Tolya said nothing, but when they stopped to rest the horses, he shifted to smoke and headed down the road as a scout. Joe stripped and shifted to Wolf, letting another Wolf ride in the cab for a while, along with one of the ranch hands.

Aware, aware, aware. They moved on, alert for anything and everything.

The Stewart was right; there was trouble on the horizon. As he trotted along, Joe thought about the Intuits. They had a few pups in their settlement, and no good places to hide if other humans turned rabid.

Joe didn’t like bringing himself to the Elders’ notice—he was a small shifter in comparison—but he would go up to meet them and ask them to allow the Intuits to hide in the hills if Prairie Gold was attacked.

CHAPTER 21

CHAPTER 21

Moonsday, Juin 18

A vigorous debate between members of the Courtyard’s Business Association ended minutes before Jerry Sledgeman drove in from the train station, his livestock truck filled with bison. None of the Others had been happy about allowing Jerry so far into the Courtyard, but everyone agreed that unloading animals in the Market Square wasn’t a good idea, particularly if the bison stampeded down the access way and thundered into the traffic on Main Street.

That was the reason five yearlings were unloaded at the Pony Barn, and the female pack and Kowalski were on hand to witness the arrival of a future item on the menu.

Simon itched to shift out of his human skin and help herd the bison to the part of the Courtyard where they would be settled—once everyone decided exactly where that would be. Henry had just laughed, saying deer roamed throughout the Courtyard’s three hundred acres and the bison would do the same. Since Simon agreed with him, he didn’t offer any opinions. A full-grown bison would go where it chose, but most of the Others in the Courtyard hadn’t lived in the Northwest and had no experience with prairie thunder.

Meg looked at the bison and then at him. “You said we were getting little bison.”

“They are little bison,” Simon replied.

She waved a hand to indicate the female pack. “We thought you meant baby bison.”

“Yearlings are close to babies.”

“Don’t go there,” Kowalski muttered.

“Besides,” Simon continued, ignoring the man, “if we’d brought calves, we’d also have to bring the mothers, and they’re big.”

“Oh,” Meg said. She and the female pack stared at the bison.

“Even if they’re bigger than we’d expected, they are kind of cute,” Ruthie said. “And so docile.”

Jerry Sledgeman scratched his head and looked at the trees. Vlad pressed a fist against his mouth and stared hard at the ground. And Nyx gave everyone the complacent smile of a well-fed vampire.