“I’ll do my best.”
The smile faltered and then it was back and she nodded. “Because you are coming home.”
“Damn right I am.”
“You’d better.”
“Not going to let me have the last word, are you, spitfire?”
“Nope.”
~*~
“Ah, good, you’re here,” Cora greeted her as she entered the bus. “You can pass that stuff out there to me and I’ll put it away.”
Tommie could see what Cora meant by the hotel front desk. Bags of clothing, everything from canvas duffels to paper sacks, were piled on the seats and spilled into the aisles. Cardboard boxes and plastic tubs were dispersed in, around, and on top of them.
The bus was divided into three sections. At the front, were seven sets of original seats. Behind them was a section for storage with deep shelves blocking the windows on either side. The third section was walled off with a heavy blue curtain. This was Cora and Samuel’s private quarters. They earned this privilege not by age, or by leadership, but because the couple had the largest stake in the vehicle’s purchase and Samuel kept the old wreck running.
Tommie passed and Cora stacked and slowly chaos became order. Under a stack of shopping bags, Tommie found a plastic tote that had lost its lid and spilled its contents to the floor.
“Planning to redecorate?” Tommie asked with a smile and eyebrows raised. The box was filled with brand new items; shower curtains, toothbrush holders, cups, tissue boxes, and a wastebasket.
“Yeah, we thought the outhouse needed sprucing up,” Cora laughed and pointed to a space on the shelves opposite her. “That goes in that space right there.”
“They fell off a truck, didn’t they?”
The term was another new addition to Tommie’s vocabulary. She first heard it when one of the men showed her the compound bow he used for hunting. Boris’s expensive looking and immaculately kept set of knives fell off a truck, too, as did the new looking media player the teenaged cubs shared. Slowly, she began to realize that while many of the wolver’s few possessions were scavenged, others were stolen.
“They did,” Cora admitted with a nod. Like the men, she showed no hesitancy or shame.
Tommie loaded the box into an empty space. “Does it ever bother you? That these things, um, fell off the trucks I mean.”
Cora shrugged. “We gotta eat. Meat isn’t cheap and hunting isn’t always good. We were raised with it. It’s what we do. It’s how we survive.” She tucked a stack of towels onto one of the shelves. “We’ve all got our talents.”
She jutted her chin toward the others who were clearing out the campsite. “Samuel’s a beggar by trade. So is Boris when he’s not cooking. Folks have pity for a one eyed man and a cripple. Shorty is a pickpocket and he can pick a lock quicker than that.” Cora snapped her fingers. “Stretch hangs around ATMs. He’s tall enough that the cameras don’t catch his face when he looks over folk’s shoulders to get their numbers. Most folks don’t miss what little he takes and he never goes to the same machine twice. Louise is the best shop lifter we got. Not sure what Bogie does. In case you haven’t noticed, he doesn’t say much.”
“And you approve of this?” Tommie asked.
“It ain’t a matter of approval. It’s a matter of survival. In our old pack, you don’t bring in your share, you don’t eat. Your cubs don’t get shoes.”
“But you’re not with your old pack. This is a new pack.”
“What would you like us to do?” The older woman gave her an impatient look that said she wasn’t impressed with Tommie’s intelligence. “It’s all we know. We don’t stay in one place long enough to find steady work, and when we do, the work don’t pay much or last long.” She pushed past Tommie to grab another two bags. “You might as well know the worst of us. The sooner you decide to leave, the easier it’ll be on us.”
When her stomach dropped, Tommie froze with another tote mid-lift. “You want me to leave?”
“Didn’t say that, but I heard what you were saying out there and it sounded to me like you were planning to stay. It’s only fair for you to know that most wolvers don’t live like us.”
“How do they live?”
“Not quite sure, but it’s not like us. They’re not tramps and thieves. They earn real money working at real jobs. Their cubs sleep in real beds in rooms they can call their own. I heard one time of some rich ones, but I don’t know if that’s true. That’s not to say some of the wolvers in our old pack didn’t live good. They did. Wouldn’t find them living in the back of a forty year old school bus. Some of those recreational vehicles cost more than a house.”
Cora busied herself repacking a section of the shelf that was already perfectly packed. “The others won’t like it, but I don’t want you thinking this is all your life can be. You’re clean. You know how to speak proper. Molly said you have to have a fancy education to be working at that Harbor House. Liking us don’t mean you have to live with us. There are plenty better places out there for the likes of you. I’ll bet that man of yours could find you one of those places. He’d take good care of you. I can tell.”
“What if I don’t want to be taken care of, Cora? What if I want to stay here and take care of you while you take care of me? What if I believe we can find a place where you and Samuel can have your own bedroom, if not your own house?”
“You’re dreaming, girl, and dreams are for fools. I learned that a long time ago. We are what we are and there’s no changing that.”
Cora’s words were bitter, but Tommie saw a spark of something in the woman’s eyes, so she pressed on.
“What if we could get the pups papers? What if the cubs could go to school? What if we got those honest jobs no matter how little they pay? We could pool our money and together decide how it should be spent. I know the system, Cora. That’s why I got that fancy education. I can get help, but you’d have to stay in one place.”
The older woman turned on her so quickly, Tommie let go of the tote and sat heavily on the floor.
“Don’t say it. Don’t tell me anything more,” Cora said harshly. “Don’t give me hope where there ain’t none. Don’t give me your sweet dreams on a night like tonight when there may be nothing left of it in the morning. You save those dreams and tell me about them tomorrow and if I’m not here, you promise me you’ll tell them to those cubs. You make them see what I can’t.” Her voice had lowered to a desperate hiss. “You give them your dreams. You keep them safe tonight and you make those dreams theirs. Promise me that. Promise.”
The old woman’s chin was quivering by the time she finished. When Tommie reached for her, Tommie was trembling, too. The sight of this strong, no nonsense woman laying her heart bare moved her deeply.
“I promise, Cora. I promise it with all my heart.”
They stood there in the aisle of an old and battered school bus, clinging to each other and holding each other up, giving each other strength. They were two very different women who should have nothing in common, yet at the core, they were very much the same. They had the same hopes, the same dreams, and the same fears for tomorrow. They were wolver. They were pack.
Chapter 22
They were partying. Bull shook his head in disbelief. The battle of their lives loomed ahead, just hours away, and they were partying. The fire was blazing. They were singing at the top of their lungs and swilling beer between choruses. The radio was blaring old time rock and roll. They’d been dancing to it on and off for the last hour.
The beer didn’t bother him. With their high metabolisms, it would take them a lot more than a case or two to get them drunk, but this was no way to prepare for what was coming. They needed to save their strength. They needed to get their heads in the game.
He distinctly remembered saying pretend. They had to pretend to celebrate their victory. He shook his head. He’d found himself doing that more and more lately. God save him from fools and crazy-assed wolvers.
He heard Tommie walking toward him f
rom behind. He smiled and shook his head again. For such a lightweight, she made a lot of noise. No one had ever taught her how to walk softly on wolf’s paws. When she reached his side, he looked down.
“Look at them. They have no idea what’s at stake,” he said and sighed. “We’re doomed. I should have made Samuel shoot me when I had the chance.”
She raised her hands over her head and swung her hips, bumping his thigh in time to the music. “And wouldn’t that have been a real party pooper,” she laughed. “From what I’ve heard, they haven’t had many chances to party. Let them have this.”
That’s what he was doing, wasn’t it? He tried to smile at her, but the memory of a long ago party erased the smile before it reached his lips.
Tommie bumped his hip again and he saw that she held something sticky looking in her hand.
“Damn, spitfire, I don’t know where you put it. What the hell are you eating now?”
It sure wasn’t clinging to her hips or thighs, though her breasts had filled out a bit. He was growing to like those little round peaches now that he’d seen them up close and personal, so to speak. They were a creamy golden color with small, sweet looking brown nipples. Like the rest of her body, now that she’d lost the dirt and prison pallor, they looked kissed by the warm sun of summer. Come the real summer, she would darken to a rich golden brown. He looked down at her flat stomach and smirked.
“That belly’s not big enough to hold what you pack away.”
Boris had gone all out. There were steaks all around, thick, juicy ones and apple pies that the cubs cooked over the open fire in heavy iron contraptions that folded over and pressed the dough and fruit into half circles of sweetness. Tommie had matched him bite for bite and he was stuffed. She obviously wasn’t.
“S’mores,” she said and grinned at his what-the-hell look. “You know, graham crackers, marshmallow, and chocolate. Want some?” She held the half eaten square of gooeyness out to him.
“No thanks,” he said, wrinkling his nose. He wiped the smear of chocolate from the corner of her mouth with his finger. He held it out for her to lick it and held her eyes as she sucked his finger into her mouth more deeply than she needed to. The warm glow in those big brown eyes said she liked him as much as she liked chocolate.
When she released his finger, he replaced it with his lips. It was short and sweet and it made her smile.
“Chocolate, always chocolate,” he murmured against them. The taste of it combined with the taste of her, always made him feel warm inside. The song on the radio changed and everyone laughed at the antics of the pups as they danced to the music. The three older cubs stood to the side, noses in the air, trying to look too manly for such immature antics. Bull gave them the he-wolf nod of approval and they’d reacted with proud and goofy grins like the boys they were.
Tommie leaned her shoulder into his. “You like them, don’t you?”
“Those three? I do. They’ve got potential.” His normal reserve about his past slipped. “They remind me of when I was that age, the good times, the good feelings, before my world turned to shit.” He nodded toward them again, this time for her. “You can rely on them tonight. Treat them as men and they’ll treat you like a queen,” he said, and then he laughed. “Don’t let it go to your head, though. Cubs that age will treat any woman like a queen if she treats them like men. Their mothers still treat them like cubs.”
The woman standing beside him didn’t laugh. Her sticky fingered hand slipped into his.
“What do you mean turned to shit?”
Bull gave her hand a squeeze. “I’ve been on my own since my fifteenth birthday. It’s a long story.”
“I’ll be listening when you’re ready to tell it.”
And there it was again, no pushing, no prodding, no insistence that he share, just another hand squeeze to let him know she was there.
Bull scanned the starlit sky and felt the pull of the soon to rise full moon. “It’s almost time.”
Tommie nodded and released his hand. “I’ll go get Molly.”
He nodded back. “Be careful.”
“You know me,” Tommie sang.
“That’s what worries me,” he deadpanned, but he knew she would and she wasn’t going far.
When the festivities first began, Molly had wandered away into the woods. They saw her go and Bull wanted to call her back, but Tommie wouldn’t let him.
“She needs the time alone, Bull. It’s hard for her, watching the others laugh and sing. I know they haven’t forgotten Eli, but she probably feels like they have.”
“Life goes on.”
“Stop pretending to be a tough guy, Bull, you’re not very good at it. It’s only been a few days and she loves him. She’s still hoping he’ll come back.”
He’d opened his mouth to tell her what he thought of that, but she’d stopped him.
“Leave her the hope. It’s all she’s got. If it’s not to be, let the hope die a natural death. Eli’s alive and right now, that’s all that matters.”
Bull let it go. Now wasn’t the time to tell her that if he survived this night, he would be hunting Eli tomorrow.
~*~
Just as she knew she would, Tommie found Molly not far from the camp. Only a few years older than Tommie, the woman looked worn out by life. Her face was lined and her hair was shot with grey. She stood quietly looking out into the forest, her hands folded in front of her as if in prayer. Tommie called her name softly, though Molly had no doubt heard her coming. Molly didn’t move.
“It’s time to get ready,” Tommie said when she came to stand beside her. “Bull wants the young ones well away before the moon comes up and the change begins.”
“He’s out there,” Molly whispered, still staring into the trees.
“Who is?” Tommie whispered back, suddenly wary.
“Eli.”
“He can’t be.” They were miles and miles away from the clinic where Eli was last seen.
“He’s out there,” Molly insisted though she didn’t raise her voice. “I can feel him. He’s nearby.” She finally turned her head toward Tommie. “It’s that way when you’re truly mated. You can feel him and when he’s too far away, it hurts. I know he’s nearby. I can feel him and it doesn’t hurt.”
Tommie didn’t question it. She knew how badly her own wolf whined when Bull was away. It made her sad and was extremely annoying. She could only imagine what it would feel like if her wolf had a stronger bond with Bull. She was about to remind Molly that they had to go, when the woman turned with a determined look on her face and started her walk back.
A new wariness crept over Tommie. “Molly,” she called softly as she ran to catch up. “You won’t do anything stupid tonight, will you?”
Molly offered a sad smile. “Not tonight. It’s too important. And not while my cubs are too young and Eli is still alive.”
When they returned, the five cubs were clustered together and waiting. Each carried a canvas sack filled with childhood comfort; a favorite doll or stuffed animal, cookies, a bit of candy and a few photographs just in case the night, as Bull kept putting it, when south. One carried a favorite plastic two handled cup with a lid to sip from. One held a large and ragged square of silky cloth that once was bright pink, but had been washed to a rosy off-white.
Tommie knew what that was. Though she didn’t remember much about it, her mother had spoken of it often enough. When Tommie came to them, she carried a piece of a former baby blanket. It was all that was left of her ‘bankie’, and according to her mother, it was six months before Tommie would go anywhere without the green rag.
Bravely smiling parents gave goodbye kisses and hugs. When Tommie took the youngest into her arms, one of the cubs stepped forward. Remembering Bull’s advice, she turned the toddler over to him with thanks for his strong arms. She was rewarded with the same goofy grin Bull had received.
With bags of diapers, piles of blankets, extra drinks and a final promise to guard them with her life, Tommie was rea
dy to set off to the most important and only babysitting job of her life. She had little time to say goodbye to Bull. He had other things on his mind. She understood, but she desperately wanted one last word, one last touch before she went away.
It was as if the man heard her call. He looked up from where he was talking to Bogie, a silent wolver who looked remarkably like that actor for whom he was named, and strode across the camp to stand by her side. He slid his hand into her hair, tilted her head back, and kissed her hard and wet and long.
When he released her, he leaned his forehead against hers. “Remember, spitfire. You’re a helluva lot stronger than you know. I’ll see you tomorrow after all is said and done.”
She gave a silent sharp nod as he moved away. All she could think was she’d see him tomorrow if things didn’t go south and she couldn’t say that aloud.
The three cubs led the way, each carrying a toddler along with a bag. The hideout was a little over a mile away, an abandoned workman’s shack deep in the woods. The boys had found it on one of their hours long excursions into the forest. Tommie worried about their safety, but Bull laughed at her concerns. Running off for hours was the way all wolver cubs learned and these cubs had been deprived of that pleasure for years.
Tommie had never had that pleasure either, and she wasn’t sure she’d missed all that much. The wolf thing sure, but this wasn’t running with the wind. This was slogging over the damp forest floor, slipping on who-knows-what in her only pair of shoes and wondering what kind of animals lived here that might be bigger than her.
This night terrified Tommie on several levels. The worst, she refused to think about, but there were other things that worried her as well. She’d already explained to the boys that if they met a bear, she was leaving them to deal with it and running like hell. They laughingly told her they could outrun her any day of the week.
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