Then, to Cooper’s shock, Dean reached out, pulled him into a half hug and ruffled his hair. “But for now, try not to worry quite so much, huh?”

Cooper nodded, still processing, and Dean moved toward the next animal exhibit. “Speak of the devil.”

Letting him change the subject, Cooper glanced at the informational placard and realized they had made their way to the zoo’s wolf enclosure. A low metal railing indicated the end of the pavement and a few feet past that, an extremely tall chain-link fence cordoned off the habitat itself—nothing more than a smallish dirt hill that curved out of sight behind strategic greenery. Probably disguising where the zookeepers came in and out. There were a couple of trees on the hill and some artfully placed rocks, but that was it. Honestly, it looked more than a little depressing for an animal whose natural territory could be more than a thousand square miles in the wild. But the morality of zoos was complicated, and frankly, Cooper didn’t know nearly enough about the subject as a whole, this zoo in particular, or what had brought this specific wolf into captivity to voice an opinion one way or another.

They spotted the animal of the hour quickly enough. It was hard to miss, sat somewhat daintily under the tree, watching them. It certainly looked healthy, anyway. Its pitch-black fur was almost absurdly shiny, and it looked sturdy in size and exponentially more alert than the beavers had. In fact, Cooper felt pretty confident it was studying them, making note of every small movement.

“It says here there should be a single female gray wolf,” Dean said, reading out loud.

“Doesn’t look gray to me,” Cooper said, comparing the wolf to the illustration on the placard.

“No, I think she’s that one.” Dean pointed to a second wolf that Cooper hadn’t seen. It was a good deal smaller, had dirty, whitish fur, and seemed super tense. Crouched down in the very back of the exhibit, practically curled up to the fence, all of her attention was focused on the black wolf.

“It says gray wolves can be any color. Typical scientific tomfoolery,” Dean went on. “But it doesn’t mention the big guy. He must be new.”

Cooper hummed an acknowledgment, but couldn’t tear his eyes from the black wolf. Admittedly, he couldn’t say the last time he saw a wolf that was an actual animal and not a werewolf in fur, but he didn’t remember them looking this...aware. Knowing.

“What’s wolf language for come closer and introduce yourself, please?”

“Don’t be a dick,” Cooper said.

“What? Doesn’t Oliver ever get furry around you?”

“Sure. And miraculously he doesn’t lose the ability to understand English.”