“I hope he doesn’t get hurt.”
“Hurt?” Rose repeated, appearing genuinely puzzled.
“Young guy, older man. Usually doesn’t last.”
Rose laughed. “They’ve been together since 1783.”
“They—What?”
“You thought they met here?”
Alex wasn’t sure what she’d thought.
“You know,” Rose said quietly. “We’re people most of the time.”
Alex tilted her head, studying Rose’s serene face. “I don’t understand what you’re trying to say.”
“You think we’re different than other people? We really aren’t.”
“You turn into wolves beneath the moon, Rose. How different can you get?”
“But when the moon is down, we’re just like everyone else.”
“Order!” Joe sang.
Alex began to load her tray. “You sure don’t eat like everyone else.”
Rose laughed. “Barlowsville is the same as any other city in the Arctic. Coffee shop that serves the same food as a thousand other coffee shops. Movie theater that shows the same movies they show at any other theater in Alaska. Bookstore with the same books. Shoe shop. Grocery store.”
“Big white laboratory with your own resident Dr. Frankenstein,” Alex continued. “Lord of the Wolves telling everyone where to go and what to do. And your own personal blood bank of Inuit.”
Rose’s eyes widened. Alex wanted to bite off her tongue. Why not? It would grow back.
“Julian really must trust you,” she said.
Alex moved back to the counter and began to unload her very full tray in front of the single customer that remained from the breakfast rush. She glanced at the clock. She had maybe half an hour before the lunch crowd descended.
She smiled at the young woman, who could have been the local schoolteacher if there’d been a school. “Anything else?”
Mouth already full of scrambled eggs, she shook her head, and Alex turned back to Rose. “Why would you say that?”
“You’ve been here what? A day? And you’ve already met Cade; you know what he does. Not to mention the village.” Rose peered into her face as if she might discover all of Alex’s secrets. “New wolves don’t usually learn about the Inuit until after the first full moon.”
Alex wasn’t going to admit how she’d discovered Cade, or why Julian ha
d taken her to Awanitok. But she wasn’t sure what she should say instead, so she said nothing.
“And now with all the trouble over there—”
“You know about that?”
“Not much stays secret around here.”
Alex hoped that wasn’t true.
“Any idea who’s gone rogue?” Alex asked.
“No one in this village!” Rose put her hand over her ample bosom. “We would never hurt anyone.”