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.

Why is she so comfortable in a stranger’s car? And now she’s going in and out of the

a dog, Grace." Andrew shrugs and drops the crust anyway. Sadie’s tail resumes its happy

a dog," I

danced around the subject. She did say the dog wasn’t any sort of threat, and

her. So I guess there’s

to Archie and Doris—just reiterated Owen’s claim that

to think of this as the

old couple who like to

Caine’s been no help with dragging information out of Lyre. I’d thought he’d be pushier, demand answers, but the moment the magic words came out of her mouth, he was done. It just took the one phrase: "They have nothing to do with

that, his focus had instantly 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

should be his concern. It should be 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

popping up by my elbow. I blink,

bite. "I’m not mad

at her

trying to decide

he doesn’t know why I’m suspicious of the dog. I could always

For him, anyway.

she

Sadie, running a hand over her golden

to duck his head into the camper, filling the doorway. His eyes sweep the interior, cataloging all of us in his quick,

alien," Jer pipes up