Etched in Bone
Page 90

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.
Turkey. Her brain kicked in to supply a training image of the bird as she trailed behind Blair, who ignored the people on the sidewalk and the cars that were in danger of becoming part of fender-bender gridlock because the drivers were staring at him instead of paying attention to traffic. With Blair’s jaws clamped around the base of the turkey’s neck, its head swung like a metronome and its toes bumped along on the sidewalk.
Blair reached the corner. He looked at a woman standing near the crosswalk, then pointed a front paw at the “walk” button on the pole and made a sound. Meg wasn’t sure what the sound was supposed to mean, since Blair had a mouthful of turkey neck, but the woman pushed the crosswalk button and received a milder sound in response.
The light changed. The crossing sign lit up, and Blair and the turkey trotted across the street and turned down Crowfield Avenue.
Meg kept pace with him on her side of the street, then stopped when he trotted up the walk to the Denbys’ residence. He hauled the turkey up the porch steps and pressed a paw against the doorbell, then stepped aside to avoid getting smacked in the nose when someone finally answered the door.
“Meg?” Merri Lee poked her head out the door of Howling Good Reads. “What’s going . . . ? Oh goodness. Is that . . . ?”
Eve opened the screen door after Blair whacked the doorbell a couple more times. When she didn’t say anything—probably couldn’t with her mouth hanging open like that—Blair dumped the turkey on her porch before retracing his route back to the Courtyard.
Eve disappeared for a moment, then came outside, calling someone on her mobile phone.
“Come on,” Merri Lee said. “She’s not calling us, so we’ll have to find out what’s going on some other way. Besides . . .”
“Arrrroooo!” Nathan, howling from the currently empty Liaison’s Office.
“Arrooooo!” Simon, upstairs in HGR’s office, howling for the Wolfgard to hunt down one little human who might not be at her office as expected, but had not been late for work, thank you very much.
“Someone has noticed you’re not at work,” Merri Lee finished.
Meg followed Merri Lee inside HGR and yelled, “I’m here!”
“Arr—” Human found; hunt canceled.
“You could trade Wolf cookies for information,” Merri Lee whispered as they hurried to the back door.
“I was going to dock Nathan a couple of cookies for being late.”
“Do that next time.”
“Meg!” Simon appeared at the foot of the stairs, wearing jeans that were zipped but not buttoned—and nothing else. In that moment, he looked more, and less, human in a way that made her heart beat a little bit faster. But her heart might have been beating faster because of the teeth, which were definitely Wolfy.
“Have to go.” Meg gave him a wide smile as she opened the door. “Delivery just pulled in.”
“I didn’t hear—”
“You can tell me all about it after work.”
“Tell you about what?”
She ran to the Liaison’s Office and scooted inside in time for her imaginary delivery to become a real one.
• • •
Telling Katherine Debany she would be back in a few minutes, Twyla Montgomery hurried to Eve Denby’s house. Usually unflappable, Eve sounded close to panic—or hysterical laughter.
As Twyla caught sight of the mound of feathers on the porch, she understood why Eve had called.
“Come inside,” Eve said, opening the door as soon as Twyla stepped onto the porch. “There are cats in the neighborhood, so I don’t want to leave . . . that . . . unguarded, but I don’t want to be in public view right now.”
Twyla stepped inside. “How did you end up with a dead turkey on your porch?”
“A Wolf brought it over a few minutes ago.” Eve raked a hand through her short hair.