“The first was deliberate, but this one came at me fast. I had no time to prepare.”
Her jaw snapped shut, and I huddled in my blanket and shivered, feeling miserable as I fought back the waves of blackness threatening to overcome me. Maybe two partials in one day wasn’t the best idea I’d ever had. But if I hadn’t done them, poor old Buster would be dead, and so, likely, would Darlene. Humans did not do well when bulldozed by three thousand pounds of angry bull.
“I didn’t understand about the depleted resources and how dangerous partials were,” I confessed. “But I don’t know that it would have mattered, even if I’d known. I saved lives today because of them.” I gritted my teeth as I rode through another bout of shivering. “But I should have paid more attention to eating afterward. Now I know.”
“Now you know.” She echoed me. “We have enough to worry about, with this damned viral thing. Trust you to come up with an entirely new problem.”
“Yeah, that’s me. Mister Innovation.” I sighed and scratched at loose fur inside my coverall, as a thought popped into my head. “Maybe it’s not entirely new. Maybe the two are related.”
She exhaled noisily. “Yeah. I was wondering that too.” The glance she shot me revealed a glimpse into her soul and the true depth of her worry.
Oddly the glimpse comforted me. If I was destined to go to hell, at least I had someone to hold my hand along the way.
21
It wasn’t until we drove into Beausejour that I realized we weren’t going back to Chris’s. I viewed our surroundings with surprise as Sam pulled the truck into the Co-op gas lot alongside Subway and parked it.
“Stay here. And stay awake.”
I nodded as she slid out of the truck and jogged toward Subway, then hunched into myself and concentrated on keeping my eyes open.
She returned at speed to shove a dozen cookies and a bag of chips into my hands. “Eat them all. More to follow.” She ran back into the restaurant.
I looked at the cookies and ripped the packaging with shaking hands. The moment the sugar hit my system, my shivering abated. The chips helped me prop open my eyes with more determination. By the time she returned, carrying multiple bags whose aroma made my stomach growl, I had polished off the lot. Next, she handed me a steak and cheese sub.
“We have steaks waiting at Chris’s,” I pointed out.
“We’re not going back there until you’ve cleaned up at home, changed, and eaten enough so you can stand on your own two feet. After that, we’ll go to Chris’s and eat our steaks like respectable people.”
I eyed the four wrapped footlongs beside her. “Is this part of your new weight gain program? Why aren’t we going to Chris’s?”
She took a deep breath. “Because if we go there with you like this, you’ll reek of wulf and you’ll have to tell them about the partials . . . and we aren’t going to tell them about the partials.”
“We aren’t?”
“Nope.” Her mouth straightened into a grim line as she started the truck and pulled out onto the main drag. “The board is already putting pressure on Chris to lock you up until they resolve this. All it’ll take is one more weird thing and the scales will tip. If Garrett hears about the partials, he might push for Chris to put you in the cage and leave you there. And if the board backs him, Chris will have no choice.” She glanced at me and gave me what I referred to as the Sam eye. “Eat,” she commanded.
I ate the steak and cheese as we drove through Beausejour. “You’re putting your career on the line for me, if they find out you’ve been hiding this from them.”
She shrugged and a corner of her mouth twitched. “You know how the saying goes. Better to beg forgiveness—”
“Than ask permission. Yeah. But the board might be right. What if I’m a danger to . . . everything?”
I caught a quick flash of pale eyes. “In order for that to be true, you’d have to be losing control over your wulf, and that isn’t what I saw today. Wulves don’t step between a human and a charging bull. The human in you used the wulf to save your friend. It was stupid, but brave.” She shook her head. “You deserve a chance to find answers, and I want to help you.”
I took a bite, chewed, and swallowed, the strength returning to my body and the clarity to my mind.
“Okay,” I said. “But if it looks like I’m losing it, promise to turn me in.”
She bit her lip but nodded.
“And my crotch is off limits, okay?”
That earned me a glimpse of her pearly whites. “Sorry,” she said with a snort. “I can’t give you that.”
* * *
After one shower, four footlongs, a plate of cookies, a bag of chips, and a second stern lecture, Sam and I pulled up into Chris’s driveway. The sun had set, it was time to run—though that held about as much appeal for me as going another round with Sherman.
The moment we stepped out of the truck, the dogs were on us. Their presence meant that the evening’s entertainment had yet to begin. Keen bounced all over me, radiating excitement that I’d returned, recrimination that I’d left, and relief that perhaps now we could abandon the annoying puppy with Josh and go home. The giant puppy in question almost flattened Sam before she growled at him, turning him into a quivering heap of obsequiousness. Once he behaved, she made much of him, stroking the big skull until he rolled on his back to offer his tummy.
“Sorry girl, you’re stuck with him for a bit yet,” I told Keen, tickling her all over. Considering the mess
