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Mina's eyes glowed with sudden delight. “Is this why you brought her to us, Cal? You want me to learn her secrets?”
Cal met Mina, reached out and brushed the woman’s disheveled bangs. “Marcy is our friend, perhaps future packmate.”
Mina recoiled. “Not mine!”
“We could do a lot worse than adding a conservator-restorer to the pack gallery. If you disagree, you’ll be starting your own pack soon, anyway,” Cal continued. “Regardless, you are to treat her with respect. Marcy promised to bring us Stephen's pelt and his attacker's name. In return, we're going to protect her, bring back safety to her home and our neighborhood, then, should the day arrive, welcome her as pack.”
I kept my expression neutral.
A red pearl glistened on the deck beside Mina’s toes. Several more pattered from her clenched fist.
“The baby,” came Jazeel’s worried baritone.
Mina whirled on him.
He lifted his hands in surrender and, while not backing away, made no move to intervene.
Steam hissed through the woman’s fist. “This is bullshit.”
Cal frowned. “Mind your language.”
Mina a jabbed a bloody finger my direction. “We don’t know why the killer was watching her. We don’t know why he left Stephen’s pelt on her porch. We don’t know why Stephen was on her property! Was she providing him some kind of service, were they friends, lovers?” The woman spat a tooth onto the ground. “And you reward her with a position in our family! Stephen’s not even in the ground and you’ve already disgraced our name. Hell, you’re so scared of the pain you wouldn’t even shift to find him when he was missing! Metacomet is closing in our dominance and you’re begging toys off a human.”
Closing her eyes, Cal waited what felt like an eternity to reply. “The sheriff believes their encounter was random. I’m inclined to agree.”
“Completely,” I added. “Outside of the Living Canvas exhibit at Elizabeth Park, we’ve never exchanged more than a friendly hello.”
Mina had eyes only for Cal. “Of everyone in the pack, you’re the one the sheriff’s leashed?”
The alpha shot her a warning look. “Don’t start, Mina.”
“She isn’t wolf.”
“Nor must she be. My parents considered Marcy’s grandmother family, thereby extending our protection to her.” Cal took Mina’s hands and gently wiped the blood with a napkin. “We aren’t sisters of flesh and bone but we are sisters. You’ve lost family, Mina. Imagine if all you had left were a couple of cats?”
That stung.
“I’ll treat Marcy like my sister when you treat Stephen like our brother,” she hissed, smearing blood across her eyes as she wiped them. “If you were dead and Stephen alive, he'd have burned the fucking capital to get your pelt back, and if the reaper stood in the way, he’d smoke him, too! If you aren’t holed up in your room texting delegations to the rest of us, you’re cavorting with a human. We don’t even have his head! No pelt, no head, Calico! How could you?”
Cal’s expression teetered on pleasant annoyance. She fiddled with Mina’s hair until the younger girl slapped her away. “Baby turns this far along and you’re in for a rough night, hun.”
Mina glanced at her feet.
“After everything it’s taken to get him here, you and Jaz deserve all the happiness this boy will bring,” Cal continued more softly. “You’re a smart woman. Rest and relax. Don’t complicate a difficult situation.”
“Right.” Mina swung her head around to address me. “Wouldn’t want to get between Sheriff Harlowe and his prey.”
“Mina!”
She shrugged. “What? Sisters tell each other the truth. She’s dog chow.”
A nervous grin flashed over Jazeel’s face. He pulled his wife into a hug and rocked her a few steps back. When Mina struggled free, Calico took the woman by the arm and led her to the table beside Evita.
“Love or hate her, Marcy has a working relationship with our new sheriff. She mentions your antics and he’ll come knocking. God knows we’ve already given him reason to pry.” Cal reached across the table for a water bottle and thumped it hard on an empty place setting in front of Mina. “Were it my head missing, Stephen would cut off his hand before he shoved Marcy. You’re risking our family’s lives,”—she touched Mina’s belly—“old and upcoming. You’ve fucked up. It’s alright. We’re grieving. But this afternoon you will sit your ass down and eat a burger while I apologize to Marcy and she and I discuss terms.”
The women exchanged stares, then Mina blinked and it was over. She snatched a burger from her husband and plopped beside Evita, who mouthed, ‘thank you’ to their new alpha.
Over meaningless small talk and several promises on my part that Stephen and I had nothing to do with each other in any capacity, Cal and I prepped new burgers as the last round had been charred to a hockey puck. After, we returned to the kitchen. She locked the slider and leaned against the counter as I sat alone at the table picking at my hamburger bun. The meat was too rare for my liking, but at the risk of provoking Mina, I decided against asking her to throw it back on the grill.
