Liam Takes Manhattan (Elder Races #9.5)(12)

He hesitated. You don’t mind?

Of course not. She smiled at him. We’ll just be talking about annual budgets and policy changes anyway. Go—enjoy yourself. I’ve got this.

Thanks. As a brisk gray-haired woman strode up to Pia and Eva, Liam stuck his hands in the pockets of his jeans and strolled over to the glass door that led to the area where the adoptable puppies were kept.

On the other side of the door, a long room held a series of pens with waist-high gates. High squeaks and yaps sounded as he approached.

He peered over the first gate, but that kennel was empty. The next held three sleeping Chihuahua puppies, curled in a pile on a folded blanket. He smiled as he looked at their small, round bellies.

The third kennel held two Rottweiler mix puppies that rolled along the floor and play-fought with each other. He clicked his tongue at them and snapped his fingers, but they ignored him.

Indifference was a lot better than outright panic. Shrugging, he moved on.

The fourth kennel was the largest and it held the most. Seven puppies gamboled about. It was hard to tell what kind of breed mix they were. There seemed to be some German shepherd, along with maybe a splash of golden retriever, or something else he couldn’t identify. The result was that the puppies looked somewhat wolfish, with narrow noses, yellow-gold eyes, and brown and tan markings on their soft, shaggy pelts.

As he watched, one puppy chewed its hind leg while one of its litter mates stalked up to it and pounced. Liam laughed as the pair fell over, growling at each other.

Bending over the gate, he reached down to pet one of the largest of the puppies. It promptly turned to gnaw on his fingers with needle-sharp teeth. Another, smaller puppy fixed on him and bounded to the gate. It scrabbled at the barrier.

The thing was, his parents hadn’t been wrong. He really would have loved to have a puppy. But now he was going away to school, or at least he hoped he was.

If everything went well, he would be leaving behind everyone he knew. His mother and father. His new baby brother. He would be gambling everything to take a shot at a big unknown.

If everything didn’t go well, and he didn’t get into Glenhaven in time for the next term, he truly had no idea what he was going to do with himself.

He wished he had friends, because he could sure use a friend to talk to right now. But there was nobody. His last bunch of friends were years behind him in age and development. He had left them far behind with this latest growth spurt, and they wouldn’t be looking at going to college for years.

He’d had a good talk with Hugh, but Hugh was like an uncle. Hugh could offer good advice, but he couldn’t empathize with where Liam was at. Because nobody was where Liam was at. He was surrounded by people who loved him, yet he had never felt lonelier.

Everything felt at once too big and yet too restrictive. His chest constricted, and he couldn’t breathe as the wide, wild world crushed down on him.

A woman bent over the gate beside him and held a long-fingered, tawny hand out to one of the puppies. She asked, “Which one are you going to pick?”

Liam paused, puzzled. He hadn’t heard anyone come in through the glass door. He must have been more preoccupied with the puppies than he had realized.

“I’m just visiting with them,” he said in a choked voice. “I can’t actually have one.”

“Of course you can have one.” The woman scratched the puppy behind its ear, and it sat down, lifted its head to her and closed its eyes in bliss.

It was an odd thing to say to a total stranger. Liam gave her a sidelong, wary glance. The woman was dressed in a long black and gold tunic and black trousers, and thick gold bangles dangled at her wrists. As they both were leaning over the gate, he couldn’t see much of her face, just a strong, high cheekbone and the graceful curve of her jaw.

It was hard to tell from such a position, but her body was long and muscled, and she looked as though she might be as tall as he was. Tawny hair curled down her back, as wild and untamed as a lion’s mane.

“No, I really can’t,” he told her, leaning his elbows on the gate. “I might be going away to college soon.”

“And you can’t have a puppy while you’re in college?”

Taken aback, he muttered, “Well, I—I guess I don’t know. I hadn’t really thought about it. I was sort of expecting that I might be staying in a dorm. If I get to go at all. Right now, my whole life feels like a blank page.”

The woman picked up the puppy she had been petting. It wriggled happily in her hands, and she kissed its nose. “If your life is a blank page, that only means you have room to write your story. You have the power to tell that story the way you want to. I agree, staying in a dorm wouldn’t be possible with a puppy. But if you stayed in an apartment, you could have one—that is, if you really wanted one. After all, young Cuelebre, it isn’t as though your family can’t afford to put you up in an apartment.”

The walls seemed to reverberate with her words.

Young Cuelebre, she had said. Somehow this strange woman knew who he was. His hackles rose. Compulsively he scanned her for magic, or any other hint of Power.

There was nothing. Sucking in a breath, he tried to catch her scent.

All he could smell was the overwhelming, earthy smell of puppies that were too young to be housebroken.

Staring at the stranger’s profile, he whispered, “How do you know to say that name?”