When the last of the cat soup is tipped into a bowl, I bring the pan back to our cooking area. The firepit is dark, and it would be easy for me to start it again, but there is no point if there is no one to sit around it. I wipe my hands clean on my towel as my mate comes out to find me.

She looks tired, her shoulders sagging and her eyes defeated. Her gaze lands on the bowls and the cats eating out of them, and a bit of relief crosses her face. “Oh, you fed everyone? Good. One less thing to worry about.”

“Stella food?” I ask.

“Aggie got her. Everyone’s fed but you and me.” She pauses. “Well, and Aggie, but she says she’s not hungry.”

No amount of food could be enough to entice me to leave my mate’s side, but I don’t like the thought of her not being taken care of. “Murr hunt for Dakota?”

She shakes her head and moves in close to me. “No, I don’t think I could eat if I tried.”

My poor mate. She sounds so defeated. I curve my fingers under her chin and lift her face. “Sad?”

Her mouth wobbles. “I know I should be worried about both of them, but Dottie’s being cared for by a doctor. Rabbit’s my baby, and forts are too full of people. I want her here with me, even though I know it’s selfish.”

“Dottie watch Rabbit, Rabbit watch Dottie,” I reassure her. “Tomorrow new day.”

Dakota nods, as if trying to reassure herself. Her hand goes to my chest and she taps her fingers over my heart. “And tomorrow we go hunting for antibiotics. I don’t even know where to start, to be honest. Every pharmacy in walking distance is going to be completely picked clean. Every hospital, too. But we have to do something. I’m not about to sign our lives over to a fort for some medication.”

“No fort,” I reassure her. “No live fort.”

“But Dottie needs medication,” she says with a ragged sigh. “I knew something was wrong. At least now we can try to get it taken care of.”

“Tomorrow,” I say, folding her into my arms. “We look tomorrow. No worry until tomorrow.”

“Right.” She doesn’t sound convinced.

I need to fix this. As her mate, I need to make sure I can find whatever it is she needs. Whatever it takes to fix Dottie and get both Dottie and Rabbit home, we will do.

OceanofPDF.com

OceanofPDF.com

CHAPTER 97

MURR

It is a sleepless night for both myself and my mate. Dakota is restless, waking up constantly and turning over in an effort to get comfortable. Her movements keep me awake, and I worry that she is going to make herself sick with anxiety.

She finally drifts into a deeper sleep just before dawn, so I sneak out of our shared bed to let her sleep late. I head outside to get the day started, building a fire in the firepit and putting on the pot of coffee. My cats approach with plaintive meows, letting me know of their hunger, and I take a few moments to give each one attention before I shift and fly off to find them something to eat. I hunt and swallow a full-sized deer for myself, then bring back another to my strays. As I circle our home, I notice Dakota and Aggie are both by the fire now, seated in the metal chairs they keep next to it. I drop the deer carcass on the ground a short distance away from the fire and eviscerate it with claws and teeth so the cats can eat. I tear off one haunch for my human strays and bring it to the fire, then shift back to human form.

“Morning,” I say in greeting. Dakota hugs her favorite mug in her hands and manages a small smile for me. Aggie is wrapped in a blanket and is not wearing her fake hair, and she looks even more tired than my mate. I move to Dakota’s side and lean in to kiss her, only to realize that I am covered in blood from my hunt. I grimace and eye my hands and chest. “Wash first.”

Dakota sets her mug aside and opens up a container nearby. “Here. I keep extra towels for you out here, just in case.” She hands me one and pours a bit of water into another mug so I can use it to wet the cloth. “I can scrub your back for you.”

“I can scrub him too, if you need help,” Aggie offers.

“Aggie sleep good,” I comment, wiping my face with a wet towel as Dakota gets my back. “Sound like self.”

The elderly female huffs. “Gonna take a lot more than a bit of a setback to keep this old lady quiet.” But she sounds sad. “I just hope Dottie’s all right. I don’t like that we left her and Rabbit in the fort.”

I can feel Dakota’s mood shift, the camp feeling tinged with sorrow. I can’t let that happen.

“Dottie good,” I reassure Aggie. “Rabbit with Dottie. Rabbit strong, fierce. Both good, together.”

“I’m glad she’s not alone,” Aggie says. “Rabbit’s a good kid to stay with her, but I should have stayed, too.”

“Someone needs to look after Stella,” my mate says, finally speaking up. “I think Rabbit wanted to stay because of Jonah, too.”

Aggie chuckles. “Let her have her crush. It’s nice to be young. He was a good kid. Deserves a puppy, even if they don’t want to trade for one. We’ll just have to figure things out.”

My mate’s mood shifts, and she perks up. She finishes wiping down my back as I bathe my arms. “I’m hoping we can find something today. With Murr’s ability to fly, we can cover a lot of ground. Maybe we’ll see something from the air that we wouldn’t from street level. If you have any ideas of where to look for medication other than a hospital, I’m all ears.”

Now that I am clean, I lean in to give my mate the kiss I intended to earlier. She melts against me, her lips soft and sweet, and I want more than anything to find these medicines and ease the worries from her mind. She smiles up at me, but I can tell her thoughts are already racing to what needs to be done. If we are flying today, we’ll need a bag. She always carries one with supplies when she goes out.

I can pack a bag for her.

I give my mate back her cup of coffee that she has not finished and press another kiss to the top of her head. “Sit. Breakfast.”

She smiles gratefully up at me and hugs her coffee close. Her eyes are still sleepy, dark circles under them, and I know the bitter liquid will perk her up. I head inside the bookstore, the door propped open by bricks so the animals can move in and out easily. It allows me to hear snatches of conversation as I pull out Dakota’s bag and begin to fill it with the things she takes with her. A flashlight. A knife. Rope. Some small paper cylinder she calls an “emergency tampon.”

“You want to know where to look?” Aggie asks, her voice drifting in. “Did you try a farm? Or one of them great big horse stables?”

“Why would I look at a farm?” I can hear the confusion in Dakota’s voice.

“Dated a farmer once,” Aggie says. “Ain’t easy to take cattle or horses in to the vet, so you usually have that stuff on the farm so you can treat ’em at home. You might be able to find antibiotics at one of those. Can’t hurt to look.”

“That’s…a really good idea.”

“I’m old, not stupid.”

Dakota’s tone turns indignant. “I never said you were stupid.”

Aggie just “hmphs.”

“Are people antibiotics and horse antibiotics the same thing?” Dakota says.

“Fuck if I know, but a horse antibiotic probably beats no antibiotic.”

“Fair enough.”

I stuff a warm sweater into my mate’s pack as the day is chilly and emerge from the bookstore with her bag. I hold it out to her just as she finishes her coffee, and the look on Dakota’s face is both pleased and surprised. “Oh, Murr, you doll. It’s like you read my mind.”

OceanofPDF.com