Free Boundary Lines by Melissa F. Olson Page B

coaxing or threats. Even Maven c ould see that the sigma had been Trask’s victim, not his co-conspir a tor. Leine was still dangerous, though, and since werewolves couldn’t be contained by psychiatric institutes or prisons, he had to either be killed or go native, staying permanently in wolf form. It was decided that the sanctuary was the safest and most merciful place for him.
    Phil threw the meat, and Tobias trotted forward to pick it up. Out of the corner of my eye, I saw nearly all of the students take an unconscious step backward. Even Phil, who hadn’t blinked an eye earlier when one of the Arctic wolves stuck a muzzle through the fence and nipped playfully at his jacket, shot an uneasy glance at Tobias. “As you can see,” he said, gesturing at the attentive wolf, “Tobias is quite large, nearly two hundred pounds. He may be one of the largest wolves in the world. He’d be a record breaker, except for the fact that he’s undoubtedly a dog-wolf hybrid.”
    “How do you know?” asked one of the teenagers.
    Phil gave him a little frown—he’d obviously been just about to explain—but said in the same professional tone, “Full-blooded wolves are usually born with blue eyes, which then lighten to that amber color we’ve seen in all the other wolves today. Tobias, on the other hand, has bright blue eyes.” I stepped closer to see, and sure enough, the werewolf’s eyes were blue, kind of like a husky’s. Or, more accurately, like a human being’s. It was spooky.
    Phil began to back away, and I heard myself speak up. “Have you had any problems with him?”
    Phil shot me a surprised look—I’d been silent throughout the tour—so I added hastily, “Because of his size, I mean. And he’s the first wolf we’ve seen who’s in a pen by himself.”
    Phil nodded. “Good question. Yes, Tobias prefers to be solitary, although he’ll sometimes play with a companion for a few hours. Despite his size, he’s been extremely docile and well-behaved for us. The only exceptions are when we’ve tried to sedate him for routine medical examinations.” He gave a nervous little laugh. “Tobias here will evade the darts, and he always seems to know if we put medication in his food. So we leave him be, and he behaves himself.” One of the teens shot up a hand, but Phil was already backing away, moving on to the next enclosure. “Let’s move on to Juana and Rafael, our pair of Mexican wolves. They’re unique for several reasons . . .”
    I tuned Phil out, lagging after the group. When the lopsided mass of teens had all moved away from Tobias, I went to the exterior fence directly in front of the big wolf and crouched down, making it harder for Phil to see me behind the other people.
    Tobias cocked his head with innocent curiosity. “I’m here as Maven’s representative,” I said quietly. “Show me that you understand.”
    The enormous wolf didn’t respond right away, and after a moment I started to feel ridiculous. But then Tobias thrust his muzzle up quickly before moving it down and up again, and I realized it was a parody of a human nod. “Good. An hour after sunset, I’ll be by your back fence with a vampire. We have some questions. You will be there, and you will be in human form.” I reached into my pocket and pulled out the small metal object Maven had given me, making sure he saw the .45 caliber bullet that had been hand-poured out of silver. Some of the legends are true, Maven had said, sounding bemused. All of the Old World species came with their little vulnerabilities. The vampires were allergic to daylight, the werewolves to silver. And of course it was painfully easy to kill witches.
    Well, most of us.
    “Do you understand?” I asked. Another pause, and then Tobias shook himself, showing me a long, slow yawn. I had five dogs at home; I recognized this as Maybe I will, maybe I won’t. I do what I want.
    “Try me,” I told him fiercely, hearing the hatred in my voice. “I’d love