Wild Country

CHAPTER 22

Moonsday, Messis 20

“You should clean those wounds,” Tolya said quietly. “I don’t think Deputy Jana noticed because your wounds aren’t as serious as Kane’s, but you should take care of them before she shakes off her distress over the fight and sees you again.” A pause. “Do you need help?”

Virgil stood absolutely still. There had been no Sanguinati where he’d lived before. With the exception of John Wolfgard, none of the shifters now living in Bennett had had any experience with that form of terra indigene. But Simon Wolfgard worked with one of the Sanguinati, even ran a bookstore with him.

He had no reason not to trust Tolya, but being around other strong predators when he was hurt made him uneasy.

He considered the humans whose lives brushed against his. terra indigene will welcome the meat.>

“Best if Barbara Ellen and Deputy Jana don’t have to look at that particular truth today.”

The wolverine had sounded squeaky, but she would shake that off, and once she did, he didn’t need her snarling at him today.

Leaving Tolya, Virgil trotted across the square. He stopped to sniff the ground and the dogs he found within sight of the sheriff’s office. One was gutted; three were shot. The largest of the dogs had a hole in its chest and a bloody straight line along its shoulder that looked too shallow to have done more than annoy the dog. But the three dogs told him why the wolverine had sounded squeaky. She’d been in her own fight and had stood her ground.

He crossed the street to the sheriff’s office, then shifted his front paws enough to open the door. He stepped inside and stopped.

Kneeling in front of Rusty’s crate, Barbara Ellen twisted around to look at him.

“Oh, Virgil.”

She didn’t say anything else, so he went into the bathroom and, once again, shifted his front paws enough to turn on the water in the shower cubicle. Then he stood there in his Wolf form, letting water wash away the enemies’ blood and wash out his wounds. The wounds hurt, but none of them were crippling and most weren’t that deep.

He was big enough and strong enough—and skilled enough—to bring down a half-grown bison by himself, tearing at its legs until it collapsed. Even so, he and Kane had been outnumbered by dogs that also knew how to fight. They would have lost this fight on their own. He knew it. So did Tolya. But the Sanguinati had entered the fight. So had the Eagles and Hawks.

So had the wolverine.

Once he was clean as a Wolf, he shifted to his human form and washed that too. The wounds looked worse on a human body. Why was that? But looking at his arms reminded him that he hadn’t heard from the other member of the Wolfgard pack.

Shutting off the water, Virgil patted himself dry. Finding a healing ointment in the medicine chest, he dabbed some on the wounds he could reach. There were tears in the flesh on his back that might benefit from the human medicine, but he couldn’t reach those. He considered asking Barbara Ellen to help, then decided against it and put the ointment back in the medicine chest.

Once he was dressed in his usual jeans and shirt, he stepped into the front part of the office. Barbara Ellen had left a pink message on the floor in front of Rusty’s crate, saying she had to feed the other animals.

Virgil knelt as he opened the crate, then sat back on his heels. Rusty came to him and licked his face, so glad to see him. But he knew she was looking for someone else too.

“Your mom has to help Kane right now.” He buried his hands in the puppy’s fur. “I guess this was her first real fight, and maybe she was afraid. But she stood for you, kept you safe.”

His mate would have fought to protect their pups, along with the rest of their pack. Hadn’t made a difference in the end. Too many of the enemy with weapons that could bring down bison. There had been only Wolfgard there in that remote spot that should have been safe since they’d had limited contact with humans.

Not safe enough.

“In you go, pup.” After coaxing Rusty into her crate, Virgil hesitated before opening the bottom drawer of the wolverine’s desk, taking out the plastic tub, and removing one of the chewing treats. It was shaped like a bone—but not like any bone he’d ever seen—and was supposed to be tasty. He’d eaten one when the wolverine wasn’t around and decided that if dogs thought those things were tasty, there was something wrong with dogs.

But the pup wagged her tail and made happy sounds when he opened the door wide enough to give her the treat.

“Don’t tell your mom.”

Putting the tub back in the drawer and making sure the crate door was secured, Virgil left the office so that the citizens of Bennett could see what would tear out the throat of any threat, whether that threat was a dog or a human.

Tolya watched John Wolfgard and Yuri Sanguinati toss the carcasses into the back of a pickup. Then he scanned the street. Most of the humans had been inside their shops or hadn’t reported to work yet. That was good. The fewer humans who saw proof of what the terra indigene could do, the less fear would scent the air and excite the predators among them. And since half of Bennett’s residents were predators, it was better if the other half didn’t turn themselves into scent lures.

Scythe crossed the street, not even glancing at the dead dogs. Their life force was already spent, so they held no interest for her.

“Should I have fought?” she asked. “I was close enough, but I thought the Wolves would see and . . .”

“And die,” Tolya finished for her. “You were right to stay out of it.”

“What about the females who need protection?”

“They’ll be here soon.”

As Scythe headed back to the Bird Cage Saloon, Candice Caravelli and Lila Gold piled out of a taxi and hurried to follow Scythe.

As soon as those two females left the taxi, Dawn Werner ran out of the saloon and waved her arms at the driver, followed by her limping mate, who had a scarf wrapped around the calf of one leg.

“Dog bite?” Virgil asked, coming up beside Tolya.

“Looks that way. I had called the doctor about another matter. He will be in his office soon, if he’s not there already.” Wondering what had happened to the puppy the woman had been holding, Tolya watched the two humans get in the taxi, which sped toward the medical building on the other side of the square. “There are things we need to discuss, but they can wait until Stewart Dixon arrives.”

“What is there to discuss?”

“The face of a potential enemy.”

The vet and Tobias used one of the blankets to carry Kane into a treatment room. Jana watched, not sure what she was supposed to do.

“Should we step out?” she asked, pointing to herself and Tobias.

“No,” the vet said too quickly.

Well, she couldn’t fault the man for wanting familiar humans in the room with Kane. Patching up one of the Wolfgard after a fight wouldn’t be a usual part of the vet’s training.

“I’d like to use anesthesia . . . ,” the vet began.

Kane swung around, snapping and snarling, and would have fallen off the table if Jana and Tobias hadn’t grabbed the Wolf.

“That’s not an option,” she said, hoping she sounded official.

“But I need to shave the fur around the wounds and . . .”

Kane’s snarls became more threat than warning, and the vet stepped back from the table.

Jana felt sorry for the man. He couldn’t use a muzzle or any other kind of restraint to keep himself and his patient safe. But working on Kane, who was already hurt and upset, with no kind of restraint? She wouldn’t do it.

Of course, she was the one holding on to both of Kane’s front legs, which put her hands and forearms in easy reach of those big sharp teeth.

She was an idiot.

“Vet’s right about shaving the area around the wounds,” Tobias said. “Doctors shave the hair around a wound on humans too. That sucks, but sometimes it needs to be done.”

“Stitching the wounds will hurt.” The vet was still standing back from the table.

“What about a local anesthetic? The objection is about feeling vulnerable, right?” Tobias’s first question was for the vet. The second was directed at Kane, who replied with a grunt and growl. “A local would numb the area around the wounds that need to be stitched and make it easier for everyone, but Kane would still know what’s going on around him.” Now he looked at Jana.

Since Kane couldn’t speak for himself without shifting—and that didn’t seem like a good idea right now—she, being his fellow deputy, was apparently his medical proxy.

“Local anesthetic.” She looked at Kane. Was she imagining the fear in his eyes? Remembering why Kane and Virgil were the only survivors of their original pack, she added, “I’ll stay here and keep watch.”

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 going 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.”

“Who sounded the alarm?” Jana asked.

“The Owlgard,” Judith said. “A pair of them moved into the hay barn after the troubles. Stewart installed an Owl door for them and built a kind of platform under it so that, once the chicks hatched, the adults could be outside if they wanted and still be close to the nest.” Taking the glass from her daughter, she sipped some water before handing back the glass. “Anyway, all of a sudden one of the adults was swooping around the chicken coop, which they’ve never done before, and I guess one of them went to the stables and shifted to tell the men there were strangers in the house. Stewart and the boys came running, but Manuel had been heading for the house anyway because he heard a car driving away fast and felt uneasy enough that he wanted to check on Melanie.”

“Manuel rushed in, shouting when he saw the man and realized . . .” Melanie gagged a little before regaining control. “The man rammed the knife into Manuel before running out the door. I heard Dad shouting and he shot at the car, but the men got away.”

“The car has a broken taillight now and a broken window,” Judith said. “We saw the glass when we were getting Manuel to the truck to bring him here.” She thought for a moment. “Stewart said the getaway car swerved, and he thinks he might have hit the driver.”

“You’ve never seen the man before?” Jana asked. “Could he be someone who works at another ranch, or someone who used to stop in Bennett and might be doing that again?”

Mother and daughter shook their heads.

Tolya opened the slim leather case he’d brought with him, took out a picture, and set it on the table. “Was this the man who attacked you?”

Melanie stared at the picture. “No. This is the other man, the one who warned him to get out.”

Abigail swept and polished and vacuumed. She dusted the blinds and mopped the hallways and cleaned the restrooms in the office building that held a variety of small businesses. She didn’t mind cleaning the offices. At least there weren’t any surprises. The two attorneys who had come to Bennett didn’t keep bowls of tumbled stones on their desks. And the desks intended for their personal assistants didn’t have anything like that either.

Each office was made up of two rooms, and as houses were cleared, the attorneys’ rooms were piling up with boxes that contained documents that might help locate living heirs.

She considered approaching the men and asking if they needed help sorting the mail that was still coming in for Bennett’s previous residents. If someone sorted the personal mail from all the rest, that would be helpful, wouldn’t it?

And seeing the personal mail would help her figure out which cities still had survivors and might be a place where she could disappear if she needed to disappear again.

Out of the corner of her eye, Abigail saw a shape where a shape shouldn’t be. She stumbled back a step, almost getting her feet tangled in the vacuum cleaner’s cord.

“Gods above and below, you scared me,” she said.

Virgil Wolfgard stared at her. “Tolya wants to see you.”

“Why?”

Virgil said nothing.

“I have work to do. We’re all behind today, and I have more offices to clean.” Her heart beat so hard, she wondered if he could hear it.

“They’ll wait. Tolya won’t.”

“I have to tell my boss. I can’t leave work without telling my boss. She’s just down the hall.”

Virgil bared his teeth, revealing fangs that weren’t meant for a human mouth.

Abigail felt a desperate need to pee and wondered what he’d do if she wet herself. Probably wouldn’t matter to him. He’d drag her out of the building and up the street to wherever Tolya waited.

“Let’s go.” Virgil stepped back from the doorway.

She bolted past him, then stopped. “I have to lock up. I have to . . .”

He grabbed her arm and pulled her down the hallway, down the stairs, and out of the building.

“Why are you angry with me?” she wailed. “I didn’t do anything!”

People—humans—came out of shops and some looked like they might help. Until they saw Virgil, saw the red flickers in the amber eyes—a sign of anger in the Wolfgard. Then they slunk into their shops.

She should have known she wouldn’t get any help from these gutless wonders. Not even Kelley, who came to the door of the jewelry store but didn’t even ask what was going on.

When they reached the Bird Cage Saloon and Abigail saw Jana, she hoped she had at least one ally. But she wished it had been Barb Debany in the saloon instead of Jana. Barb was a sure thing. Jana was still a question mark.

“I have to pee,” she said. “I really have to pee.”

Virgil released her arm and looked at Jana. “Go with her.”

Abigail hustled to keep up with Jana as they headed to the toilets, which were located past the pool table, which she thought was fine for the men, but would the women feel easy about using the facilities when the pool table was in use? In her experience, only rough men—the kind women were smart to avoid—drank and played pool in saloons.

She wasn’t assigned to clean the saloon, so the facilities were an unwelcome surprise. Not individual stalls. It was just a single room with a toilet and sink. She hurried inside and started to close the door, but Jana put her shoulder against it and had a hand on the doorknob.

“I won’t come in with you, but the door has to stay open a little ways,” Jana said.

“What? Why?”

“Abby, if you really have to pee, do it.” There was a hurtful sharpness in Jana’s voice.

“I guess being a friend doesn’t count for much here.”

Jana didn’t respond to the verbal jab, confirming that the deputy wasn’t as gullible as her housemate.

She did what she had to because she really had to. When she tugged on the door to exit, Jana released her hold on the doorknob but looked ready to ram the door if Abigail tried to lock herself in.

“Why is everyone being so mean?”

“No one is being mean,” Jana replied. “Just cooperate, okay? We believe you can answer some questions about an attack on a ranch early this morning.”

“An attack? But I was home until I reported to work. Ask Kelley. He’ll tell you.” He might not have come to her rescue just now, but he wouldn’t lie to get her in trouble. Not with the Sanguinati or the Wolves.

“No one thinks you were there, just that you have some answers.”

Jana escorted her to the table farthest from the saloon’s entrance, where Tolya waited. Abigail sat in the chair opposite the Sanguinati while Jana took the seat beside her. Virgil stood behind her, and every breath he took felt like a threat.

She’d been this scared at other times in her life, but she’d always managed to keep her nerve enough to get out of trouble. She’d keep her nerve this time too.

A sheet of paper lay in the center of the table. Tolya turned it over and pushed it toward her, saying nothing.

He didn’t have to say anything. She’d seen a drawing like this before when Jesse Walker had been asking about fortune-telling cards and she’d shown Jesse and Shelley Bookman her decks of tarot cards.

“The blood prophet drew this, didn’t she?” Abigail said, her voice barely loud enough to be heard by sharp ears.

“Yes,” Tolya replied.

Bitch. No denying that she was the woman in the drawing.

Tolya leaned forward and tapped the other figure. “Who is he, Abigail?”

Do you know what we do to traitors, to anyone who talks about the clan?

She remembered the man her father and uncle had brought in to do a job with them. She remembered what had happened to him after the job because he’d drunk too much and talked too much, telling secrets to the whore he’d bounced on that night.

She remembered her father’s hands on her shoulders, holding her in the chair, while Judd McCall—the one some of her father’s associates called the Knife, the one she had feared even more than her father—unwrapped a stained handkerchief and showed her the traitor’s tongue.

“A man who was with him attacked a young woman and stabbed a ranch hand who came to her aid,” Jana said. “You can’t protect him, Abby.”

Do you know what we do to anyone who talks?

“They’ll kill me if I tell,” she whispered.

“Based on this picture, we can guess who he is, but we need a name,” Jana persisted. “We need his name, Abby.”

She could claim she didn’t know, couldn’t be sure. He’d been nineteen the last time she’d seen him and still had a bit of a baby face. That softness was gone now—at least in the picture.

“You can tell us, or you can be on the next train out of Bennett,” Tolya said.

“To where?”

They didn’t answer.

Abigail shuddered. She’d already told them some things about her family, but naming individuals, identifying individuals . . .

The Knife, the man she feared more than her father, had rubbed that severed tongue over her lips, pressed it against her mouth—then stepped away as she vomited on herself, her father’s hands not allowing her to lean forward and puke on the floor.

“Dalton,” she finally said. “That’s my brother, Dalton Blackstone.”

Businesses were blooming like flowers after a good rain.

Tobias put the large pizza and sandwiches on the passenger seat of his pickup, then looked around the town square.

Was the town blooming too fast? A month ago there had been fewer than a hundred people, mostly young men looking for adventure and opportunities. They had ignored any squeamishness they had felt about coming to a place like Bennett and had focused on the chance to learn a trade or run their own businesses. Bennett was an empty place that could be filled, and it seemed like there were new people arriving by car or train every day—and humans were quickly outnumbering the terra indigene who were, in a very real sense, the only protection these newcomers had against what lived beyond the town’s lights.

Just that afternoon, he and Jana had taken the horses out and ridden past the newly defined boundaries of the town so that she could look around when she wasn’t alone. And he’d wanted to go out a few blocks beyond the new boundaries to look for any signs that some of that dog pack might have survived. They’d found no sign of dogs. Instead they’d come across two cars full of people who were snooping around some houses, looking for a way inside. The strangers had become wary when they noticed the badge pinned to Jana’s shirt.

She’d been polite about explaining that, despite the civilized trappings, they were standing in the wild country. The strangers hadn’t liked being asked about where they were from and why they were on the outskirts of Bennett instead of coming into town.

They weren’t outlaws or serious looters. For one thing, even the girls—and they were barely old enough that he would call them women—had been half drunk, which meant they’d carried the booze with them or had broken into a house or two already and hauled away some ill-gotten gains. But seeing the way one of the men kept a hand behind his back, Tobias had been sure the man had a gun tucked under his shirt. That didn’t make the man an outlaw, but it did make him a fool’s kind of dangerous.

That was the moment when Mel had begun snorting and dancing and trying to move out despite Jana’s hold on the reins. Having raised and trained the buckskin, Tobias knew the warning signs and knew there was nothing Jana could do, so he had urged his horse forward, leading them to the nearest side street and away from the other people.

Moments after they were out of sight, there were yells and screams. Twisting around, he and Jana had watched a mangled garbage can sail over the roof the house where the strangers had been poking around and smash into one of the cars.

The snarl that followed had both horses bolting as car doors slammed and engines revved. He hadn’t heard the cars peel out and drive away. Jana had looked sickly pale, and he’d figured that she was also imagining the worst-case scenario.

He hadn’t told her there was no point going back. She’d already known that. They were in the wild country, out of her jurisdiction. On any other day she might have turned around anyway to see if she could help. But not today.

Once she’d brought Mel back under control, she’d said, “That’s how he responds to Elders?”

And Tobias had replied, “To Elders and rattlesnakes. If he’s uneasy, it’s good to pay attention.”

They had finished their ride without further incident, but she had returned to the sheriff’s office determined to have street maps printed with the new and official boundaries. He’d spent the rest of the day buying supplies and making arrangements to pick up any perishable items first thing in the morning.

Too many things had happened that day that would chase him in his sleep, so he’d been glad to receive the invitation to a movie night at Virgil’s house. Barb had Wolf Team movies, which were something none of them except Barb and John Wolfgard had seen.

As he parked in the driveway of the Wolfgard house and collected the food, Tobias felt the weight of something on his skin—a sensation of being watched. He felt that weight lift when Virgil stepped out of the house and said, “Need a hand?”

“No, I’ve got it. Wasn’t sure what everyone might like, so I brought a few things.”

“Barbara Ellen brought a roast for Kane.” Virgil frowned. “The wolverine says the puppy has to stay at their house.”

Tobias stopped short and stared at the Wolf. “The wolverine? You mean Jana?”

A growl was the only answer.

“The pup had a pretty traumatic day. She could use some quiet time in a familiar place. And she’ll have the bird for company.”

Now a grunt was the reply as Virgil opened the door for Tobias.

Since he didn’t think Virgil and Kane knew much, if anything, about televisions or electronics of any kind, Tobias figured the big TV and disc player, along with a stereo system that produced a pang of envy, had been in the house with the rest of the furniture.

Food and plates were set out on the dining room table. After everyone made their selection, Tobias, Barb, Jana, and John took their places on the sofa and chairs. Virgil sat on the floor near Kane, casually tearing the crust off his piece of pizza and giving it to his brother before concentrating on filling his own belly.

Barb figured out how to work that model disc player, and they settled down to watch one of the movies about the Wolf Team, which Barb explained were movies produced by the terra indigene and were based on books about the same characters.

A pack of juvenile Wolves who investigated when the terra indigene thought humans were doing something sneaky or were otherwise up to no good, or came to the rescue when someone—or something—needed rescuing.

“Oh, forelock!” Barb clapped one hand over her eyes and then spread her fingers to see part of the screen. “I’ve seen this movie before but I forgot when this part came up.”

Jana sucked in a breath but didn’t look away. Virgil and Kane cocked their heads and watched with focused interest.

This should be required viewing for everyone who wants to live in Bennett, Tobias thought. Maybe humans would be more careful if they knew this is what the Others thought of us. He considered Virgil’s reaction to the story and the characters. It’s certainly the way Bennett’s sheriff views humans. Most humans.

He wondered if Jana knew Virgil called her the wolverine. It sure wasn’t a compliment, but he thought Virgil said the word with a kind of wary respect for another predator.

There were places in the movie when he laughed even though he wasn’t sure the humor was intentional. And there were places where he cringed, thinking about his mother dealing with Morgan and Chase Wolfgard. By the time the credits were rolling, and he noticed how many names ended in “gard,” he’d decided he needed a copy of at least one of the Wolf Team movies as well as the books, which he was sure had never been sold in the Bennett bookstore. Fortunately, John Wolfgard had brought two full sets of the Wolf Team books to sell, along with thrillers by someone named Alan Wolfgard. After telling John he would stop by the bookstore before heading home in the morning, Tobias thanked his hosts and prepared to call it a night.

“You’re going to the hotel?” Virgil asked.

“Yep. They’re almost full up with people waiting to choose a house, but Anya Sanguinati has decided to hold some rooms for overnight guests.”

“I’ll go with you. It is dark. Humans should be going home.”

And the Elders will be moving through the town, watching.

It wasn’t said, but Tobias understood the protection Virgil’s presence offered—and he appreciated it.

“Thanks. I’ll walk Barb and Jana to their house and be back.”

“Oh, you don’t . . .” Barb glanced at Jana and pressed her lips together.

As they walked outside, Tobias said, “Hold up a minute.” He went to his pickup and retrieved the book he’d tucked into the storage compartment behind his seat. “I picked this up for you.”

Jana took the book and tilted it to read the title in the light spilling out of the house. “A book about training puppies?”

“I thought it would come in handy.”

She laughed. “This explains why John got so flustered when I asked him if there was a book like this in the store. You’d already bought it.”

They started down the sidewalk, Barb a few paces ahead of them.

“Thanks for all your help today, with Kane . . . and everything.”

“I’m glad I was here to help. Keep working with Mel, and remember to pay attention to what he’s telling you.” He smiled at her. “I got your letter.”

“How could you? I just mailed it this morning, and you haven’t been home yet.”

He laughed. “When I went to the post office to pick up the mail for my ranch, the Skye Ranch, and Prairie Gold, Isobel Sanguinati handed it to me. Special delivery.”

“I have a weakness for stationery.”

Tobias stepped closer. “Then I’ll look forward to receiving more letters.” And damn if his mother hadn’t been right about the anticipation of receiving a letter being its own kind of pleasure.

He kissed her. A soft kiss. A warm kiss that both asked a question and gave an answer.

“Am I the only one feeling this spark?” he whispered.

“No, but . . .”

He pressed a finger lightly against her lips. “No need to be going into the ‘buts.’ Courting has to be a little different out here. Besides, you’re going to write me letters when I can’t come up to town.”

“Are you going to write to me too?”

“I just might.” He smiled—and heard a Wolfish huff right behind him. “Guess I’d better go.”

He watched Jana go into her house and close the door. Then he turned to look at Virgil. Big damn mother of a Wolf and not someone he wanted to cross.

“You have any objections to me courting her?” he asked.

Virgil trotted up the street and leaped into the bed of the pickup—and Tobias had a feeling the Wolf was laughing at him for taking on the wolverine.

Parlan Blackstone stared at Dalton and Lawry. “You went to an occupied ranch when there are so many abandoned places in this region? By all the dark gods, what were you thinking? Were you thinking?”

“Charlie Webb and Sweeney Cooke had scouted the place.” Lawry glanced at Judd McCall instead of Parlan as he stumbled to explain. “They claimed there was no one in the house just before first light, that the owners and ranch hands were all out doing chores before breakfast and we’d have a clean run of the house. And they said the doors were left open. The way stations we’d checked had already been cleaned out of anything useful, and what passed for towns were too small for us to try to sell off anything we’d acquired.”

“Should have been simple, Pa,” Dalton said.

Judd McCall smiled at Dalton and Lawry. “Should have been.”

“Should have been.” Lawry sounded angry and bitter.

Good. If Lawry tried to shrug it off, he might “accidentally” fall on Judd’s knife, and that could attract attention to the whole clan. This fiasco had already attracted enough attention.

“Would have been if a girl hadn’t been in the kitchen and if Sweeney was capable of keeping his cock behind his zipper,” Lawry continued. “Gods, I swear, Parlan, that man isn’t right in the head whenever he sees a female. He was supposed to grab a couple of sacks of food and get out. Instead . . .”

Lawry stopped talking.

“Did the girl see anyone besides Sweeney?” Parlan asked. He listened to the clock tick, tick, tick.

“She saw me,” Dalton finally said. “But only for a second. I’m not sure she saw much. She was on her knees and Sweeney was in front of her and I was in the doorway for just a second to tell Sweeney we had to get out. Then I went out the front door and me and Uncle Lawry drove away.”

“Dalton told me no names were used,” Lawry said. “Even if the girl got a glimpse of him, she doesn’t know who he is.”

“You act like we don’t sense things, get feelings about when a deck is stacked against us and we need to walk away,” Parlan said.

“Dalton did his part,” Lawry said heatedly. “He came away with some nice bits of jewelry and a stack of cash in a cashbox that was right out in the open. Something warned them, something Sweeney and Charlie missed.”

Parlan stared at his son. “Did you handle those nice bits of jewelry?”

Dalton returned his father’s stare, but he paled. “That was just a con, the distraction to give Uncle Lawry time to work.”

No, it wasn’t. Maybe Dalton resented his sister having that odd bit of talent when he didn’t and that’s why the boy had always dismissed it as nonsense. How could a gemstone bring good fortune or leave someone open to misfortune? Except it wasn’t the stone itself. Never the stone itself. It was a particular stone matched with a particular person that seemed to do the impossible.

So the question was, did the ranch have a warning system that Sweeney and Charlie missed when they cased the place, or had their luck turned the moment Dalton grabbed some jewelry that had stones that created opportunities for misfortune?

Better for the family if everyone believed the trouble was because of Sweeney Cooke and Charlie Webb.

“We need to be able to settle for a few days in each place before we pick up and move on,” Parlan said. “We need that more now than we ever have before. Journeys from East Coast to West Coast aren’t possible anymore. We can’t even get out of this damn region. So we can’t put the clan at risk because Sweeney Cooke thinks with his dick.”

“Where are Sweeney and Charlie?” Judd asked.

Dalton shrugged. “Charlie had pulled up near the back door of the house, so Sweeney should have gone out that way.”

“I heard gunshots when we were driving away,” Lawry said. “Tire could have been blown out—or one of them could have been shot.”

“If one of them was shot and they managed to get away, they’ll have to hide or find a town that still has a doctor,” Judd said. “Either way, I think Dalton and Lawry need to lay low for a couple of days while I see what I can find out.”

“You good with that, Lawry?” Parlan asked.

Lawry nodded. “Nobody saw me, and I doubt they can identify Dalton, so finding a place to squat to avoid running into Charlie and Sweeney and have someone connect us to them is the best we can do right now.”

“You have mobile phones that work?”

“Yeah. Mostly. You lose the signal a lot when you get away from the towns, such as they are.”

“Try to find a place where you can check in daily.”

Parlan waited until Lawry and Dalton left his private car. Then he looked at Judd.

“We’re not the only ones trapped inside borders,” Judd said. “Been hearing about plenty of the boys who are finding it hard to adjust since that damn war.”

The boys. Judd’s code name for men who preferred to make a living on the wrong side of the law. Outlaws. Bank robbers and cattle rustlers. Gamblers and thieves. Killers.

“Used to be a man would settle in a town,” Parlan said. “He’d buy a house, have a wife and children, go to the Universal Temple on Earthday same as the rest of his neighbors. He didn’t dirty his own nest. He never did anything in that town that gave his neighbors a reason to think he was anything less than respectable. And what he did outside that town . . . That was nobody’s business but his.”

“You’re thinking it’s time to play the respectable con again?” Judd asked.

Parlan nodded. “Open a business, settle down. It will take a few years for the human towns to recover.”

“If they recover.”

Parlan nodded again. That was the hard truth. The towns he’d seen so far in this region were bleak prospects for a man like himself. Yes, it was time to find a place where the clan could settle down for a few years. More to the point, he was heading for the only place where they should be able to slip in with the rest of the newcomers.

“If we settle down to play the respectable con, Cooke and Webb are going to be a problem,” he said.

“They’re already a problem,” Judd replied.

“Can you take care of it?”

Judd smiled. “It’ll be a pleasure.”