Page 14 of Fractured Fang: Omega

There were eight sheep, all of them already to lamb any day. Thankfully, they were all freshly sheared, and we didn’t have to worry about that. Although come next season, we would be handling it. I already had a whole slew of YouTube videos to watch and I planned on reaching out to as many people as I could for assistance and the farmer we picked them up from told me I could come and watch them shear next year if I was so inclined. I’d already decided to take him up on his generous offer.

The sheep were ready to get out of the trailer, and since I had backed up to the temporary pen they would stay in until they got settled, we didn’t need much help, which was good. I didn’t want this to be any more stressful for them than moving already was.

“They’re so cute,” Gabe said.

Phillip scoffed. “Cute? They’re dinner.”

“I thought you didn’t like lamb,” I reminded him, and he scowled back at me. Oh well. It wasn’t like I was wrong.

I ran to the front seat of the truck, took out the bag of yarn I bought, and handed it to Gabe.

“Not all of them will be dinner,” I said. “Sheep provide perfectly good service being aliveby making more little sheep and providing us with wool. I was half-thinking we could try something like this with some of it. It was only on clearance because there were odd skeins left after the person who made them retired. Not enough to do anything with them.”

“What will you guys do with the rest of the wool?” Gabe asked.

I shrugged. I wasn’t quite sure yet. “We could clean it, spin it for fiber, or at least try. Some people use it for insulation, but I don’t think it will be profitable, but may be practical. It would probably be good inside the chicken coop to keep that area warm, or maybe even when we build the sheep their shelter here. We’ll have to see. It depends on how much we get. Greycoast and Northbay don’t raise their own sheep, so we can always trade for stuff there.” I had so many ideas I could talk about them all night long.

“That’s cool that you guys remain so close with them,” Gabe remarked.

“Yeah, it’s been nice having a big brother pack to lean on as we get started. They’ve already figured out how to do quite a few things.”

Gabe ran his hand along one of the sheep’s backs that had come over to the fence. The rest of the herd seemed nervous about us, but this little lady was a fearless sort.

That had been my biggest concern when we went to look at the sheep, that they would sense my beast and be a hard pass. Thankfully they didn’t. They weren’t instant snuggled bugs, but that would come with time and food.

“She’s going to be trouble,” Phillip said.

“The curious ones usually are,” Gabe remarked.

“Oh, I don’t know about that. She looks perfectly nice,” I said, and I scratched her ears. She immediately pulled her head away and glared at me.

“Odd that they’re not afraid of our wolves at all,” Gabe noted.

“We bought them from a farmer who had some shifters as hands not too terribly far from here. They’d raised them from babies, so they’re less on edge. The first set of cows we brought though….” I whistled. “That was an interesting excursion. They didn’t know what to do with having wolves so close, so they tried to get as far away as possible as often as possible.”

Gabe laughed. “They didn’t take too kindly to you all tracking them down all the time?”

I shook my head. “Heck no. They bolted every single time we came near them. We had a heck of a time administering any vaccines or vet care for them at first, too.” Looking back on it, I was surprised we hadn’t just given up.

“Do you do all of that here?” Gabe asked.

I nodded. “I’ve had to learn quite a bit.” We had a vet we could call in, but it was best to do as much of it on our own as we could. Not only did it save money, but it was also easier than trying to schedule the large animal vet for routine things.

“Now that Gabe’s here, he can help manage all these animals. It’s more than a one-person job,” Phillip offered—or more like told.

“Kind of like how managing the kitchen is more than a one-person job now?” Gabe raised an eyebrow.

Phillip’s cheeks tinged pink. “Don’t you go saying things like that. It sounds like you’ve been talking to your mother.”

Gabe laughed. “Actually, I was talking to Jasmine earlier. I think she’d like it if you would let her help out a little more.”

Phillip’s features softened. “She’d like to help in the kitchen?”

Gabe nodded.

“Well, heck, I’d kind of like that. I don’t know what to do with myself if I had a day off, but I sure could use a good helper. I’ll talk it over with her and Wilder. If they’re actually on board with the idea, then she can get started.”

Had someone told me Phillip would let someone into his kitchen to cook and be excited about it, I’d have thought they were telling a joke, but here he was doing both of those things.

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