Grace of a Wolf by Lenaleia

Chapter 172: Grace: Theories

By the time the tow truck comes and goes and I’ve made peanut butter and jelly sandwiches for all the adults (only to find out Caine likes grape jelly like a psychopath), I’m calm again.

We’re out. It didn’t happen to us. And right now, that’s my focus.

Besides, despite having lucked out onto a wide shoulder like this, I’m still a little worried a car’s going to crash into us. With our current streak of luck, it isn’t a baseless concern.

Andrew dangles a piece of crust in front of Sadie, who’s been sitting in front of him with begging eyes since he first started eating. He seems both nonplussed and enthralled by her.

At first, it was weird. But then I thought about it. Wolves never get to spend time with dogs, so they’ve never had the Sadie experience.

Her tail swishes against the floor as she gingerly snatches it from his fingers, only to then scarf it down like a feral beast.

Then he gets a second bit of crust out, dangling it in front of the dog.

"Don’t feed her that!"

Andrew freezes mid-motion, the crust hovering between his fingers and Sadie’s expectant mouth. "Why not?"

Sadie’s eyes lock with mine. Her tail stops wagging. I’ve destroyed her doggy Christmas.

"Because we don’t know what’s up with her." I take another bite of my sandwich, chewing slowly as I frown at the dog. She’s cute, but knowing there’s something strange about her... it’s hard to see her as just a big, loveable ball of fur.

But so far, aside from her lack of fear, she’s just... a normal dog.

Too normal.

a stranger’s car? And now she’s going in and out

crust anyway. Sadie’s

not just a dog,"

any sort of threat, and might actually be helpful. How a dopey golden retriever’s going to somehow help our little caravan

kids like her. So

happened to Archie and Doris—just reiterated Owen’s

makes zero logical sense, but I’m coming to think of this as the App Phenomenon. Anything under

old couple who like to barbecue have anything to do

words came out of her mouth, he was done. It

shifted back to us—to me—with his intense, single-minded concentration. He’d even said, "If it’s not a threat to Grace or the children, it’s not my concern right now," without even a flicker of discomfort over saying a line I’d read out of a sappy romance

everyone’s concern when two seemingly normal people turn out to be something strange and dead-but-not-dead. In my world, we call those zombies, thank you very much. And zombies bring uprisings and the

elbow. I blink, realizing I’ve been glaring at the

my bite. "I’m not

at

"More like she’s trying to

he doesn’t know why I’m suspicious of the dog. I could always fill him in—and would—but dragging him into another room to explain something sounds like a bad

For him, anyway.

maybe she is," I

running a hand over her golden fur.

eyes sweep the interior, cataloging all of us in

Jer pipes up from where he’s sprawled on