Page 17 of Hungry Like the Wolf

“Agatha is JJ’s sister,” a voice said from right next to her, and Nadja jumped. It was the person from the refreshment table. They wore a sweatshirt that said “Best Grandma Ever” and had nine little wolf silhouettes beneath it. It was well-worn and clearly well-loved.

“Oh,” Nadja said, at a loss for what else to say.

“Who are you?”

“Nadja,” she replied before pointing to the huddled form on the couch. “Nadja Stonebreaker. And this is Robbie.”

“Poor bastard.”

Nadja couldn’t argue with that.

“I’m Rose.”

“It’s nice to meet you, Rose.”

It was a thing you said, whether or not you meant it. And Nadja wasn’t quite sure if it was nice to meet Rose. She wasn’t hostile, per se, but she wasn’t especially welcoming either. Rose had the air of a person who knew far more than she let on—and she let on like she knew a lot. In that respect, she reminded Nadja of Magda.

The wolf—Agatha, apparently—wiggled on her back with her tongue draping out the side of her smiling mouth as the children dug their fingers into the tan fur on her belly, perfectly at ease. They were all perfectly at ease, Nadja noticed. There was no apparent hierarchy, which made no sense. There was always a hierarchy.

Robbie turned over on the couch fitfully, kicking the blanket off his body and mumbling about heat. Rose clicked her tongue sympathetically.

“It won’t work.”

“What do you mean it won’t work?” Nadja said, her head whipping to look at Rose. Panic flared. “That’s why he’s here. To have a pack with him when he shifts. That’s why I brought him here.” Her voice sounded more and more frantic with every word she spoke.

“They won’t accept him.”

“What?” Nadja hissed. “Why not?”

“No unmated males. They won’t bend on that rule.”

Nadja hated the words the moment they flew from her mouth, but couldn’t stop herself from protesting, “But not all unmated males hurt people.”

Rose looked at her with the same penetrating sort of look that Magda used, the kind that made you feel as if you were under a lens and all of your seams put on display for scrutiny.

“Not all males, chicky,” Rose said flatly, “and yet somehow always a male.”

Nadja sank into a folding chair placed against the wall, dropping her head into her hands. She felt the warmth of Rose’s body as she sat next to her, quite at her leisure, leaning back and crossing her legs at the ankle.

“But…” she said, “it’s an easy enough problem to solve.”

“How?” Nadja sputtered. “How? How the hell is he supposed to shift for the first time in his thirties without a pack and without hurting himself or, gods forbid, someone else? How is that easy to solve?”

Rose examined her nails, which were buffed to a shine without polish.

“You mate him.”

Nadja blinked at her for a few moments before the laugh burst forth like a bottle rocket. Heads all over the room turned to look at the pair. Human eyes narrowed slightly and wolf heads cocked curiously.

“I told her that joke about the frog at the library,” Rose said casually, as if she hadn’t actually said the most absurd thing in the world. “She’d never heard it before.”

With nods, and a few eye rolls, everyone went back to their conversations and business.

“What the hell, Rose? Mate him? I just met him.”

“Suit yourself,” Rose said, pushing to her feet.

Nadja grabbed her wrist and tugged. “Wait.”