a position?”
“Kelley Burch. His skills are wasted in Prairie Gold, and there is a jewelry store here that needs someone to run it—and Kelley would have a better chance of selling some of his own designs, whether he sells them in Bennett or sends them on to someplace back east to sell on consignment. I’m going down to Prairie Gold tomorrow. I’ll talk to him then.”
“You want to spend time in your own store.”
She nodded. “I need to be home for a couple of days.”
“I’ll get this list out as quickly as I can.” The Elders weren’t allowing the telephone and telegraph lines between the regions to be restored except under special circumstances. He could call or e-mail Jackson Wolfgard, who lived in Sweetwater, a settlement in the Northwest, but reaching Lakeside in the Northeast Region required extra time and effort.
As he left the store, he looked at the Intuit woman and wondered if Jesse Walker would come back and continue to help him. Then he noticed that she was no longer holding her left wrist—and he breathed a sigh of relief.
* * *
* * *
Virgil Wolfgard stood next to a tree near the south end of the town square and watched the human female and the blue horse walk toward him. The wind was in the wrong direction to carry his scent to the horse, which was meandering across the paved street toward the grass in the square, and the female seemed too preoccupied with something that wasn’t right in front of her to control the horse or notice the predator who was watching her.
Not noticing was dangerous, something the female should have learned while she was still a puppy.
He stepped away from the tree, putting himself right in front of the horse.
The horse snorted and planted its feet, causing the female to grab the saddle horn for balance.
“Easy, Rowan, easy,” she said. Then she gave Virgil a wary look. “Sheriff.”
“Barbara Ellen.” Virgil looked at her companion. “Horse.”
His brother, Kane, who was in Wolf form, joined them, causing Rowan to snort again.
Barbara Ellen gave Kane a wobbly smile.“Deputy Wolfgard.”
Virgil held up a small red collar. She took it and read the tag attached to the collar. “Fluffy,” she said sadly. “She was a nice cat.”
“We didn’t eat it,” Virgil said, anticipating the question she didn’t dare ask. “Too much fur and not enough meat.”
“Not much of an epitaph for poor Fluffy.”
Maybe not, but that wasn’t important. He and Kane hadn’t killed the cat, but something had torn the animal apart. Not for food. For fun.
And that something wasn’t any form of terra indigene.
“The horse was paying attention,” Virgil said. All right, the horse was more interested in reaching the grass, but it did notice him first.“You were not. Why?”
“I was thinking about some stuff,” she replied.
He didn’t ask what she was thinking about. He just stared.
“But I should pay attention when I’m riding,” she added.
“Yes.” Virgil stepped aside. So did Kane.
Barbara Ellen pressed her legs against Rowan’s sides—and grabbed the saddle horn when the gelding bolted out of reach of the two Wolves.
Virgil shook his head as he watched her reestablish dominance and slow the horse to a walk. he told Kane, using the terra indigene form of communication.
The only good human was a dead human. He hadn’t thought much of that species before the Humans First and Last movement had attacked the Wolfgard. He thought far less of them after those humans slaughtered his pack, leaving him and Kane the only survivors because they’d been ranging ahead of the pack, looking for game. They’d come running back when they heard the guns, but by the time they arrived, the pack was dead or dying, and the humans were gone.
They’d followed the trail of the trucks until scent markers made by Namid’s teeth and claws crossed the trail. Not willing to tangle with the Elders, he and Kane had returned to the small wooden den the pack had used to store items useful to those who could take human form. After packing the little they could carry in Wolf form, they had headed away from what had been their home territory, looking for humans to kill.
Instead, they ended up in Bennett, where the Elders had erased the enemy and yet were allowing those creatures to return.
He’d never seen one of the Sanguinati until he’d met Tolya, who had been given the task of making sure the wrong kind of humans didn’t