Chapter Three

On Saturday morning, Embry showed up at her door with a paper bag and an apologetic smile. "So the elders said they don't want any visitors at the rehabilitation building," he said to her questioning expression. "They think it might be dangerous to have spectators. Loud noises and whatnot scare the animals. But I brought breakfast, and if you want, Paul can come fix your door."

Laura frowned. "There's a picnic table out front," she suggested finally. Something in the back of her head was preventing her from inviting him in. Something about him, the way he was so large, the way he carried himself, the way his eyes swept the room, spoke of dangerousness. He was dangerous, even just standing on her porch wearing sandals and a beat up t shirt.

Embry nodded and found the picnic table. It was between Laura's front door and the Pizza Brothers', so it had the unfortunate side effect of smelling like pizza and garlic all the time. He folded his body into the bench somehow and started pulling out bagels. He brought at least half a dozen, making Laura wonder if other people were coming too. She cautiously sat on the bench across from him, a bit unsure of what was going on.

"So can you at least tell me about the program? Or the wolves in the area? I had never seen any near as large."

He paused from taking out an assortment of cream cheeses. "Wolves that size are particular to the Pacific Northwest," he said finally. "But I have to ask that you not report them anywhere. The wolves are…sacred to my tribe. We are their descendants, actually. The elders are concerned that if word got out about them, then the reservation and the national park would be overrun with scientists, poachers, tourists."

Laura nodded carefully. So that was why they were all so determined to get that one wolf back. Part of her was very impressed in that one tribe's success in keeping the wolves secret for so long. Things like that did not stay hidden in the age of the internet and digital photography. She wondered what they would have done if she had refused to give it back.

Looking at Embry, cramped in the picnic bench and carefully tearing open a cream cheese packet, she could believe that the Quileutes were descended from wolves.

"Is this the part where you kill me because I know too much?" she asked lightly.

Embry chuckled and shook his head. "Billy Black and Sue Clearwater spoke for you, so I'll let you go with a warning. This time."

She honestly wasn't sure if that was a joke or not, so settled for a polite smile.

A beat up old Chevy truck pulled into the parking lot and another mountain of a man climbed out. She recognized him as the one she had hit with a wooden molding. Great.

Embry must have noticed her expression because he said, "That's Paul. His bark's worse than his bite. He's just here to fix your door."

Paul pulled a large tool kit out of the bed of his truck and sent them a wave. Apparently he was content with not talking to her either. He circled around the building to her back door and a few minutes later they could hear some sort of pounding going on.

"Don't worry; he's really good at what he does. He built his own house." Embry seemed to think that was a high enough recommendation and began devouring a bagel. "Also, I brought one of those moldings that Paul…broke."

Laura contained a snort as his diplomatic statement.

"That's very thoughtful of you," she said instead. "But really, you guys don't need to go through all the trouble…"

"Dr. Karl, we broke into your house and your business. It's the least we could do." He held her gaze seriously for a moment. "Besides, your back door was ridiculously easy to break. You needed a new one anyway."

"Ahh, well, I appreciate it."

Embry pushed three of the bagels her way. "Appreciate my bagels, too, then," he said lightly.

She took a blueberry bagel with a smile. They listened to the pounding out back for a moment. "So how did you end up working with wolves?" she asked, curious.

He shrugged. "It's kind of a profession you're born into. I do love it though. Wolves are some of the most loyal and intelligent creatures." He stopped to polish off his second bagel. "How did you get into being a vet?"

She glanced back at her clinic fondly. "I always loved animals. My dog got hit by a car when I was eight. We took her in to the vet, and they patched her right up: splinted her leg, stitched up some scratches, good as new. I always knew that was what I wanted to do too."

"Well, you fixed up our wolf pretty good."

She blushed a bit. "My first lupine surgery. I had no idea what I was doing," she confessed. "I didn't give him enough anesthesia, and he woke up halfway through. I was terrified he would bit my arm off."

"First time for everything, right? They don't make you do a wolf before you leave vet school? Seems like it should be part of the basics," he said lightly. Then he grew quiet, looking out past the Pizza Brothers' dumpster to the woods. "There are lots of dangerous things in those forests, but the wolves aren't one of them. I promise."

She was a bit skeptical of this guarantee, and picked at her bagel. This was going pleasantly enough, and Laura didn't want to ruin it by lecturing him of the inherent dangers of wild animals, even trained ones. "If there's scarier stuff out there than horse-sized wolves, I probably wouldn't want to run into them."

"You won't, I'm sure," he said certainly. "Sorry again that you couldn't come see more of the wolves. I'm pretty sure we'll be able to sneak you in at some point later." She shot him a curious glance. "You're small, they'll never see you," he joked, which didn't answer her confusion. Laura thought this was a one-time thing, but he was talking like they would be friends from now on.

She was about to ask him about it when Paul came back around the building. "'S'all set," he grunted in their direction.

"Thank you!" Laura yelled to his back as he got into his truck and drove away. "Well, then, thanks for breakfast," she said to Embry.

"Anytime, Karl."

She grimaced. "You can call me Laura, I guess."

"I rather like the name Karl, actually." He sent her a grin as he hauled his huge frame up. She noticed with shock that he had eaten all of the remaining bagels as they had talked. Five bagels. "I'll see you around, Laura."

She like the way he said her name, like a promise. She smiled at him and waved as he climbed into his own truck. She turned to walk back into her apartment.

"Laura!"

She turned; Embry had rolled down his window to shout at her. "Would you want to get some coffee sometime?"

She was nodding before she even had time to really consider the proposition. "I close early Tuesday nights," she offered.

"It's a date," he called back.

She smiled and waved again before making it into her apartment. Her heart was beating way too quickly in excitement. She shook her head, trying to calm down.

She circled around to the back door to see what Paul had done. He hadn't been here that long; she expected to see her old lock pounded back into shape. Instead, she found a solid new door hung where her old one had been. A set of keys was hanging in the lock, which she had to admit looked more formidable than her former one. How did he have time to put up a whole new door? How did he even get the door in without her seeing it? She swung it open and shut experimentally; it glided silently and shut cleanly. After a moment of looking she found her old door leaning against the Pizza Brothers' dumpster.

Maybe Paul was just an extremely competent repairman. But something about the two men from La Push just seemed…unusual, and this was just one more case of it.