Black Dog(106)
Ethan grimaced and gave a speaking glance around the narrow room. “They say it wasn’t so bad when it was Richard Lanning’s private library, but Thos Korte decided Dimilioc needed more than one cell and turned this room into –” He opened a hand to indicate the cells “– his special prison. Ugly, yes, but the best place in the house to mess about with gunpowder. Who would care if we blew it up?”
Everything anybody said about the previous Dimilioc Master made Natividad more and more grateful that Thos Korte had gone into the fell dark, and she found she liked Ethan better because he obviously felt the same way. “What does Grayson use this room for?” she asked.
Ethan shrugged. “Not much, I guess, until now. Mostly just storage for things no one wants, but no one wants to throw away.”
Natividad took a rifle off its rack to see whether it was loaded. It was. Cass Pearson followed her movements with a steady, predatory stare. Natividad pretended not to notice, but the shifter’s presence sure didn’t help the ugly feel of the room.
“Can you shoot?” Ethan asked her.
“A little. Not like Miguel.”
“Yeah.” Ethan paused. “I had a human cousin who was pretty good… but Thos didn’t like his black wolves to be too friendly with humans. She went to live in Lewis. She should have been safe there, but the war…”
Natividad wanted to say something to show she was sorry for Ethan’s grief, only of course she couldn’t. There was nothing to say, and anyway a black dog didn’t like to have any kind of weakness noticed. In a minute, Ethan would begin to regret mentioning his cousin at all. She hefted the rifle. “I guess we should take some of these upstairs. Miguel should have one. And Sheriff Pearson and DeAnn, and maybe some of the others. Do you think?” she added, because black dogs always liked to feel they were making all the decisions.
Alejandro said, “Grayson can’t have wanted them just to look at. We’ll take at least a couple up.”
The look Ethan shot Alejandro made it clear he didn’t like any Toland upstart making decisions for Dimilioc. Naturally Alejandro didn’t notice. Or maybe he just pretended not to. Natividad said quickly, “And maybe some boxes of ordinary ammo. Can’t practice with the silver.”
“Your brother’s set up a shooting range in the spare garage,” Ethan said. “I’ll show you.” He gave her a tentative smile. She knew it was a peace offering. Maybe even the awkward beginnings of courtship. That was a scary idea in a whole different way.
The way Grayson had set it up, of course all the male Dimilioc wolves had to think about Natividad as a woman. It occurred to her now that this also made her think about herself that way, and she never had, really. Not even when she’d told Grayson she wasn’t a child. She hated it. Well, they also had to think of her as a valuable commodity; that’s what she hated. Ezekiel might court her, but he sure hadn’t bothered to get to know her before he claimed her. To him, any Pure girl would do just fine. And now here was Ethan, smiling at her, one too many black wolves to deal with.
At least Grayson had been honest about what he thought of her.
It hadn’t been like this for Mamá. The only black dog she’d ever met was Papá. What would Mamá say now?
She would say, “Be nice to Ethan, Natividad, be nice to everybody, but don’t be too nice, don’t lead anybody on.” She could almost hear Mamá say that. She bit her lip hard, hefted the rifle again and said to Ethan, casually, the way she might have spoken to one of her brothers, “You think a gun rack’ll fit in with all the pink lace in my room?”
Ethan looked at her. For an instant, Natividad was sure he was going to smile – twice in two minutes, amazing and a little scary – but he didn’t, so after a moment, she added, speaking now to her brother, “Grayson wants you all. In an hour, he said.” She looked at her pink kitten watch. “Forty-five minutes, now. I figured I’d tell you and you could spread the word.” She gave Alejandro a quick look. “Miguel too, he said.”
Alejandro looked at Natividad in a silent question, like, Dios mío, qué es eso? He said, “A council of war.”
“Not a council of anything,” Ethan snapped, instantly on edge. “He’ll tell us what he wants and we’ll do it.”
Black dog posturing: he and Alejandro hadn’t sorted out their relative dominance yet and would be tense until they did. Natividad wished, briefly and fervently, that she was just dealing with ordinary humans. “Maybe he just wants to wish us all a nice night and pleasant dreams,” she said in her most cheerful, encouraging tone.