Now he did smile. “Nobody growls at Mama.”
The Courtyard’s minivan pulled up near an archway leading into the Market Square. Blair opened the side door. Sam leaped out, ran a few steps, and then waited until Blair picked up Skippy and set the juvenile on the ground.
The blow to the head hadn’t made Skippy’s brain any more skippy, although he yelped if anyone touched that part of his head. The broken foreleg would have been a death sentence in the wild country, unless the Wolf pack had a bodywalker who knew how to set bones. Even then, a Wolf with a broken leg couldn’t help with the hunting.
“Emily Faire convinced Jane Wolfgard to take Skippy to a vet in Ferryman’s Landing,” Simon said. “There wasn’t anything the vet could do that Jane hadn’t done already, but it was . . . friendly . . . of the Intuits to offer the help.”
“Yes, it was.” Monty hesitated. “Simon? What are you going to do about Meg?”
Simon stared at him, a warning flicker of red in the amber eyes. “Do about Meg?”
“You love her, and she loves you. You’re in love, Simon. Maybe that’s not how you would describe what you feel, but it’s obvious to the humans who know both of you.”
The medical office’s door opened and Meg hobbled out, supported by Sally Esposito and Theral MacDonald, who helped settle her in the wheelchair.
“Meg!” Sam ran to her. Skippy, with one leg in a cast, hobbled after the boy.
Simon watched them, then said in a rough voice, “I’m not human. I will never be human.”
“Is that so important?” Monty asked quietly.
Surprised, the Wolf looked at him.
Monty subtly pointed at Meg, Sam, and Skippy. “Do you know what I see when I see you and Meg and Sam together?”
“Two Wolves and a human?”
“No. I see a family.” Monty sighed. “I envy you, Simon Wolfgard. You and Meg aren’t the same species and you have an unconventional relationship, but you also have a better working partnership than I ever had with Elayne. She and I were both human, but we couldn’t find a way to make the differences in our backgrounds work for us.”
“What if Meg wants puppies? I’m not sure humans and terra indigene can do that.”
“Roo-roo!” Skippy hobbled toward Twyla Montgomery as she came out of Chocolates and Cream with a tray and four bowls of ice cream.
Setting the tray on one of the outdoor tables, she waved for Meg and Sam to join them and said sternly, “Sam, Miss Meg isn’t a toy. Don’t be racing with her in that chair—or taking shortcuts down the steps.”
“But the ice cream will melt if we go slow!” Sam protested.
“Samuel Wolfgard.”
“Yes, ma’am.”
Monty shook his head. Could a boy move any slower?
He turned his attention back to Simon. “Maybe it’s different for Wolves, but plenty of humans who are mates don’t have children for one reason or another.”
Watching his mother sitting with Meg and the two young Wolves, Monty thought about his sister, the adopted child. In a day or two, he would make a few discreet inquiries and see if he could locate her. Knowing Jimmy was no longer a threat, hopefully Sissy would get in touch with Mama. It would be good for all of them if that much could be mended.
Thinking of Sissy, Monty said, “Even if you can’t have children of your own, you have Sam.”
“Yes,” Simon replied quietly. “We have Sam.”
? ? ?
Mated pairs didn’t always stay together. Sometimes the bond between them broke. But sometimes it was the surviving mate who broke if the other died. Was that what humans called love? The joy of being together and the killing sense of loss when one of them ceased?
If he hadn’t found Meg, he wouldn’t have returned to Lakeside. He would have left Sam in Elliot’s care, and he would have . . . What? Disappeared? Died? Looked for a pack deep in the wild country who had minimum contact with human things and no contact with actual humans?
Was that love?
Or was he trying to think too much like a human? Their brains were so full of confusion it was a wonder they managed to do anything at all, let alone establish a proper social order within a pack.
Simon walked into the back room of the Liaison’s Office and stopped when he heard the muffled sound.
<Nathan?> he called to the watch Wolf, who had become extra vigilant when humans came into the office—even humans he knew. After all, none of the Wolves had liked that Cyrus, but they hadn’t thought he would steal Meg.
<She’s crying,> Nathan said. <I don’t know why.>
Simon stepped into the sorting room. “Meg?”
“I can’t find it!” she wailed. “I’ve looked and looked, and it’s not here!”
“What isn’t here?” Noticing the prophecy cards spread out on the table, he walked over to see what had upset her. All the cards were faceup.
“The card! I can’t find the card!”
Is it a real card? Couldn’t ask her that. “Real” was a slippery word right now. “You’ve held the card?”
“Yes, I’ve held the card.”
“You’re sure it’s not under these cards?”
Meg sniffled and nodded. “I’ve looked through them three times. It isn’t there.”
“Then it’s hiding, and we’ll have to find it.” Simon turned toward the back room.
“How?” Meg was back to wailing.
“You held it, so it smells like you.”
He hurried into the back room, stripped off his clothes, and shifted. In Wolf form, he returned and began sniffing his way around the sorting room. The screen was inserted in the side door to help cool the room. The air brought in the ponies’ scent and . . . cow? He followed that scent to a cargo pocket in Meg’s shorts and found additional scents—hay and feathers.
He placed a paw on the pocket. “Arroo?”
Meg put her hand over his paw. “The card isn’t in there. I received a letter from Jean.”
Ah. Farm. That explained the smells. As for the other, far more interesting smell, well, she was standing and his nose was right there, but he didn’t want to startle her into putting weight on her bad leg, so he went back to looking for the card.
He picked up a whiff of mouse in one corner. He’d talk to the Owlgard about hunting around the Market Square and the Liaison’s Office more often.
He caught Meg’s scent under the cupboards and spotted the smallest piece of something that wasn’t wood or floor. He whined at it and growled at it and scratched at it until he finally pulled it out.
“That’s it!” Meg said. She bent over and put her hands on the floor. She picked up the card, bracing herself on the side of one hand.
Simon waited, wondering if this three-limbed position was something she had learned in Quiet Mind class.
“I’m stuck,” she growled.
Oh.
He crawled between her hands and her working leg. Then he stood up, lifting her torso until she could grab the table and lift herself the rest of the way. Having seen her sit down on the tall stool they had provided for her, he hurried into the back room, shifted, and pulled on his jeans and shirt before returning to get a look at this card that had to be found.
A man and woman, standing close together in a garden under a full moon.