On the one paw, he felt relieved that the Courtyard wasn’t faltering while his attention was pulled in so many directions. On the other paw, it felt weird not to know what was going on in his own store. Were the rest of the Business Association members feeling the same way? Maybe not Henry, who spent his time in human form carving totems and sculptures from wood. But Tess was more volatile lately.

He looked at the books on the display table. He wanted to arrange a few things as a substitute for lifting a leg and marking territory. He and Vlad had made Merri Lee their assistant manager in order to free up their time to deal with larger concerns and to take over John Wolfgard’s duties now that John had left to run the bookstore in Bennett, but he hadn’t expected her to mark the store as her territory so quickly.

We’re sharing, he reminded himself as he went upstairs to fetch the spare key to that Cyrus’s apartment and call Chris Fallacaro to meet them at the apartment and swap the locks.

Montgomery waited for him at the bottom of the stairs. “We should get this done. Eve Denby called me again. She’s at the Bird Park Plaza right now, doing a bit of scouting for Meg, but she’ll be back at the hospital in an hour to pick up Jimmy and Sandee since the doctors wanted to keep an eye on him a bit longer. They’ve decided this is a variation of that mysterious malady that has cropped up a few times in recent months. That being the case, once he’s released, the only cure is rest.”

They went into the apartment that Cyrus and his family were using and found the suitcases.

Simon looked around the adults’ bedroom and covered his nose with his hand. What had that Sandee rolled in to smell this stinky?

“Gods above and below,” Montgomery muttered. “Jimmy was raised better than this.”

“You smell it too?”

“Yes, I smell it. I’m surprised the station hasn’t received complaints from nearby houses about a bad odor.” Montgomery looked at Simon. “This must be a lot worse for you.”

“We roll on dead fish.” Simon lowered his hand and took a quick sniff. “This is a lot more pungent. More like skunk spray.”

Montgomery laughed, a quick sound muzzled to a chuckle. “Let’s toss it all in the suitcases and leave the suitcases on the porch. I’ll talk to Eve and my mother about how to fumigate this apartment.”

“I’ll pack up the puppies’ things,” Simon said, heading for the other bedroom. The pups’ clothes didn’t smell as bad, but they didn’t smell clean either.

Why would parents turn their offspring into scent markers for predators? Or was being stinky off-putting enough to discourage the human kind of predator?

He didn’t want Montgomery to think he was suggesting the man stink up Lizzy, so he would ask Kowalski or Debany. It seemed a silly way to protect the young, which was exactly why humans might do it.

The locks were swapped, the suitcases were packed and on the porch of the downstairs apartment across from Montgomery’s, and the Sanguinati who was keeping watch had been told who could, and couldn’t, go upstairs to the Sierra’s den.

It wasn’t said, but it was understood, that if that Cyrus or his mate tried to see the Sierra, they would need another trip to the hospital for a sudden loss of blood.

• • •

Meg moved the kneepad, then resumed weeding the next section of the kitchen garden. She wanted to do something simple—a task that had an instant, visible reward, that had no gray areas, no emotional turmoil. At least, not for her. If weeds had feelings, they might take a different view of her plunging her gardening tool into the ground around them and ripping them out, roots and all. But they weren’t voicing opinions or arguing with her, so she dug and ripped with homicidal cheer.

No one believed the solicitous excuses that Simon and Monty had made for moving Cyrus and his family to the apartment across from Monty’s, especially after Cyrus was barred from going upstairs to talk to Sierra. When Simon told Sandee that she couldn’t go into the Courtyard until she washed her clothes and stopped smelling like skunk spray, she shrieked loudly enough to be heard by people at the end of the next block. Combined with Sierra’s drama and Steve Ferryman’s opposition to Sierra’s living on Great Island, Sandee’s reaction became the one thing too many, depleting Meg’s ability to cope with the feelings and futures of the people around her.

She would do a bit more weeding, then take a cool shower. Simon and Sam would be home by then, and they would make a salad and warm up the already-cooked meatloaf she’d picked up at Meat-n-Greens for sandwiches. Then she intended to do nothing but sit in the summer room and read. Maybe even sleep there tonight.

“Arroo!”

Meg waved as Sam raced toward her, looking hot and dusty but happy. Of course he was happy. He hadn’t been touched by all the trouble caused by pesky humans—and she had a copy of the new Wolf Team book for him.

“Hello, Sam!” She dropped her weeding tool and hugged him. “Did you have a good day?”

He arrooed and licked and made her laugh. She smiled at Simon when he trotted over to join them.

“Give me a few more minutes to finish this section; then we’ll go home and have dinner,” she said.

She picked up her tool and dug around one of the zucchini plants and pulled out a gray wad. But when she turned the wad over, she realized she had snagged a white puff of a tail.

• • •

Simon heard Meg yelp and saw Sam snatch something from the end of her weeding tool. The pup bounced forward, then darted back, clearly inviting her to play. Meg didn’t look like she wanted to play, but Sam wasn’t taking the hint.