Jana collapsed into her chair and remembered Tobias Walker’s words: You’re thinking like a human, and he’s thinking like a Wolf.

Could it be that simple? This was her third day on the job, and she’d been angry about having all the desk work dumped on her, had been angry about Virgil walking her around the square like some inadequate pet while he made the rounds. Even when he’d scared her yesterday, she’d been thinking of him as a human male sending the message that she couldn’t be a cop on her own, but what if she considered his actions from the point of view of her being part of the pack? Virgil was dominant. Even in human form, Virgil was darn scary. In Wolf form … She wouldn’t want to see him coming after her. Kane was next, being the senior deputy, not to mention being a Wolf. That made her third in the pack. That didn’t make her less; it was simply her place. And the typing and filing and handling the e-mails? Her ability to do those things were human skills she was providing for the benefit of the pack, like Virgil’s and Kane’s superior sense of smell and ability to track because they were Wolves. Like their ability to communicate with other terra indigene even when those beings weren’t in human form.

Virgil hadn’t thrown her down and rolled her on her back, forcing submission the way he’d done with Rusty, but had he been sending clear, to him, signals that she needed to acknowledge his dominance and her place in the pack?

Jana went into the kitchen and returned with the bowl of water. She opened the crate door enough to let Rusty have a drink and managed to close it before the dog could escape. Then she turned on the computer and checked the e-mails.

More there than she expected. There were probably a ton of e-mails sent to the previous occupants of the sheriff’s office, but she didn’t know the username or password. Maybe there was someone in town now who had the computer skills to get access to those e-mail accounts or just eliminate them.

Rummaging in her desk, she found a notebook. Dating the top of the page, she wrote a summary of each e-mail, putting a big star in front of the time-sensitive ones—like the meeting of the town council that Tolya Sanguinati had called for tomorrow afternoon. She printed that one out and put it on Virgil’s desk. She could show him the others if he wanted to read the full text.

The only message that gave her a moment’s pause was from someone named Jackson Wolfgard, who was located in a place called Sweetwater. He asked for confirmation that this was the correct e-mail address to reach Virgil and Kane Wolfgard and also asked for confirmation of the phone number.

Jana hesitated. The name Wolfgard meant he was a terra indigene Wolf, but being a Wolf didn’t mean he was a friend. Still, this was a public e-mail address and phone for the sheriff’s office, and other communities should know how to contact them.

She replied to the request for information, signing the e-mail as Deputy Jana Paniccia, Bennett Sheriff’s Department. Before pushing the SEND button, she copied the e-mail to Tolya Sanguinati. Having finished that administrative task, she sat back and considered what her role as the human deputy could be.

* * *

* * *

Jesse eyed her son, who was holding a fuzzy gray puppy against his chest, the fingers lightly scratching the pup’s neck and shoulders. Damn him, but he’d always known which critter would tug at her heart if he brought it home. Didn’t mean she wouldn’t put up some resistance.

“When I said I’d consider adopting a dog, I didn’t mean I wanted to raise a baby.” She gave Tobias a stern look.

“But she needs a mom.” Tobias looked at the pup, then looked at Jesse. “I already took her to the vet and had him look her over. She’s weaned, and the vet gave her the shots she needs right now.”

“Weaned doesn’t mean housebroken.”

“No, but she’ll learn fast. She’s got a real good brain inside that small head. And given her age …”

Jesse drew in a breath. Weaned meant older than eight weeks, but the puppy still had the baby fuzz. The pup would have been born shortly before the Elders and Elementals had torn through the continent of Thaisia, wiping out the entire human population in some towns—like Bennett. So there hadn’t been anyone to teach the pup.

“Where is her mother, her littermates?” she asked, trying to resist reaching for the furball just a little bit longer.

“Don’t know,” Tobias replied. “Didn’t see a bitch hanging around the puppy pens Barb Debany had set up. Didn’t see any other pups around her age.”

Giving in, Jesse held out her hands. “Let’s see her.”

To give him credit, Tobias didn’t smile, didn’t indicate in any way that he’d known this would happen. Of course he’d known. He had a feel for animals, just like she had a feel for people.

“Rachel can be an honorary big sister,” Tobias said.

“Don’t push it.” Wolves cared about the pups in their pack, but Jesse wasn’t sure how a juvenile Wolf would react to a young dog.

“Did you think to pick up what this one will need?”

“Yep.” Now Tobias grinned. “Want me to put it in your car? I have to be heading out to help Truman move to the Skye Ranch and make a list of the folks who will be working for him. Then I’m heading to the Prairie Gold ranch to get my own new workers settled and introduced to Ellen and Tom Garcia.”

“Have you decided on what to do with the girl? She can’t bunk with the men.”

“Tom and Ellen have their own cabin behind the main house, so the housekeeper’s suite is available. Figured I would talk to Ellen about putting Ed there.”

Jesse hesitated. She didn’t have any concerns about the girl, but the distance between living in a Northeast community, no matter how small, and living within sight of the Elder Hills—and knowing what lived there—was a distance of more than miles. And the reality could easily change expectations.

“Having her work for you instead of other Simple Life folks who might resent her breaking away from traditional roles is good of you, but you should be careful that she doesn’t start thinking that being given use of the housekeeper’s suite is a step toward sharing the master bedroom.” Being the only single woman on the ranch would garner the girl plenty of attention.

“I get the feeling that Ed is looking for the freedom to be one of the boys rather than someone’s missus.” Tobias raised his eyebrows. “Don’t you?”

Put that way … Smiling, Jesse studied her son—and felt an interesting tingle. Even if Ed hadn’t wanted to be one of the boys, Tobias wouldn’t be looking in her direction. “Something else before you haul this one’s supplies to my car?”

“What do you know about the new deputy?”

The boy was about as subtle as getting whacked with a two-by-four when he was trying to act as if his interest in the answer was casual to the point of indifferent. Tobias was never indifferent when it came to people or critters.

“She arrived on Sunsday, started work on Windsday, and despite some grumbles and growling, she and Virgil haven’t had a full-blown fight. Yet.” Although she had the feeling that something had happened between them when they escorted that mixed family to the hotel.

Tobias looked concerned. “You think that’s likely?”

Jesse thought for a moment. Morgan and Chase Wolfgard, the new leader and dominant enforcer of the Prairie Gold pack, had come from a pack that had been too far from human settlements to be found by the Humans First and Last movement when those men had slaughtered other Wolf packs. They left their home pack because they were needed in the terra indigene settlement at the southern end of the Elder Hills. But Virgil …

“Were you told about Virgil?” Jesse asked. She wasn’t sure who had decided to make Virgil the sheriff. It hadn’t been Tolya. He’d been given orders and had to deal with the result as best he could. She did know Virgil was the reason Tolya had wanted a human deputy to be hired to work in Bennett.

“I know about him. Don’t think Deputy Paniccia was told.” He didn’t meet her eyes. “I’m coming back tomorrow to look over the horse she chose. I have a feeling it’s not the right one for her.”

“Why don’t you help her choose a dog?” Jesse suggested dryly as the puppy tried to squirm out of her arms and sniff whatever was in reach.

Tobias grinned. “I already did.”

* * *

* * *

In Wolf form, Virgil and Kane roamed some of the residential streets of their territory. Old human scents. They found the carcasses of a couple of the roaming dogs—and they found the fresh scent of some Elders on a blue post office box that was at an intersection that was part of the new boundary for human settlers. They both marked the box on the opposite side, acknowledging the boundary.

Easy enough for them to scent the line between where humans would be watched but not harmed as long as they themselves did nothing harmful and that one step that would put them in the wild country, regardless of the houses on the street. But humans wouldn’t be able to tell where the boundaries were.

They turned a corner and Virgil stopped when he spotted Tolya Sanguinati standing in front of a house in the middle of the block, talking with Saul Panthergard and Joshua Painter.

<What?> Kane asked.

Instead of answering, Virgil headed for the Sanguinati.

A shift in the wind direction had Saul turning toward them before the other two males noticed his approach.

<Where is the sweet blood?> Virgil asked.

Tolya gestured toward a house a few doors down on the opposite side of the street. <Barbara Ellen is looking after the children while the adults in that pack look over this house.>

<Then you found a den for them?>

<Joshua Painter says this house has no stain of darkness and will not torment the sweet blood. The adults are looking it over to make sure it has all that their pack needs in other ways.>

Had the terra indigene known that sweet bloods could be tormented by a place? Did Simon Wolfgard know that? Or had Broomstick Girl simply found a comfortable den and settled in at the Lakeside Courtyard? What about the pup living with Jackson Wolfgard?

In both those cases, the sweet blood had been given a den among the terra indigene instead of claiming a den that previously had belonged to humans. Maybe that was the reason this search was different.

Or maybe the choice of den was more important because this pup couldn’t howl and would suffer in silence.

<I’ll check the rest of the street,> Kane said.

Virgil ignored the comment. He’d seen the small bus pull up. When the door opened and the Jacob pup leaped out ahead of the rest of the Gott pack, he knew why Kane was heading that way. If one of them kept watch over the Becky girl, the adult females would have time to make food for the pack while the boy pup could run and play and the Becky girl could explore a bit around the family den.

The adult males, Kenneth and Evan, came out of the house.