Page 110 of Moon Tamed

After a long wait, which Calden used to lecture me on the various canine instincts I would need to ignore, to prevent problems with the other Hunters, Kirkland returned with a fish so fresh it still flopped.

Calden dispatched my dinner with a laugh, removed the head, and went to work cutting it into pieces small enough I could eat without choking on it. I eyed the skin, which included the scales.

“I did some research, and it appears the sea wolves favor the heads,” Kirkland announced.

According to my wolf body, he was onto something, because the head held a rather startling appeal.

I might never be able to look a fish in the eyes again while human, but before Calden could stop me, I pounced on the part he’d discarded and went to town getting it into my stomach where it belonged.

The fish crunched nicely, and it tasted a great deal better than I expected. Once done, I sat and waited for him to resume feeding me.

Calden sighed but held out one of the filets. “You were supposed to wait to learn how to eat without choking.”

As I hadn’t choked on my first adventure eating, I chomped on the filet, taking the time to chew it into pieces before swallowing.

“It seems she does not come prepackaged with any aversions to her animal’s base behaviors.” Kirkland crouched nearby and observed me while I ate. “Actually, I’m impressed. She doesn’t even care she just devoured a raw fish. It took you how long before you could deal with raw meat?”

“About three weeks,” Calden replied in a rueful tone. “I guess that’s another thing I don’t have to worry about.”

“She’s smart, and she’s educated. She probably doesn’t have any aversions to seeing raw meat after hunting rabbit for so long.”

“She didn’t eat her rabbit raw while human.”

“But she understands the relationship between animals and their supper, and as a wolf, her dinner comes in the form of raw meats, bones, and so on.”

“We can ask her about it tomorrow. Do you have more fish? I don’t think that’s going to be more than a snack.”

“I have two more live ones in a cooler in the kitchen, and I have three meant for us humans. Those have already been cleaned and prepared for cooking. I also brought a few rabbits, knowing how much she likes them. Those have been cleaned already. Stuff her silly and then have her sleep it off so we don’t have to deal with any mournful howls when boredom takes hold.”

“If it wasn’t so difficult to read books while a wolf, we wouldn’t have any reasons to howl.”

“Turn the pages for her.”

“I’m sure it’ll be fine. It’s just a few howls.”

Kirkland’s patience-worn sigh warned me I missed something about their discussion, but rather than worry about it, I attended to the serious work of filling my belly.

Within a few hours, I understood the commentary about howling. A nap did me a world of good, but I wanted to go do something. Calden did not want me going out and doing anything. He followed me around, and every time I showed interest in a door, he picked me up with a grunt and hauled me away from temptation.

Most times, he hauled me to the library, put me on his lap, and held a book open for me until the urge to go do something resulted in another chase around the estate. Legacy’s leader kept laughing at Calden, who often lost twenty to thirty minutes trying to contain me.

“She’s not making this easy on you, is she?”

“She will settle down to read for a while, and she’s learned a soft whuffle will get me to turn the page for her. Unfortunately, she has a limited attention span and a high drive to be productive. This does not surprise me in the slightest.” Calden sighed, taking care to keep a good hold on me while we were on the couch, thus blocking my ability to go create trouble and mayhem and escape outside. “Have you delivered your ransom requests yet?”

“I took a picture of you hauling your wolf into the library and informed your father I’ve decided to open a wolf sanctuary in my home. I said I would think about visitation rights. He had questions. I had some answers, enough to satisfy him, so you’re free from his interference for the next week and a half. I told him Coraline would produce the report in the next two or three days. He’ll delay the election announcement long enough to give her time to finish without stressing her.”

“Okay. Good. Does your brother still race greyhounds?”

“As a matter of fact, yes. Why?”

“Chasing rabbits around his course might calm her down for a while. Maybe if I set her loose there, she won’t bolt for the woods never to be seen again.”

“You’d see her again, I’m sure—around the same time she becomes lonely and even more bored with life on the wild side.” Kirkland snickered, came over, and crouched in front of me. “You are an inside wolf until you have at least a week of shifting. The last time the Hunters let a wolf outside during their first shift, it was a two-week chase. The wolf in question fried his brain, viewed it all as a most excellent and entertaining game, and decided to test his faction’s patience and skills. They finally caught him by using his girlfriend. They startled her into screaming and waited for the fireworks. He didn’t like the sound of his girlfriend being frightened, so he came out ready for a fight. One tranquilizer to the ass later ended new wolves playing outside.”

I could understand why they’d make the effort to keep me contained. I could see myself doing the same thing.

Mostly, I wanted Calden to chase me, and the fun of being chased involved what would happen after he caught me. In reality, I wanted the chasing and the catching to happen while human, with the final destination involving a shared bedroom.

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