“Don’t mention it. We got to take care of each other, right? That’s what packs do.”
I gave him a soft smile, even though my heart ached.
Pack.
Who would have guessed that would become such a loaded term for me? The word was irrevocably tied to Leo and everything that came along with him. So much had been promised, so much we had all been hoping for.
And all of it was gone.
But I was determined to get Leo back. Our story wasn’t going to end with him being ripped away like that. I wouldn’t let it.
It would be nice if Ricky stopped getting in my way, however.
I’d thought that when we found the loophole in his alpha’s orders, we’d turn right around and go rescue Leo. But no, that wasn’t how it had turned out at all. Ricky was open to us going back, but not until we had a plan in place. What annoyed me the most was that he shot down every plan I came up with.
It was strange to be on the opposite side of such a similar argument that I’d had with Leo, but Iwastrying to be a little logical while also being speedy. It was called efficiency—at least, that was what I told myself.
While I knew there was some truth in what Ricky was saying, and that infiltrating without enough information last time had gotten us into trouble before, it was hard for me to care. I wanted to get Leo. There was no telling what they were doing to him, oreven if he was still alive. My biggest hope was that they had no idea who he was, because if they realized he was the head of the pack who had killed three of their brothers… I didn’t even want to imagine what they would do.
It wasn’t like I hadn’t tried on my own, either. Ricky still needed a lot of sleep since he wasn’t fully recovered, so I’d waited until after he’d drank a particularly potent blend of tea with extra chamomile before I ventured out back to the medical facility. I couldn’t use the truck for obvious reasons, but I had my trusty bike.
Yet even with my phone’s GPS, I’d gotten hopelessly lost, which made absolutely no sense. I wasn’t a savant, but I was pretty good with direction, so it wasn’t likely that I’d gotten turned around. And yet every time my GPS said I was five minutes from my destination, it recalculated, then I was twenty minutes away again. They must have put some spell on it after we broke in. It was the only thing that made sense. And as much as I hated to admit it, that also gave a lot of credence to Ricky’s insistence that we needed to wait for the heat to die down. There was no doubt they would be looking for us. Just because we’d escaped didn’t mean we were safe.
Despite my morning shift at the grocery store the next day, I’d ridden around the entire night before giving up and starting back home. I knew Ricky would wake up before I got there, and sure enough, he’d rolled up with the truck when I was about two-thirds home. All that biking, along with work, had me practically confined to my bed all night and the next day because my legs hurt so much, but that still hadn’t been enough to distract me from the gnawing in my chest.
They still had Leo. Nothing had changed.
Well, there was no use ruminating on that abysmal failure, so I went out to my garden and tried to do something productive. My work was punishing me for taking so much time off bycutting my hours, but I didn’t care. We were heading into the real productive time of my little horticultural space, and I would fare well enough from that bounty. Especially since Ricky had brought home two rabbits the other day. He’d skinned and butchered them as well. I’d been surprised to say the least, but he said it was part of his responsibilities since I took care of everything else.
I could see why he and Leo got along so well. They definitely took on a lot of responsibility and cared for those around them. While I appreciated it, I wished it didn’t make me miss Leo so damn much.
“Hey, guys, you’re looking good,” I murmured, trying to put my heart in it as I greeted the rows of tomato plants I’d been struggling with for the week. Although gardening was my respite, it wasn’t easy to concentrate on it these days. Especially since every time I dug a hole or pruned an errant branch, I thought of how I could be saving Leo instead.
Soon.The thought was calming, even though I didn’t really have any proof it would be soon at all. But whatever. Sometimes hope was a drug I very much needed.
Thankfully, my garden did turn out to be somewhat of a respite, even if its effects were muted. I focused on getting the rest of my heirloom tomato varietals in below the cattle panel trellis I had erected on three T-posts, then went on to harvest a whole bunch of greens for lunch. No one could complain about not getting enough fiber in my house.
While I was washing some particularly vibrant leaves of chard at my makeshift processing station, I noticed two pairs of eyes staring out at me from the greenhouse. Fork and Mudpie were perched in different spots, watching me with that keen interest cats naturally had. It had been ages since they’d both been in the greenhouse while I was outside. The arrival of a giant wolf had definitely shaken things up a bit.
Goober was there too, but unlike his siblings, he wasn’t lounging. No, he was prowling around, looking for something. Maybe a mouse had gotten in? That was one of the reasons I had gotten the landlord’s permission to build the cat tunnel. Although, if I was being honest with myself, my primary motivation had been hanging out with my cats while I was working outside—a difficult thing to do, considering I was strictly against having outdoor cats, so the cat tunnel was the best compromise.
Sure, some farms had barn cats, but those were animals with jobs. To me, that was very different from allowing my pet outside. I was well aware plenty of people would disagree with me, but those people wouldn’t have to deal with the heartbreak if a coyote somehow got hold of my babies. Not to mention that back when I was volunteering at the clinic, we’d had a surge of FiV and FeLV kitties, which had also put me off having an indoor-outdoor cat. While veterinarian sciences had come a long way since then, those two infectious diseases could be so insidious, and if keeping my cats indoors kept them from suffering from debilitating conditions, then I was all for it.
It was under their watchful eyes that I finished all the planting I had to do for the day. After that, I was supposed to move on to weeding—goodness knew my garden needed it—but a quick look up at the gray sky, as well as the smell of camphor and geosmin in the air, told me it was going to rain. And soon.
I could go inside, do some deep cleaning, maybe do more research on the internet about the Mammon cult, but all I wanted was to shut off my brain and listen to some music while keeping my hands busy.
Propagation it was.
As I headed into the greenhouse, Ricky stepped out on the back porch, fully dressed, looking much more awake than the last time I had seen him.
“Looks like it’s about to rain. You gonna come in?”
I shook my head. “Going to get some work done in the greenhouse. I’ll be sheltered in case it storms.”
“All right, I’m heading out for a bit. See if I can hunt something to fill your freezer. Don’t be alarmed if I’m not back until dawn.”
As much as the prospect of fresh venison or other game was exciting, I couldn’t help but feel there was something off about Ricky’s tone. Or maybe it was his body language. It was hard to tell since I was still getting to know him.
