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That afternoon, Simon walked into the butcher shop, happily thinking about dinner. Bison burgers for him and Sam, and beef for Meg. Half the ground bison would be cooked and put on rolls to eat with a green salad. That was the human meal. The other half of the meat would be quietly consumed raw, as it was meant to be eaten. But he and Sam would wait until they were in Wolf form and Meg was working in the garden or reading a book before eating that part of their dinner.
He smiled at Eve Denby, who gave him a distracted look before studying the available meat in the display case.
<Problem?> he asked Boone Hawkgard, who looked pointedly at Eve and said, “Problem?”
“No,” she replied. “It’s just . . . we’ve been eating so much red meat. Which is very good meat, but every so often you get a taste for something different.”
Why? Simon wondered.
“Do you ever have any poultry?” Eve asked. “Like chickens? Or maybe a turkey?”
Boone stared at her. “No chickens in the Courtyard. Our chicken eggs come from earth native farms. We do have ducks. And turkeys. And geese will be flying over soon. Many of them make use of the lakes here.”
“Henry sometimes catches more fish than he wants to eat,” Simon said.
“Do you want a duck tomorrow?” Boone asked. “The Hawkgard could catch one if there are ducks around.”
“No, that’s all right.” Eve gave them a bracing smile. “Is there beef available? Then I’ll have a pound and a half of ground beef. That will make a fine meatloaf.”
Boone measured out the meat and wrapped it.
Hawk and Wolf watched Eve as she walked out of the shop.
“Humans are so fussy,” Boone said. “We’re happy eating whatever we can catch.”
“But even we sometimes look for a particular kind of meat if we’re not empty-belly hungry,” Simon said. “And Eve and the rest of the female pack don’t usually ask for anything not in the case.”
“That’s true.” Boone sighed. “I could go hunting tomorrow and try for a duck. The geese aren’t here yet.”
“A duck might be too small to feed Eve, her mate, and her pups,” Simon countered. “I’ll talk to Blair. He and I can help you hunt poultry tomorrow. Nathan might like to come too.”
That much settled, Simon took his packages of bison and beef and headed home to have dinner and playtime with Sam and Meg.
CHAPTER 15
Firesday, Messis 17
Boone, Marie, and Julia Hawkgard rode the thermals until they spotted some of the wild turkeys that lived in the Courtyard. Following the Hawks, Simon, Blair, and Nathan moved toward their prey.
<Which one?> Nathan asked when the turkeys were in sight.
<A big one, so we don’t have to hunt a special order again anytime soon,> Blair growled. He studied the birds, which seemed more interested in what they were pecking at than in the Wolves stalking them. <They don’t seem very frisky. Or they’re not smart enough to realize they’re edible.>
Nathan also studied the turkeys. <Do they look sick? I don’t want to go through the trouble of catching one if it’s sick and humans won’t eat it.>
<We don’t hunt in the Chambers, and that’s where most of the turkeys live,> Simon said. Of course, the Sanguinati in smoke form made no noise in the dark, left no scent to disturb sleeping birds that didn’t realize they were roosting among predators. Turkey blood was sipped when preferred prey wasn’t available, and old birds that had been drained a little too much were helped over the Chambers’ black wrought-iron fences to be available meat for other Courtyard residents. Even then, the Wolves usually left the meat for the other gards instead of dealing with mouthfuls of feathers.
<Ready?> he asked Blair and Nathan.
<Ready,> they replied.
<Ready?> he asked the Hawks.
<Ready.>
The Wolves flushed their prey, sending the turkeys skyward. The Hawkgard struck three of the turkeys with enough force to drive the birds back to the ground, where the Wolves finished the kill.
Blair took the largest turkey—a black-feathered male—and trotted off to deliver the special order. Nathan and Simon took the other two turkeys to the Hawkgard Complex. One would provide food for the Hawks. Boone would dismember the other and take the pieces to the butcher shop to sell to other humans who might want some poultry—once he figured out what parts of the bird the humans would, and wouldn’t, eat.
<Hunting turkeys is easier when the Hawks help us,> Nathan said.
<More fun too,> Simon said. This hunt reminded him of playing with the badminton shuttlecock—sending it into the air for the Hawks to catch. <But there’s not enough meat to feed a pack.>
What about a pack with only three or four members? Something to think about, along with deciding which pack member would have to learn how to cook the meat. He’d wait and see if Meg wrinkled her nose at this kind of turkey the way she did when he brought home a hunk of bison.
Pleased with themselves, Simon and Nathan ran to the Market Square to start the humans’ idea of a workday.
? ? ?
Meg sharpened pencils, lined up pens according to color, arranged the order of the CDs she was playing as that week’s musical selections. She checked the back door, the sorting room’s side door, and the office’s front door.
She even looked under the Wolf bed in the front room, which she knew was ridiculous because there would be a Nathan-size lump under it if the Wolf was playing a trick and trying to hide from her.
Nathan wasn’t there, and he was never late.
But Simon had left early to do some Wolfy thing with Blair this morning. Maybe Nathan had gone with them. Wouldn’t he have called? If he was going to be late for work, he should have called so she wouldn’t be worried about him.
She wasn’t sure he received any pay for being the watch Wolf for the Liaison’s Office, but there had to be some way to impress on him that not showing up wasn’t acceptable. And then she knew exactly what to do. She would tell him that the next time he was late and didn’t call, she would dock a couple of Wolf cookies from his quota of weekly treats. So there.
Then she saw Blair trotting across the delivery area, hauling a big black-feathered bird, and forgot all about Nathan. She pushed the door open and dashed to the sidewalk as the Wolf turned right, heading for Crowfield Avenue.