Silver-White (The Great North Woods Pack #1) (17 page)

Evie looked around at the other wolves,
waiting for someone to explain.

“Run southeast,” said Eli. “Stop at the bridge.
We have a surprise for you there.”

The two speeders wasted no time running
off. The bridge where they stopped was not far, less than a mile. It was a
wooden platform constructed by snowmobilers over a narrow stream that was no
more than a dozen feet across. Evie did not understand its significance.

“Get the fish!” Emmy said then, and
leaped down the bank and splashed into the water.

Evie followed curiously, watching as her
friend churned the waters. Dipping her white snout in and out of the water in
fast snaps, she eventually came up with a fish in her jaws. From behind her
Evie heard the laughter of the other wolves now watching from the bridge.

“Get one!” Emmy barked, after chomping
down the fish in a few bites. “Good snack.”

Evie plunged into the water, half
watching Emmy, half watching the dark pools sparkling with moonlight. The water
was cold, but not in a shocking way; her wolf was definitely tougher in regards
to cold. Then in a move she would never have attempted in her human form, she
finally plunged her head into a pool between two rocks, copying Emmy, snapping
the cold water until she felt a wriggling fish brush by her nose. Her jaws
snapped toward the feeling, and after two tries, closed around the fish.

“Eat!” the other wolves cried as Evie
raised her head. “Eat!”

Stepping from the stream, she dropped
the fish on a smooth rock, examining it first with her eyes, then her keen nose.
She was hungry, but wasn’t sure she was
that
hungry. Eventually, with the voices of her companions egging her on, she picked
up the ten-inch brook trout and bit down hard. The flavor released quickly in
her mouth. To her relief, it was not as bad as she’d expected. In fact, after a
few grinding bites, it began to taste moderately good. This surprised her
greatly.

“Good?” Said Emmy.

“Not bad,” Evie yipped.

“Not bad,” the other wolves agreed. “No,
not bad.”

Her next fish took longer to catch. The
fish were well disturbed within the pools and hung near to the banks and lower
corners of the rocks. By the time she’d caught and eaten her second fish, Emmy
had eaten two more and then climbed from the water, satisfied. Evie joined them
on the wooden bridge, dripping wet and licking her chops.

“Feel better?” Eli asked.

“I do,” Evie said.

“Then it is a good night.”

“Very good,” the other wolves agreed.

“It is late,” Eli said. “Time has flown.
You will need rest.”

“We all will after running us so hard,”
David said.

All the wolves laughed.

Of the five, Evie and Emmy were the
saddest to part. Being the youngest and least concerned with food, they wished
to play the remaining hours of the night away. The others assured them that
there would be many more good nights to follow, and after some lingering, each
said good night to all with whines and rubs.

Quite suddenly, as the party was
breaking up, there was an angry growl from Emmy’s throat. Perhaps it had been
her brother’s stance beside Evie, or his tone when saying good night to her,
that set Emmy off. “
My
friend,” she
warned her brother, then quickly scampered a short distance away.

“What?” Evie asked innocently.

Eli and Sarah stood with heads swaying
side to side, watching closely but saying nothing, as most wolves do when
witnessing a dispute.

“My sister hates goodbyes,” David said
after Emmy rushed off. “She will feel badly now. I must go. Good night,” he
said again, and trotted off to catch his sister.

From a distance Emmy turned and called
one last promise of another run tomorrow night. Evie replied to her in a short
burst of yips, saying in essence, “You got it!”

“I knew you would like them,” Eli said.

“I do,” Evie said. “Thank you so much.”

“We can be very territorial at times,”
he explained.

“Emmy does not wish to share you,” Sarah
explained with a laugh.

“I can be friends with
everyone!
” Evie exclaimed, and threw
herself into a mini celebration.

Eli and Sarah laughed at her.

Moving northwest, they showed Evie to a
narrow trail that approached Grandpa Snow’s house from the southernmost corn
field. Evie understood then how close to town they had come, and began to have
a sense for her territory with her inner compass. Between the corn stalks the
three trotted, and when they reached the driveway they walked easily and
quietly, passing the long barns calmly to avoid stirring the animals.

“Calm,” Sara told Evie in the dooryard.
“Your warm robe waits.”

Evie saw the white robe over the porch
railing. She was warm as the wolf, but she knew now from experience that she’d
be cold once she made the shift. To envision the soft comfort of the robe would
help her make the change.

“Lie on the porch,” Eli said, “and focus
your mind. Rest. Tomorrow will be another good night.”

“Thank you,” Evie said, “for taking me
out.” But her many whines and low groans went well beyond that. They meant,
Thank you for watching out for me, and for not
holding my behavior over my head.

Both of the older wolves nuzzled the
silver-white. They said good night quietly and turned away.

“As always, wolves patrol tonight,” Eli
said a few steps away. “Their scents may drift on the wind. It is best to stay
here.”

“Okay,” Evie bobbed her head. “I will.”

Stepping as softly as she could, she
climbed onto the front porch and curled up. From where she lay she watched the
two grays disappear down the long driveway. Watching them go, her stomach was
an aching void from the run; little fish to big wolves were no more than
crackers to a human. But it had been a wonderful night, and the hunger pangs
were well worth the hours of fun. More than anything, she was thankful for the
love and inclusion of such great family members. As stubborn as she could
sometimes be, Evie had never been near an ingrate.

Evie scented the air lightly. She had
many strong senses that she’d just begun to understand, but as the wolf, she
had little sense of time, other than the frustration of waiting under the
traveling stars and moon. Learning the human shift was far from her favorite
part of this new deal. Though she could remember clearly the first willful
shift into the wolf, becoming human later that night she could not recall
beyond the frenzied excitement. Dull things are often overlooked until they
become necessary things.

Lying on her side now, she was completely
still apart from the subtle twitching of her black nose. She was scenting the
air obsessively, working her nose while the rest of her rested. No wolves were
very near, she knew, besides those sleeping inside the house. But there was
another scent—one she could not identify. It was plain and uninteresting,
definitely not a threat, but it was all that she had to occupy herself. So she
kept on sniffing and trying to identify its source.

In the house there was food, she knew.
Chicken and roast beef she could detect through wooden walls and refrigerator
doors. The other scent was much weaker and unusual to the house, but the more
she sniffed and tried to guess at it, the more obsessed with the seemingly
trivial scent she became.

At last—it was probably only a half an
hour later—when the appeal to become human outweighed the appeal of the
solitary wolf on the firm porch, she felt the change happening.

Pulling on the robe as she entered the
house, Evie closed the door softly. She walked on her toes to the kitchen,
keeping
her bare heels from the cool floor. The kitchen clock read nearly 3:30 AM. In
the fridge she found chicken on a plate covered with plastic wrap. She set the
plate on the counter, tore the wrapper, and began eating where she stood. Her fingers
were fine utensils, and cold chicken never tasted so good.

Once the plate was clean Evie walked to
the great room and sat back on one of the couches. The chicken scent permeated
her fingers, and she licked them until every trace of chicken taste was gone.
No one was around to see her. And since she was part wolf, “No wolfing your
food,” didn’t seem to apply anymore. Why not enjoy her late night snack like an
animal?

When the chicken scent was gone, the
other, strange scent she’d noticed outside began tickling her nose again. It
was less noticeable now than it had been as the wolf, but she’d become familiar
with it, and it was still clearly present. With nothing else to do at such an
hour, it was mildly intriguing.

Evie stood and walked softly through the
quiet house, following the scent. At the far end of the kitchen she paused by
the basement door; she sniffed deeply. The strange scent was strongest there;
she was sure of it. Turning the knob quietly, she opened the door. One sniff
told her that she was on the right track. She flipped on the light and went
quietly down the stairs.

The basement floor was even colder than
the kitchen floor to her bare feet. She walked forward, wincing from the cold,
and tugged a pull-string to alight another bulb, giving more light to the large
basement. Rows of shelves lined some of the walls. Boxes and books and various household
supplies were on the shelves. In the middle there was much open space. At the
far corner she saw the door to what her grandfather had always called the
utility room—a block of a room added as if an afterthought. She now noticed
water tanks and the furnace outside of the room and wondered about the name. To
the door of that room she walked slowly, quietly following the scent. As she
gripped and turned the door knob, she was surprised by a sound from within the
room—the very last sound she ever expected to hear in her grandparents’
basement.

-12-

Someone had called “hello” from inside.

At first Evie had jumped, startled. Then
something clicked in her mind, and she stepped closer. “Who is that?” she
asked, wanting to be certain before she let her temper fly.

“It’s Dale … your grandfather’s friend,”
was the muffled reply.

You’re dead meat
raced through
Evie’s mind as she cranked the doorknob hard. Luckily for him, the door
wouldn’t open. She looked and found the heavy deadbolt, slid it, and tried the
nob again. Still no go.

“It’s locked from the inside also,” Dale
kindly informed her.

“You could’ve told me that,” Evie
snapped. “Open this door right now. Or I’ll … I’ll …”

“Would you like to kill me too?” his
muffled, sulky voice said.

“Is it true?” Evie asked, recalling her
grandmother’s comment. “Did you tell those cats about me?”

“I can explain everything.”

“Oh, really now?”

“If you promise not to kill me, I’ll
open the door.”

Evie narrowed her eyes and glared at the
door, picturing his face. Her body began to heat up like a running furnace.
“I’m not promising
you
anything,” was
the only promise she could make.

From inside the small room Evie heard
the deadbolt slide. The heavy door slowly opened to reveal a dark room but for a
nightlight shining from the corner. The door opened fully, and by the light
from her back she saw folding chairs and a badly torn mattress on the floor.
Then she saw Dale. He looked pretty rough. For a moment Evie felt sorry for
him. Still, it took all of her self control to keep from attacking him on the
spot. The memory of the cat—its eyes and its hateful hiss—was too fresh in her
mind. And pitiful or not,
he
was to
blame for their visit.

“Afraid of the dark, are we?” she
finally said. They were the kindest words she could then offer.

“I am tonight,” Dale said.

As Evie took a step forward, Dale
flinched, taking a step back.

“Take it easy,” he muttered.

Evie was right up on her toes leaning
towards him, appearing very angry, but secretly reveling in the fact that her
simple step had caused him to flinch. “Explain yourself computer boy!”

“Before you bite my head off—”

“Don’t give me any ideas.”

“Listen, I didn’t know those …
people
meant you harm, Evie. I didn’t
know they were cats. I didn’t know
anything
.”

“No? So you figured spying on my family
was a good idea?”

“I wasn’t really
spying
.” He stepped back slightly. “Come in and sit down, and we’ll
talk this over rationally.”

Evie huffed in disbelief. “I’ll stand
right here, and you’ll talk real nice to keep me from kicking your ass. How’s
that sound?”

“Oh-kay,” Dale said, holding his hands
up defensively. “I know you could if you chose to. I’ve never seen one of your
… family talents—not in full—but I understand now that none of you should be
taken lightly.”