"Then we leave the area before they can hurt you. Before anyone can hurt you," Xavion said, his rage barely restrained in his voice.
Gabe shrugged. "Or we take them on as a pack, put you somewhere safe, and do what we can to give you a head start. There are other places, other supernatural communities, where they would accept a human who didn't know what she was getting herself into. But I think you'll be fine, Sadie. You're adjusting incredibly well. You'll learn more before the Meet. They don't have any reason to get rid of you. It's not like you're calling best friends or parents and telling them that you're a werewolf now, or posting selfies in wolf form. You're rational. They'll appreciate that."
I finished my breakfast and rubbed the back of my neck. "I don't want any of you hurt trying to protect me. And, obviously, I don't want to die, either. Or have Tommy get hurt. He didn't know what was going on."
"If it comes down to it," Hudson interrupted. "We'll make a decision that suits all of us. We'll remain safe, together, as a pack. And we'll do it in the smartest manner we can find. The supernatural world doesn't mix with the human world. If we must, we'll go to ground with the humans and stay away from the wild until we can move Fontaine Feeds elsewhere, outside of the reach of the locals."
It was probably the best plan we were going to have before the Meet actually happened. I didn't like the idea of putting any of them at risk, but what was I supposed to do? Instead of complaining, instead of running off into the night to save my pack the trouble of my existence, I kissed each one of them as I made my way around the table collecting plates, and headed back into the kitchen to tidy up. The dishes needed to be clean before we left, after all.
Chapter 12
Xavion
"Come on, old girl. You gonna help me put the roof on?"
I crooned to Carrie Ann, the oldest Great Dane I'd ever met, and helped her stand. She staggered for a moment, then wrapped her too-long tongue around my arm and dawdled after me. Leo had ordered supplements to help her with her joint pain and an enormous bed that Tommy had taken to sleeping on. Still, the impressive madame of Sadie's rescue would need surgery at some point to help her.
And the idea of someone putting a geriatric giant breed under anesthesia was terrifying enough that I wanted to offer her all the good times she had left.
We walked out into the snow after I put her fluffy Sherpa-style jacket on her and I'd tied on her booties. She yawned and wandered off into the field of white to pop a squat as I carried a new hammer out to Hudson, him having disappeared the last one in the snow.
Over the past week, we'd fixed kennels and built new ones. Shelters that were comfortable were now luxurious and heated even for the dogs that preferred the snow. We wanted to give them the chance to have a warm place to crash when they were done freezing themselves half to death.
After all, we understood the whole thing pretty well. As wolves, we spent our time flopping around in the drifts and barking at cars that went by, always careful to do it when we could follow the headlights and make sure they couldn't actually see us. The cold was our ideal season and the outdoor huskies of the rescue were no different.
My packmates were on the roof, Sadie inside where it was safe. They'd peeled back old, rotten shingles and replaced the tar paper underneath it. Now came the hard part; getting the new shingles to line up with the old ones. Though the whole thing needed to be torn off and repaired, that would have to wait until the snows melted. You didn't do roofing in winter unless you absolutely had to. The tar was a nightmare to work with.
"Fellas," I said, climbing the ladder and sitting down on the edge of the roof. I shimmied up to them and offered the hammer out to Hudson.
He took it with a nod of thanks. "Another hour or two and we're finished for the day. We'll head in, crash, see what Sadie's cooking."
"She's been on a roll ever since we got here. Pretty sure I smelled beef stew in the crockpot," I told him. Then I yawned. "You ever miss this life, guys? Where things are just simple and it's all quiet, no offices and just... this?"
Gabe rolled his eyes. "I don't miss having to worry about whether or not I was going to be late on the rent, or listening to someone tear my ass apart because I was five minutes late."
"And I don't miss eating the 3-week old 75% off pre-frozen hamburger from the bargain bin. That stuff always made you sick, even if you threw taco flavoring all over it," Leo said.
I shrugged and looked out across the horizon. The afternoon was getting long in the tooth and the night was coming to kill it. I let one leg dangle as Carrie Ann came over to look up at us, sitting in the snow and tilting her head. She held a frozen, mauled teddy bear in her mouth and dropped it by the ladder, an obvious demand for attention.
Well, I wasn't one to let down a lady. "I'll see you guys when you come down. I've been summoned by Her Majesty."
"Give her a good rub down for me," Hudson said. "She's a sweet girl."
I heard a thud as I climbed back down the ladder and listened to him curse. When we'd spent
