Page 41 of Raised By Wolves

Mrs. Simon makes us stand on the sidewalk right outside the cafeteria. All the kids stare out the windows at us until the chief pulls up in his cop car. It looks like we’re being arrested.

“Lock them up!” someone calls.

“Why’d they call the police?” says someone else. “They should’ve called animal control.”

I can see Logan’s brother, Mac, standing off to the side. He’s not saying anything. His eyes do the talking instead.You’re dead, they say.

“Get in,” the chief says.

Holo and I climb into the back and the chief slams the car into gear. He’s holding the steering wheel so tight it looks like he’s trying to strangle it. Beside me, Holo’s shaking. He may be good at fighting, but he isn’t used to it.

“What happened back there?” the chief finally asks.

Before my brother can answer, I say, “Nothing.”

“Kai, the principal doesn’t call me fornothing.”

I glare at him defiantly in the rearview mirror. “Logan told the truth about us,” I say.We’re freaks.“And so Holo beat the hell out of him.”

CHAPTER 30

DINNER’S TENSE THAT night. The chief chomps his grilled cheese like he’s mad at it. He answers Lacey’s questions about his day in grunts.

Lacey finally puts down her silverware and says, “Will you stopstewing, Chester? Logan Hardy’s an ass, if you’ll excuse my saying so! He got what was coming to him.” She turns to Holo. “I don’t approve of fighting, young man. But I know you didn’t mean to hurt him.”

You don’t know us, I think.You don’t know anything.

“Maybe you should lock us up again,” I challenge the chief. “Keep us from getting into more trouble.”

The chief’s eyes flash with anger. “If you end up in jail, it won’t be because of me,” he says. “It’ll be because the Hardys decided to charge Holo with assault.”

Holo goes pale as snow.

Lacey swats the chief on the arm. “Don’t scare them like that, Chester. Reginald Hardy’ll admit his son got his butt beat on the day he’ll tap-dance in a tutu. Now, Holo, you andKai clear the table and then head on up to your rooms. Chester and I have things to discuss.”

For once I don’t mind doing what I’m told. Better to be alone than sit around with a pissed-off police chief.

If he were a wolf, he’d have just bitten me and been done with it. Anger’s a human thing.

So is regret—and revenge.

Upstairs I flop down onto the bed and stare at the ceiling. I can hear Lacey and the chief doing the dishes together in the kitchen. Later they go into the living room, and the big recliner squeaks as the chief sinks down into it.

Lacey’s honeyed voice floats softly up the stairs. “They don’t have anyone but us, Chester.”

I roll off my bed and tiptoe to the landing so I can hear better.

“They’ve got each other,” says the chief gruffly.

“But no one else is looking out for them.”

“They’ve done pretty well so far. I’ve seen kids with two parents doing plenty worse.”

Yeah, like Julissa Hill. Her mom’s nicer to those rabbits than she is to her own daughter. Well, up until the point that she kills and eats them, anyway.

The chief starts making a weird noise. It takes me a minute to realize that he’slaughing. “God, I would’ve loved to have seen that fight. Logan Hardy must have six inches and seventy-five pounds on Holo—but that scrawny little kid kicked the living daylights out of him.”

They’re quiet for a while, and I’m getting ready to go back to my bedroom. Then I hear Lacey say, all gentle and wondering, “Chester? Honey?”

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