Free Winter Howl (Sanctuary) by Aurelia T. Evans Page A

since she’d woken up.
    Later that afternoon, when Renee was hip-deep in dirt and smelling of chlorophyll and compost—the greenhouse was actually quite large, large enough to keep her occupied when she needed the occupation—she heard the stomp of boots on the wooden floors in the kitchen and assumed it was either Max, Jake, or Grant. Rubbing her nose and probably getting some more dirt on her face, she set down her gardening tools and swung her head through the door from the greenhouse to the kitchen. Grant set a brace of hares and three rabbits onto the butcher block. Each of them had their necks snapped with minimal amounts of blood. Not at all the brutal ripping out of intestines like the mutilated animals. It did not mean, however, that Grant was not the one doing the killing. Renee was not that naïve.
    Renee noticed that although he had put on a white undershirt, jeans, and the boots before coming in, he had blood smeared on his cheek near his mouth. Grant sniffed the air and turned to see her watching him. He chuckled in amusement.
    “What did you do? Bury yourself alive and then dig yourself back up again?” Grant asked.
    “What about you? Did you go hunting in your human skin?”
    “What?”
    “You have blood on your face,” Renee said.
    “Who are you to talk?” He wasn’t argumentative, just sparring for the hell of it.
    “I know what I’m covered in,” Renee replied. “You just didn’t seem to know what was on you.”
    Grant muttered under his breath something with the word ‘you’ in it, and Renee did not even want to ask him to speak up. If it was innuendo, she did not want to hear it, and she didn’t believe in making people repeat themselves more loudly if they’d intended to keep quiet in the first place. Some things just needed saying aloud, even if they were not meant to be heard.
    “Well, aren’t you going to thank me for getting dinner for you and your friends?” Grant asked after he’d finished muttering.
    “Thank you,” Renee said politely. “Start cleaning them before Jake gets in, and you’ll get a bigger thank you later.”
    “Oh, really? Dare I ask what that thank you will be?” Grant said, raising his eyebrows in interest.
    “It’s not what you’re thinking,” Renee said, backing out of the door.
    “Then I’m not the only one thinking it, love,” he called after her.
    Renee shook her head as she returned to her work. With Grant’s contribution, she supposed that all the shapeshifters would be getting a treat tonight, so she’d better find more makings for a salad.
    When Renee finally came out of the greenhouse again, she could not see Grant anywhere, and Jake was finishing up cleaning the meat. Jake was pretty thorough when he dressed meat, and tried to use all the parts that he could, burying the rest near the compost heap. Using hunted or slaughtered meat was nothing new for Jake. The dogs had managed to bring a few hunted animals in over the years, and the shapeshifters sometimes had a yen for new meat rather than thawing frozen meat. Also, they had their small set of farm animals to eat, mainly chickens and turkeys—the latter mostly for holidays—since they used the cows for milk.
    “Tell the wolf that he did well,” Jake muttered as she passed by him.
    “Tell him yourself,” Renee said. “I’m not your mediator.”
    “Will he be eating with all of us?”
    “I imagine so.”
    “So we’ll use the big dining table tonight so the others can be invited in?” Jake asked. There was a breakfast table in the kitchen area where the core pack generally ate. But they also had a dining table in the great room that seated twelve, or more if they all squeezed in. Renee did not think that all the shapeshifters would be eating with them with Grant there. The dining room table would work fine.
    She nodded and continued through the kitchen. She probably had a few hours before dinner.
    As she left the kitchen, she heard Jake muttering, and she knew he was