Chapter 2

The only reason Mikael nodded at the boys when they asked if they could get dressed before fixing the fence was that there were occasional visitors,and it wasn’t smart to have two teenage boys naked on your yard,no matter that none of the farm’s inhabitants would look at them twice.Human rules were human rules,and Mikael was already labeled as the“slightly odd,probably gay man who feeds wolves despite having farm animals on his property.”

He’d heard several theories about his farm and the people living with him.The most popular guess was that they were some sort of cult.He shook his head and walked up to the house.Chopping wood was abandoned for now;the time he had scheduled for it had been used chasing horses and telling teenagers off.Luckily,the farm really didn’t need that much firewood this late in the spring anyway.It was mainly used for the saunas and extra heating for the nights that would still get colder.

Mikael stepped into the kitchen,where Lark was already making his midday coffee.

“Sheep are all where they should be.What did the boys do?”she asked,turning to place some bread on the kitchen table.

“They were on the roof of the sauna,that much I know.The horses couldn’t have seen them until they managed to rattle the plate roof,and I guess King decided to charge the fence or something.”Mikael sighed and began to butter a piece of rye bread.

“Oh,in case they need their clothes,they have to come and get them from the utility room.”Lark’s tone was slightly amused.“I found them strewn about the yard while I was checking on the sheep.”

Mikael said nothing,just grinned,knowing that the boys would absolutely hate coming to get their clothing from Lark.She was like their big sister,and her disapproval was a big deal for them.Lark finding the clothes in the yard was at least proof that the boys had stripped hastily before shifting to help Mikael and Sean with the horses,instead of being on the roof while in their animal forms.Doing anything so reckless while not having opposable thumbs to help them climb down was forbidden.Not that they were allowed on the roof of anything in their human forms,either.

When the boys’voices sounded from the back porch,near the utility room’s entrance,Lark excused herself to go give them their clothing.

“Have you checked what we need from the grocery store?”Mikael asked when she got back.

“The list is on your desk,”Lark said and poured them both a mug of coffee.

“Okay,good.What do you think about sending the boys to do the shopping as a punishment?”Mikael smirked at her a little.

A delighted giggle escaped the young woman sitting across from him.It was weird how similar the shifters’appearances could be in both of their forms.Cat or woman,Lark always looked like Lark.When Lark,the child of a Finnish mother and a British father,had first come to Mikael’s farm,he wondered what her form would be.When she had finally gotten brave enough to tell him,he wasn’t surprised;her strawberry-blonde hair and shy and quiet demeanor were that of a lynx.

“Sounds good to me,”she said,giggling a little more before taking a bite of her sandwich.

She suddenly froze,her head tilted in the curious way the shifters did as they listened to something in the distance.

“Noah’s back?”Mikael guessed.

Lark nodded.“Yes.The engine sounds better.”

Noah,a jaguar shifter and the farm’s only American,had taken their ancient Land Rover to the garage to be fixed.The farm managed with almost everything,but they didn’t have a doctor or a mechanic.

The car parked on the driveway,and soon they could hear Noah’s heavy steps when he came inside the house.The man was fit from his years in the military back in the United States and almost always in a good mood.But there was a more serious side to Noah as well.Something seemed to eat at him sometimes,and he would retreat to his room on the second floor of the main house and only appear for meal times or to do his job around the farm.

“Ooh,just in time.”Noah grinned and went to get himself a coffee before plopping down next to Mikael instead of Lark.She might have been uncomfortable despite having known Noah for years.

“How much?”Mikael asked,and Noah waved his hand dismissively.

“Not much at all.In fact,Joonatan said he can just add it to our next bill.”He shrugged in a good-natured way,and Mikael decided to let it drop.

Joonatan,the closest proper mechanic and a high-school friend of Mikael’s,was a good man.He had a family to feed,though,so Mikael decided to go back sooner rather than later.Maybe one of the cars needed an oil change soon or something.

“What’s with the boys?They were so not interested in anything but fixing the fence of one of the paddocks.I didn’t even know there was something wrong with it,”Noah asked as he poured milk into his coffee.

Mikael frowned.“They went on the sauna roof,scared the horses,and I think King used his thick head as a ramming device….”

“You don’t happen to have military camps for teenage boys in this country?”Noah asked innocently,and Mikael had to grin a little.Even Lark smiled.

“Sadly,no,and we can’t really have Anton drafted,even though he’s of age.Too bad his foxy side wouldn’t agree with service.”Mikael sighed as he got up to put his dishes away.

“Yeah,he’s in no sort of control that would allow that.Was difficult for me,too,and I was raised by a family of shifters who taught me things.Besides,I was lucky.Never getting injured enough to have the cat pop up….Damn lucky.”

Mikael left Noah to eat his lunch and Lark to clean the kitchen and went to his office.There it was,neatly on top of his desk like it always was on Thursdays:the shopping list.The drive to the closest proper large mall was well over thirty miles.With all the shopping that needed to be done for the main house alone,the trip was grueling to say the least.

The wolf pack did its own shopping,but Mikael assumed that the boys would do both the main house and the wolf pack’s house that day,just because both Sean and Zoya believed in making their kids do the less pleasant jobs when they were being punished for something.Sure,they took away toys and such from the younger kids,but it was much more efficient to make one of the kids,pups as they all called them,sort the laundry or fill the dishwasher than deny them access to their DVD collection.The teenagers were trickier;you had to figure out better punishments for the“terrible duo,”and shopping was just the thing this time.Losing their privileges was getting a bit old and,apparently,ineffective.

Mikael added a few things to the list and was paying some bills when a quiet knock sounded from the office door.