A Wolf After My Own Heart MaryJanice Davidson (children's ebooks online .txt) 📖

“I see why you’re concerned, m’girl. But I know you’ve also seen Caro’s progress in the last six months… Remember how long it took me to get her to stop sleeping in the basement? And if she prefers her own small dark den—or at least the illusion of one—maybe that’s not something we should try to take away from her just now. She sees her therapist every week, she’s an absolute darling when she’s not being an absolute pain, and as everyone in this room knows, it takes time to get back the equilibrium other people stole.”

Annette didn’t say anything, just inclined her head. She had a master’s in social development, but it wasn’t the first time she’d deferred to Mama’s judgement when it came to traumatized cubs.

“Besides, Caro knows someone set her new home on fire. If denning in a shed thirty feet back from this house makes her feel more in control, for now, we should leave her to it. Now hush, Sally’s coming back.”

“They’re sleeping,” the cub announced. “Really hard. They’re just izzossted.”

“Exhausted,” Annette corrected. “And my ass they are. Sorry, Mama.”

“No, ‘ass’ seems appropriate. Well, let them stay out a bit longer.” Mama found some Tupperware, then began ladling chili into it.

“You don’t have to do that,” Annette said. “You can just ladle it directly into my mouth.”

“No one wants to see that, dear,” Mama Mac said mildly. “Lila! I’ve got what you asked for!”

“Oh my God with the yelling,” Lila commented, fully dressed and walking past them with an armful of blankets. Impressive speed for a Stable. Her hair was still damp; Oz wanted to touch it, then rub his face in it.

Hmm, better not.

“Sally, grab the door for me, wouldja?”

“Okay, Lila!” The cub complied, Lila went out, the cub followed, and Oz watched it all, bemused, then picked up a dry-erase marker and turned to the whiteboard. Focus. Vulnerable cub who may or may not be an orphan should be your focus.

Mama Mac started pulling bowls out of the cupboard. “Annette, m’dear, would you check that drawer for silverware? Then we can—ah, thanks. Napkins? There they are…”

Annette cleared her throat. “Ah. Oz?”

“Yeah?”

“You just wrote sabotage fake death Kama-Rupa Kama-Rupa pilot error K-R.”

“The hell I—oh.” As he straightened and stood back from the board, he could see it. Deny or embrace? “It’s a brainstorming session, isn’t it? That means everything’s on the table.” Embracing has never failed me!

“Oz, what in God’s name is going on with you?”

Except in this instance.

“Brainstorming! That’s what’s going on. Here’s what you can’t deal with, Annette.” He jabbed the dry erase marker in her direction to punctuate his words. “I’m so open-minded, so ready to discuss any possibility, that it—it creates storms. In my brain!” That sounded nice and normal, right?

“You do understand that’s nothing at all to do with what happened to Sam and Sue Smalls, yes? Oh, and that Kama-Rupa is not real?” Annette asked with the slow care of addressing someone who wasn’t entirely sane. “That modern-day Shifters aren’t drawn to a mate who is the physical and spiritual manifestation of their fondest wish and greatest desire? Drawn to that perfect person so when they die, their animal spirits live on together forever? It is deeply odd that I find myself explaining this to you.”

“Of course I know it’s not real,” he snapped. “I’m not a child. That’d be like—like—” He tried to think of a parallel, but there was nothing in the tank.

“Like saying everything found in Song of Songs is a modern blueprint for finding a soul mate. Or God taking a rib from Adam to make Eve, his spiritual and physical mate, and they were together forever despite earning the Big Guy’s wrath. They’re ancient stories that don’t carry over into this century.”

“Or Romeo and Juliet.”

“No, Mama.”

“A Midsummer Night’s Dream?”

“No.”

“Rhett Butler and Scarlett O’Hara?”

“…well, they were made for each other, but there wasn’t anything spiritual about it.”

“Anyway.” Oz turned back to the board and made frantic adjustments with the eraser. “Brainstorming, remember? Let’s get back to it.”

9. The gory details can be found in Bears Behaving Badly.

Chapter 33

“Sally, get that door open, would you?”

“Okay!”

With the girl’s help, Lila brought in blankets and the small bucket of chili, still steaming because after covering it tightly, she had wrapped it in one of the blankets. There were already paper plates and plastic cutlery in the shed, which weren’t green, but throwing them all out to facilitate buying metal versions wasn’t green, either.

And now what was this?

It’s not every day I see a fox curled up with a black wolf. It’s not even every month. The kids had shifted, probably because the temp was dropping.

“Don’t worry, it’s not Macropi.” Lila immediately realized what a dumb comment that was; the kids had probably known it was her before she knocked. This was brought home to her when Caro cracked open an eye, rolled it, then appeared to go back to sleep. “Also, constantly throwing shade without saying a word might be your superpower.”

Behind her, Sally let out a belated giggle, and half a second later, a plump bear cub was clambering up on the cot and curling up behind Dev.

“Y’know, given that you guys are constantly flinging your clothes all over the place, I’d think you’d take better care of them. Wow, that sounded really curmudgeonly out loud. You kids stay off my lawn! There, now I’ve gone full curmudgeon.” She shook out two of the blankets and draped it over them, then neatly stacked the others at the end of the sleeping bag. “Chili’s on the shelf. Try to eat some before it gets cold. And the thermos is full of hot chocolate. Okay? Helloooooo? Grunt once for yes, twice for no.”

“Nnnnnffff.”

“No idea which of you did that, but okay.” Lila couldn’t help smiling at the picture the kids made, curled up nose to tail to conserve heat. She was reminded again of