It was strange to step foot in the open-plan office of the Starsmoon compound. It felt like forever since I’d been here. A fact, unfortunately, verified by the diabolical stack of documents on my desk. Eyeing the pile, I realized I was definitely in for some long nights and weekends.
Bert, who had returned to his desk after clapping me on the back, caught my look and laughed. “Well, you did go away for an early honeymoon for weeks and weeks on end.”
My Gamma, Jason, who didn’t have quite the same rapport with me as Bert, moved the conversation onto said work. “The silage orders are there to be signed off, then filed. All of the orders have now been sent out across the state.”
“I’ve got the latest lumber orders, too,” Bert said with an eye roll at a small stack on his desk. I eyed the slim stack. With the fall bringing lower temperatures, there should have been more than that.
“Is that all we’ve got?” I asked, scrunching my eyebrows.
“Yeah,” Jason answered, collapsing into a chair at the free desk. “With the Bloodmoon Pack causing trouble, business isn’t what it was.”
My gaze flew to Bert. He held up his hands in a placating gesture. “There was nothing you could do about it from afar.” He sat up in his chair, looking more alert as he added, “But now that you’re back, you need to know that the Bloodmoon Pack has been deliberately causing unrest with the local human community. They’ve brought down sheep and cattle along our borders, giving rise to the rumors again about our… strangeness.”
Occasionally over the years, there was the odd youngster during a first shift who went rogue and injured livestock in the vicinity. And of course, there were the usual challenges that the juveniles doled out to one another: who could sneak closest to a particular ranch or town in wolf form without getting spotted. This had naturally given rise to the rumors about “huge wolves” in the area, and our community here in Lord Hills, which kept largely to itself, had come under suspicion in the past.