Page 163 of Moonless

Rauk’s ignoring him. He’s got his claws clear of the dish and a piece of bread in his fangs. Birdie’s got hold of his other hand across the table, which is the only reason she’s eating anything. Mel’s letting it happen. Eskan’s already off the bench, and Colm’s checking where everyone is before he’ll pick up his bread.

Then Rauk’s head comes up in the middle of chewing, and he turns his nose toward the trees.

Heads come up all down the tables after his, and the clearing goes quiet. Mel looks where everyone’s looking, then at Keer, then at me. “What? What is it?”

I’ve got nothing. Rauk’s nose is working and his ears have gone forward, and I’m sitting here with a mouthful of bread, waiting to be told. Before, I’d have known what was coming ahead of everyone at this table.

I nudge his arm. “Well?”

One ear flicks my way. “Bear.”

Keer’s up. “Stay there.”

“Where would I go? I’m sitting down.” Mel pulls Birdie onto her lap and keeps looking at the trees.

Here we go.

Axan comes out of the trees, and there’s a man beside him. A man, not a bear, so I don’t know what Rauk’s nose is doing. He’s big, for a man, and one sleeve of his shirt’s knotted up short at the shoulder. One arm, walking into a pack of wolves with his chin up.

Brave, or stupid. He’s taking his time about it, looking the place over, and Axan’s walking a step ahead of him with his eyes on Keer and his eyebrows all the way up.

Keer goes out to meet them, and Axan stops in the middle of the clearing, well short of the tables.

Well short of Mel.

That lasts about as long as it takes Mel to heave herself up off the bench, which, with that belly, is a while. She goes after Keer with Birdie on her hip and the boys hanging off her skirt, and I’m not going to be the one who stops her, because nobody can.

Nugget trots after Mel. Keer Jr. trots after Nugget.

Rauk gets up with me, stiff on his bad leg, and I hang on to his arm, fur and all.

Look at the pair of us.

Half the pack’s drifting the same way with their breakfasts still in their hands.

Keer gives the stranger one look, up and down, then turns his eye on Axan. “What is this, Axan.”

“You’re going to want to see this.” Axan looks at the stranger, then back at Keer, and the eyebrows haven’t come down.

The stranger’s looking the pack over, in no hurry, and his eyes stop on Mel. Of everyone here. Mel waves at him over Keer’s shoulder. Keer’s hand comes down on her wrist, and the next thing she’s behind him, Birdie and the boys and all, with my brother planted in front of them.

“May I?” The stranger’s asking Keer, and he’s grinning while he does it, which isn’t how anyone asks Keer for anything.

Keer looks at Axan, and Axan nods. Keer nods too, slower, and his eye doesn’t leave the man.

Then the man reaches for the tie on his trousers with the one hand he’s got and gets the knot with his thumb, still grinning. “Bear with me. It goes slower with one.”

Rauk groans beside me and puts his hand over his eyes. “Hitto, not again.”

Mel leans around Keer to get a look. “Umm. Why is he undressing?”

Nobody answers her, because the trousers have hit the ground and he’s got nothing on under them, and he doesn’t care who’s looking. Rauk’s still got his hand over his eyes. I don’t know what he thinks I’m going to do.

The stranger goes down on his one hand and his knees, and the fur comes in brown. I’ve watched people shift my whole life, and none of them came in brown. His back goes up and keeps going. His face pushes out long, and the hand on the ground spreads into a paw with claws as long as my fingers. Then there’s a bear in the middle of my brother’s pack, and he’s looking at us.

Shit, he’s big.

He’s standing on three legs, and the front leg on one side just isn’t there. It ends at the shoulder in old scar, healed over smooth.