Page 14 of Raised By Wolves

Her eyebrows disappear up under her straggly bangs. “Bityou?”

“Well, really it was more of a nip.”

Snapsnapsnapgo Holo’s teeth. God, I love that kid.

Ms. Pettibon’s pen scratches at lightning speed across her form. “In what other ways did they punish you?”

“Made us stay in the den,” I say.

“The den of your house? Like the TV room?”

“The denwasthe house,” I say.

Actually, only the littlest wolf pups sleep in dens, but what does she know?

Ms. Pettibon makes a sad face at me. “Oh dear, I am finding all this very hard to believe.”

I lean back and cross my arms. “That seems like a you problem,” I say.

Her face starts to go pink, then purplish. It’s not a good look. Clashes with her hair and lipstick.

Holo gets down on all fours and starts growling. It’s almost impossible to keep from cracking up. Ms. Pettibon’s probably seen tough kids before, but how many of them acted like they wanted to gnaw on her ankles?

Ms. Pettibon stands up. “I think we should continue this interview later,” she says.

“Great. You know where to find us.”

When she stalks off down the hall, I turn to Holo. “Good job chasing her off,” I say. “But you might want to start acting a little bit more like a human, or else they’re going to take you out of jail and put you in the pound.”

CHAPTER 12

“MAYBE THEY REALLYdolive with wolves,” Officer Randall says, rubbing his aching temples. He’s spent hours trying to track down leads, but he keeps coming up empty-handed. Nobody around here’s ever seen these kids before. There’s no one matching their descriptions in the NCIC database. “I mean, they’re dirty and smelly enough.”

The chief sighs as he glances back toward the kids pacing their jail cell. The boy snarls and bares his teeth. He does that every time Chester looks in his direction.

Isn’tanyonemissing these two?the chief wonders.

Or did someone want them gone?

“My dog has better manners,” Randall adds. “Shep knows not to snarl at people, or snap at ’em, or piss in corners.”

It’s true these kids seem pretty feral. But something isn’t adding up for Chester Greene.

“I did some reading about kids raised by wolves,” he says. “They don’t act like human kids at all. They don’t ever laughor smile. They only want to eat raw food. Most of them can barely talk.”

“Well, that boy hardly says a damn word,” Randall points out.

“Doesn’t mean he can’t.” The chief takes a sip of his coffee, forgetting that it’s gone cold. He grimaces. “If these kids were really raised by wolves, we’d be lucky to get a yes or a no out of them.”

“That girl’s kinda mouthy.”

“Exactly,” the chief says. “And ‘raised by wolves’ isn’t even what you’d call it, anyway. It’s more like the kids I read about weretoleratedby wolves. Notraisedby them. All the wolves really did was decide not to eat them for dinner.”

“So you’re telling me wolves wouldn’t win any parenting awards,” Randall says.

“Yeah,” Chester says grimly, “and you know who else wouldn’t? Kai and Holo’s parents. Who the hell are they, and where the hell are they, and why aren’t they looking for their children?”

“Well, they’re not exactly charming,” Randall points out. “I mean, if they weremykids—”

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