<They are being silly,> Sam replied. <I want to stay with you and Meg. And I want to hear the music.> Sam bounced back to Meg and wedged himself between her feet. If her bare legs got too warm from brushing against fur, she would move him. But that was between Meg and Sam. The humans, on the other paw...

The human pups seemed to be willfully disobedient, deliberately acting up to be disruptive. Wolves knew the difference between high spirits and troublemaking, and they were eyeing the two-legged pups a little too sharply. So was Ruthie. She had a look in her eyes that reminded Simon of a pack’s nanny just before she put a stop to some nonsense.

Discussion among the Denbys and Montgomery. Then Pete, giving Simon an apologetic look, herded the youngsters away while Eve went into Meat-n-Greens and came out with containers of food. She said something to Tess before following her mate.

<They don’t think the pups will behave tonight,> Tess said in response to his and Vlad’s inquiring looks. <They don’t want to spoil things for the rest of us, so they’re taking the young home to watch a movie. But I suspect Pete and Eve will take turns going outside to listen as best they can.>

<A nip would encourage good behavior,> Simon replied.

<Every adult Wolf here is probably thinking the same thing, which is why Pete and Eve are taking the children home.>

Simon wondered how the three adults had decided who would stay to hear the music and who would tend the pups. Then he saw Captain Burke and another male enter the Market Square and understood that there was no decision. Montgomery had stayed because the police were another kind of pack that brushed the edges of the Courtyard, and he needed to be here with Burke, the police pack’s leader.

“Simon?” Meg didn’t raise her voice; she didn’t need to in order to catch his attention. But hearing it reminded him that it was time to shift to human form so that he could meet the stranger Burke had brought among them.

He returned to Meg and looked at her expectantly.

“I put your clothes just inside Meat-n-Greens,” she said.

He trotted off to put on clothes and fulfill his duties as host for the evening. And, as his reward for being human tonight, he would hold Meg’s hand during the concert.

•••

Meg had seen images of orchestras and music halls and theaters. But those images didn’t fit this experience. The center of the Market Square had three broad steps down to an area that sometimes had benches and tables where the Others could sit and eat or read or simply be around the shops as a social interaction when they were in human form.