Page 24 of Moon Tamed

My brother met me at the door and peered into the carriers. “Your current job is your heaven, isn’t it?”

Had I known the Hunters got to work with animals and not just ate them, I probably would have applied for their contracts. Without hesitation and as often as I could manage while still getting some variety in my life. “Apparently. The cheetahs are mine.”

Peter eyed the tigers and lion. “Isn’t it weird for a wolf to be caring for cats?”

Calden’s father, who’d brought his own SUV, came up the walkway behind me along with his son. Both men eyed the carries, turned their stares to Peter, and said, “Yes.”

Between the two of them, we got everything in except the pet food in one round, and my brother went to help with the supplies. I skipped into the kitchen to wash my hands before claiming the turkey and putting it in the sink so it could be cleaned properly. Once done, I returned to the living room, which rapidly ran out of space for everyone and the animals.

My mother worked to make sure both of her new pets understood she would love them forever, and Peter whispered in my ear, “Mom cried earlier.”

I nodded, unsurprised by the news, and I whispered back, “Dad had told me she’d gone to Earth.”

“Dad texted me when news spread about the eruption, telling me to expect the worst and to be patient for a few days. Good job on ruling the library and the bookstore.”

“I have the digireader in my purse, but I haven’t gone through the rest of the bag yet,” I admitted.

“You’ll like everything,” Peter promised. He eyed the collection of cat carriers and birds. “We have a pair of play pens to set up in the hall so the kittens can stretch and play. Mom bailed from work early.” In a soft tone, he added, “She used the power of her tears to go buy her grandkittens toys. She also bought bird toys.”

My mother, who had better hearing than I thought, twisted around and glared at us both. “I did not expect peacocks. I expected pigeons or something else. Something smaller. I should have known, seeing the size of the pen Calden had delivered.”

“I’m sure he’ll like whatever toys you got for him, Mom,” I replied. “Do you want us to move the birds to the sunroom?”

“We’ll move them after dinner, once we convince the other residents they need to share nicely.”

Calden eased around the carriers, stared at the bird pen, and chuckled at the situation. “If the birds are anything to go by, your kittens are going to be spoiled, as is proper for true apex predators. My cats will also be spoiled, gods and goddesses ready to take over the world.”

I nodded. “Our rescues must be joyous while also being spoiled. I’m still confused over why we have a bunch of baby predators, though.”

Calden crouched to check on his cats. “Our planet doesn’t really have many good places for these species to roam in the wild. The ratio of predators to prey would become unbalanced, and it would become a disaster. Unless we can find a large island habitat suitable for them, they’ll live out their lives in captivity. There are enough of every species to start a good breeding program with appropriate genetic diversity, though.”

“Hey, Peter? Where are the pens for the kittens?”

“I’ll get them and set them up in the hall,” my brother replied, heading off to help prepare for an evening of watching kittens be kittens while they captured our souls in their tiny paws.

My mother got up, dusted off, and said, “I’ll be in the sunroom checking in on the other birds.”

Once my mother left, my father came in, heaved a sigh, and said, “Expect tears. She’ll be fine one minute and sobbing the next.”

Poor Mom. “It’s a shock.”

I still struggled to process that an entire planet of people evacuated due to a single natural disaster, one that would choke the planet, drop the temperatures, and destroy much of the environment until nature had a chance to recover.

That the eruption had happened in a densely populated place, with the death toll expected to reach into the billions, would haunt me. “I had heard of Yellowstone and Lake Toba, but I’d never heard of Mount Paektu,” I admitted. “It was just not in any of the material they gave about Earth’s volcanic activity.”

I’d paid attention to my education, as everyone got a chance to learn about Earth and enroll in the travel program to go to the planet if desired.

My father shrugged. “I hadn’t, either. I hadn’t even realized Earth had such a dense population in one area. I knew there were a lot of people living there, but not that many people.”

“It makes us seem so small,” I confessed in a whisper. “Our planet is bigger, but our population isn’t.”

My mother returned from her adventure into the sunroom, and she carried one of the older doves with her, who’d hurt her wing and wouldn’t be able to fly again. The bird went onto my shoulder, and my mother kissed my cheek. “Marigold is allowed indoors now because she can’t fly anymore. She should live another year or two, especially if we keep her from being harassed by the other doves.”

I petted Marigold, accepted my clothes would need to be washed once the bird finished with me, and said, “Her quality of life will be good?”

“So the vet said. I wanted to change her name to Money Dump, but your father said no.”

Dad laughed. “It’s true. You can’t change her name even though it’s accurate. I had to put up with the vet calling me horrible names while paying the bill.”

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