Simon shook his head, relieved that Steve understood they weren’t actually talking about the season. This talking about one thing and meaning something else felt strange, but there were things he didn’t want to share with humans, even ones he trusted. “When it comes, it will come hard and fast.” He and Vlad had heard a news report about a speech being given by all the HFL leaders in Thaisia. Did Captain Burke and Lieutenant Montgomery think it odd that all these leaders were howling to reporters but Nicholas Scratch was so conspicuously absent from the news?

The terra indigene knew that a storm was coming. The only questions were when it would hit and what would still be standing when it was done.

“Wait by your car,” Simon said. “I’ll show you the lake.”

Steve rolled up the plans. He and Jerry said good-bye to Meg and went out the back way.

Simon watched Meg rub the crosshatch of scars on her left upper arm.

“You know something,” she said.

“I know we should buy human supplies while humans will still sell them to us.”

“They have to sell them to us.”

“They’ve gotten bold. They don’t believe we’ll do anything if they break the rules. Why should they? The HFL is telling them what they want to hear—they can take without consequences.” Simon gently pulled Meg’s hand away from the scars. “You and the female pack need to start buying the things that are essential for you. I don’t know how much longer those things will be around. Some companies might go out of business.”

Meg stared at him in disbelief. “How can companies that make things like toilet paper go out of business?”

Should he show her the letter from Jean? Was it wrong to want to protect her from that information when she already had so many things to think about?

Before he could take the letter out of his pocket, Meg got that look in her eyes—the look that told him she was reviewing training images and memories.

“A while ago, Ruth told us—the female pack—about a list she had found in an old book,” Meg said with a care that made Simon think of a Wolf testing the ground with each step. “It was a list of human towns and cities that didn’t exist anymore. I suppose you could say that the companies in those towns went out of business.”

“You could say that,” he agreed. “Maybe another company in another town would start making some of the same products, but it would take time.”

“I understand.”

Did she? He hoped that was true. “However much you decide to tell them, you need to keep this just within the female pack, Meg. Make the other girls understand that they have to keep this within the pack.”