Mud looked back and forth between us as she nibbled on her cheese toast. Church children grow up in a psychologically charged environment where they learn early on to be aware of all the emotional currents flowing through an extended family.
“Can’t say the last full moon was any different,” Occam said, “but I’ve been hurt. I need my moon shifts more than most.” He shrugged. “Maybe just the werewolves were changed, and the change has to do with the insanity of all their females. But FireWind wants all of us to be tested. He’s making it an organization-wide mandate. I just wanted you to know.” He shrugged again. “I don’t care one way or another, but Margot would be thrilled. Her options for finding a mate are pretty limited in Knoxville.”
Casually, I said, “Your options of finding a mate just got a lot bigger.”
“Done got my mate, Nell, sugar,” he said in his Texan accent. “If you’re thinking about backing out, you can stop right now. You can’t get rid of me, and I ain’t going no place.”
My heart heated instantly. I was both relieved to my bones and also a little ashamed that I’d doubted him.
Mud sighed. “True love is so amazing.”
Occam chuckled, the sound part purr. “It shore ’nuff is, Muddy girl.”
A knock sounded on the door. Occam started to stand, but I said, “It’s Yummy. Please let me get that.”
He glanced at the clock on the old desk and nodded. “We’re expecting a wolf shortly. Not a wild wolf. A FireWind wolf.”
I stopped halfway to the door. “What’s that?” I asked, confused.
“FireWind is a skinwalker and he has some wolf teeth for genetic material as a pattern. He’s going to shift into a wolf and sniff your missing brother’s pillowcase.”
While he was talking, I slipped off my house slipper and put a bare foot on the floor. Through it, I felt the alien presence of a creature on my land. Not big-cat. Not fox or coyote. Bigger. Rangier. Trotting across the ice. Wolf. Aya. A hugewolf.
I was used to big-cats. All the were-creatures in Unit Eighteen were cats. I had seen the boss-boss in jaguar form, and to me he was a jaguar, same as werecats. But he wasn’t. FireWind could be any shape or form as long as the mass-to-mass stayed within the genetic-code-acceptable range. Aya was…other. And now a wolf.
“I gotta see this,” Mud said, darting forward.
“This is work,” Occam said, catching her shoulder. “You can watch through the windows, but stay inside. We don’t need to confuse his scent with ours. And your scent and Nellie’s scent will have some family overlay with Zeb’s through your mother.”
Mud settled narrowed eyes on Occam. “You know about Mama? About Brother Ephraim punishing her?”
“I know. I’m sorry your mama had to go through that.”
Mud nodded. “I’ll stay inside.”
“Me too,” I said, privately relieved that I wouldn’t have to confront my boss-boss when he was a big bad wolf. I opened the door and welcomed Yummy with church hospitality, and stepped aside.
“He’s nearly here,” I said to Occam.
“Who’s nearly here?” Yummy asked.
Occam looked at my bare foot resting on the floor and a corner of his mouth twitched. “Nell, sugar, you got the best security system on the planet.”
Occam maneuvered past Yummy and out the door, stepping into the cold.
“Nell?” Yummy asked.
“Aya FireWind is gonna come here as awolf,” Mud said. She raced around cutting off lights so we could see him, but the wolf must have been at an angle just below the porch. We unabashedly crowded around the front windows. I cracked one so we could hear.
“Evenin’, FireWind,” Occam said. “ ’Preciate you coming.Ingram and her sister are inside to keep from contaminating the scent pattern. You ready for the scent item? It’s in the truck.” There followed a silence and then Occam said, “Hang on.” He glanced at me in the window, before trotting down the steps into the icy white blanket.
Moments later, a massive black wolf stepped up the stairs to the porch, his eyes yellow and glowing. They settled on Mud and me in the window. FireWind gathered himself and leaped the few feet to the window, landed, and rose up on his hind feet, resting his paws on the window ledge. Mud squeaked and flinched. I crossed my arms and glared at him. FireWind chuffed, white clouds coating the window and blowing into the air. Mud made another high-pitched sound and the wolf’s tongue dangled out the side of his mouth, comically.
“I reckon you do have a sense of humor,” I said, “or you do when you’re a wolf. Don’t worry, Mud. He won’t hurt us. He’s just jerking on his chain, like a junkyard dog.”
FireWind could hear us. His yellow eyes narrowed and he growled. I had no idea what to compare that sound to, but it wasn’t at all like Cherry’s mock growls.
Yummy growled back. The hair on the back of my neck stood at attention.
