Page 50 of Rescued

She said to Mikey, “I think… I think they need a sense of community, but not to feel like they have to suddenly be like regular people, you know? They need to feel like Outlaw Ridge won’t leave them behind, even if they suck at being friends with people, or never decide to have mates. That they’ll still get respect.”

Mikey looked thoughtful. “That actually makes a lot of sense. I’ll talk to Gunn it, so we can keep it in mind when we build the community center and start our other programs. We’re planning on renovating that old barn on the edge of the woods for the center. Want to see?”

“Sure.” Switch was working on the comms network again, so she had nothing much to do. “I promised Boomer I wouldn’t watch the next episode of Dead Girls Do Tell Tales until he’s there, anyway.”

Mikey just shook her head, laughing. “And I thought he only liked to blow things up.”

“I guess he needs something to do when it’s raining.”

They walked over to the barn. Half the roof had caved in, but the rest of it looked sturdy enough, and it was huge. Mikey slid the big door open and they walked inside.

“This is cool,” Breanna breathed, looking up at the beamed ceiling and the twin lofts, one on either end. Her mind was buzzing with all the things they could do with the place.

Mikey said, “We want to have someplace where the pack can hang out, you know? Instead of being in separate cabins all the time. I never knew dealing with a pack of wolves would be more like herding cats.”

Breanna laughed. “This place is amazing. There’s so much space! You could have a big-screen TV for sports and movies. Lots of couches. Maybe sectionals, so they could be configured different ways.”

“That’s a great idea,” Mikey said. “We were thinking a pool table in one of the lofts. And maybe foosball and air hockey in the other, and possibly some pinball machines.”

“Poker tables,” Breanna added. “It could even be like a sports bar, with more than one TV. Do you think Thanatos would spring for that?”

Mikey rolled her eyes. “As long as we have a ‘He-man women-haters club’ sign outside.”

Yikes. “What is his deal, anyway?”

Mikey shook her head. “No one knows. No one even knows what kind of creature he is. The guys have a betting pool on it. I think vampire is in the lead.”

“I would not be surprised.” Breanna looked around the barn, visualizing it the way it could be. “This place is going to be so trick.”

“I hope so,” Mikey said. “It’s kind of frustrating, though, because I haven’t been able to muster up much enthusiasm from the troops.”

Breanna frowned. “Do they know exactly how cool it’s going to be?”

Mikey looked taken aback. “I—not really, I guess.”

“You need to get someone to draw mock-ups, like architects do. Of what it’s going to look like when it’s done.”

Mikey grimaced. “With wolves fighting in the middle of it?”

Breanna waved that away. “Luxury vinyl floors would take care of that. Something waterproof that looks nice and doesn’t stain, so they can mop up the blood. And mud, because they’ll be tracking that in too.”

She couldn’t believe that after only a few weeks here, she was casually talking about ways to minimize bloodstains without batting an eye. But there it was.

Mikey also was blasé about the blood. “Yeah, that would work. But what do we put on the walls, to keep them from getting destroyed when they throw their knives into them?”

Breanna shrugged. “Maybe just line them with those big wooden axe-throwing targets? They’re like eight feet high.” She’d seen them once when Cisco dropped by to watch the World Axe-Throwing Championships on Switch’s TV. “Then they can just go ahead and throw anything they want at them. You could have tournaments, even. With prizes.”

She turned to Mikey. “What you need to do is to make committees. Guys to pick out the TVs, and other ones to research pool tables and stuff. Do drawings to show them what they’re going to get, and then get them involved by letting them do something tangible.”

Mikey was staring at her. “How do you know all this?”

Breanna said, “Lord, girl. I used to be a prom queen, and then the two years I got to go to college I was a sorority girl, with the most social sorority on campus. I’ve been on prom committees, Student Council, sorority social committees, organized fundraisers and charity events—you name it.”

Mikey shook her head. “And here when I decided not to go to college, I thought it was classwork I was avoiding. I had no clue being popular was so much work.”

“Yeah. Being on Jackson’s string of party girls was a fucking vacation, come to think of it.”

But she’d actually enjoyed those school activities, now that she looked back on it. It was fun, showing people what they could accomplish, and then organizing them to do it.