Leave a Trail (33 page)

“I don’t think so. Maybe one. But let’s see what the rest of the guys say. It’d be cool if they all went home with the Horde some way.”

Thumper came out then. “I found a big toilet paper box. What’s…oh.” He noticed the pups. “Cool. Where’d they come from?”

“Some asswipe dumped ‘em on the road.”

“That sucks.”

“Yeah.” Badger leaned into the bed and lifted a pup. “Here. Take this one, and…”—he handed the pup to Thumper and then lifted another—“this one.” Grinning, Thumper turned and took his wriggling burden into the Hall.

Reaching over the bed wall, Badger held his arms out to Adrienne. “Here, babe. Let me help you out.”

She stood up—he noticed her stiffness—and came over to the side. The remaining pups followed her, climbing over each other to stay as close to her as they could. He lifted her over the side, ignoring the sharp pull and ache in his chest. He was starting to get used to it, actually. He wondered if, someday, he would stop noticing completely. Like pain would just be normal.

When he set her down on the gravel, the pups began kicking up a fuss. “Easy, shorties. You’re not getting left.” He reached in for a pup and handed it to Adrienne. “I’ll get the other two—go on inside.” She nodded and turned to the clubhouse. Badger grabbed the alpha and the last pup and went in.

Thumper and Adrienne had set their pups down and were both sitting on the floor with them. Badger put his down, too. The alpha immediately went to the litter, sniffed around, and then began exploring. Badger watch as he investigated the whole room, cycling back repeatedly to the other pups, all of whom stayed close together, close to their new people. They yipped and rolled and climbed all over them and each other. It was impossible not to laugh, impossible not to feel good, around all this untrammeled enthusiasm.

Badger was pretty sure this litter was mostly a Rottweiler/German Shepherd mix—their bodies and markings made it obvious to him. The alpha was noticeably biggest and looked most like a Shep, at least in terms of his markings, though he had the broad head and chest of a Rotty. Three of the others were more solid-colored, ranging from almost blond to a deep, reddish-brown.

The only female was the smallest pup, less than half the size of the alpha. She was deep red, with a nearly-black marking over her brow that looked very much like an “M.”

But one, the one now curled contentedly on Adrienne’s lap, getting his ears stroked and watching the fracas but not participating in it, looked a lot like an Australian Shepherd—blue merle markings and blue eyes. So there were a few flavors in this gene soup. They looked like they’d end up being massive dogs, though, all but the little girl.

Badger watched Adrienne as she loved on the pups. It had been ages—since long before she’d moved here—that he’d seen the kind of naked joy she was wearing now on her pretty face. Her eyes sparkled with it. Her cheeks were round and rosy with it. And he was so suddenly suffused with his love for her that he actually put his hand over his heart.

He would do anything for her, give her anything, everything he had, everything in his power. He would make her happy. He would love her forever. No matter what.

A wet nose pushed under his hand where it still lay on his chest, and he looked down to see the blond pup demanding his attention. When he looked up again, his hands full of puppy, Adrienne’s brightly happy eyes were on him.

“I love you.”

Her smile stretched wider. “I love you.”

Thumper coughed and stood. “Uh, I’m gonna get some newspaper. Isaac’ll tear me another asshole if they piss and shit all over the floor.”

That made Badger think. “Yeah. We need water for them. And food. Damn.” It was far too late to get puppy food tonight.

Adrienne put her hand on his knee. “It’s okay. We can do water just with bowls from the kitchen for tonight. And they’re not starving. They’ll be okay until tomorrow. They need a vet, though.”

“Yeah. I’ll call Isaac in the morning, and then the vet. Um. For tonight…I don’t know.”

“Can we take them back into your old room and keep them with us there tonight?”

“You want to spend the night in the clubhouse?” He didn’t like the thought of her undressed here. But maybe that was an overreaction. Tasha had lived here with Len for months, from the time of Havoc’s death until several weeks ago, when their house was finished. The anniversary of that day spent in Hell was less than two weeks away.

Badger set that thought aside, and right quick. This was a good night. It had been a good day.

“I don’t mind it, as long as the bed is clean. It’ll be fun. We can use that box for them to sleep in. Just bring it back to your room.”

He smiled, easily convinced. “Okay. Thumper—help us set it up.”

~oOo~

The puppies thought the box was a uniquely horrible idea, and cried and whimpered pathetically. After about twenty minutes, there was an emphatic pounding on the door. Badger answered to find a rumpled Zeke, and Double A, and Dom, all standing in the hallway in assorted stages of undress. Zeke was full monty. Badger pulled the door mostly closed, leaving only his head pointed into the hallway. Adrienne did
not
need to see Zeke’s full monty. Nobody needed to see that.

Though Zeke was front and center and had probably done the pounding on the door, it was Dom who spoke. “What the fuck, man? What you got in there?”

“Sorry. Puppies. Long story. We’ll talk tomorrow. I’ll get ‘em quiet.”

“Yeah. Please.”

Badger closed the door and turned back to Adrienne. “I don’t think the box is going to work. Not here.”

Her relief was obvious and immediate. “Good! I feel bad with them trapped in there.” She freed them one by one and then turned the box on its side. “Maybe they’ll like it better like a fort, so they can come and go.”

And sure enough. After several minutes of petting, kissing, exploring, and tumble-bumbling, the blonde pup wandered into the box and lay down. He got up, turned and lay down again. He scooted and was still. Then another pup went in. And another. The little girl was next, and she scooted around the edges of the growing mound of pups until she found a spot, her nose buried under the bodies of her brothers. The alpha went in last. He turned and lay down, a few inches away from the pile, nose out of the box, his eyes open. On watch. Badger felt something give in his heart.

“He’s taking care of his family,” Adrienne whispered.

“Yeah.”

“He should live with Isaac and Lilli. He should be Isaac’s.”

Badger turned to her. She was watching the pups and didn’t notice the change in his attention. He studied her profile, sweet and perfect. She understood. He thought she understood more than she realized.

“Yeah. That’d be good.” He reached out and slid his hand under her magnificent hair, cupping his palm over the back of her neck, and pulled her to him. As he came in to kiss her, she opened her mouth. He covered her lips with his and laid her back on his crappy clubhouse bed.

As he lifted her skirt, his hand sliding gently, lightly over the uneven skin of her right leg, he asked, his lips at her ear, “Which one is ours?”

She turned her head and nuzzled her nose into his beard. “The one with the beautiful eyes. He’s quiet and strong. He’s a watcher, too.”

~oOo~

There was not a lot of sleeping that night, by the canines or humans in that room, but the humans managed to fuck three times. And they’d gathered up all the pups twice for a trip out back for their business, which did not get done. They preferred to take care of that in Badger’s room. Near, but of course not on, the paper. His room was going to need a thorough airing out.

They were both tired, but Adrienne was still riding a high of puppy love and in a great mood. Badger took his energy from that.

At the earliest opportunity that it would not be deadly to call Isaac with anything other than an emergency, he let his President know about the new clubhouse residents. Then he called Delia Borden, the local vet, who made house calls as a matter of course, since most of her patients were livestock. By the time she got there, the entire club was in the Hall, including families. There was an air of celebration in the room. The kids were over the moon—and the puppies were, too. They might have been dumped on the side of the road, but they’d landed on a cloud.

Delia checked them all over, estimated their age at eight weeks, did all the basic medical stuff they needed. With a portable scale she’d brought in with her, she weighed them all. The alpha came in at just over thirteen pounds. Delia muttered, “This one’s gonna be a beast.” The little girl was just under seven pounds. The other three were clustered around ten.

When she was done, Delia turned to Isaac, even though it was Badger who’d called and was more or less in charge of the pups. Isaac was the leader, period. “Other than the usual stuff of an unwanted litter—worms, fleas, that stuff—these guys are fit as fiddles, Ike. They are gonna be big ‘uns. I’d say the biggest will top a hundred pounds easy before he’s done. Maybe most of ‘em will.”

Isaac had the alpha in his arms. Without any prompting or suggestion from Badger or Adrienne, he had gravitated to that pup, and vice versa. He turned the pup’s head up to face him. “What breeds are in here?”

“Oh, they’re mutts, through and through. Mutts are good dogs, though. I’m seeing Shep, some Rotty or maybe Bull as the dominant features. They’ll need strong hands. These won’t be the kind of dogs that piddle when they’re barked at. More like bark back. Or bite, unless they’re trained.” She looked around the room. “I guess you got a full supply of strong hands around here. You keeping ‘em?”

Isaac’s eyes followed the same path that Delia’s had. Badger looked, too. There was a lightness to the Hall that had been so long away it seemed alien. Children and old ladies laughing, puppies bumbling around, wrestling and playing. Gia was trying to lift one of the pups into Millie’s carrier seat to show it to her. Bo was crawling around barking, and Loki crawled along with him, trying to imitate him.

The Horde, too, were caught in the happy haze of puppy love. Grins all around. Even Nolan was laughing, his eyes on Loki and Bo.

With a laugh, Isaac turned back to Delia. “Yeah, I think we are.” He put his big hand on the alpha’s head and gave it a gentle shake, then set him down. The pup went off into the fray.

After Delia packed up and left, the Horde clustered loosely near the bar and watched the goings-on around the pups. It was still well before noon; the club girls had been sent home, and most of the adults were drinking coffee. Zeke, Double A, and Tommy had beer.

Isaac poured himself another cup of black coffee and took a sip. Standing behind the bar, he said, “It’s good we’re all here. We needed to meet anyway. Got a lot of news coming in since last night. But it can wait a minute. There enough of us want a pup?” He was watching the alpha pup pulling on Bo’s shoestrings. Bo sat on the floor, trying to take his shoe off. Badger assumed he intended to hand the shoe over, but then Lilli was there, taking his shoes off and away, safe from puppy teeth.

As he walked around to the front of the bar, Isaac said, “I’ll take the big one—with the white feet. Make a good guard for the kids.”

Badger already knew which one he and Adrienne wanted. “We’ll take the black and grey one, with the blue eyes.” Adrienne had already named him: Hector. He had no idea why, but she was adamant, and he thought it was a good, strong name.

“I want the girl. I like my girls,” said Len, who then called out, “Nolan! You want a pup?”

Nolan looked over at his mom. Cory cocked her head for a second, and then nodded. He turned back to Len with a genuine smile—those were rare on Nolan’s face anymore. “Yeah. Which one?”

“How about the one with a mouthful of Loki’s Pamper?” Laughter made Isaac’s voice light. Everybody looked over to see the blond pup, his mouth locked onto Loki’s denim-and-diaper-clad bottom, dragging Nolan’s brother down to the floor. Loki turned and yanked on the pup’s ear.

Cory separated the two, then lifted them both into her arms. She looked at Nolan and shrugged. “Why not?”

Only one pup was left unclaimed, but Show spoke up. “I’ll take the big red boy, then. Dog’ll be good for the kids. Always wanted the girls to have one.”

Gia came over with her little yellow backpack in her fist. “Look, Daddy.” Isaac put his mug down and picked her up, setting her on a barstool.

“What you got, squirt?”

Gia tucked her long, chestnut hair, which was very wavy and always working itself loose of whatever ties Lilli had forced it into, behind her ears. Then, with studious care, she opened her backpack and pulled out a picture book. Badger checked out the cover:
Forest Creatures of North America.
It looked like a library book.

“I can’t read to you right now, G. Sorry. Later, though.”

Gia sighed, and its tone spoke of her disappointment with her father’s intellect. “No, Daddy. I’ll read it. I want to
show
you something.” Kneeling on the barstool, she opened the book flat on the bar and carefully turned the pages. The book seemed to be alphabetically arranged, showing watercolor images of common wild animals. She got to the Bs and stopped, pointing to an animal. “Look, Badger. That’s you.” Drawing her finger under the word ‘badger,’ she continued, “Baaah-duh-jer. But you don’t look like that at all.”

“Thanks, Gia. I don’t think so, either.”

“I like your name, though. Badgers are cute.”

Ignoring the laughter of his brothers, Badger winked at the little girl who was now scowling at the men around her.

She turned the next page. “Here, Daddy. Look.”

The page showed four different bears: black, brown, Grizzly, and Kodiak, three with cubs, the Grizzly standing upright. Isaac looked over his daughter’s shoulder. “Yeah, G. Bears.”

Gia huffed irritably. “But
look
. Like the puppies.”

Isaac looked again, his hand resting over Gia’s neck. “Yeah, they do look a little like bears.”

“I think the one you like looks just like this one. Koh-duh-eye-ak.”