As day finally turned into night and they enjoyed a dinner cooked by wolves—beyond delicious, by the way!—Tock wished she could say the “trauma” that she’d been through was catching up with her. But it wasn’t. She was wide awake. And the only reason she used the word trauma was because Streep kept saying it. “All the trauma I’ve been through today,” and “so much trauma! It’s a miracle I survived.” She even threatened to become “a better Christian. A better Catholic.” But none of them believed her because Streep always said that after getting hurt. Sure, she might head to Rome to see if she could get time with His Holiness the Pope, but she never came home from those trips empty-handed. Her family really loved their Vatican “finds.”
Once the wolves had eaten, they’d disappeared as wolves liked to do. Maybe they went out for a late-evening hunt. Or maybe they simply didn’t want to spend any time around strange honey badgers. It was obvious that Rutowski and her friends weren’t the wolves’ favorites, so it made sense they wouldn’t welcome more badgers. Especially mouthy young ones who couldn’t bake like Charlie. They had even less interest in the big cats who had invaded their compound. True, there were only three of them and a cub, but Amur tigers were big, mean, and known to be quite vengeful. The wolves had the numbers but the tigers had the rage. Especially these tigers. Keane stayed outside in his tiger form, sitting on a small hill and staring off into the distance. Finn shifted back to human but kept an eye on his older brother. Not that Tock blamed him. Keane was pissed, and the energy coming off him was deadly. He was just looking for someone to tear apart.
The four older honey badgers took off for places unknown, and the rest of them settled in to watch the ginormous TV in the “family room” and relax.
With everyone else more or less settled, Tock went looking for Shay. To make sure he was okay. She found him in the room that had been given to his daughter. Actually, it had started off as his room, but he’d put his daughter in it along with Princess, her puppies, and the male dogs. The wolves had even provided a proper whelping box for the puppies.
As soon as Tock walked into the room, she could see that having the dogs nearby was making the kid feel better. Of course, there were wolf pups at the compound but they never made it into the house; their parents brought plates of food to their residences on the property instead. They didn’t want their canine pups playing with the feline cub. But that was okay. Tock already had something to keep the kid busy.
“Here,” she said, handing Dani the notebook she’d been working on for the last two hours. “Problems for you to work on.”
“Oooh!”
“Tomorrow,” Shay said, trying to pull the notebook from his daughter’s hand.
“Daddy!” Dani yanked the book back. “I just want to look through it.”
“Do not start working on problems tonight,” he ordered while she flipped the pages. “I want you to get some rest. It’s been a long day.”
“For you. Even though you won’t tell me what happened.”
“Did you talk to your mother tonight?”
“I did. She wants you to call her when you have a chance.”
“Of course.”
“Don’t fight.”
“We never fight.”
“Really?” Tock asked.
“I don’t like arguing with people,” Shay explained.
“But what if they’re wrong?”
Shay just gawked at her, so Tock let it go.
Gently taking the notebook from his daughter’s hand, Shay put it on the dresser across the room and motioned to the two male dogs. They immediately jumped on the bed with Dani. One faced the doorway; the other rested his big head on Dani’s chest, staring at the big window. Protecting her and keeping her pinned to the bed all at the same time. Ingenious.
Shay leaned over his daughter and kissed her forehead. “I love you, baby.”
“I love you, too, Daddy.”
Tock was walking out of the room when she heard, “Tock?”
She turned back, and Dani motioned to her. She leaned over so the kid could whisper in her ear. The dog resting on Dani snarled a warning at Tock when she came close, but she snarled back and the dog settled down.
“What is it?”
Leaning up as much as the heavy dog head would allow, Dani whispered, “I don’t have any clean underwear for tomorrow.”
“Didn’t your dad bring you clean clothes?” Tock whispered back.
“He grabbed the bag I used when I stayed the night with Aunt Nat, but I refuse to re-wear underwear—”
“No, no. I’d never expect you to do that. I’ll take care of it.”
“Don’t tell Daddy.”
“Why?”
“It’s embarrassing!”
Honey badgers didn’t really experience embarrassment, but Tock still understood that a ten-year-old girl didn’t want to talk about her dirty underwear with her dad.
“I’ll take care of it,” she whispered. “Don’t worry.”
“Thank you!”
That’s when the kid hugged her and Tock froze. She’d never been much of a hugger. If they won a game or whatever, she would hug her teammates in the heat of the moment, but even with her parents . . . her mother did most of the hugging. And it kind of annoyed Tock.
This, however, wasn’t annoying. It was sweet. The kid had been kicked out of math camp—a late-evening voice mail from the head counselor confirmed that—she hadn’t seen her mother in a few days because the She-cat was bonding over football with Dani’s big brothers, and now she was in a strange house with wolves who wouldn’t let their pups play with her. If Tock could make her feel more at ease after all that, she’d do whatever had to be done.
So . . . she hugged Dani back.
“Sleep well, okay?”
“I will.”
Once Dani lay back again, Tock tried to pull the sheet over her a little more, but the dog lying on her was making that impossible. Tock ended up using one hand to lift that concrete block of a head up and the other to tug the sheet. Once she did that, she gently laid that big head back into place. She didn’t want to just drop it. It might crush the kid’s organs!
Grabbing the pink duffel bag that had Dani’s clothes, Tock followed Shay out. She closed the door behind her and headed to the stairs.
As they walked to the first floor, Shay asked, “Dirty underwear?”
“She hasn’t figured out you can hear her even when she whispers?”
“No. And I haven’t had the heart to tell her.”
“Plus, you always know what she’s up to.”
He grinned. “And I always know what she’s up to.”
Shay reached over, trying to take the duffel from Tock, but she pulled back.
“I promised.”
“You don’t have to wash my daughter’s clothes, Tock.”
“I promised her, and she doesn’t want you doing it.”
“I’m her father.”
“It’s embarrassing!”
*
It took a while to locate the stairs that led to the finished basement. There they found a bowling alley, a movie room with a massive screen, and, off the hallway, a large laundry room that looked like a damn new age laundromat.