“I’m Kane Wolfgard. The other deputy.”

Oh good. She got to work with two snarlies instead of just the one she’d met yesterday.

“I’m Jana Paniccia.”

Giving her a brisk nod, he went into the office and disappeared through a doorway that had to lead to rooms in the back, leaving her to come in and look around the open area on her own.

Would one of the desks be her workstation? Who took the calls, or did they have a dispatcher? Each desk had a telephone, but there was only one computer and printer set up at its own workstation against the wall.

“Deputy Jana.” Virgil walked through the doorway where Kane had disappeared a minute ago.

“Sheriff Wolfgard.”

Virgil pointed to the desk closest to the computer workstation. “That one is yours.” He stared at the computer for a moment. “You know how to work that?”

“Yes.”

“Then that one is yours too. Tolya set up the e-mail thing for the sheriff’s office. You will watch for those.”

“One e-mail for the whole office? Don’t you want a private one?”

Now he stared at her. “Why?”

Okay, e-mail wasn’t private. Good to know. Not that it mattered since e-mails, like the phones, were limited to within a region.

“You can also sort mail.”

Desk work. If she’d wanted to work at a desk, she wouldn’t have gone to the police academy, wouldn’t have taken extra classes in order to prove she could do the job.

Virgil opened a drawer, took out a badge, and set it on the desk.

“You’re not getting someone to run the office?” she asked.

“We have you.”

She clenched her teeth to stop herself from saying something she might regret. Before she could come up with anything safe to say in response to that statement, a big Wolf trotted out of the back rooms, came up to her, and stuck his nose in her crotch.

“What the dickens are you doing?” Jana demanded.

“Kane is getting your scent,” Virgil replied.

“If you need to do that, you sniff an arm or a leg, but you don’t stick your nose there,” she snapped. “It’s crude and it’s rude and … How would you like it if I sniffed your penis?”

Virgil and Kane cocked their heads. The fact that one looked human and the other was furry made the identical move kind of creepy.

“Humans do that?” Virgil sounded like she had finally said something interesting.

“No.”

“Oh.” They sighed in unison.

“You will need human weapons,” Virgil said. “They are back there with other human things. When you have chosen the ones you will use, I will show you the vehicle you will drive.”

Jana blinked. “I thought I was going to be a mounted deputy and have a horse.”

“The horse is for inside the town boundaries. The vehicle is for outside.” Virgil walked over to a map on the wall, then turned and stared at her until she joined him. “This is Bennett. The red line shows the new boundaries. This is where humans can live. This is where they will work.”

The new boundaries shrunk the town to half its previous size. “Do the terra indigene live on the other side of the boundaries?” That kind of division was bound to keep the residents divided in other kinds of ways.

“Some of us live away from the humans, and some forms of terra indigene have chosen houses on the streets where humans are living.”

Jana wasn’t surprised to hear that Virgil was one of the Others who didn’t want to live around humans.

“So I do horse patrol within the new boundaries?” she asked, wanting to be certain.

“Yes. We protect the territory within the red line, but if we need to sniff out something beyond that line, you will drive us.”

Ah, so she was driver as well as secretary. This was getting better and better. “Who protects the property beyond the boundaries?”

“Namid’s teeth and claws.”

Jana swallowed hard. Maybe being the designated driver wouldn’t be a bad thing after all.

“You should select your weapons now,” Virgil said. “As deputy, you are allowed to have weapons so that you can do your job and protect the citizens of Bennett. The Elders agreed to this.”

The Elders. Namid’s teeth and claws. The forms of terra indigene who had wiped out the original population of Bennett.

“When I’m considering weapons, is there any particular danger I should keep in mind?”

“There is a pack of bad dogs that were raised to fight and kill. They attacked a human and attacked the horses in the corral. They are dangerous.”

Jana tucked her daypack in the bottom drawer of her desk before going into the back rooms to explore and find her weapons. When she walked into the storeroom, her mouth dropped open as she eyed all the handguns carelessly piled on one set of metal shelves. The metal shelves on the opposite side of the room mostly held office supplies, but one shelf had been cleared and was now packed with an assortment of knives—everything from combination knives with all kinds of gizmos to switchblades to hunting knives that could do some serious damage to almost anything smaller than a grizzly. Rifles and shotguns were stacked on the floor or leaned against the shelves.

Whoever was in charge of clearing out the houses must have had the workers collect the weapons and bring them here, and whoever was doing the work had little or no knowledge of gun safety.

She broke open a shotgun and muttered her worst swearword as she checked two more.

Gods above and below, not only were the weapons carelessly stacked; the darn things were still loaded! The Wolves were lucky they hadn’t knocked something over and gotten a foot blown off—or worse.

After removing the shells, she set the three shotguns aside and considered her immediate needs.

She slipped a combination knife into one front pocket of her jeans and a switchblade into the other pocket. After a little hesitation, she selected a big hunting knife that was still in its sheath.

Stepping to the other side of the room, she found a six-shot, police-issue service revolver and its holster, as well as two boxes of cartridges and a couple of speed loaders that fit the revolver. She had to try on a few of the duty belts stuffed on another shelf before she found one small enough to fit her. After attaching the holster and the speed-loader pouch to the belt, she figured she’d have to look for the rest of her gear later—including a kit to clean the revolver. But for now, this was enough, and she didn’t want the sheriff to think she was hiding out in the back to avoid doing her job.

After tucking the sheathed hunting knife into her waistband, Jana picked up the two boxes of cartridges and left the storage room. She’d have to talk to Virgil about keeping that door locked until someone—probably her, since it sounded like her job description included everything Virgil and Kane didn’t want to do—examined all those weapons and made them safe to store.

A quick exploration of the other rooms back there showed her a bathroom complete with a shower stall and a kitchen with a coffeemaker, a wave-cooker, and an under-the-counter fridge, as well as a square wooden table and four chairs. Mugs, glasses, and plates in the cupboards. Silverware in the drawers.

On the other end of that hallway, just past the half-closed door of what she assumed was Virgil’s office, was another door. Jana opened that one and found three basic cells with nothing but a cot in each. Not even a toilet, which she’d thought was pretty standard these days.

Then she noticed the sign printed with large black letters and an arrow pointing to the last cell. THE ME TIME CELL. And she knew, just knew, which gender was being targeted.

Mad enough to spit, Jana spun around and almost plowed into Virgil.

“What the dickens is that?” she yelled, jabbing a finger in the direction of the sign.

“It’s a sign.”

“The Me Time cell? Really? And who ends up in there?”

“Females who need time to figure out why they shouldn’t yap at me.”

“Females.” She snarled the word. “Females who challenge you get put in a cage. What happens to the men? Huh? What happens to them?”

Virgil stepped forward. His shoes bumped hers. She had to crane her neck to look up at him without taking a step back. That would be a submissive act, and she would not be submissive. Her time at the academy had shown her that she had to stand up for herself and fight for everything she wanted. She’d thought it was harassment and bullying; she hadn’t appreciated that it was a necessary part of her training.

“What happens to them?” she said again.

He brought his face close to hers and she saw odd flickers of red in his amber eyes. Baring his teeth and revealing fangs too long to be human, he snarled, “I. Bite. Them.”

Stay focused on the job. Stay focused—and don’t start a pissing contest you can’t win.

Jana took a step back. She would stay focused and show the darn snarlies that she could do the job. “Most, if not all, of the weapons you’ve shoved into that storeroom are still loaded. That’s dangerous. That room should be locked at all times, and the weapons unloaded. Sir.”

Virgil stared at her. “You know how to do this?”

“Yes, sir, I do. Should I add it to the rest of my duties?”

“Yes.” He walked away.

Yes. Just yes.

She stayed in the holding area a full minute before she felt she could see him again without launching herself at him. If she did that, she’d end up in one of those cells for assaulting a superior officer—assuming she didn’t end up seriously hurt. Virgil was bigger, he was stronger, and he had meaner teeth. And he’d have Kane throwing in with him.

“You can get through this shift,” she whispered. “Just get through your first shift.”

Virgil reappeared in the doorway to the holding area. “Why are you still there? You have to see the car and find a horse. You can sniff around the cells later.”

She paused long enough to put the hunting knife and boxes of cartridges into a middle desk drawer—and found a gun-cleaning kit already there. Then she went outside and followed Virgil and Kane, who was still furry, to the back of the building. The only vehicle in the spaces designated for the sheriff’s office was a shiny black utility vehicle that had “Bennett Police” painted along the sides.

Wasn’t a patrol car like she was used to seeing in the Northeast. In fact, except for the lights, it didn’t have any of the accoutrements usually associated with police cars. It did have a sizable cargo area, which made her think the back seats had been folded down to accommodate the snarlies.

Could Wolves be back-seat drivers? She didn’t relish the idea of Virgil breathing on her neck and growling opinions while she chauffeured him around town.

“The humans who take care of cars made sure this one could travel,” Virgil said. “You make sure you can drive it and know how to make it light up and howl.”