Two dozen men who had lived and worked around animals. They were familiar with dairy cows, not the beef cattle that were raised in the Midwest Region, but they could ride a horse and knew how to mend fences and work around a farm. They all had older brothers who would inherit the family farms, so this was a chance for them to make a new beginning, to establish something for themselves.

Nothing smelled off about any of these men. Nothing raised his hackles. Nothing about them troubled Vlad either. They were ready, even eager, to work—and to have an adventure.

There was nothing wrong with the five women who also applied to work on ranches, although they, unlike the men, had questions. Did the ranches have a dairy cow to supply milk? Were there chickens for eggs and meat? Were there any sheep to supply wool for spinning and weaving? What about goats?

How was he supposed to know? Whatever had been there that hadn’t run away or been eaten would be there when they arrived. As for supplies and whatever else was required, they would work that out with the residents of Bennett and Prairie Gold.

“Not bad for our first day,” Vlad said when all the happy humans climbed into the bus to go back to Great Island and pack their belongings and inform their families that they were headed to the western edge of the Midwest. “Twenty-four men to work on the ranches and deal with the horses and cattle, and five women who will tend the ranch houses and cook.”

“Four women,” Simon said, locking HGR’s front door with a relieved sigh. “I don’t think the youngest female wanted to keep house or whatever humans call it. She kept talking about being able to ride a horse and how she had learned to lasso animals by practicing on the dairy cows and the goats.”

“Well, Tolya will have to work that out.” Vlad laughed. “He might end up with his own exploding fluffball.” He stopped laughing. “I never considered that Simple Life humans would have exploding fluffballs.”

Simon thought about the smile Merri Lee had given them earlier in the day when they told her about her promotion and the smile that lit up the Simple Life woman’s face when he said she could travel to Bennett for the final interview. Yep. Exploding fluffball. “That one is going to herd something, whether it has two legs or four. Better for Tolya and everyone else if they give her some cows to keep her busy—and happy.”

“I wonder if her family was thinking the same thing,” Vlad said dryly.

Amused—and glad they could no longer make a direct telephone call to, or receive one from, Bennett—Simon went upstairs to meet with the rest of the Business Association and discuss how they would feed the human pack.

• • •

Meg bit into her beef burger and chewed slowly, enjoying the flavor along with the novelty of eating at Meat-n-Greens with Simon and Sam in their human forms. They ate plenty of meals together, but it was usually at her apartment or in the summer room, not in the closest thing the Courtyard had to a human-style restaurant. This was new, and Simon wasn’t the only one who was watching her for any sign that this new experience—and the number of humans who were also venturing in for some food—wasn’t causing distress.

There had been distress earlier in the day. She’d endured the pins-and-needles feeling that came in waves along with the people coming to the job fair, hoping to build a future for themselves in another part of Thaisia. She’d been tempted to go into the bathroom and make a tiny cut on a toe, but Nathan would scent even that much blood and raise a howling protest. That would bring Simon, who would feel angry with the strangers and shut down the fair.

She’d been given a chance at a new life. She didn’t want to be the one who stopped other people from having the same chance. So she’d struggled with the craving to cut, telling herself it wouldn’t help anyone because she wouldn’t be able to ask anyone to listen when she spoke prophecy.

In the end, Nathan had made the decision for her by shifting to his human form and taking up a position in the doorway between the front room and sorting room. The deliverymen could see her working away in the sorting room, but it was Nathan who dealt with them and signed for the packages, giving her that much distance from actual contact.

It was enough—along with the Wolf eyes that watched every twitch she made and breath she took—to get her through the day. She’d left the office early to make her deliveries, getting back to the Green Complex long before the rest of the residents finished their workday. She’d sat in the summer room, doing nothing but listening to the birds chirping as they went about their own day in a part of the Courtyard that was, for the moment, free of Hawks.

By the time Simon got home, she was calm and ready to pick up Sam at the Wolfgard Complex so that the three of them could have this dinner together.

Meg felt prickles come and go as friends came in, but no one’s presence produced the painful buzz that might compel her to make a cut. Eating at Meat-n-Greens wasn’t a new experience that might overwhelm her. She’d been here with Ruth and Merri Lee. She’d even come in by herself for a meal. It was the experience of being here with Sam and Simon that was new—and that made her happy.

“Meg? You want a bite of my bison burger?” Sam held out his barely cooked burger. “It’s really good.”

A Wolf offering to share food wasn’t a small gesture, but . . . “No, thank you, Sam. I have my own burger.”

“But yours is beef,” Sam protested, as if she’d been given inferior meat.

“I like beef better than bison,” Meg assured him.