Page 111 of Fate, Interrupted

“Been busy,” I say.

“Six months busy, or six months avoiding family events busy?”

“Both,” I say.

Declan laughs, the easy laugh of a man who has found his footing somewhere and wears it without effort. I noticed it at the wedding. He’d always been restless in Larkin, always slightly too large for the space the city made for him, and then he’d gone north with his mate, and he changed. The restlessness was gone. I’d filed that away at the time without knowing what I was filing it for.

I know now.

“How’s Paxton?” I ask.

“Good,” he says. “Really good, actually. Anya’s sister just had a baby, so the house is chaos, but it’s the good kind of chaos. Why?”

“I have a friend,” I say. “He’s thinking about moving. He’s looking for work and for a place with a different situation than Larkin.”

Silence for a moment. Declan is smart. He’s always been smart, which is why he got out when he did and why he’s not going to ask me directly what I’m not telling him.

“What kind of work is he looking for?” he says.

“He’s good with his hands. Operations, logistics. Managed a crew before. He knows how to run things.”

“Wolf?”

“Yeah.”

“Okay.” He pauses to think. “There’s an opening at the mill. They’ve been looking for the right fit for a while now. Haven’t found it.”

“Tell me about it.”

“Hartley Mill is a timber operation. It’s been running for forty years, family-owned, third generation. The Hartleys have always worked with the pack here, going back to before I arrived. It’s a real relationship, not tolerance, not them doing us a favor. It goes both ways because both sides figured out early that it worked better that way.” He pauses. “They’ve got five wolves on the floor already. You know what happens when you put good wolves in a physical operation.”

“Tell me anyway,” I say.

“Three times the output of a comparable human crew,” Declan says, with the satisfaction of a man who has watched it happen and still finds it pleasing. “And that’s not running them hard; that’s just what happens when you put the right people in the right work and don’t make them spend half their energy managing how they’re perceived while they do it. The Hartleys figured that out fast and they don’t take it for granted. Pay is fair, conditions are good, and when you clock out, you’re done. Nobody’s looking sideways at you in the parking lot; nobody’s filing complaints because you lifted something a human couldn’t.”

“And the pack there,” I say. “How does that work?”

“Pack’s been established for a long time. Smaller than Larkin but tighter, in a good way. There’s a hierarchy, there’s territory, there’s all the usual. But it’s not the same friction. The pack isn’t constantly having to justify its existence to the city, and the city isn’t constantly looking for reasons to manage the pack.” He pauses. “It’s a different baseline.”

“Meaning?”

“Meaning you walk into a room, and you’re a person first,” Declan says. “Whatever comes after that, at least you start there. In Larkin…” He stops. “I grew up there too. I know what it is. And I know what it costs to be what we are inside it, every day, for years. You stop noticing it after a while. And then you leave, and you’re somewhere else for a few weeks, and you see how much of your energy was going into managing everyone else’s reaction to what you are instead of living your actual life.”

I sit with that for a moment.

“It’s not perfect,” he says. “It’s a small town. People know your business. The pack has politics, complications, and difficult personalities. Being new anywhere takes work.” He pauses. “But the difference is real. I couldn’t have explained it before I lived it.”

“The mill,” I say. “Who would he talk to about the job?”

“Brennan Hartley, the son. His father is still around, but Brennan runs the operation day to day. Good man. Straight with you. If he says something, he means it. If he doesn’t know, he says so.” He pauses. “I can put in a word, but your friend would need to come up and meet him. Brennan won’t hire someone he hasn’t looked in the eye.”

“That’s fair,” I say.

“Does your friend have somewhere to stay while he figures things out?”

“He’d need to find a place to stay.”

“There’s a rental on the east side of town. Nothing fancy, but it’s clean and it’s available. I can get the details.” He pauses. “Does your friend have anyone coming with him?”