“For you.” Red tinted his cheeks as he handed it over.
“Thank you,” I said, feeling equally uncomfortable.
One by one, they handed me grass until I had a pile next to the door large enough for several brooms. After the last one left, Mary closed the door, gave me an undecipherable look, and motioned for me to follow her. We went to the room I’d first slept in. She shut the door and turned to me.
“I have never seen anything like that before,” she said in a whisper.
“What do you mean?”
She motioned for me to keep my voice down and peaked out the window. I followed her gaze. Men and wolves mingled in the yard.
“They don’t do that,” she said moving away from the window. She caught my puzzled look and pointed at my neck. “They do that. They see a female and Claim her. If there’s someone else interested, they fight for the right to her. They’ll hunt for you, but they don’t bring you things. They don’t try to get on your good side first. I thought they might be nicer to you, but that was unbelievable.”
Bringing grass to a girl was unbelievable? It hardly seemed worthy of her astonishment. Yet, it was their way. I sat on the floor and started winding together some of the grass I still held. Mary sat next to me.
“No flowers, nice dinners, or seeing a show. Just a life-threatening bite on the neck.” It seemed a very harsh courtship. Nothing I wanted any part of.
“It’s not life-threatening to us. We heal quickly. The ones who bit you didn’t know you wouldn’t heal.”
I didn’t think it made it any better but tried to look at it from her point of view. Would I feel differently about the bites if they were already healed? I couldn’t decide.
She watched as I wove the top of two clumps together. When I had a decent bunch, I stood and tried it. It worked all right.
“Here,” I said handing the sad little broom to Mary. “Can you start sweeping this room out? I’ll get more of the grass.”
She took the broom with an arched brow but nodded. I left her there, sweeping awkwardly, and made my way to the main room.
As soon as I entered, someone knocked on the door, and I regretted leaving Mary behind.
I’ll be fine, I told myself as I squared my shoulders. I’d run from Penny. I wouldn’t run from them, unless they started eyeing my neck again. My shoulders slumped, and my hand drifted upward in a protective gesture. I didn’t want to experience that ever again.
Another knock on the door pulled me from my thoughts. What to do?
“You said you needed supplies.” The hesitant voice beyond the door gave me my answer.
With a sigh, I cautiously opened the door. Men waited, and the rest of the wolves shuffled around behind them. They were so different. I was different, too. Different didn’t necessarily mean bad. As Mary had pointed out, the first two hadn’t known I wasn’t one of them. I needed to give the rest a chance, didn’t I?
“Have any of you ever been inside a grocery?” I asked.
No one responded.
“Have any of you used money before?”
They remained quiet. It looked like I wouldn’t get any of the things I’d wanted.
“Winifred is willing to help whoever you send,” the one closest to me said. He had dark brown eyes and wore his light brown hair in shaggy waves back from his face. Sparse whiskers grew on his chin and upper lip. He watched me with interest but seemed relaxed.
Since he’d answered, I handed him the money from my pocket.
“Canned vegetables and a can opener, nails—as many as you can buy—and a hammer, toilet paper, and a handsaw. I don’t know how much of that you can get. Just don’t steal anything.”
When he turned, the men parted and watched him leave.
I eased the door closed, collected my grass, and went to join Mary. If I worried each time I had to open the door, how would I ever be able to live here?
We had the bed moved into the newly cleaned room and another rabbit roasting on the fire by the time the man returned. When he handed me the bag, he gave me an expectant smile. I wasn’t sure what he wanted.
“Thank you. What’s your name?”
“Anton.”
“Thank you, Anton.”
He grinned wider, nodded, and walked away. With relief, I went to sit by Mary, who waited near the fire. Inspecting the bag, I pulled out each item and found we had the nails we needed but no hammer. There were also several canned goods, an opener, a handsaw, and my change.
“Why do you need all of that?” Mary asked.
“Because, if I’m going to stay here, we need to fix this place up. Winter will be cold, won’t it?”
She started shaking her head then stopped. “Without fur, yes. So you know how to fix things?”
I shook my head. “But it’ll be easier to learn that than it would to grow fur.”
She nodded, and we ate the rabbit as the light faded.
Four