Way of the wild, p.17
Way of the Wild, page 17
Her dad looked up at the sky, and from the way he breathed in deeply through his nose, she could tell he was holding back a sigh. It was clear he disapproved but knowing now what was around the corner for them, she believed it had been the best thing to do. No matter the pain it had caused Artemis, it was necessary.
I wonder if Cora thought the same, a cruel voice in her head told her. Jamie shook the thought away.
“We need to find the pack,” her dad said. “Do you think you could ask Artemis to show us?”
Jamie chewed her lip. “I’ll give it a try. The one I saw seemed to be OK around people, but I don’t know if Artemis would want to show us where they live.”
“You may have to convince her.” Her dad stroked his beard. “If we know where they are, we may be able to protect them.”
“Really?” Jamie asked in surprise. “I thought there was nothing we could do?” A thought crossed her mind. “Could we trap the wolves humanely ourselves to relocate?”
“We’d need to receive approved permits for that to happen, and that can take weeks,” Alicaster interrupted. “Not to mention we have nowhere to take the animals.”
“There’s sanctuaries across the country, maybe they’d—”
“Again, a lengthy process that we just don’t have the time for.”
Jamie took a deep breath to stop from yelling at Alicaster. Artemis’s eyes were on her; she couldn’t let her see. Even if she hated hiding things like this from her. “OK, my ideas won’t work. What do you suggest, then?”
Alicaster stayed silent and looked away. “I don’t think there is anything we can do…” She tucked her hands into her pockets. “We need the governor to get behind this and bring in an emergency injunction. But he’s already refused to do it.”
“Say he did,” Jamie began, thinking. “What would happen if an injunction was brought in?”
“The Talbot group would have to stop what they were doing and wait,” her dad replied. “We’d then have the time to fight it out in court with the evidence we have and, hopefully, get permanent protection for the forest if we win.”
“How would we get the governor’s attention?” she asked.
“We’d need a pretty big public outcry or a petition of over ten thousand signatures to get a response from the government. So, really” – Alicaster gestured to Ritchie – “your boy’s documentary may be the only thing that makes a difference.”
“That’s going to do wonders for my anxiety,” Ritchie muttered before shaking his head. “I’ll go look to see how it’s doing, I guess?” Walking towards the tent, Ritchie met Jamie’s eyes and gestured with a small nod to follow him.
“Hey, Dad, could you maybe do some teaching with Artemis while I” – she gestured to Ritchie who’d stepped into his tent. “See if you can get her to learn more of the alphabet without me. Maybe if she can, we can ask her where the pack is.”
Her dad offered her a small smile before guiding Artemis towards the table. She could see the disappointed look the woman sent her as she went. Jamie managed to catch the start of her dad’s lesson with Artemis and couldn’t help but smile as he began with a story about the first time he saw a wolf. He always loved telling stories when teaching. She saw Artemis begin to smile and, upon seeing it, ducked into the tent after Ritchie.
“Do you want the good news or bad news?” he asked.
Jamie just gave him a blank look.
“So, the good news is, the video seems to have been taking off. Don’t know how or why. I will look into it further. But hopefully that means the petition I made will get some signatures from it. There aren’t many so far, but we’ll see.” He started tapping away at his computer before groaning. “I appreciate your dad finding a way to hook up my laptop to the satellite connection that his computer has, but God is it slow.”
“And the bad?” Jamie questioned.
“We don’t have any footage of the wolves,” Ritchie said.
Jamie frowned and came to sit beside him. “What about the footage of the she-wolf I got?”
“One wolf and one wolf-woman isn’t going to offer much to an audience about why they need protection.” He pulled up his editing software, which Jamie could never look at unless she wanted a migraine from how complicated it looked. “The footage I do have, while good, isn’t helping to focus on the wolves but more on Artemis. Which, like, that’s important too, but if we want environmental activists – and, hell, dog lovers – to get involved, we need to know more about the pack and show more about them.”
“But you’ve already uploaded the video—”
“One of them,” Ritchie noted.
“There’s more than—” Jamie shook her head. “Wait, never mind, this is you. Of course there’s more than one version.”
Ritchie smiled. “Always the perfectionist me.”
“Yeah, yeah, well, we can’t work with the perfectionism if I don’t even know where the pack is.” Jamie paused. Her heart thudded nervously in her chest. “But Artemis does.”
“She can guide you,” Ritchie continued. “You can take my camera, just like you did when you bumped into her the other night, and film the pack and Artemis together. I’ll then smack it together in the final cut and get it uploaded.”
“But how can I do that?” Jamie said, pushing herself to her feet in frustration. “I’ve only had three proper days with her. That’s not enough time to build up trust. She may like and remember me, but I don’t think she’d let me near her family. Wolves don’t like humans on the best of days.” Jamie shook her head. “Besides, how would I even be able to communicate why I need to see the pack? She barely understands me as it is.”
“Well, now I know you’re being ridiculous if you think she doesn’t understand you. Have you seen how she looks at you?”
“That’s the freaking problem!” Jamie yelled back.
Ritchie stayed surprisingly calm at her outburst. “What is?”
“I … I can’t take advantage of her,” she whispered. “I can’t get her to take me to the wolves when she doesn’t understand why.” She looked away from Ritchie. “I can’t let her know I have feelings for her when she’s just mimicking what I’m doing. I can’t do that to her.”
“Jamie, you can’t seriously—”
“My job was to come here to save her and her family,” she said. “Once I finish that, she’ll go back to them, and I’ll go home. That’s how it is. No point thinking about anything more, OK?”
Ritchie went to talk again, but Jamie was finished listening. She knew what he’d tell her. Some sappy rom-com sentimentality about following your heart. It’s what he always did. But right now, she couldn’t hear it.
“I’ll see what we can do about the wolf footage,” she said quietly.
He didn’t respond, which didn’t surprise Jamie. Stepping out of the tent and finding Artemis’s eyes on her instantly, Jamie had to look away.
She walked up to Alicaster who, to her confusion, had been watching her since she’d left the tent. Jamie came to her side and grabbed one of the backpacks from the ground. “Let’s go screw with their plans.”
30
ARTEMIS
Jamie’s father was an enthusiastic teacher. Artemis knew that to understand this world from the perspective of an elder would be of great benefit. Her mother, Larka, had always said to listen to her elders. It was her long-since-departed mother’s words that had kept her from running after Jamie and the angry female.
She’d waited for her Oak to stop talking with Reechee so she could spend time with her, but to her dismay, Jamie had left the camp extraordinarily quickly. And without a glance in Artemis’s direction.
Is there something I have done? Artemis wondered as she sunk into her seat. Did my fear from before frighten her? Or did she finally understand what I had told her that night?
Artemis was startled from her thoughts by a pat of a hand against hers. Growling, she set her eyes on Elder Will who, thankfully, was not offended by her reaction.
“Jamie…” He pointed at the Forest. “...back.” He pointed to the ground at their paws.
The huff of annoyance she let out had him throwing his head back in laughter. Artemis smiled in response. Elder Will was an interesting man. She may not know much about him, but she liked him. She watched as he shook his head in amusement and began to wonder what had caused the rift between him and Jamie.
She may not understand the human tongue well, but body language is readable in all species. There was a distance between the two when they spoke, one that hurt them both. Between the way Jamie never met her father’s eyes unless a situation was dire and how Elder Will would watch Jamie as she left, there was much being unsaid between them.
Would it be intrusive to ask this? Artemis wondered as she tapped the man’s knee to gain his attention.
The man lent forward, giving her his full attention, and nodded for her to speak. He was a lot like Jamie. It made Artemis smile.
“Jamie…” She pointed to where she had left. “You.” She looked at him. Artemis frowned, unsure of the next word. Unlike when she was younger, she struggled to retain the language as she learnt it. Frustrated, she decided to show what she meant. She put her hands together, symbolising Jamie and Elder Will, before moving them apart from each other.
Elder Will sat in silence, staring at her hands. From the way he tugged at his facial fur, Artemis wasn’t sure if he was in thought or insulted until he spoke up.
“Yes.” He placed his hands together like she had. “We…” He separated his hands as she had done. Elder Will kept his hands in the air and smiled. “But” – he moved one of the hands towards the other – “trying.”
Artemis nodded in understanding. When she’d first returned to the pack after being stolen, it was difficult to rebuild the bonds with her family. Many of them had grown up since she’d been gone. She didn’t know them, and they didn’t know her. It took a long time, but their bonds were restored. Mostly.
Fenris came to her mind. He had never truly understood why she held onto things from her time in the human world. Unlike his father, Fenris shunned the human side of her. He only saw her as a wolf, and as much as he tried to hide it, she knew he was disappointed when she embraced her human side in hunting and climbing.
Artemis turned towards the Forest in thought. Seeing the way Jamie and her father were with each other struck a chord with Artemis. Right now, Artemis was betraying her promise to Fenris once again. Yue may have given her time, but she was not Fenris. The pup she had helped raise. The pup who had been there with her when she was near death after what the humans had done.
Will he hate me? Artemis wondered. Will I be welcomed back once I leave Oak behind?
“Jamie … you, Artemis,” Elder Will said, drawing her attention back to him. “Just…” He shrugged and made a strange expression.
Artemis frowned, unsure how to feel about what he said. Things between her and Jamie felt … complicated. Her deadline to return to the pack was up tomorrow, and she’d have to leave Jamie behind all over again. The picture of a sobbing young Oak came to mind, but she quickly shook it away. With everything that had happened since Jamie had come to the Forest and, more than that, what had been happening to Artemis since they’d reconnected, she found herself struggling with the idea of leaving her again.
A gentle wave of a hand from Elder Will in front of her face gave Artemis the chance to distract herself from her thoughts. Looking back to her elder, she smiled in return to his own gentle one.
When he reached out his paws to hers, she gave them to him willingly.
He held up one of her hands. “Jamie.” He raised her other. “Artemis.” Elder Will brought the two paws together and interlocked her fingers. “Co-nec-ted.” He broke apart the lock and separated her hands. “Apart” – he brought them back together again – “but co-nec-ted.”
He let go of her paws, leaving them interlocked. Artemis’s mind whirled with so many thoughts. She knew in her heart that it wouldn’t be as simple as he made it look, but it was worth trying.
As she let herself plan in her mind, she didn’t notice the return of Jamie and the angry female until she heard them.
Leaping from her seat, she rushed to Jamie’s side, startling her with her speed. Taking Jamie’s paw, she pulled her away from the female, making sure to send her the all-important scowl as she did.
Holding onto Jamie, she tugged her out of earshot of the camp and into the trees. Once far enough, she stopped and spun to face Oak. The girl looked confused, but she didn’t ask for answers like most others would. She waited for her to speak.
“Hom,” Artemis said quickly. “Jamie hom Artemis.”
Jamie tilted her head, just like Artemis did when she was confused. Artemis huffed in annoyance at herself. The human tongue was too hard. Taking a breath, she reached for Jamie’s paws and interlocked their fingers together like Elder Will had shown her. Artemis stared into Jamie’s beautiful oak-coloured eyes and repeated herself.
“Show Jamie Artemis home.”
31
JAMIE
Destroying property was a lot more satisfying than Jamie had expected it to be. She knew smash rooms existed, a place where you could pay to break stuff to relieve tension; she just didn’t think she’d be the sort of person who found relief in doing so.
When she had gone out with Alicaster, she’d not really had a plan in mind. All she could think about was how frustrated she was about the whole situation. Thankfully for her, Alicaster had an idea.
They’d already removed the bear traps, though they kept using their hiking poles to spread across the ground, just in case. The only thing they hadn’t yet removed was the live bait one.
The smell of the now dead and decaying wolf was potent the moment they came across it. They both had to cover their mouths to stop themselves from gagging at the intensity. It reminded her of the food waste bins at the university when they were left out in the hot sun for days on end. Just add in the smell of a dead body and it was practically identical.
“How … Why did they think this would work?” Jamie pinched her nose as they stepped closer. “The smell is awful, and we don’t even have heightened senses. Why would this work on an animal?”
Alicaster bent down to pick up a rock. “It’s because animals have more empathy than humans do.” She threw the stone into the cage. “They would want to help as much as they can, even if it was just to get them out of this prison to properly rest in peace.” She threw another stone.
“What are you doing?” Jamie asked.
“We’ll never be able to get him out without getting caught or hurting ourselves.” She pointed to a silver circle at the entrance of the trap. “There’s a pressure plate. I’m trying to trip it.”
She threw another stone and, this time, it hit its mark. The doors of the trap slammed shut with a sickening metallic clang. Jamie held back a shiver at the noise. “What now?”
Alicaster rolled her shoulders. “Now we get him out and do some damage.”
She could feel Alicaster’s eyes on her the entire time as she smashed the steel head of the hammer into the cage’s side. Jamie had thought it’d be harder to hit with all the gaps, but if it was, she didn’t notice. All she could feel was the anger that burned through her veins. All she could think was that these monsters were the ones who hurt Artemis.
Jamie kicked the side of the cage, hard, knocking herself backwards and to the ground. Her vision was blurry with unshed tears. She went to charge back to the cage when a voice called out: “I think that’s enough.”
She didn’t want to stop. Only when the weight of the hammer tugged her arm to the ground did she eventually drop it into the snow.
Blinking, Jamie took in the sight of the battered cage in front of her. Dents covered every side of the device. Its doors were bent in a way that made it unusable, and the trigger plate was damaged beyond repair. Jamie smiled.
“Good work, Miss Gander-Yoon. A-plus for effort,” Alicaster said with a smile to her voice. “I would recommend noting this in your dissertation. Emotional investment in these causes can gain you extra points from your assessors.”
Jamie scoffed. “Unless it’s Professor Whitaker.”
“Yes, that man has always been a dick.” She smiled. “But you didn’t hear that from me.”
Stunned by the playfulness Alicaster was showing her, Jamie didn’t even protest when she suggested they head back to the camp. The two of them walked back in silence, Jamie still trying to process her feelings on the Alicaster situation but also on what they were going to do for Artemis now. They didn’t exactly have a plan C.
The moment they arrived back at camp, it took Jamie longer than it should have to notice Artemis coming her way. When she did, she was too disorientated to even question where the woman was taking her until they were already among the trees.
Her heart fluttered when Artemis interlocked their fingers. And then she heard her speak.
“Show Jamie Artemis home.”
Jamie’s heart dropped into her stomach.
She knew it was a good thing that Artemis was suggesting this. It meant they could find out where the wolves were to film them, evacuate them if necessary, and see how they could protect them. So, why did she feel hollow inside?
“Now?” Jamie asked, pointing a finger to the forest. Artemis nodded. “OK, I’ll— I’ll go get my bag.” She forced a smile.
Artemis stayed among the trees as she rushed towards the camp where her dad, Ritchie, and now Alicaster sat by the recently reignited fire. Jamie could feel her heart racing as she made her way towards her dad.
“Artemis is taking me to her family’s den. How safe do you think that will be for me?” she asked him quietly. Jamie was hoping for – well, she wasn’t sure what she was hoping he’d say. Did she want him to let her go with Artemis or to stop her? She had no idea what she was thinking or feeling anymore.
