“Help arrived before they had a chance to wonder if it would arrive. I think that’s going to matter a lot in the days ahead. Come on, Lieutenant. Let’s find out if Simon Wolfgard also believes help arrived in a timely manner.”
CHAPTER 49
Watersday, Maius 26
The driver of the police van did his best to make careful turns and avoid quick stops, but just the motion of the van as they drove back to the Courtyard made Simon hurt. He hurt and hurt and hurt. He wanted to shift to Wolf and find a safe place to hide. Then he could whimper like a little puppy because he hurt and hurt and hurt.
When he was a juvenile Wolf living in the Northwest Region, he’d spent a year with other youngsters learning to work and hunt with a pack that wasn’t family—a first step to working in a Courtyard where you would have to work cooperatively with many forms of terra indigene. That’s when he’d met Joe and Jackson. Working with them had felt easy, natural, and that bond had made the three of them a collective leader of their pack.
But one juvenile Wolf didn’t fit in with the rest of them. He wanted to be leader, but there was something about him that made the other Wolves wary, and they wouldn’t follow him. He resented Simon, Joe, and Jackson, and that resentment grew until the day they were hunting a half-grown bison. The pack was hungry and motivated to bring down game. Instead of working with the rest of them, the Wolf turned the animal at the moment when Simon would be unable to get out of the way.
He’d been lucky that day. Instead of being trampled, he’d dodged the hooves and received nothing more than a glancing blow that had slowed him down and prevented him from hunting for a few days. But it had hurt, just like the betrayal had hurt.
The resentful Wolf disappeared that same day. The day Simon rejoined the pack for a hunt, they found that Wolf. He’d been trampled, his hip bones crushed. He also had deep claw marks that had torn up his sides. He’d tried to crawl, looked to be heading toward the area where the juveniles were settled. And then something had crushed his skull.
The adult Wolves had said the juveniles were on their own that year—within howling distance if they got into bad trouble, but essentially on their own and not under the watchful eyes of other Wolves.
Whether that was true or not didn’t much matter. When they’d searched for scents to figure out what kind of animal had killed the Wolf, they smelled nothing but other terra indigene. Not Wolves. Not anything they could name.
It had been the only time during that year that any of them had smelled those forms of terra indigene. All of them hoped they never caught those scents again.
Some of those scents had been in the air the day he and Henry drove past the River Road Community on their way to a meeting with Steve Ferryman, which meant some of those forms of terra indigene were now close enough to watch the humans and the Others who lived around Lakeside.
The lesson the juvenile Wolves had learned that day when they had found the body of the resentful Wolf was this: certain actions angered the earth natives who lived deep in the wild country, and they were the ones who should not be provoked.
Would today’s attack be considered provocation? He didn’t know. He just knew that, right now when he was hurt and unable to defend himself, he feared other kinds of terra indigene more than he feared humans.
<Simon?> Vlad said. <We’re home.>
Home. Meg.
He growled about being helped out of the police van, but he couldn’t have stepped down on his own. Humiliating, and frightening, to be that vulnerable. Vlad stayed close to him as he shuffled to the Market Square’s medical office while Henry helped Nathan.
Jake Crowgard, in human form, ran to meet the van, embracing Jenni and Starr when they emerged.
As Vlad opened the door of the medical office, Simon looked at the humans standing near the van. Strangers in police uniforms. Who could be trusted? And what would happen to any who were deemed untrustworthy?
A white car pulled up behind the police van. Right behind it was a black sedan.
“We’re protected,” Vlad said quietly. “Let’s go inside.”
Protected, yes. He spotted several Sanguinati in their smoke form. He saw Blair and a few other Wolves in Wolf form moving along one side of the market’s inner square. In the center of the square was Air astride Twister—warning and threat.
Dr. Dominic Lorenzo, Lieutenant Montgomery, and Captain Burke passed under one of the Market Square’s archways and strode toward the medical office. Tess and Nyx also headed toward the medical office, but they were coming from the direction of the Liaison’s Office.
“I thought you were helping humans deal with the cassandra sangue,” Simon said to Lorenzo, surprised at how slurred the words sounded.
“I am,” Lorenzo replied. “But I’m still putting in some hours here for the Courtyard’s residents. I heard a news bulletin about the trouble at the stall market, and I thought I might be needed here.”
He was about to refuse. He didn’t want any human touching him.
Then Meg appeared in the office doorway. She looked at Henry, then at Nathan, then at him—and burst into tears.
Jane Wolfgard caught Meg before her legs buckled.
“No bending that knee,” Jane said sternly.
Lorenzo shook his head. “Enough of this.” He looked at Jane. “Take Ms. Corbyn to the examination room. While I’m sure you did an excellent job of cleaning and tending the cut, I’ll examine the knee and make my notes for her file.” Then he turned to look at Nathan. “You. Do not lick those cuts. Even from here I can see there’s glass in some of those wounds. If you swallow any of it, it can cut you up inside.” Finally he turned to Henry and Simon. “I’ll examine both of you and make my recommendations for your human forms. Then you and your healer can decide the best course of action.”
Having given his orders, Lorenzo walked into the office and headed for the examination room.
As they hobbled after Lorenzo, Simon noticed Theral, who was standing out of the way. When she saw Burke and Montgomery—and none of the humans who had left with the Others a couple of hours ago—she turned pale and swayed.
“Ms. MacDonald,” Montgomery said gently. “We need to talk.” He led her into the room Elizabeth Bennefeld used for massages and closed the door.
“Mr. Wolfgard,” Burke said, ignoring Simon’s warning growl. “I’d like your perceptions of what happened at the stall market.”
“We were warned to leave,” Simon replied. “Danger. Humans blocked the way and attacked before we could get out. Attacked Nathan too.” He tried to turn his head to look at the Grizzly. “Henry knocked me down.” And probably had that furrow in his right cheek from the bullet that would have killed Simon.
“Captain, I can give you enough for your report,” Vlad said.
Jane stepped out of the examination room. “Nathan?”
“Simon first,” Nathan said.
Lorenzo may have wanted to see them in order of visible injuries, but leader came before enforcer. So Simon hobbled into the examination room.
Since he hadn’t seen her leave, it shouldn’t have surprised him that Meg was still there, sitting in a chair.
He grumbled at Lorenzo and Jane when they cut off his shirt, wasting a usable garment, but he couldn’t raise his arms for them to lift it off, so there wasn’t much choice. He growled about them removing the shoes, socks, and jeans. He would have bitten at least one of them if they’d tried to remove the briefs. No one was taking those while Meg was in the room.
“Oh, Simon.” Meg started crying again.
“Don’t cry, Meg,” he pleaded. It hurt in a different way to hear her crying.