Sarah really didn’t mind watching the kids. Cain’s son always went hunting with his father, which left her with Sable and Snow, who couldn’t have been more different. Sable, a cousin of Lotus, was loud, forceful, and prone to spectacular tantrums when she didn’t get her way. Only half Sable’s age, Snow was quiet, amiable, and even-tempered. Having to watch them both, it was easy to see how many of the adults in the pack overlooked Snow. With such a mellow nature, she was often ignored in favor of the more demanding children.
Although Lotus would throw a fit at being called a pup, her sisters regularly left her in Sarah’s care while they hunted, which Sarah thought was a little unfair, considering Caim could go, and he was half the girl’s age. Lotus thought so too, and she would often spend the whole afternoon getting herself in a lather over being left behind and bragging nonstop about her hunting prowess as Sarah chased the pups around.
Sarah’s favorite time of day was the hour before everyone returned, when the sky was just starting to darken. After tiring themselves out all afternoon, the three of the girls would lie down for an early-evening nap. In their wolf forms, Lotus and Sable would fight over Sarah’s lap, pawing each other in the face until they ran out of energy and passed out. Snow slept in Sarah’s arms, cradled against her chest. While Sarah didn’t want to play favorites, there was a muted vulnerability about Snow that drew her in, and with each day that passed, Sarah found herself growing more and more attached to the little girl.
When the women returned for the night, if it wasn’t too cold out, they built a big bonfire in the moon room. While they cooked and ate dinner, the women loved to socialize, mainly in the form of storytelling. Jewel, one of Lotus’s older sisters, and Fern, a boisterous olive-skinned beauty, were the best company. They both had an outrageous sense of humor, and the hours seemed to melt away as they stayed up till the early morning hours, laughing and joking.
In the morning, everyone retired to their respective rooms to sleep. Snow’s asthma was always worst in then, and instead of going to sleep with Cain as she wanted to, Sarah usually found herself nodding off in the little girl’s room. Snow usually woke several times in the morning with labored breathing, and Sarah was uncomfortable leaving her alone.
Cain, as well as his brothers, was almost always away from the den. During the short intervals in which Sarah saw him, he looked tired and stressed, though he tried to hide it. From what she had gathered from snippets of conversation, there was some concern that the soldiers who had invaded their territory in the hills would breach their mountain territory as well.
That concern was simply an extra weight on his shoulders, on top of the day-to-day challenges that came with being an alpha. Whether they realized it or not, his pack was reliant on Cain for nearly everything, from solving their quarrels and mediating the division of food, to ensuring that their territory was secure. To Sarah, it seemed unfair to place so much on the shoulders of one man. Not wanting to put any more strain on him, she did everything she could to help out and keep things going smoothly while he was away.
On one such afternoon, a week and a half into her stay, the females broke off from the hunting party early to bring back a large buck. Meadow decided that it was too cold out for her to help clean the carcass, and before things escalated between Meadow and Jewel, Sarah volunteered to help in her place. Leaving the pups in Meadow’s care, she and the other females set out for the nearby stream to tend to the gruesome task.
Sarah nearly lost the meager contents of her stomach when they split the carcass open, which everyone seemed to find uproariously funny. Feeling bad for her, the women let her hang back and watch as they stripped the deer. She felt guilty, seeing as how Cain had already more or less showed her how it was done, but she decided since that had been a rabbit, it didn’t really count.
While the others set to portioning the meat, Grace took Sarah to the bank of the stream and showed her how to scrape the hide. Sarah liked Grace. She had a plain, round face and wasn’t as interesting as Jewel or Fern, or as quirky as Clover, but she had a pleasant countenance that made her easy to talk to.
“So tell me, Sarah,” Grace said while preening the pelt, “how are you enjoying your time with our pack?”
It wasn’t a hard question to answer. Although things out here weren’t always easy, Sarah found that the only thing she really missed was her eyeglasses.
“I’m really happy here,” she answered sincerely. “I never thought that you guys would all be so…”
“Human?” Grace supplied, smiling.