Page 20 of Raised By Wolves

“Good stuff, huh?” the chief says.

“Great,” Holo says. “But Kai’s the best cook there is.”

“Most teens I know can barely boil a box of Annie’s Mac,” says Lacey.

“I’m not that good,” I say. “Holo’s just really loyal. Kind of like a dog.”

Or a wolf.

My brother kicks me under the table.

The chief says, “Lacey and I talked it over last night, and we figure you two can stay here until we work things out.”

Holo looks over at me, waiting to see what I’ll say. I’ve always made the decisions for us. What do I say? Should we stay? It seems crazy to me. But Holo wants to, I can tell. And I—well, I don’t really have a better plan.

“Before you answer,” the chief says, “I should point out that your only other option is going back to jail.”

Or running away, I think.

But I know that I don’t want to run. Not yet.

My mouth’s full of bread, so I just nod.Okay, fine.I’m not thrilled about moving in with the guy who arrested me. But maybe that’s what you get when you break a bunch of laws and you don’t have any parents to rescue you.

“We want your lives to be as normal as possible until everything’s figured out with the Grizzly,” Lacey says. “And with… where you belong.”

I choke on a bite of bread. Normal? Lacey doesn’t understand thatnoneof this is normal to us.

Later, lying in a big, soft bed for the first time ever, I can’t fall asleep. I keep thinking I hear the wolves pacing around outside.

Looking for us. Missing us.

I get up and go to the window. The sky’s gone black, and I can see a thousand stars and the blurry wash of the Milky Way. We’re not so far away from where we were raised, but somehow it feels like I can’t get there from here.

CHAPTER 16

IN THE MORNING, Lacey and the chief feed us a hot breakfast and then take us somewhere even worse than jail.

High school.

The principal’s name is Mrs. Simon. She’s hugely tall, and she shakes my hand with a grip so strong I wince.

“So you want to be a Kokanee Creek Cougar,” she booms at me.

No, I can’t say I do.

But Mrs. Simon looks like she could wrestle a cougar and win, so instead of answering I shrug. There’s no need to get on her bad side on purpose; I’m pretty sure I’ll do it soon enough by mistake.

“The chief tells me you two have never been to school before.”

I shake my head no. My brother just stares at her. I can tell he’s trying hard not to snarl.

“And you are”—she glances down at a piece of paper covered in notes—“seventeen and fourteen?”

I nod. Sounds about right.

Mrs. Simon turns to the chief and Lacey. “They dospeak,don’t they? When we talked on the phone, you said nothing about them being mutes.”

“Yes, ma’am, they speak,” says the chief. “They’re quiet on the whole, but if you piss ’em off, you’ll hear about it.”

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