Moon Called (Mercy Thompson #1)(53)
Author: Patricia Briggs

I gave the hulking brute stretched across the full length of the van’s backseat a frantic look. Samuel wouldn’t be able to change back for a while yet, probably a few hours. A forced change takes time to recover from, even for a wolf of Samuel’s power, and it was too late to try to hide him.

"You’re a good dog, Samuel," I told him sternly. "Don’t scare the nice police officer. We don’t have time to be escorted down to the station house."

A flashlight found me, and I waved, then slowly opened the sliding door.

"Jogging, Officer," I said. The flashlight kept me from picking out a face.

There was a long pause. "It’s one in the morning, ma’am."

"I couldn’t sleep." I gave him an apologetic smile.

"Jogging alone at night isn’t safe, ma’am." He lowered the flashlight, and I blinked rapidly, hoping the residual afterimages would fade soon.

"That’s why I always take him," I said, and jerked a thumb toward the back of the van.

The policeman swore. "Sorry, ma’am. That’s just the biggest damn dog I’ve ever seen-and I grew up with Saint Bernards."

"Don’t ask me what he is," I said, sliding through the door so I stood beside the policeman rather than below him. "I got him from the pound when he was a puppy. My vet says he might be an Irish Wolfhound cross of some sort, maybe with something with a little wolf like a Husky or Samoyed."

"Or Siberian Tiger," he muttered, not intending me to hear. In a louder voice, he said, "Why don’t you let me see your license, registration, and insurance, ma’am." He was relaxed, now, not expecting trouble.

I opened the front passenger door and retrieved my purse from the jockey box, where I’d tucked it when we’d stopped at Uncle Mike’s. Right next to the registration, insurance cards and my SIG.

Life would be much easier if the nice police officer didn’t see that-or the. 444 Marlin in the far back. I had a concealed carry permit, but I’d rather keep this low-key. Especially since, according to Stefan, Zee’s dagger was not legal.

I gathered the insurance card and registration, then shut the jockey box-gingerly, so the SIG didn’t rattle. I needn’t have worried. When I looked for him, the police officer was sitting on the floor of the van petting Samuel.

Any other werewolf of my acquaintance I’d have been worried about-they aren’t pets, and some of them resent being treated like one. Samuel canted his face so that the policeman’s fingers found just the right spot behind his ear and groaned with pleasure.

Samuel liked humans. I remember him coming down to play with the elementary-school kids-all human-at recess. Most werewolves avoid children, but not Samuel. They all knew who he was, of course, and when they saw him as a man they called him Dr. Cornick and treated him as they would have treated any other adult. But when he came to school as a wolf, they put him to work playing pony, runaway dog, and ferocious, but loyal, wolf-friend. He did it with the same fierce enjoyment as the children.

"He’s beautiful," the policeman said, getting out of the van at last and taking my paperwork. "How big is he when he’s standing up?"

I clicked my fingers. "Samuel, come."

He stood up on the bench seat, and the top of his back brushed the roof of the van. Then he stretched and hopped off the seat and onto the gravel road without touching the floor of the van. He deliberately moved like a big dog, a little clumsy and slow. His thick winter coat and the night provided some camouflage of the differences that no amount of mixed breeding could account for.

Werewolves’ front legs are built more like a bear’s or a lion’s than a timber wolf’s. Like the former two, werewolves used their claws to rip and tear flesh, and that means their musculature is different, too.

The policeman whistled and walked around him. He was careful to keep the flashlight out of Samuel’s eyes. "Look at you," he murmured. "Not an ounce of fat and every bit of two hundred pounds."

"You think so? I’ve never weighed him," I said. "I know he’s heavier than I am, and that’s good enough for me."

The policeman gave me back my license and assorted papers without actually looking at any of them. "I’d still be happier if you ran in the daylight, ma’am. In any case, this park is closed at night-safer for everyone."

"I appreciate your concern for my safety," I said earnestly, patting the werewolf lightly on the head.

The police officer moved his car, but he waited while I closed Samuel back into the van and followed me out of the park as far as the on-ramp to the highway-so I couldn’t stop to put my socks on. I hate going barefoot in leather tennis shoes.

Samuel levered his bulk up on the front passenger seat and stuck his head out the window, flattening his ears against the tear of the wind.

"Stop that," I chided him. "Keep all your body parts in the van."

He ignored me and opened his mouth, letting his tongue get swept back like his ears. After a while, he pulled his head in and grinned at me.

"I’ve always wanted to do that," I confessed. "Maybe when this is all over, you can drive, and I’ll stick my head out the window."

He turned toward me and let his front paws rest on the floor between our seats. Then he stuck his nose in my midriff and whined.

"Stop that!" I shrieked, and slapped his muzzle. "That’s just rude."

He pulled his head back and gave me a quizzical look. I took the opportunity to glance at my speedometer and make sure I wasn’t speeding.

"You’re going to cause a wreck, Samuel Llewellyn Cornick. Just you keep your nose out of my business."

He snorted and put one paw on my knee, patted it twice-then stuck his nose in my belly button again. He was quicker than my slap this time, withdrawing all the way back onto his seat.

"My tattoo?" I asked, and he yipped-a very bassy yip. Just below my naval I had a pawprint. He must have seen it while I was scrambling into my clothes. I have a couple on my arms, too.

"Karen, my college roommate, was an art major. She earned her spending money giving people tattoos. I helped her pass her chemistry class, and she offered to give me one for free."

I’d spent the previous two years living with my mother and pretending to be perfect, afraid that if I weren’t, I’d lose my place in my second home as abruptly as I had the first. It would never have occurred to me to do something as outrageous as getting a tattoo.

My mother still blames Karen for my switching my major from engineering to history-which makes her directly responsible for my current occupation, fixing old cars. My mother is probably right, but I am much happier as I am than I would have been as a mechanical engineer.