Wolf’s Glory (7 page)

Jill came and put a hand firmly over the little motormouth"s face. “Hush, Chase. You do not go through other people"s private belongings. Go help your mother.”

Glory felt sorry for the kid. He"d called her beautiful. Maybe the opinion of a seven-year-old didn"t matter, but it still was nice to hear. “Aw. He"s just a kid. Leave him be.”

Chase squirmed free of Jill and gave Glory another gap-toothed smile. Shadow"s mom shooed him off and gave Glory a tight hug. Glory steeled herself to not jerk away and patted her shoulder gingerly.

“Glory.” Shadow"s mom stood back, still holding onto her shoulders. She was so short it was a long reach to Glory"s shoulders. Her face was earnestly pleading. “Give my son a chance. He has waited for you a long time.”

Jill said briskly, “I agree with you, Tara. Shadow will make an excellent mate. But the choice is Glory"s. It will do him good to have to work for something he wants instead of getting it with just a smile. Here, Glory, eat.”

Glory grabbed the wooden bowl and moved off to find a comfortable piece of ground to sit on. Comfortable piece of ground? Wasn"t that an oxymoron? But it looked like the only chair was Jill"s, and Glory wasn"t going to take that. If Wolf"s Shadow expected her to stay here he"d better get a chair and a bed for her. If she stayed here … Where else could she go?

The boys all grabbed their bowls of stew and came to sit by her. Raven was a cute kid, but he was sitting way too close. She gave him a narrow-eyed glare. He didn"t seem to mind.

“Why don"t you want my brother?”

Glory swallowed without intending to and ended up choking on a piece of some

unidentified vegetable. “Good lord, kid! You trying to kill me?”

“No. Why don"t you want my brother?”

Glory shoved a spoonful of stew in her mouth to give herself time to find a PG sort of way to say she wouldn"t mind jumping Shadow"s bones, but there was no way in hell she was going to belong to him. There wasn"t one. She swallowed her stew and growled, “None of your business.”

He was going to keep asking, Glory could tell, but the other three women came over then. Only one looked to be full-blooded Lakota. She was probably in her late forties or early fifties, and the first Native American woman Glory had seen here. All three seemed pretty excited to see Glory. They booted the boys out of the way to sit in a circle around Glory with their stew and interrogate her. The boys carried Jill"s chair over so she could sit with them.

”I"m Emma Two Birds. Muddy Wolf is my brother,” the Native American one said.

“This is Sandra Link, the wife of your mate"s brother, and here is my daughter, Stands Tall Woman. We are so glad you"ve come!”

Yeah, Glory didn"t know why they"d be glad, but their big smiles and eager faces

showed how glad they were. And they reached out to touch her as if to assure themselves she was real.

“So you are going to teach my nephew to behave?” Emma said. “My nephew Shadow, I

mean.”

Geez, Glory hoped there wasn"t going to be a pop quiz on the Clan"s family tree later.

Sandra looked like she was about Glory"s age, with light brown hair worn in a single long braid down her back. Her face would have been pretty except for the sour expression that settled on it as soon as her smile died down. Glory wondered if she always looked like that or if she was just having a bad day. She sat next to Glory with a grunt.

Glory scraped her spoon along the bottom of the bowl. “Well, I don"t know.”

“You need to,” said Stands Tall Woman earnestly. She was a few years older than Glory, maybe early thirties, and the shape of her features marked her Lakota blood the way her sun-bleached blond hair didn"t. Chase was apparently her son, since he was leaning on her, and they looked a little alike. “He"s a good man, but he always gets what he wants without putting himself out. Make him work for you.”

Sandra smiled evilly. “I heard you stopped him last night just when things were getting interesting. Good for you! Serves him right.”

Glory flushed and cast a glance at the boys still lingering in the area. “Uh…” She turned the conversation quickly. “I noticed that some of you have native names, like Stands Tall Woman and Wolf"s Shadow, and some have two names like Arthur Muddy Wolf and Emma

Two Birds. Are the second names last names? Should I call you Mrs. Two Birds?”

The older woman laughed and lightly touched Glory"s hair, as if she couldn"t resist the pinkness. “Oh, no. My Christian name is Emma and my Lakota name is Two Birds. Most of us have both names. Call me Emma, please.”

Stands Tall Woman said brightly. “The older generation often was given two names like that. I guess that"s how they did it in the Times Before. Mother"s first husband, my father, was Carl Stensrud. My brother is officially Daniel He Continues To Leaf Stensrud, but townies call him the Tracker and we just call him Dan. We don"t use last names anymore here. If we need one, we just call ourselves „Wolfe." So my uncle Arthur Muddy Wolf would be Arthur Wolfe to strangers. But here we mostly call him Muddy Wolf. Is that clear?”

“Uh-huh,” lied Glory.

“Aunt Tara wanted to name Shadow Norman. He hates it, so if he"s being especially annoying, you can call him that and he"ll back off, roaring.”

Norman, huh? Glory couldn"t imagine Shadow being called Norman.

Shadow"s mom, Tara, came and sat with them. “What"s wrong with the name Norman?

It was my father"s name. You girls shouldn"t be so hard on Shadow. What has he ever done wrong?”

“Nothing,” said Emma promptly. “That"s just it. He"s so perfect. His hunts are always successful. He got his wolf when he was only twelve. He"s an alpha. The men look up to him.

Women think he"s handsome.” She glanced quickly at Sandra, then away. “There was that girl down by Kearney.”

“She wasn"t his mate!” Tara snapped, jerking her head at Glory meaningfully.

“Still, you see? Everything goes his way without him having to lift a finger for it. Glory will make him work to get her.” Emma nodded. “She"ll be good for him.”

“Glory, do you hate his wolf?” asked Stands Tall. “That"s not the reason you stopped Shadow last night, is it?”

Glory blinked uncertainly. “Wolf?” She shot a look at Jill. “No one has told me what that means yet.”

Jill rocked forward in her chair. “Glory doesn"t understand about us, yet. In the Times Before no one knew about our wolves, remember? And Shadow was too much of a coward to tell her himself.”

Tara made a wordless sound of protest, but backed down under Jill"s eye.

“Tara, you give in to the boy too much,” Jill scolded.

“He"s my first born. An Alpha.”

“Spoiled brat,” muttered Sandra, sourly.

Glory was surprised by her attitude. Emma and Stands Tall seemed fond of Shadow,

although they were hoping Glory would teach him a lesson about always getting his way.

Sandra, though, was bitter.

“Oh!” Emma nodded, ignoring the byplay. “That"s right, Glory"s from the Times Before.

Well, Glory, hundreds of years ago the Wolf Clan got its name because some of the warriors were wolves. About two dozen men in a generation were wolves. But after the Europeans came, fewer and fewer boys had wolves until during the reservation days the wolves within were just a memory. But with the first generation after the Terrible Times the wolves returned. At puberty a boy may turn wolf. Sometimes it takes as long as a year for him to learn to control his wolf, but once he does, he is an adult. It"s the wolf that chooses a mate.

Once he"s chosen, the man will never have another woman.”

Glory stared, trying to figure out what she was saying. Sounded like a Native American spirit religion, until she threw in that bit about mates. “That"s nice,” she said lamely.

Jill smiled toothlessly. “The men become wolves.” She nodded to the big dogs lying in the sun a few teepees over. “See?”

“What?” Glory"s eyebrow soared. “Werewolves?”

Instead of winking or laughing, Jill nodded solemnly. “When Muddy Wolf first turned, everyone was shocked. My husband and his brothers and cousins knew the traditional stories, but even they didn"t believe them until our sons began turning. Now it"s normal and natural for us.”

“Get out!” said Glory. “
Werewolves
?”

Jill shook her head. “Not werewolves, like in books or movies. Just men who have a wolf spirit inside them who can shift their bodies. It sounds strange, but is it any stranger than being fifty years in the future?”

“But…” Glory looked helplessly around. “Am I on
Punk’d
?”

Jill cackled. “Nope. This is the truth. And we are so glad to have another woman in the Clan.”

The other women all agreed, and Glory thought they were all sincere, even Sandra.

“I have five sons,” said Tara almost tearfully. “Now at last I have a daughter.”

Tiny, protective mother hen Tara thought Glory was her daughter-in-law? Good grief.

Sandra made an angry sound under her breath, and Tara turned quickly to her.

“Of course you"re my daughter too,” she said quickly. “But Jimmy White Elk isn"t wolf-born, so you aren"t mates. Not like Shadow and Glory are.”

Ouch
, thought Glory. Dissed by the mother-in-law. Maybe that was why Sandra seemed a bit sour. “Where are the other women?”

Stands Tall, who Glory thought looked as much Norwegian as Lakota, shook her head.

“We"re all the women there are in the Clan now.”

Glory looked around. There had to be fifty teepees in the camp. And there were only five women? If she were living in a tent on the prairie with dozens of men who could turn into wolves but only a few other women, she"d be glad for another one too. But werewolves?

They had to be pulling her leg.

“Are any of you … uh, wolves too?”

Sandra shrugged. “I"m from Littleton. I didn"t know much about the Clan before Jimmy married me.”

Glory looked at Emma, who by her looks, must have been born to the Clan, but Emma said, “Women can"t be wolves.”

“Geez, sexist werewolves? Seriously?” Glory glared at the nearest dog. “What a scam.

Who knows about it? I mean that you guys have wolves in the Clan. Like the white people in town. Is it a secret?”

Emma shook her head. “It"s not a secret. We"re respected, although some townies fear us.”

“When Del claimed Naomi as his mate, her brother tried to kill him.” Tara frowned at an old memory. “He stole her and brought her here. They ended up being happy, but it made bad feelings between the Clan and some of the people around here.”

Jill leaned forward again. “Del died about ten years ago. Naomi took their son to her family and tried to reconcile, but her brother refused. It split the Clan. Not in a bad way. We were getting too big to feed ourselves easily. So some of us live near Kearney now. That"s Taye"s Pack. The rest live here. We are the Clan; they are the Pack. Naomi never liked living free as we do. She and Del only had one son live to grow up, so she adopted some Clan boys, and they made a settled home for themselves near Kearney. Some of the young men went with her. It"s a nice place. It has hot running water. Naomi tried over and over to be accepted by her old family, but they never allowed her back. She took that sorrow with her to her grave.”

A settled home with hot running water—and maybe flush toilets?—sounded good to

Glory. These people with their inner wolves and Wolf Clan fantasy were just plain weird, and she"d kill for hot running water. “I"m sorry for her. But I"m not staying here, either. I need to go somewhere with walls and floors and furniture.”

Now all the women paused to stare at her. Tara wailed, “You can"t go! My son would be devastated.”

Emma nodded decisively. “Shadow wouldn"t like that. It would be too dangerous.”

“Well, I can"t stay here. I need to get a job.” Out of the corner of her eye Glory saw Sandra and Stands Tall whisper together. “I"m not comfortable here. I need my own space, you know? Maybe I can find a job in Kearney.”

No, apparently none of them did. Emma said, “Glory, I don"t know if Shadow"s wolf will allow you to leave the Clan.”

“Tough Twinkies,” Glory snapped. “He doesn"t own me.”

There was shocked silence that Jill broke. “You are his mate, though.” She fell silent for a minute, apparently thinking hard. “You know, I think it"s a good idea. You and me will go to Taye"s Pack in Kearney for the winter. Come spring, Shadow can court you.”

The women seemed even more shocked at this. “Grandmother!” gasped Stands Tall.

“You can"t leave the Clan!”

“Why not?” said Jill. “Your brother Dan is almost never here, and Lobo and Jimmy

White Elk wander all summer long. I"m an old woman now. The cold makes these old bones ache. Me and Glory will be safe in Taye"s den. His Pack will look out for us.”

Tara frowned. “Shadow may let
you
go, Grandmother, but Glory? His wolf will go mad imagining her with other men.”

Glory huffed. “It"s none of his business if I go out with a dozen men!”

A couple of the big wolf-dogs howled.

“He would kill them all!” Tara warned.

Jill nodded reluctantly. “Yes, that really is true, Glory. But I"ll be there to chaperone you.

And Taye"s Pack won"t let any strange men near you. So I"ll talk to Muddy Wolf about it tonight. We can leave before the Clan heads off to the winter camp in the Black Hills.”

Glory climbed laboriously to her feet. This sitting on the ground was going to kill her.

She hoped Taye"s den had chairs. “Hey, Jill, who"s Taye? Is he, like, part of the Clan?”

“He"s the grandson of my husband"s second brother. Del and Naomi"s son. You heard their story just now. Taye"s Pack is part of the Clan, but they live separately from us in a remodeled motel. They are the ones with the hot running water.”

That sounded good. She still didn"t know who any of those people were or how they were related, but hot water sounded good. Glory nodded with enthusiasm. “Rock on. When can we leave?”

“First we have to clear it with Muddy Wolf. Then pack. Probably a couple days.”

“But Grandmother,” wailed Stands Tall. “Who will lead us women when you"re gone?