Wild Country (The World of the Others #2)- Anne Bishop Page 0,53

to give Tobias Walker special permission to wear a human weapon when he is in Bennett,” Virgil said.

They all stared at him.

“Why?” Tolya finally asked.

Virgil focused on the Sanguinati. “Because we need to kill the dogs.”

* * *

* * *

Tolya stared at Virgil, not knowing, or caring, if he was somehow issuing a challenge for dominance. “You want to kill all the dogs after we went through the trouble of releasing them from the houses and feeding them and arranging for Barbara Ellen to come to Bennett to care for them?”

“Yes,” Virgil said. “They are predators. They are forming packs, which is their way, but today one pack attacked Joshua Painter and another pack attacked the horses that couldn’t run away. There is a human pup in the town now, and there is a human female with a skippy brain. The Elders won’t attack those humans. The rest of the terra indigene won’t attack those humans. But the dogs will. Those humans are easy prey.”

“You don’t need to kill all the dogs,” Tobias Walker said. “Most of the dogs are still good dogs. They aren’t going to attack people or livestock. But I have a feeling that some of the dogs that are out there now were raised and trained to fight and to kill, and that’s what they’re going to do. It isn’t going to matter if the prey is another dog or a human or one of the terra indigene. Those dogs are going to hunt and kill, and the packs forming around them are going to be just as savage.”

“So you agree with Virgil that these animals need to be killed?” Tolya asked.

“Yes, I do. The ranches we’re restoring will be bringing cattle up to send to market, and the surviving ranches north of here will be bringing cattle down. We can’t have dogs attacking penned cattle or causing a stampede.”

Tolya looked at the Panther. “Saul? What do you say?”

“When I find the other two dogs that attacked Joshua, I will kill them.”

“Then we’re agreed?” Tolya met each of their eyes.

“There’s a vet’s office here,” Tobias said. “Maybe there’s a kennel too? Someplace that boarded animals when people went out of town? Even a place with a fenced-in yard would work for the time being.”

Tolya didn’t remind the human that animals had been freed from fenced-in places as well as houses because that had been the only way to care for all of them. As it was, Barbara Ellen spent many hours each day taking care of the birds in cages, as well as putting out food and water for the animals that were wandering about in the town. Had she considered what would happen to these creatures when the stores in Bennett ran out of their particular food?

That was a problem for another day. But it reminded him of the problem someone would have to deal with as soon as— Barbara Ellen slammed into the sheriff’s office, rushed past him, Tobias, Saul, and Joshua, and stopped in front of Virgil.

“I want to report a crime!” she said, her eyes bright with tears. “Someone shot a dog!”

* * *

* * *

Barb sat on the cot and stared at the plastic bucket and roll of toilet paper that the mean, mangy excuse for a sheriff put in her cell as “emergency facilities” in case she needed to squat before the next designated potty break. That’s what he’d said—in case she needed to squat.

Forelock! She should have remembered that she couldn’t argue with a dominant Wolf the way she could have argued with her brother, Michael. And she hadn’t been arguing. Not really. An impassioned plea to save the dogs was not arguing! But did the big, bad Wolf take that into account? No, he did not. He just hauled her into one of the cells, came back long enough to drop the bucket and toilet paper into the cell, and then left!

And to think she’d written sort of nice things about him in her first letter back home. All right, her only letter back home. But that was only a couple of weeks ago. Okay, maybe a little longer, but not that much longer.

Long enough for Michael to have received reports from the big bad without getting her side of the story? She’d write to her parents and her brother tonight—if she was out of jail by then.

Hearing the door to the cellblock open, Barb sprang to her feet and waited at the bars. She wasn’t argumentative by