Page 85 of A Wolf After My Own Heart
Behind her, Sally let out a belated giggle, and half a second later, a plump bear cub was clambering up on the cot and curling up behind Dev.
“Y’know, given that you guys are constantly flinging your clothes all over the place, I’d think you’d take better care of them. Wow, that sounded really curmudgeonly out loud. You kids stay off my lawn! There, now I’ve gone full curmudgeon.” She shook out two of the blankets and draped it over them, then neatly stacked the others at the end of the sleeping bag. “Chili’s on the shelf. Try to eat some before it gets cold. And the thermos is full of hot chocolate. Okay? Helloooooo? Grunt once for yes, twice for no.”
“Nnnnnffff.”
“No idea which of you did that, but okay.” Lila couldn’t help smiling at the picture the kids made, curled up nose to tail to conserve heat. She was reminded again of Sally’s unusual coloring, the reddish-orange fur contrasting the black, the cream-colored claws, and that got her thinking about Garsea’s coloring.
Now that she better understood the nature of those in Macropi’s care, she realized that the white tips weren’t artificial highlights but her natural hair color, just like Berne’s natural color was deep brown with a violet tint. What animal had deep brown fur with white tips? She’d have to look it up.
Not that she cared. She was being neighborly, which wasn’t the same thing. Right? Right. Her interest was purely scientific.Andfor the purpose of self-preservation. It paid to find out everything you could about the people around you. Especially Oz. In particular, Oz. That wasn’t compassion, it was common sense. And a need to run her fingers through his Caesar haircut. And over his abs. And the abs of his ass. But mostly it was all about the common sense.
Chapter 34
Lila came back inside to catch the tail end of an argument between Garsea and Oz.
“No,youuse the green one.”
“What difference does it make, you clown?”
“The kids are snuggled down and have eaten,” she announced. “I am officially washing my hands of them. And of you, too. Also, you know you’ve misspelledsyndicate, right?”
“It’s purposeful,” Garsea replied.
The whiteboard was a mash of loopy scribbles. In addition toSindicate, Oz had written several names and places, with arrows connecting some of them and circles grouping others together.CaroandSindicatewere in the same bubble;Dev’s bubble intersected it. The nameLundwas connected toSindicate; someone namedWapitiwas, too.Magnus Bernewas inSally’s circle along with her parents. There was even a sketch of a little plane, with arrows pointing tosabotage?,forced to land?,parachute?,only Sam faked death? WHY???, andpilot error?And something had been erased in big sloppy swoops; all she could make out was akand part of anr.
“We’re trying to think of motives someone would have to steal, hurt, and/or kill the Smalls family.”
Lila found the names and arrows all over the board disquieting and reacted with a dumb joke instead of processing in silence like an adult. “Is cuteness a factor? Because Sally’s loaded with all the cute. And her coloring is pretty striking. Sun bear, right? I looked them up. They’re rare. Tagged as Vulnerable by people who keep track of stuff like that.” She was very much afraid she was babbling but couldn’t stop. “Maybe someone wanted her because she’s an exotic catch?”
When no one replied, she added, “Well, maybe only actual sun bears are in trouble. Not weresunbears. Weresuns?”
More silence. But not like they were judging her, or patiently waiting for her to stop babbling. More like she’d stumbled over something.No, no. Couldn’t be right.
“What? Oh, come on. I was kidding! Why would someone want a little kid just because she’s got cool-looking fur?”
She saw Garsea and Oz trade glances, and then Oz said, “We have to tell you something.”
“Ohhhhhhh boy.”
“Something you need to keep to yourself.”
“Is there booze? One of the boxes in the kitchen has booze. I feel like I might need booze.”
Oz walked over and gently guided her toward one of the kitchen chairs. She could actually feel her body temperature trying to climb, and he was barely touching her. She squashed the warring impulses to snuggle closer and shove him away. “And the only reason we’re telling you this is because you put yourself in danger to help Sally and Dev, which might’ve made you a target.”
“Vodka, beer, alcoholic seltzer, mead, mouthwash… I’m not picky.”
“Six months ago, Annette and David exposed a syndicate that had been making money off of child trafficking.”
She paused to digest that. “Okay. That’s completely fucking horrible, but it happens.”
Oz was now pacing back and forth in front of the whiteboard. “Yep. However,thesecompletely fucking horrible people weren’t just targeting juveniles. They were targeting a particular sect of Shifter kits: the runaways, the addicts, the orphans shuffling through the foster system. The homeless, the sick and injured Shifters…”
“There are homeless Shifter kids? Kits, I mean?” Lila wasn’t sure why she was shocked. Being able to grow fur didn’t guarantee a roof over your head. How very fucking depressing.
“Yeah, unfortunately. Anyway, these guys would zero in on at-risk cubs.”
“Like Caro.”
