“Why?” Taking a seat opposite Montgomery, Simon pointed at the bowl. “Do you like that cheese?”

Montgomery gave him a weary smile. “Not really, but I felt like I should purchase something if I was going to sit here, and the cottage cheese is something cold to eat on a hot day.” He fiddled with the spoon. “I brought this trouble to your door. I’m sorry.”

“You wanted to protect your mother and sister, get them to a safer place,” Simon countered. “I encouraged you.”

“I didn’t expect Jimmy. His being here changes things.”

Simon waited. He couldn’t force that Cyrus away from the Courtyard, but the Elders hadn’t said anything about Montgomery sending the other human away.

“Eve Denby called me from Lakeside Hospital. Seems Jimmy had some sort of attack—shortness of breath, heart feeling wonky.” Monty stared at the bowl of cottage cheese. “Someone here expressing . . . displeasure?”

“Yes.” No point denying it, even if he wouldn’t confirm it was Tess the Harvester, the Plague Rider, who had taken some of that Cyrus’s life energy.

“Anyone else hurt?” Monty asked.

“No.” He knew what he would want as a Wolf, but he wasn’t sure what a human would want. “We could move the Sierra and her pups to the other apartment building. I won’t move that Cyrus over there, not with three females living there alone.” All right, Officer Debany was almost living with Merri Lee in her den, but he wasn’t there all the time to discourage anything that Cyrus might decide to do.

“I’d prefer having my sister in the same building as me,” Monty said. He pushed the bowl of cottage cheese to one side, then drank some water. “Why did you put Jimmy and his family on the second floor?”

“He can’t fly. We didn’t think he would be inclined to use the porch to sneak out or in if he had to climb to the second floor. And even if he tried, we would see him before he reached the ground.”

Monty’s smile was fleeting but genuine. “You got that right. But he would have even less contact with Sissy—with Sierra—if he had no reason to be on the second floor.”

As Simon considered that, he pulled the bowl of cottage cheese to his side of the table and ate a spoonful. He liked cheese and happily purchased his share when a delivery came from an earth native dairy farm. But no matter what they called it, this just wasn’t his idea of cheese. He’d thought he didn’t like it because he was a Wolf. Maybe it was because he was male, since Meg and the female pack chose to eat it.

“That Cyrus and his mate are still at the hospital, and his pups are in the schoolroom with Ruthie,” Simon said. “We could move all of their possessions to the other downstairs apartment in your building and have Chris Fallacaro swap the locks so the key we gave that Cyrus would work on the other apartment.” When Montgomery hesitated, he added, “If you don’t want to look at their things, I could ask Jenni and Starr to pack up their belongings.”

“No offense to the Crowgard, but I think it would be better if I did the packing,” Monty said.

“Well, you’re not likely to lose any shinies while taking the belongings down the stairs.” Simon smiled. “I’ll help you.” The Wolves had looked in the suitcases when that Cyrus arrived, but it wouldn’t hurt to see if the human had brought in anything that wasn’t allowed.

“Thank you. I’ll check with Captain Burke about taking some personal time for this.”

Steve Ferryman and Roger Czerneda had left the Courtyard, but Burke was still in Howling Good Reads. He looked amused as he held up the two books he’d selected—a thriller by Alan Wolfgard and a book Merri Lee referred to as a Crowgard cozy, with an amateur sleuth who had a habit of picking up more than clues while investigating a murder.

“This is the other one,” Merri Lee said as she returned to the front of the bookstore. She handed Burke a book that, from the look of it, had been read a few times already. “Jesse Walker from Prairie Gold sent it to us. You can take it as a loaner. It’s a mystery-thriller series with a human investigator who receives assistance from a couple of terra indigene acquaintances. I gather the author is pretty popular among the Intuit communities but is unknown anywhere else.”

“Was that in the box of books Jesse Walker sent to HGR?” Simon’s chest and shoulders furred a little in annoyance. Until he and Vlad decided whether to order copies for the store, those books were supposed to be a distraction for Meg, not be handed out to other humans.

“Jesse sent two copies of that one,” Merri Lee replied, showing her teeth.

Simon pretended the teeth were displayed in a smile. The female pack was upset because of the Sierra, and he really didn’t want to tangle with any of them. At least, not over a book.

“I have all the information you or Vlad would need to order new copies of the series,” Merri Lee said.

“Good. Fine. Lieutenant Montgomery and I will be across the street. Vlad should be around if you need help with anything.”

“Problem across the street?” Burke asked.

Simon went over to the display table to give Montgomery the illusion of privacy while talking with the captain, and to give himself a moment to digest the changes that had occurred since the Elementals and Elders had retaliated against the Humans First and Last movement, altering so many things in Thaisia—not to mention the savage destruction of so much of the Cel-Romano Alliance of Nations on the other side of the Atlantik.