“You certainly jumped on Team Eli pretty fast,” Cooper said, even as he followed quickly.

“Obviously I’m Team Eli. A wolf just turned into a man and asked for our help. This couldn’t be any more of a quest if he’d unfurled a scroll that said This is a quest on it,” Dean hissed. “Which is why I keep saying, you need to get into gaming. Your literal job is helping werewolves. You have got to start being cooler than—”

“Excuse me! Hey! You—you can’t be back here.” An extremely tall young white man was approaching them from down the dirt path, about twenty feet into the brush from the paved trail. He wore a zoo employee uniform of gray polo shirt tucked into unfortunate cargo pants and—more strikingly—had brown, fuzzy, pointed animal ears sticking out of his shaggy blond surfer hair and whiskers painted on his face. “Sorry, guys. But this is not open to the public.” He looked between the two of them suspiciously and then over their shoulders, as if searching for other ne’er-do-wells. He had a remarkably deep voice for someone so lanky, and though the kid had to be a decade younger than them at least, Cooper felt a bit like a teenager caught sneaking around by his dad.

Dean just waved a greeting and in the amiable, unconcerned voice of someone who didn’t often experience consequences, said, “Sorry, man. We got carried away following one of those wandering peacocks.”

Cooper hoped Eli heard that.

The zoo worker was still scanning the trees and took a step closer as if to walk past them. “Is anyone else—”

“Just us,” Dean cut him off. “Well, us and the peacock. I’ve always wondered why you guys let them roam loose. Aren’t you worried they’ll fly away? Or wander into a wolf’s den?” He gestured at the exhibit.

“Nah, they’re just big, fancy chickens really,” the man said, turning his attention safely back on Dean. “If any of them ever do get brazen enough to fly straight into a predator’s den, well, let’s just say those aren’t the ones passing any grand ideas to the next generation.”

“Hear that, Cooper?” Dean said cheerfully. “I think we’re politely being told to keep to the path or natural selection is going get us.”

“No, no.” The man laughed, much more relaxed now. Dean had a knack for putting people at ease with his simple, easygoing nature that had both bewildered and filled Cooper with jealousy when they were kids. “That’s not quite how it works. Not for people, anyway.” The man winked at Dean. “I’ve seen you picking up Dr. Odell before. You’re her...”

“Her husband. For now.” Dean laughed. “She might change her mind if she finds out I’ve forgotten my fifth-grade science.”