Page 10 of Her Big Bad Wolf
I yawned. Admitting she was right left a bad taste in my mouth. Defiantly, I drove around town one more time on the chance that I’d catch a glimpse of the boys. But there was nothing so I went home, dragged my ass from the car to my bed, and caved in defeat. I really was exhausted.
Isaac
Chapter 4
The day started much like any other. I got up and made coffee. Doing anything before coffee was pointless. It gave me a little time to check my messages and see that nothing was pressing for the morning.
After two cups of coffee, I ventured outside to make my rounds.
“Good morning, Gertrude. How’s my favorite gal?” I asked my favorite goat as I passed by the fence on my way to the feed shed.
She was quite articulate in her frustration of having to wait even a second longer for her breakfast.
“Did you sleep well Jasper?” I asked the male that had joined her.
He proceeded to tell me all about it.
“Well, that makes one of us. I’m sorry there were people out here disturbing you last night. They’re looking for some kids. As if any kids would be dumb enough to come around here. But if you guys happen to see any, you be sure to let me know.”
“Baa,” was the only response I got from either of them, but it was enough to call over the others.
I smiled at the small menagerie before me and set about doing my morning chores. There were three mama goats and a cow to be milked; animals to be fed; and eggs to be collected from my chickens. The garden also needed to be tended. It was still winter, but my cold crops required attention.
Having a small working farm wasn’t always easy, but it was rewarding and I adored my animals. They were my friends and kept me company.
“Good morning, ladies,” I said, cheerfully as I walked into the chicken coop tossing seed around.
They seemed a little frazzled and I frowned.
“What’s wrong?” I asked as if they could somehow tell me.
I’d had a few problems with snakes and critters stealing my eggs. I dropped the bucket and ran to check the nests.
Two eggs.
All I had were two blasted eggs. On average my ladies put out between twelve and eighteen eggs a day and there were only two?
Something was getting to them.
I spent a large part of the morning looking for any signs of weakness in their fence. I even checked up high to ensure something hadn’t climbed in or something. There was nothing.
Scratching my head, I began to look around. There were no signs of anything under their house. I sniffed the air. While there was still the faint scent of shifters all around from Kyle’s intrusion last night, there wasn’t anything alarming. I didn’t hear anything foreign in the area either.
“Well, maybe you ladies just needed a day off. If this continues though we’re going to have problems.”
The rest of the day was life as usual with no further concerns. If something was getting into the coop, the animals would alert me.
That night all was quiet. There were no late knocks on my door, no one came around, and all my animals were quiet. I’d had a restless night listening out for them, but there had been nothing alarming.
The next morning when I ran right to the chickens first, I found seventeen eggs in the nests and started to relax.
“You ladies were just messing with me, huh?”
Life flew by as normal.
But the next morning there was only one small egg to be found.
“What the hell is going on?”
