by Anne Bishop
“Let’s check the Liaison’s Office,” Monty said.
Meg Corbyn was open for business. Judging by the lights in the windows, so was the consulate. And this access to the Courtyard was already plowed.
“Wait here.”
Entering the office, he walked up to the counter. The Wolf pup stood in the Private doorway, watching him.
“Good morning,” Monty said. “Is Ms. Corbyn around?”
Since he didn’t expect an answer, he stepped back, startled, when the pup suddenly shifted into a naked boy who shouted, “Meg! The police human is here!”
“Who . . . ?” Meg came into view and stared at the boy. “Ah . . . Sam? It’s cold. You should put on some clothes.”
The boy looked down at himself. Then he looked at Meg and grinned. “Don’t need clothes. I have fur!”
And he did. He also had four legs and a tail when he darted past her and out of sight.
Meg looked a little wobbly when she approached the counter.
“A new development?” Monty asked, staring at the doorway. He’d seen one of them change from Wolf to child once before. Then, like now, seeing how fast they could shift made his heart race.
“Very new,” Meg said. “I haven’t sorted out the rules yet. Or even figured out if there are rules.”
He looked at her face and felt a hard anger, but he kept his voice soft. “And that? Is that also a new development?”
She sighed. “It was a misunderstanding. It won’t happen again.”
“Are you sure?”
Simon Wolfgard stepped into the Private doorway. “I’m sure.”
He didn’t touch Meg, but he used his hips and shoulders to crowd her into stepping aside, ensuring he was the one standing directly in front of Monty.
“Mr. Wolfgard,” Monty said. “I was hoping to have a word with you if you have a minute.”
A long look. What did Wolfgard see? An enemy? A rival? Maybe an ally?
Noises coming from the next room, like someone jumping and huffing with the effort.
Meg started to turn to see what was going on, but Simon shook his head.
“HGR isn’t open yet,” Simon said. “But Tess just made some coffee.” He looked at Meg. “Yours is on the sorting table, along with a cup of hot chocolate and some muffins.” He raised his voice. “The muffins and hot chocolate can only be eaten by a boy wearing clothes.”
A yip followed by the click of toenails on floor.
“Is there some kind of rule for when Sam should be a boy and when he’s a Wolf?” Meg asked.
“A Wolf lifts his leg and yellows up snow. A boy has to use the toilet,” Simon replied.
“And that will work?”
“Only if he needs to pee.”
Monty coughed loudly to cover up the chuckle.
“Have your officer bring the car around to the back,” Simon said. “We cleared a lot of the snow, but not having the car parked in front of Meg’s office will make it easier for the delivery trucks. I’ll wait for you at the back entrance to A Little Bite.”
“Ms. Corbyn.” Monty tipped his head and left. When he pushed the door open and looked back, Simon Wolfgard was staring at him—and there was nothing friendly in those amber eyes.
Hurrying to the patrol car, he instructed Kowalski to drive around back.
Thinking of that stare, he wondered if there would be another “misunderstanding” that would end with Meg Corbyn carrying another bruise.
* * *
As soon as Montgomery was out of sight, Simon turned on Meg. “Has that monkey been bothering you?”
Bunny eyes, all startled by the unexpected.
“No,” Meg stammered.
“He makes you nervous.” He smelled that on her.
“I—” She hesitated. “When I see the police, it’s hard to remember that I can’t be taken away, that they won’t make me go back. . . .”
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.
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
On 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?”
