Wild Country (The World of the Others #2)- Anne Bishop Page 0,69

quickly.”

The men looked hopeful and stunned at the acceptance. Jesse felt stunned too because she had a very bad feeling that Tolya had just lied. Whatever the terra indigene were feeling about these men, acceptance had no part of it.

* * *

* * *

Jana would have been all right with Virgil putting the men in one hotel room and the children in another if there had been a connecting door between the rooms. But there wasn’t, and she didn’t have to be an Intuit or a blood prophet or anything else to know what that meant.

She kept a chokehold on her temper and her heart until Virgil closed the door to the children’s room.

“You can’t separate those children from their parents. They’re a family.” She kept her voice low to avoid being overheard, but her anger came through loud and clear.

“They’re not family,” Virgil growled. “They’re human males who have taken—”

“They didn’t take those children in the way you mean. They gave those children a home, gave them love, protection. Taught them. That’s what parents do.” She looked at the anger on his face, in his eyes. “What? A Panther can raise a human boy and that’s all right, but a human can’t love a child who is terra indigene?”

“There were reasons Joshua ended up with the Panthergard.”

“And there are reasons those children ended up with Evan and Kenneth. Who are you to judge?”

Virgil leaned toward her. She leaned toward him, balancing her weight and balling her hands into fists.

“You know nothing about it,” Virgil snarled.

“I know you don’t have to give birth to a child to love it,” Jana snarled back. “I was raised by foster parents. I loved them and they loved me, and we were family. Those men love those children, and the children love them. I can see it, even if you don’t. Or won’t.”

Virgil stepped back and studied her.

She hoped by all the gods that she could find the right words to get through to him. “Kenneth and Evan brought those children here because they knew there would be terra indigene here. Wolves and Coyotes and Hawks and so many more. They brought those children here to learn to be who they are, where they could be who they are. This is Bennett. Who will care if a boy can shift into a Wolf? Here they don’t need to be a secret in order to be protected.”

We learned from you.

A chill went through her as she remembered the sign and gave a fleeting thought to how those children had ended up with two human men in the first place. Orphans, Evan had called the children. But not because of the recent killings. Lost or abandoned by their original family—or stolen from their families—they had been taken in by Evan and Kenneth a few years ago. Except Maddie.

“Maybe you should talk to the children before you make any decisions about their futures,” Jana said.

Virgil released a gusty exhale that sufficiently expressed his annoyance. “Fine. We’ll talk to them.” He went to the hotel door, wrapped his hand around the knob, and then looked at her. “Come on. It’s your idea.”

The moment they walked into the room, Mace and Zane leaped toward them, growling.

“What did you do with our dads?” Mace demanded.

“Give ’em back,” Zane said.

“They’re in the next room,” Virgil said, giving no indication if he was annoyed or pleased by the youngsters’ challenge. “They have to talk to the mayor about work and finding a house for all of you.”

Mace cocked his head. Since he hadn’t seen Virgil do that, Jana figured it was something Wolves did.

“All of us?” Mace sounded like he didn’t quite trust the sheriff.

Virgil gave the boy a curt nod. “All of you.” He looked at the girls, who were on the floor near one of the beds.

The girl Tolya Sanguinati had said didn’t smell like prey stared at nothing. Vacant eyes that Jana found unnerving.

If the Others refer to a girl as a sweet blood or say she doesn’t smell like prey, they’re talking about a blood prophet. That was one of the things Michael Debany had hurriedly told her about blood prophets before she got on the train.

Gods. What were they supposed to do with a blood prophet in their midst?

The other girl, the Hawk … Well the other girl was a young Hawk who had her wings caught in the armholes of a sleeveless shirt and the rest of her clothes bunched under her taloned feet.

Zane looked back