By the time they finished the first movie, Sam was bouncing around the living room and Simon had a crick in his back. After getting his hindquarters on the floor, he managed to pull himself out of Meg’s arms.
She looked like she’d rubbed her face with flour to erase every bit of color.
“Did you see how the Wolf Team tore up the bad guys?” Sam said, waving his arms. “They tracked’ em and found ’em and—”
“That was so scary!”
“Yeah, it was scary when the Wolf Team almost got caught. But they found the bad guys and—”
<Sam.>
Sam stopped bouncing and looked at Meg.
The pup loves her, Simon thought as he watched Sam absorb Meg’s reaction to the movie. Not like he loved Daphne, but like a sister. Like pack. Like … family.
“Well,” Sam said, “I guess it might have been more scary for you because you’re a girl.”
Simon didn’t think it was Meg’s being a girl but being human that made the difference, but he didn’t correct the pup. <I think that’s enough movies for tonight.>
“Wanna play a card game, Meg?” Sam asked.
“O-okay.” She reached for the popcorn bowl. “Let me put this in the kitchen and wash my hands.”
Sighing at the missed opportunity to get a few licks, Simon hurried out of the room to shift before Meg reached the kitchen. He had his jeans on and was pulling the sweater over his head when she walked in. Her gait wasn’t steady. Neither were her hands when she set the bowl on the kitchen table.
“Simon?”
“Meg?”
“Can I stay here tonight?”
That movie really scared her. “Sure. But … Sam was going to curl up with me tonight. Is that okay as long as he and I stay in Wolf form?”
She nodded. Then she looked at her hands. “That’s a lot of loose fur.”
He wasn’t sure all that fur had been loose when the evening started. In fact, even in this form, his skin felt a little sore, the way you’d expect it to feel after being plucked.
Busy, nervous fingers. He’d have to remember that.
“Why don’t you and Sam start the card game?” he suggested. “I want to make a last walk around the complex.”
“Why?” Meg squeaked. “Is something wrong?”
“Nothing’s wrong. I do this every night. Remember?”
“Oh. Yes. You do.”
Meg wasn’t a bunny, but tonight she sure did want a furry, Wolf-size security blanket. Which, considering what had scared her, was kind of funny.
“I won’t be gone long,” Simon said.
He stopped in the living room to sniff out Sam, who had hidden behind the sofa so he could jump out and growl. Meg’s fear of the movie had already bounced right out of the puppy’s head. Reminding Sam that Meg wouldn’t want to watch movies with them anymore if the pup scared her on purpose, he left the youngster sufficiently settled down and waiting for his adventure buddy.
Simon stepped outside. He swallowed a couple of times to make sure his throat worked, then took a deep breath. He stretched his back, wincing a little. Definitely a crick. The terra indigene had given Elizabeth Bennefeld office space in the Market Square, but he didn’t think any of the Others had actually tried that massage stuff. However, Meg and the human pack liked it and said it helped sore muscles, so maybe he’d make an appointment. If movie night was going to be like this from now on, his muscles would need some help.
He walked around the interior of the complex, noting who had lights on and whose homes were dark. Then he spotted Henry standing in the archway that provided access to the Green Complex’s garages.
“You already watch both movies?” Henry asked.
“One was all Meg could handle,” Simon replied.
Henry frowned. “I thought you were going to watch something Sam had selected. Something suitable for a youngster.”
“We did. But it was a terra indigene movie.”
Henry laughed so long and so loud, every resident in the complex looked out a window or opened their doors.
<Henry? Simon?> Vlad called. <What’s going on?>
He heard the same question from Jester Coyotegard, Marie Hawkgard, Jenni Crowgard, and Tess.
I’m not going to be the one telling on her, Simon thought as he ignored the queries and hurried back to his apartment. But when he shook his head at Vlad and Jester before dashing into his apartment and locking the door, he knew that, by morning, everyone in the Courtyard would have heard this new tidbit about their Meg.
CHAPTER 15
On Thaisday, Simon unlocked Howling Good Reads’ front door, then went about opening the store for business. Not that there was much business. There hadn’t been many human customers stopping at HGR or A Little Bite for a while now. There were even fewer since the incident last week when two girls tried to vandalize the bookstore by smearing dog poop on the books.
The girls’ stinky perfume had almost masked the scent of poop. They’d gotten past John, who was manning the checkout counter that day, but then they tried to walk past Blair and Nathan. The two enforcers pinned the girls to the shelves before howling for Simon and Vlad.
Human law did not apply in the Courtyard. A few months ago, Blair and Nathan would have killed those girls just for trying to damage the books. But that day, Simon had called Lieutenant Montgomery and demanded that the girls be arrested.
When two patrol cars showed up with lights and sirens going, the girls were stunned. They were going to be arrested? They were going to have a police record? They were going to pay fines or go to jail? But they didn’t do anything!
That’s when Blair lost the little tolerance he had for whining, dumb-ass monkeys and snarled that the Wolves were hungry and which of the damn vandals’ arms could they rip off for lunch?
It didn’t surprise anyone that the girls were suddenly thrilled to be arrested and walked out of the store by armed police officers.
They hadn’t had time to damage anything in the store, so there wasn’t any evidence of intended vandalism beyond the bags of dog poop found in the girls’ day packs, and the cops on TV shows were always growling about needing evidence. So it wasn’t likely that human law would do more than give the girls a nip. And that would not sit well with the terra indigene living in the Courtyard. Most of them would have preferred Simon giving Montgomery enough of the girls’ possessions so that the police could fill out a Deceased, Location Unknown form. Then Boone Hawkgard could put up the sign in the Market Square butcher shop indicating the availability of special meat.
The girls wouldn’t understand or appreciate the decision Simon had made, but Montgomery did. The lieutenant’s quiet “Thank you” as Kowalski and two other officers escorted the girls out of the store confirmed that the human recognized the call as an effort to keep the peace a little longer—and as an acknowledgment of the efforts the police were making to uphold the agreements between the city of Lakeside and the terra indigene.
It had been only a few weeks since Winter had locked the city in a blizzard of rage. Every day the news on the radio whined about the difficulties people were having with getting the building supplies needed to repair the damage done to houses and businesses during that storm.
The humans had no idea how close they had come to being wiped out completely. If Meg had died that night, Winter would have shown no mercy, and Lakeside would have been another human city that disappeared.