Wolf by Valerie Hobbs

Author:Valerie Hobbs
Language: eng
Format: epub
Publisher: Farrar, Straus and Giroux (BYR)

10

JACK AWOKE TO DARKNESS when he felt Luke’s hand on his back.

“You okay, fella?” said Luke, leaning over the edge of his mattress.

Jack licked Luke’s hand. He’d been with the Goat Man again and wanted to get back to his dream world. The Goat Man had been telling Jack about making his “sails of patience,” one of those sayings that Jack as a pup had to think a lot about before he understood.

Patience was a lesson he hoped to pass on to Jackie. You couldn’t just run off without thinking. Sometimes you had to hold back and use your head first. It was a hard lesson to learn, especially for a Border collie, but it was one that Jackie needed if she was ever to become the lead dog.

The moon lit up the room as if it were morning. “I can’t sleep,” Luke said. He got up and lowered his window shade. “I’m worried about you. And I’m worried about the sheep. We can’t lose any more of them, Jack.” He yawned and lay back against his pillow. “Maybe the traps will work.” He plumped his pillow and rolled on his side. “If I only had a gun.”

Jack didn’t like the sound of that. He hated guns. At Pinky’s ranch one day, he’d watched Luke, Mandy, and some of the men shooting cans off a fence. Each can was supposed to be a coyote. Blam! Blam! went the guns and Jack had wanted to cover his ears. He’d climbed under the pickup, where at least it was cool and shady.

At the end of the target practice, Pinky and Curtis had sixteen “coyotes” each and Luke had four. Mandy was the best shot of all. Twenty-four dead “coyotes.”

Here was a thing that Luke and Mandy, being young, did not understand: killing was ugly. Years ago, Jack had seen the desire for his own death in the eyes of Billy, the owner of that terrible circus, and he had never forgotten it. Killing was a final thing. There was no coming back from it, for the victim or the killer himself.

Then there was killing in self-defense or to save the life of another, which muddied the waters a little. Would he have killed the coyote last night if the coyote had grabbed Jackie?

He would not have hesitated, not for a second.

* * *

To Jack’s surprise, Luke awoke at the first sounds of morning and climbed into his jeans, shirt, and boots. “Let’s check the traps, Jack.” He tiptoed past Olaf and Katrin’s bedroom door. Jack followed, his nails clicking against the floor, a thing he couldn’t help.

They went as quietly as they could through the kitchen and out the door.

Luke let the pickup roll a little way downhill before starting the engine.

Jack’s shoulder ached. He was glad to be off his feet. His wound was probably the reason he was getting a ride today. He and Luke took care of each other that way; they always had.

The sun was busy painting the sky with stripes of color that Luke could probably see better than Jack could.

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