff’s office?” the vet asked.

  “During regular office hours,” Jana replied. “I expect his brother will want him to be at home in the evenings.”

  “Then I’ll stop by the office tomorrow to check on my patient.”

  Allowing Tobias to lift him off the table, Kane limped out of the vet’s office on three legs. Jana rolled her eyes when Tobias gave her a look that made her swallow any remarks about male stubbornness. And she swallowed any comments when Kane stood on one hind leg and planted his front legs on the tailgate since he didn’t snarl about Tobias lifting his back end and then helping him get settled in the pickup bed.

  Since Kane didn’t need her with him, she sat in the front with Tobias on the drive back to the town square.

  “Testosterone United, huh?” she said after a minute.

  He grinned. “It worked, didn’t it?” The grin faded. “After Tolya told me about the attack at the Dixon ranch, I called my mother, as well as Ellen Garcia at the Prairie Gold ranch, and the resettled ranches between here and Prairie Gold. Wanted to let them know we had a gang of marauders in the area.”

  “Wouldn’t they have to come through Bennett to reach the places south of the town?” Jana asked.

  “They could take a roundabout route and come up from the south, but, yes, if they hit a ranch north of us, it’s a good bet they’ll be coming to town or hiding out somewhere nearby. There are a few places around here that are nothing more than way stations with a combination gas station and general store, and a couple of houses, if that.”

  Gang of marauders. How often did Tobias drive around alone?

  “Are you staying in town today?”

  “Wasn’t planning to stay the whole day, but looks like I will be now. I’ll see about getting a room at the hotel for the night.” He glanced at her. “You’ve got work to do, but maybe we can take a ride later? That buckskin will get up to some mischief if he doesn’t get enough work.”

  “I’d like to get out for awhile.”

  He smiled and said, “Good.”

  Tobias had a really nice smile.

  * * *

  * * *

  Barb knelt in front of the large crate that held a litter of puppies and listened to the dogs in the fenced yard, barking and barking. The puppies needed to be socialized with people and other dogs. They needed care and training and love. They needed more than she could give them on her own.

  People helped her when they could, but not everyone was interested in the animals—and even fewer people wanted to deal with so much poop. But time was running out. The Others didn’t understand the human desire to have a pet, a companion, something not-them that would share their living space.

  Well, they might understand about sharing their living space with something that was not them. After all, they had allowed humans to settle on this continent when travelers first arrived from other parts of Thaisia centuries ago. But understanding didn’t mean they wouldn’t put down anything they viewed as a threat. They’d done it with the people who were part of the Humans First and Last movement—and they had done it today with the dogs.

  “Are you angry with me?”

  Trying to stand up and twist around at the same time, Barb fell on her butt and yelped. Which set off the puppies.

  Joshua stepped closer and crouched in front of her. He held his hand out—not to her, but to the puppies in the crate—and let them sniff him.

  “Why would I be angry with you?” Barb wrapped her arms around her knees, ashamed that she didn’t feel comfortable being around him right now. She looked at his hand and only saw the blood on that clawed glove he sometimes wore—and saw the gutted dog. No, she couldn’t be angry with him any more than she could be angry with Jana for killing the dogs, but today she realized that, despite his human biology, Joshua Painter was more Other than human—and maybe he always would be.

  “I killed one of the dogs.”

  Misery swelled inside her. “I felt so optimistic when I got off the train a few weeks ago. I was going to work with animals and have a horse and it would be a big adventure.”

  “You’re doing all those things.”

  Yes, she was. But today had scraped off some of the shine, revealing a harsher reality than she’d imagined. She looked at the puppies. “Help me take them outside. They all need piddle time.”

  They took the puppies out front to a strip of dried, yellow grass instead of taking them into the backyard with the mature dogs.

  “A lot of small towns in the Northeast had a larger population than Bennett, but there’s maybe a few hundred citizens here now—and that’s figuring in humans and the terra indigene. No one’s thinking of adding a pet to their household when most people are still trying to figure out where they’re goi
ng to live, and even when they do select a house, they have to clear out the personal effects and get themselves settled while working at whatever business is their livelihood.”

  She watched Joshua with the puppies as they returned the pups to their crate. The older dogs reacted to Joshua the same way they reacted to Saul Panthergard, regardless of his form; they smelled a predator. But the puppies seemed to think Joshua smelled interesting.

  “The terra indigene will not want pets,” Joshua said thoughtfully as he petted the puppies. “And the humans are too busy to think about pets.”

  “That’s true right now. I’m just afraid that by the time they start thinking it would be nice to have a dog or cat or bird . . .” She was supposed to meet with the vet today to review her training and skills. If she was going to continue her education on an apprenticeship basis, she had to reduce the number of animals in her care by finding homes for them before the Others made a different choice.

  She studied Joshua. She was about to ask him if he’d like a puppy, but she remembered that bloody glove and couldn’t do it. Not today.

  Joshua stood. “I’ll help you for an hour. Then I have to go to work.”

  “Shouldn’t you already be at work?” she asked.

  “Yes, but John will understand.”

  She almost told him a human boss would be less understanding, but she wanted the help, especially today. “Thanks.” When she next saw Tobias Walker she’d ask for any suggestions about finding homes beyond Bennett for the orphaned pets.

  * * *

  * * *

  Virgil lifted Kane off the tailgate and lowered him to the ground, letting his brother limp into the sheriff’s office on his own.

  “He’s hurting,” Tobias Walker said quietly. “How about you?”

  “Nothing that won’t heal.” Virgil watched the wolverine follow Kane into the office. “What about her?”

  “She helped Kane get through the vet stitching him up.”

  “She killed. That was not natural for her.”

  “She did, and you’re right; it wasn’t natural. Her emotions might be . . . big . . . for a few days while she comes to terms with what happened this morning.”

  Virgil studied the human male. What did that mean, her emotions might be big? Weren’t they always big?

  “I’m going to stay in town today,” Tobias said. “I’ll see about getting a room at the hotel and taking care of some of the chores for Prairie Gold, but I’ll be around if you need help of any kind.”

  Virgil nodded and walked into the office. John had done some scrounging in the warehouse that held possessions from the cleared-out houses. He hadn’t found something he called a Wolf bed, but he had found a folding cot. After moving Kane’s desk to one side, there had been enough room to put the mattress on the floor. John had added a couple of blankets as a mattress cover and thought it would do as a comfortable place for Kane to sleep when he was in the office.

  Kane obviously thought it would do since he gave the mattress and blankets a quick sniff before lowering himself onto them with a groan.

  The wolverine wasn’t paying attention to Kane. She was staring at Rusty—or the remains of something in Rusty’s crate. Then she narrowed her eyes at Virgil. “Who gave Rusty one of the treats?”

  “Cowboy Bob,” he replied blandly.

  She looked at the toy leaning against the side of her desk, then turned back to Virgil, baring her teeth. “Cowboy Bob? Really? Is that what we’re doing now? Blaming the stuffie?”

  She looked bigger than she had a minute ago, but he met her eyes and said, “Yeah.”

  The sound she made reminded him of a whistling teakettle on the boil.

  She brushed past him, giving him an elbow in the ribs before she grabbed one of the bowls near Kane, who flinched and then whined when he realized his injured leg wouldn’t allow him to get out of the way. When the wolverine headed for the back rooms and started banging around in the kitchen doing who knew what, Virgil blew out a breath.

  He was starting to understand what Tobias Walker meant by her emotions being big. Fortunately for the Wolves, there was a reason to shove her out the door and let someone else deal with her for a while.

  She returned to the front room and put the bowl of water where Kane could reach it easily.

  “Tolya Sanguinati needs you to talk to the females from the Dixon ranch,” Virgil said. “He’s waiting for you at the saloon.”

  “Why there?” She didn’t sound quite on the boil anymore but still close enough.

  “Scythe is protecting them while Stewart Dixon is protecting the wounded male, who is at the human bodywalker’s office.”

  The wolverine nodded. Virgil stepped aside to let her pass. But she stopped when she was abreast of him and stared at the door.

  “You tell Cowboy Bob that if he gives Rusty another unauthorized treat today, I will pull all the stuffing out of his arms.” She walked out of the office.

  Kane whined.

  He didn’t answer, but he heard Kane sigh—and felt the same relief—when he turned the lock on the door.

  * * *

  * * *

  Virgil called.

  Tolya frowned.

 

  That sounded ominous. But no matter what Virgil would like to believe, Deputy Jana was just a human female.

  With a gun.

  Seeing her walk into the saloon, Tolya realized he’d been too busy to have much contact with all the new arrivals, including their female deputy, and had been assuming she was some combination of Barbara Ellen bounce and Jesse Walker grit—they being the two human females he’d had sufficient contact with to gain some understanding of that gender in the human species. Now he had a better appreciation of why Virgil referred to Jana as a wolverine.

  “Mr. Sanguinati,” Jana said. “You wanted to see me?”

  “There was an attack on a ranch early this morning.”

  “I saw your e-mails. Ranches north of the town are part of our jurisdiction?”

  “There is a Wolfgard pack who keeps watch in that area, but I don’t think there are any human police, if that’s what you’re asking.”

  Jana nodded before looking at the four women sitting at the table farthest from the door. “If the daughter was attacked, I’ll need to ask some personal questions. They may want to do that somewhere more private.”

  “They have use of the female dressing rooms upstairs, or we can use Scythe’s office,” Tolya said.

  “You’re sitting in?”

  “Yes. I, too, have some questions.”

  “Does Scythe have a pad of paper and a pen? I left the office without them.”

  Tolya silently made the request. Scythe walked out of her office a moment later and held out the items.

  “Thanks.” Jana walked over to the table. A moment later, Candice Caravelli and Lila Gold said their good-byes and walked up to the bar.

  “There’s been no trouble here,” Scythe said.

  “Good.” The word acknowledged both messages. Tolya looked at Candice and Lila. “Anything I should know?”

  “Melanie is really scared,” Lila said.

  Tolya wasn’t sure if Candice Caravelli’s silence meant she had nothing to say or nothing she wanted to say to him and Scythe. He would consider that later.

  He joined Jana and introduced her to Melanie and Judith Dixon.

  “What happened this morning?” Jana asked.

  “Ranch work starts early, as soon as we can,” Melanie began. “Mom was out collecting eggs from our chickens, and Dad was in the stable taking care of the stallion while my brothers and the hands were tending the other horses and putting them out in the paddocks. The house’s front and back doors were open to let in
the cooler air. We lock up at night, but it’s always been safe to leave the doors open during the day when someone’s around.”

  “That makes sense,” Jana said.

  Tolya listened and struggled to comprehend the undercurrents. He’d had more interaction with humans in the past few weeks than he’d had in the whole of his life, and he wasn’t always sure if he was reading humans correctly. It sounded like Jana was confirming that the females had done nothing wrong by leaving the doors open. Why would that have been wrong?

  “I was setting out food to make for breakfast when I heard a couple of cars drive up.” Melanie frowned. “Didn’t see any headlights, but I didn’t think about that. Could have been the hands coming in from the cabins.”

  “Cabins?” Tolya asked.

  “We have two cabins on the land we . . .” Judith stopped. “On the land we lease for grazing. Men will stay there for a couple of days at a time to check on the cattle, as well as ride out and make note of the available grass and water. Sometimes, if we get a fast-moving storm or a heavy snowfall, it’s a place to shelter. My husband told the Wolfgard that the terra indigene are welcome to use the cabins too. We keep them supplied with cans of food and jugs of fresh water, as well as seasoned wood for the stove.”

  Tolya nodded. He knew the Wolfgard had no quarrel with Stewart Dixon and his family. He also knew the Wolves and Dixon had hunted together to bring down meat for both their families.

  “I heard the back door open,” Melanie continued. “I started to turn away from the counter, figuring it was one of my brothers coming in for coffee. But it was a stranger. He shoved me up against the counter, shoved me hard, and put a knife against my face. He said he could tell I needed a good humping, and if I stayed quiet no one would get hurt. He . . .” Her hand shook as she picked up a glass of water that was on the table and took a sip. “He grabbed my breast, then started pulling at my jeans. But he wasn’t getting them open fast enough, because the next thing, he pushed me down on my knees and started to pull down his zipper. That’s when another man came into the kitchen, just for a moment. He said, ‘By all the dark gods, we don’t have time for that. Someone sounded an alarm.’ He ran off, and I heard the screen door in the front of the house squeak and thought Dad was going to be mad because he asked my brothers to oil the hinges last week.”