Page 16 of Heart of a Dire Wolf
“Brick, walk toward that big truck,”Landry ordered in his head.“I bet that was his ride.”
Before Nic could comply, the woman’s voice ordered him to stop and freeze.“He’s a tiger. The driver will likely shoot him.”
A whistling night wind ruffled his fur and the rain made his whiskers twitch. It was a waste of energy to stand on the side of the road when he could be sitting, so he did.
“Good riddance,”said Landry.“Cain’t sell him. One less target to hunt down. As a matter of fact, why don’t we just fry him now?”
Nic swiveled one ear when he heard two rabbits running across the hard ground. The female puppet master had ordered Nic to be cold. He felt smug that he couldn’t. His thick, Siberian fur kept him comfortably warm.
“No,”said the woman,“not before he tells us how he got out. If he’s as dumb as you say, he’ll probably show us. Bad enough the rest of them got out through the unguarded staff entrance. We need to seal the other breach before Magister Balton gets back in town, or it’ll be our heads hanging in the boardroom instead of those trophy shifters.”
A memory bubbled up from his far-away man side, of running in unbearable heat, following the slender form of a tireless stilt-legged wolf, who left curiously deep paw prints. Okay, so warmth was good in moderation.
While the buzzing voices in his head argued, he lay down and rested his head on his front paws, closing his eyes against the precipitation.
A gust of wind tickled Nic-the-tiger’s ears, carrying faint words. “Nic, can you hear me?” Something about that voice made him open his eyes.
The man side of him insisted the voice was his mate’s. Nic-the-tiger lifted his head, scenting the wind. Another gust brought more words. “Flick your tail twice for ‘yes’ if you can understand me. Please.”
Nic-the-tiger did so, because she’d asked so nicely.
“...take hours, even if we hire the Vegas hyenas. Are you willing to stay on headset the whole time in case he wakes up?”
“Hell, no. I ain’t pullin’ another double...”
Nic-the-tiger shut out the irritating head voices and listened for the one that licked his ears and made him wish he could purr.
“One tail for ‘no,’ two tails for ‘yes.’ Is someone controlling you?”
He thumped his tail twice and hard, to signal his dislike of it.
“Can you shift?”
The man side was closer, but still too far away, too foggy. One thump.
“Can you come to the truck?”
One thump.
The buzzing female voice interrupted.“Shut up a minute, I thought I heard something.”
Nic-the-tiger chuffed loudly in annoyance, then snuffled to get the dirt out of his nose.
“Ewww, that sounds disgusting.”
Nic-the-tiger wondered if he could still cough up a giant hairball on command. Best juvenile prank, ever.
The voice he’d been waiting for all his life blew in on the next breeze. “Don’t eat the bunny.”
