by Laura Taylor
“Why’s that?” Whatever the problem was, she could solve it. Skip was a wellspring of information, Baron and Caroline had a wealth of experience in thinking outside the square, Alistair was a fount of the most imaginative ideas possible…
Mark grinned, then leaned forward to peck her lips in a brief yet heartfelt kiss. “You haven’t given me a pen.”
Luna glanced up at the sky, checking the position of the sun. It wasn’t overly late yet, but if she didn’t find an opportunity to put her plan into motion soon, it would be too late to arrange anything today. There was still the possibility of things panning out tomorrow, but the latest rumours were that the Panel and the Council had finished interviewing everyone they wanted to speak to and were now discussing their findings amongst themselves, which meant that there were no guarantees there would be a chance tomorrow to do anything at all. If they made their decision quickly, then Luna was all but out of time.
But even despite the urgency, sneaking around the estate and securing clandestine meetings with the right people was no easy task. So far, she’d learned from Tank that Caroline and Baron had been excluded from the hearing while the others discussed things – based on an idle query about the overall progress, rather than a direct question about anyone in particular – and that was as far as she’d got.
As a distraction while she planned her next move, she wandered around the formal gardens surrounding the manor. The previous owner of the estate had clearly gone for an aesthetic design, rather than a practical one, but even so, Luna could see its potential. Here, a herb garden supplying plants for both flavouring and medicinal purposes. Over there, a vegetable garden. A sunny nook where a greenhouse would be a great place to grow tomatoes. Fruit trees further up, against the south-facing stone wall where they would be kept warm. Around the side, there was a courtyard that would make a great chook pen… if one could ever manage to keep chickens around wolves. Despite their best intentions, Luna feared the temptation would prove too much for their canine sides-
In a flash, Luna shifted, dashing over to the manor’s side door. As she’d rounded the corner, she’d caught a split-second glimpse of Caroline going through that door. For the moment, there was no one else around, and though she didn’t like the idea of going inside the manor uninvited, she wasn’t likely to get a better opportunity today.
At the door, she shifted back into human form and ducked inside, her eyes struggling to adjust to the dimmer light. Caroline was just disappearing into the kitchen, so Luna glanced up and down the hall, relieved when she saw no one else around, and followed.
“Excuse me,” she said, entering the room. Caroline was standing at one of the fridges, and she looked up, then closed the fridge door, her stance defensive, though not overly alarmed. As a general rule, Sempre’s pack were not welcome inside the manor, Sempre having made it clear that living in human dwellings was beneath them, in a tone sharp enough that much of the Den had taken offence at the pronouncement. “I need to ask a favour.”
Caroline levelled a hard stare at her, not overtly angry, but not quite trusting her either. “Let’s pretend for a moment that I might be interested in helping you. If that was the case, what would you want?”
“Am I right in thinking that George prepares your evening meals?” Luna asked.
“You are.”
“Then could you ask him to prepare dinner for my pack tonight? It doesn’t have to be anything fancy. Spaghetti bolognaise would be perfect. It’s quick, it’s simple, and it’s human food; it would be served on plates, with cutlery…”
Caroline’s eyes narrowed. “I was under the impression you all usually ate in wolf form.” Hence the copious supply of fresh meat they’d been provided with.
“We do,” Luna agreed. “Usually.”
“So what will providing human food do?”
Luna glanced around again, her heart pounding in fear. “It will undermine Sempre’s authority. People will want to eat the food, and Sempre will try and stop them. Nobody’s going to be happy about that.”
“What if she succeeds in stopping them from eating it?” Caroline asked, her face unreadable; a fact that was doing nothing to help Luna’s already frayed nerves. She was working on the basis that Caroline disliked Sempre enough to overlook any plans to overthrow her, but there was a small but realistic possibility she had misread the confident and authoritative woman.
“She won’t,” Luna said firmly. “She will try and turn you away when you bring it, but leave it in our camp regardless, and I’ll deal with the rest.”
Caroline was silent. There were more questions hovering in her eyes, but after a long moment, she seemed to decide against asking any of them. “I’ll have it arranged,” she said finally. “But be warned, Luna. You trifle with powerful people. Those around Sempre will not let her fall easily. And if you seek to remove her, only to replace her with someone else just like her, Il Trosa will not be nearly so patient the second time around.”
Luna didn’t bother making any promises about what sort of leader she considered herself to be. First, she had the monumental task of toppling Sempre from her roost – a task that could well cost her her life. If that succeeded, then based on recent history, no mere words would placate Caroline. Only time and the evidence of Luna’s own actions would answer her fears.
“Thank you,” Luna said simply. “May Sirius guide your days.” She headed for the door, preparing herself for a speedy exit.
“And yours,” Caroline said softly, as she opened it. “And all the rest of us as well.”
It was late afternoon when Dee found Baron on the back lawn. The huge black wolf was lounging in the grass, catching the last of the sun’s rays, and Dee stopped when she saw him. He’d been working far too hard lately, a fact that had been obvious to everyone, and though she was eager to get things moving with her and Mark’s application for children, she didn’t really want to disturb him when he was taking five minutes to himself. But just as she went to turn around and go back the way she’d come, he looked up and saw her, and even in wolf form, his expression was easily readable. It said ‘Good god, what now?’
“I can come back later,” Dee offered, not at all put out by his apparent irritation. In response, Baron snorted, then rolled over on his back, legs splayed, the tip of his tail wagging a fraction, and Dee couldn’t help but grin at the sight. In wolf-speak, it meant she was welcome to stay, though he wasn’t feeling particularly energetic. A growl or a show of teeth, on the other hand, would have been a clear signal to leave him alone.
“I needed to give you something,” she explained, while Baron lay on his back and seemed to ignore her. But the twitching of his ears indicated he was listening closely. “I know you’re busy, and I’m not expecting an answer any time soon, but…” She took a breath, suddenly nervous about what she’d come to ask. “Mark and I were hoping to start the process of applying to adopt some children.” She held out the form helplessly, though Baron wasn’t looking.
He didn’t move when he heard her words, the silence broken only by the wind rustling the trees, the sound somehow cold and lonely. After a long moment, he rolled over, huffing out a deep sigh as he looked up and saw the form she was offering him. He rose to his feet, shook himself thoroughly, his fur having begun to take on its thicker winter coat, and shifted.
When she’d first arrived at the Den, Dee had been terrified of Baron’s wolf form. Shifter wolves on average were larger than their natural cousins, and Baron’s wolf was large even by shifter standards. But as she’d grown accustomed to people’s canine forms, she’d actually come to find Baron’s wolf quite comforting. His canine side was patient, gentle, with an unearthly wisdom shining from within those golden eyes.
His human form, on the other hand, still held the capacity to intimidate her perfectly well. He was a huge man, tall, with thick muscles and a brooding look that always made her second guess herself. His tendency to wear bulky jackets in the cooler weather only made him seem larger.
But Dee had also learned from experience that just because Baron was glaring at you didn’t mean he was angry. If you’d done something to upset him, he wouldn’t hesitate to let you know, but in the absence of a specific complaint or reprimand, what often appeared to be an ill temper was actually just the result of a keen mind working more quickly than most of the Den could keep up with. Rather than thinking about the straightforward question of whether Dee and Mark could adopt, Baron was just as likely now thinking about who was going to educate the child, whether or not Silas would be too old to teach him or her to fight, and how the hell they were going to explain to a temperamental teenager why he couldn’t go out to parties like the kids he saw on television. She waited, while a thousand thoughts and ideas filtered through his mind, and then he finally came back around to the question at hand.
“It’s been a long time since this Den had any children in it,” he said slowly, a faint nostalgic longing in the words. “But raising children in this world, with the Noturatii breathing down our necks all the time, is no small task. Neither Caroline nor I have ever seen it done before. We’d have to talk to Heron, I think. She’s the last person in this Den who’s actually been there and done that.”
“Just for the sake of clarity,” Dee interrupted him, at Faeydir’s quiet internal prompting, “we’re not just applying for a human child. Faeydir wants puppies, so… I know it’s not the usual way, but we were hoping the Council would let us convert a child while she was still a baby.”
Baron swore softly and ran a hand through his hair. “Shifter puppies? Hell, Dee, you know how to make a damn mess, don’t you? Human children are hard enough, always wanting to tell someone that they live with wolves, or that their aunt or uncle is ‘magical’, but children who can actually shift? God, can you imagine the nightmare that would create for security?”
Dee’s heart sank at his words. “Is that a no, then?” Damnit, she’d hoped to at least get further than this.
Baron sighed, then took the form out of her hand, glancing over it briefly. “No, it’s not a no. It’s just me whinging about one more thing in the world that I can’t control.” He gave her a half-hearted smile. “You’d think I’d be used to that by now, but it turns out you never really get the hang of it.” He glanced at the form again. “I’ll talk to Caroline about it,” he said finally, folding the papers and sticking them in his back pocket. “You’re well aware that we have bigger problems to deal with right at the moment,” he added, and Dee nodded quickly. “I’m not making any promises, but when we get a chance to draw breath, we’ll have a look at it and see what we think.”
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
Evenings were quiet in the Grey Watch camp, little going on besides a few women mending holes in their cloaks, or the low grinding of someone chewing on a bone, so when the sound of multiple pairs of feet coming their way broke the silence, it got everyone’s attention. Sempre was on her feet in an instant, rushing to meet the group approaching them, while Meili and Skye both scrambled to back her up. Lucia, Luna noticed, another high ranking wolf who could easily have made a play for one of the coveted positions at Sempre’s side, sat up and was clearly paying attention, but seemed to have far less interest in kissing Sempre’s arse just at the moment. She was a tall woman in her late thirties, currently third in rank, just below Skye, and by virtue of that position, she’d managed to secure enough food for herself to have developed a solid set of muscles. Over the last few days she seemed to have been deliberately letting the distance between herself and their alpha grow, but Luna couldn’t quite decide whether it was because she disagreed with Sempre’s philosophies on life, or because she simply didn’t want to be dragged down with her, should the Panel end up voting against her.
The group approaching them consisted of Caroline, Tank, George and two others whose names Luna couldn’t quite remember. Both were about the same age – in their early twenties, by her reckoning – and one was Asian while the other was Caucasian, with a shock of red hair that seemed to glow in the firelight.
“Good evening,” Caroline greeted Sempre, polite, but lacking any real warmth. “It looks like the hearing will be coming to a close sooner rather than later, so we thought a gesture of goodwill might be in order.”
Four of them were carrying steaming bowls of food, Luna could see from her position, while Tank was carrying a large, folding table. “We’ve brought dinner for you,” Caroline said bluntly, when Sempre neither moved to let them past, nor acknowledged the gift in any way. “Where would you like us to put it?”
“What is it?” Sempre asked, peering into the bowls with a look of disgust on her face.
“Spaghetti bolognaise.” It was almost comical how those two simple words got the attention of every single person in the camp. Heads came up, noses were scenting the air, and half a dozen people shifted impulsively, eyeing the bowls eagerly. The human food they had in the camp was plain, and there was never enough of it to go around.
“Take it away,” Sempre said haughtily. “We don’t need petty handouts from you. We’re perfectly capable of looking after ourselves.”
Even in the dim light, it was easy to see the flat impatience on Caroline’s face, and Luna prayed that she wouldn’t just get sick of this whole charade and walk away, taking the food with her. But instead, she gave a quick nod to Tank, who set up the folding table right there in the pathway. The others set the bowls down, along with a stack of paper plates and a box of cutlery.
“We’ll leave it here,” Caroline said dismissively. “Eat it, or don’t. We simply thought you might enjoy something different for a change.” Without so much as glancing at Luna, she turned and strode away, the others falling in behind her.
Sempre gaped after them, then turned her back negligently on the table of steaming food. “Don’t eat it,” she snarled. “We’re wolves. This is just another demonstration of how out of touch Il Trosa really is.”
“Yes, we’re wolves,” Luna said loudly, taking the opportunity she’d just created for herself. “But we’re also human. I don’t think Il Trosa meant any harm by this. They’re just trying to be hospitable.” She forced her muscles to relax, ignoring her pounding heart as she became aware that everyone in the camp had fallen silent around her. It was a rare thing for anyone to oppose Sempre and an even rarer thing for Luna to be the one to do it. She longed to glance at the faces around her to see how they were reacting to her protest, but she didn’t dare take her eyes off Sempre.
Sempre turned to glare at her, lips raised in a silent snarl. “I said don’t eat it,” she hissed. “Il Trosa insults us with this pathetic attempt at a ‘gift’.” She turned away, clearly considering the issue to be closed.
“But we’re on their estate,” Luna said to her back. “Wouldn’t we be insulting them if we refused it?” Further discussion was only going to work against her, she knew, so she moved quickly, going over to the table and picking up a plate. “It’s just food,” she pointed out, trying not to let her hand shake as she served herself a portion of spaghetti. “There’s no reason we should let it go to waste.” She added a dollop of bolognaise sauce and turned around again, thoroughly prepared to lose her meal before she’d even tasted it, knowing that Sempre might try to take it from her, or even start a fight with her, depending on how angry she was.
Sempre was indeed furious, glaring at her with her mouth hanging open, as if she couldn’t quite believe that anyone would dare to disobey her so brazenly. But then something happened that Luna hadn’t thought of, something that she hadn’t even dared to imagine might happen.
Lucia rose to her feet and stepped over to the table. Luna braced herself, wondering if the powerful woman was about to put her in her place, a display of loyalty that Sempre wouldn’t be able to overlook. But instead, Lucia reached for her own plate, quickly slapping some food onto it before Sempre could protest. “She’s right,” Lucia said blandly. “It’s just food. No point in wasting it.” Standing right there, she picked up a forkf
ul and shoved it in her mouth.
Rift and Anya moved next, Luna’s two closest friends. They hurried to the table, heaping food onto their own plates.
“How dare you!” Sempre shouted. “Lucia, I will see you demoted to the bottom of the pack. And Luna! You’ve just earned yourself a week in the cage for this disgusting display-”
She didn’t get any further, a handful more women jumping up to help themselves to the food, and suddenly it was a free-for-all, the rest of them too worried about missing out to care what Sempre was going to do to them. It was equal parts heartening and gut-wrenching to see the women flooding around the table, and Luna tried to focus on the fact that they were openly opposing Sempre, rather than on the way they were squabbling over food like five-year-olds who’d just been told there wasn’t enough cake for everyone. Right now they bore far more resemblance to domestic dogs than to their wild, independent cousins.
“When she falls,” a low voice said into Luna’s ear, “I will stand with you.” She turned around to see Lucia standing beside her, her next forkful of food already in her mouth, and then the woman wandered away as if nothing had happened, ignoring everyone around her as if she hadn’t a care in the world.
Seeing that Sempre had lost this battle, Luna put some effort into shovelling her own food into her mouth; for all that this had been arranged as a display of power – or the lack thereof – she was as hungry as everyone else. But perhaps she hadn’t been the only one working her way up the ranks with a deeper plan in mind, she mused, watching Lucia walk away. Unfortunately, finding time for a quiet chat with this most unexpected ally was not going to be easy. And deciding whether or not to trust the woman would be harder still.