Khalil and I leave and close the door behind us. A moment later, we can hear her talking to him and his short replies. This goes on for two hours with Khalil and me pacing a hole in the floor before we hear footsteps on the other side of the door. When it opens, Aurelia is standing there alone.
My gaze flies over her to the bed to see that the cuffs are hanging there open, and the body on the bed is relaxed as he leans back with a disarming grin and his hands behind his head.
“What’s up, bitches?”
SETH
I’m staring out the window, watching the turned leaves fall from their trees as we drive through Hearth. I’ve got one foot on the dash of the truck and my girl tucked under my arm humming happily as she sips her gourmet coffee. Whatever that is. Ever since the temperature dropped and the trees started losing their leaves, Aurelia has been going on and on about wanting something called pumpkin spice. Today, Khalil finally lost it and snatched the keys to the truck before dragging us all from the cabin. After stopping by the coffee shop to get her an extra-large pumpkin spice chai latte, we all piled back into the truck to head to the wolf conservation center.
Apparently, that wolf Aurelia is obsessed with was born and bred in captivity but somehow escaped and ended up lost in the wild for months. Like Sunshine. Aurelia then had this insane plan to save the she-wolf and her pups from the bad, bad wilds and almost got everyone killed in the process.
So that’s cool.
I’m not prepared for the keepers at the center to roll out the welcome wagon when we arrive. They usher us in while talking a mile a minute about Meera and the pups’ progress. I tune them all out as I follow along, making sure not to let my troubled thoughts show whenever Sunshine sends me curious glances over her shoulder.
She holds out her hand, and I take it, kissing the back of it before dropping my arm over her shoulder and letting her pull me along.
We’re pretty much given a backstage pass when one of the keepers leads us through a gate with a sign markedDanger Ahead. Authorized Personnel Only.
Hands in my hoodie, I enter last and look around. The first thing I notice is that there are wolveseverywhere, and that there are no more fences between us and them, but they pay us no mind as we enter and stand around.
The keepers are still talking a mile a minute about the care that went into reintegrating Meera and her pups into the pack. It was a slow process, but the pack seems to have accepted them all with no issues.
After a few minutes of keeping a safe distance, a wolf with gray fur stands and walks closer.
“Uh, don’t be alarmed,” the keeper says, even though none of us are. We live in the wilds, for fuck’s sake. We can’t take a walk without running across a predator or two. This is nothing. “Sometimes they get a little curious with newcomers, but they won’t attack unless provoked.”
The gray wolf growls, and I surmise that it must be the alpha of the pack checking us out. I can see the keepers eyeing each other as they wonder if they should cut our visit short. A moment later, another wolf with tawny fur appears next to the alpha. She brushes up against the incensed wolf, and the growls stop, replaced by a whine. The wolves rub their heads together before the tawny wolf cautiously approaches. She walks between Thorin and Khalil and I see her gaze on me, head tilting as if she can tell the difference between me and Zeke.
“Hey, it’s you,” I greet when Meera jots close enough to brush against my jeans. The keepers gasp when I reach out a hand and boldly scratch behind her ears. “What?” I ask when the keepers gape at me. “We’re old friends.”
Aurelia grins at me over her shoulder, and I wink. Meera does the same to Aurelia, nudging her thigh with her snout, and I lean over to whisper in her ear.
“I dare you.”
“Seth.”
“Double, triple, quadruple dare you.”
Thorin looks over his shoulder as if he can feel the mischief in the air and narrows his gaze. “Don’t you fucking dare.”
But Aurelia is already reaching a hand toward Meera, her fingers running through her rough coat a second before the alpha barks a call and Meera walks away. She returns to the wolf, and they walk to a spot under a tree.
“And I think you remember these two,” the keeper says as two smaller wolves wander over.
“Oh my God,” Aurelia gasps. “Is that Rom and Remy?”
“Yes, yes,” the keeper answers enthusiastically. “It’s them.”
“They’ve gotten so big!” she squeals.
Emboldened by their mother’s presence, the pups sniff at Khalil’s and Thorin’s shoes and legs and then Aurelia and me before losing interest and running back over to the rest of the pack to play.
We stay for a little while longer before we leave, and as we’re walking to the truck, something lands on Aurelia’s cheek and she swipes at it. Inspecting her wet fingers, she frowns. “Is it raining?”
“No,” I say as I stare at the white flakes falling down. “It’s snowing.”
“Already?”
