Wild Country (The World of the Others #2)- Anne Bishop Page 0,54

nature, but Virgil seemed to bring out the worst in her. But she wouldn’t argue with him. She’d be polite and ask if her “me time” could be done now.

Joshua walked over to her cell. “Virgil said it was all right to bring you some things and visit with you for a while. He said your me time will be done at four o’clock unless you start yapping at him again.” He sat on the floor on the other side of the bars and opened the daypack he’d brought in with him. “You shouldn’t yap at Virgil. He’s the dominant Wolf—and the sheriff.”

The way Joshua said it, being the sheriff—a human occupation—was an afterthought. The dominant Wolf part was the part that meant something to the terra indigene.

Barb wasn’t thrilled with sitting on the floor, but it looked clean enough and she sure didn’t want to spread the blanket on the floor if she was going to have to sleep with it later.

Joshua passed her a sandwich wrapped in wax paper, followed by an apple, and a container of cookies that just fit between the bars. The bottle of water didn’t fit between the bars, so Joshua rummaged in the pack until he found the cup he’d brought. They made sure it fit before he filled it and passed it to her. Then he unwrapped a sandwich for himself.

“Someone shot a dog,” Barb said, wanting someone to understand why that was wrong.

“Tobias Walker shot one of the three dogs that attacked me.” Joshua’s unusual green eyes focused on her. “I would have killed it if it had gotten close enough for me to rake it with my claws or choke it.” He reached through the bars and caught most of her sandwich before it plopped on the floor.

“Dogs attacked you? Why?”

He shrugged. “Guess I smell more like Panther than human to them. Or maybe I don’t smell enough like Panther. If three of them had attacked Saul, none of them would have survived. As it was, Tobias Walker and Saul coming to help me scared them off. Two of them ran away. Tobias Walker shot the third.”

“Then I can find the other two and—”

“Barb, the terra indigene will find those dogs and kill them. They will keep watch for the rest of the dogs that attacked the horses.”

“Attacked … ?” Appetite gone, Barb rewrapped the sandwich in the wax paper, then set it on the cot with the apple and cookies. “Are the horses all right?”

“Most of them. I heard one of them was too hurt to save. Not sure if the injuries were made by the dogs or by the horse trying to get out of the corral and run away.” Joshua took a big bite out of his sandwich and chewed. He swallowed and licked his lips clean before adding, “I don’t think your blue horse was in the corral when it happened.”

“He wasn’t. I was at the house where I’m keeping the birds. Rowan was tied up out back.” What would have happened if the dogs had found Rowan? “The sheriff could have told me, could have explained about the dogs.”

“He would have,” Joshua replied. “Tolya would have too. But you yapped at Virgil and got him riled, so …” He looked around to indicate that this is what happened when subordinate human females yapped at dominant terra indigene males.

Barb almost asked him if he considered her a subordinate female, then decided she didn’t want to know. But this was a reminder that the Others didn’t operate on the human idea of everyone being equal. With them, there was a hierarchy and everyone had a place within that hierarchy.

Joshua leaned forward, his expression fierce and sincere. “I can defend myself, but there’s a cub … a boy … living with a group of females, and there’s a female with a skippy brain. They aren’t safe from a dog pack.”

“I haven’t had any trouble with the dogs!” Barb protested.

“Have you seen all of them? Tobias Walker said these dogs had been trained to fight and kill.”

“Of course I’ve seen …” She stopped. Thought. Had she seen all the dogs lately? The food was gone at each of the feeding stations. So was the water. And some of the dogs that were sheltering near the feeding areas were always there to greet her, always seemed glad to have human company. But some had been missing these past few days. Smaller dogs, mostly, but she hadn’t seen some of the