The cameras arrived on day three more quickly than Rhett expected, which was interesting, but Malachi granted him the respect of no questions. He and Rhett trekked up into the foothills to work on the installation along with Jeremy and Kelsey, both of whom had more experience with electronic hardware than Malachi did. Rhett had also procured four satellite phones and explained that he didn’t want “life-saving information to rely on rural Wi-Fi.” He’d set them up to receive an image snapped by the camera along with a text. In addition to him and Malachi, Robert and Aaron would each be in possession of a satellite phone as well. Malachi would take theirs to them when the installation was complete.
Once the cameras were in place, Jeremy bolted around the woods trying not to set them off. In the next two minutes, the compact black phone in Malachi’s hand emitted a loud bell sound almost constantly.
EWSterling1:Motion has been detected.
EWSterling2:Motion has been detected.
RASterling3:Motion has been detected.
The pictures were clear, and Jeremy was easily recognized despite his wolf speed. Between the four satellite phones and such high-quality cameras, Malachi couldn’t begin to guess what all this had cost.
“This is well thought out,” Malachi said. He showed the texts to Rhett. “This one stands for Ezra Willow, and this one is Robert Ann?”
“Right,” Rhett said. “I labeled them all that way, so we’ll know their exact trajectory as the notifications come in.”
“What about wildlife?” Kelsey said. Before Rhett could answer, she called out, “Jeremy, it all works. You can come back now.”
Almost immediately another notification rang into the phone.
RASterling2:Motion has been detected.
In this image, Jeremy was standing directly in front of the camera, grinning and giving a thumbs-up. Kelsey laughed and rolled her eyes.
“About wildlife,” Rhett said, “the only thing we might get is a deer. Anything else will be too cool or too low to the ground. I’ve got the infrared calibrated to 101.6, a wolf’s normal body temperature. Deer run pretty near as hot as we do, so on its own that threshold might still catch a large one, but that’s why we set the cameras so their focal point is six feet high. I’m hoping between the two, we won’t capture anything but wolves.”
Malachi said, “If a deer does set it off, we’ll identify it and disregard it.”
“Yeah.” Kelsey leaned closer and tapped the phone screen. “Easy with cameras like this. Super impressive, Rhett.”
By the time they came down from the foothills, dusk was setting in. The four stayed together until they reached their vehicles, parked at Rhett’s. Then Kelsey and Jeremy bid Malachi and Rhett good night.
When both had driven away, Rhett turned to Malachi in the gravel driveway and crossed his arms. His scent held layers of gamey wolf, gunpowder and steel, and scalding wrath.
Here it came at last, outside under the sky and no other wolf to overhear.
Flatly Rhett said, “So you want me for your successor.”
“If I die young. Yes.”
“And if you don’t?”
“Then sometime in my sixties I’ll choose a young wolf to train up as I was trained. I’ll have four decades with that wolf, teaching him what it is to lead. As you’ll also be in your sixties, you won’t be eligible by then.”
“And Aaron? I know enough lore to know he’s supposed to be next in line if you get killed.”
“When he agreed to be my beta, he stipulated that he didn’t want to be alpha, not under any circumstances. So he and I agreed that I’d choose someone else. I trusted fate would show me when I needed to make the choice. A year after that conversation, you came to my pack.”
Rhett paced the driveway, his strides liquid and powerful, his face turned away to bare his teeth. “You should’ve stuck to the lore. Aaron doesn’t like it, tough. He can give the beta job to somebody who’ll do the whole job.”
“Aaron is an ideal beta. He isn’t suited to be an alpha. I made the best choice for my pack based on the personalities here.”
Rhett grunted but didn’t make eye contact. “And tossed the lore out the window. Doesn’t sound like you.”
“The lore doesn’t contain every answer to every situation. It isn’t meant to do that.”
Another grunt.
“Rhett, I’m thirty years old. According to the lore, I’m too young to be an alpha.”
