<Nathan?> Simon called. He looked out his office window while he listened to the Wolves who responded to Nathan’s howl. <Where are you?> That first howl hadn’t been muffled by enough walls or glass.
<Outside.>
<You’re supposed to be inside, guarding Meg.>
<The Meg said to go outside.>
<You don’t take orders from Meg.>
<She’ll feel easier about me being in the office if she thinks I do.>
Nathan had a point. Meg’s peculiar reaction to seeing a Wolf in the office kept scratching at him. Most humans who had seen one Wolf didn’t get upset about seeing another one, as long as it wasn’t attacking someone. At least, that was true of the customers who came into Howling Good Reads. To them, a Wolf was a Wolf was a Wolf. On the other hand, he liked that he wasn’t interchangeable with the rest of the Wolfgard and that Meg knew him on sight, even the first time she’d seen him as Wolf.
He spotted Nathan when the other Wolf rounded a corner to sniff around the back of the office.
<Anything?> Simon asked.
<No scents that shouldn’t be here,> Nathan replied, lifting a leg to yellow up some snow.
It took a little too much effort to stop himself from running over to the office and marking his territory. Not that he should consider the Liaison’s Office as being more his territory than the rest of the Courtyard.
He shifted his feet and whined softly.
Have to stay human and do my own work—and trust Nathan to do his.
He heard the Crows, watched Nathan head for the back door and slip inside the office.
<Delivery?> he asked the Crows.
<A female,> was the reply. <We know her face.>
A familiar female who would go into the office to talk to Meg. Someone who wasn’t terra indigene. The Crows would have said if the female was Other. That narrowed the possibilities. But Heather was downstairs, shelving stock. Merri Lee wasn’t scheduled to work at A Little Bite until lunchtime. The Ruthie? Maybe, but he didn’t remember seeing her around the store in the mornings, and she usually spent time at Run & Thump later in the day. Which left Asia Crane.
Simon pictured Asia alone with Meg—and snarled. No reason. Asia hadn’t done anything except be too pushy about wanting the Liaison’s job and wanting him to take her for a walk on the wild side. But she didn’t seem that interested in either of those things anymore.
And if she was, she wasn’t saying anything to him.
<Nathan? Stay close to Meg.>
He didn’t get a response and didn’t expect one. Going back to his desk, Simon looked at the telephone. With Elliot at the consulate, there were five Wolves in this part of the Courtyard, but only two were in Wolf form—Nathan and Ferus, who was on duty at HGR. It wouldn’t hurt to have a couple more Wolves close by, especially because he’d promised Sam that the pup could spend the afternoon with Meg.
Maybe he should mention that to Meg?
He picked up the phone, but he didn’t call Meg. Instead, he called Blair and arranged for an increase in the Wolfgard presence in the Liaison’s part of the Courtyard.
Asia strolled up to the Liaison’s Office, hot chocolate in hand. On previous dates with Darrell, she had hinted that Simon might be a wee bit jealous about the time she was spending with another man. Now that plans had changed, she wanted everyone in the Courtyard to know she was Darrell’s girlfriend.
She didn’t think Simon would give a damn one way or the other, but she hoped he would lower his guard some if she no longer paid attention to him and didn’t have much time for Meg.
“There you are!” Asia said when Meg stepped up to the counter. “I was whittling my way down to nothing with worry, but this was the first chance I had to check on you.” A quick look over Meg’s shoulder. She didn’t see the Wolf pup, which was a disappointment, but she did see the box of sugar lumps on the big table. Confirmation enough that Meg brought out the sugar on Moonsday.
“Check on me?” Meg said.
“I heard the police were here and there was some big commotion. And then I heard you were injured, maybe even in the hospital, so I just had to see for myself that you were all right. Here. I brought you some hot chocolate.” Darrell hadn’t actually said anything about Meg. He’d just mentioned the ambulance being on the scene—and he told her some freaky story about a wolf man standing right out where everyone could see a lot more than they wanted to see.
“Thanks.” Meg took a sip and set the cup on the counter. “I’m fine. Someone brought in a suspicious box, that’s all.”
Not by a long shot, Asia thought. That little incident had the whole Courtyard buzzing right along with the cops. “Well, I’m glad to hear you didn’t take any harm.” Now she made a show of looking past Meg. “Say. Where is that adorable puppy that was with you the other day? He was just the cutest thing.”
“He’s not here today.”
Before Asia could push to find out where the puppy was when he wasn’t at the office, a full-grown Wolf appeared in the doorway, startling her into taking a couple steps back. Despite their size, the damn things were so quiet. After that Wolf rammed his nose into her crotch, she was a lot less interested in being around any of them unless she could pick them up and carry them away.
Meg looked at the Wolf, then said to Asia, “I have a different office buddy now.”
“All the time?” Asia asked.
Meg hesitated. “The incident on Watersday . . . It was alarming at the time, and with so many police officers responding, it caused a lot of fuss. So Mr. Wolfgard decided to add some security in the office during business hours—the same kind he has at the bookstore.”
She hadn’t appreciated how badly White Van had bungled the snatch, but this just confirmed how pointless it would be to continue hanging around Meg. Anything she said from now on would be reported to Simon.
A chorus of neighs gave her an excuse to leave.
“More friends?” she asked.
“The ponies are here for the mail.”
“And the sugar.”
“That too. Thanks for the hot chocolate.”
“I’d still like to go out to lunch one of these days,” Asia said. “You let me know when we might be able to do that.”
Not that it’s going to happen, she thought as she left the office. She looked toward the consulate, spotted Darrell in one of the upstairs windows, and blew him a kiss. I am going to be all kinds of distracted with my new boyfriend.
She sauntered to HGR and stayed long enough to make sure she’d been spotted. Then she picked a book at random, relieved that it wasn’t Simon manning the register when she went up to pay for it.
As soon as she returned to her car, she called Darrell. He was thrilled to have the opportunity to invite her out on another date.
Meg didn’t know where Nathan had gone when she went to A Little Bite for lunch and then walked over to the Market Square to browse in the library for a while, but he was waiting for her at the back door when she returned for the office’s afternoon hours. She wondered if he was making an effort not to startle her again, since his appearance that morning made it obvious that he could get into the building by himself.
She opened the doors and spread the Lakeside News on the sorting table to skim the paper for whatever might be of interest to the Others. Nathan was in the front room, sniffing everything.
When the Crows started fussing, she went to the counter, tensing when she saw an unscheduled delivery truck. Then it turned enough for her to read the Everywhere Delivery name.