Chapter 24: The Barn

I woke in the barn with straw in my hair and a wolf's chin on my shoulder.

It was the third week of October, and the morning came through the slats in long gold stripes.

I had not slept in the barn since the night he first came to me.

Nobody had made me this time.

We'd come out after supper, and I had spread the old quilt in the corner stall.

He had looked at me and said, "Here?"

"Here," I'd said. "I want to see how it goes when nobody's dying."

He had shifted without another word, and turned twice, and lain down against me with a sigh that shook the hay.

Now he was heavy and warm along my whole side, and one huge paw lay across my stomach.

I put my hand in the fur on his neck.

He opened one dark eye and closed it again.

"You're awake," I said.

He huffed through his nose.

"Don't pretend. I can hear you thinking."

The tail thumped once.

Outside, the screen door of the farmhouse banged.

"Linnet Ashgrove!" my mother called across the yard.

"Is that husband of yours in there with you, or did he run off to be a prince?"

"He's here, Mom!"

"Then you both get in here. I made a pie."

"It's seven in the morning!"

"It's a breakfast pie."

The wolf's ears went up.

I looked at him.

"Is that the one thing that gets you moving?"

He rolled onto his back in the straw with all four paws in the air.

I laughed until I had to hold my ribs.

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