The Cynic and the Wolf by Julie Steimle (ebook voice reader TXT) 📕

"Excuse me?" Audry straightened up, her cheeks flushing indignantly. How dare he!

"That song is about a guy who is on the hunt, specifically for women," he explained with a crooked smirk.

Those in the room smothered hushed laughs. The sound of it caused Audry to have a bad taste in her mouth, as she had heard those lyrics a thousand times but had never really thought about it. Yet she retorted, "Then why do you have that ringtone?"

Still laughing, shaking his head wearily as if he was getting tears in his eyes, Rick replied with the fridge door still open, "I got that ringtone because my old roommate at Gulinger Private Academy secretly changed it as a prank. He thought was funny."

Mrs. Gruber flustered on his behalf, smothering more laughs. Those others exchanged looks, wondering perhaps what the song was about. Perhaps they would google it later.

Nodding to her, Rick added, "Yeah. It plays that song whenever my father calls me. And whenever my old roomie Tom calls me, it plays the chorus to Werewolves of London."

Pressing her lips together to stifle her chuckles, Mrs. Gruber looked scandalized. It made no sense why. It was just a song, and the Deacons liked wolves. Why was that so laughable?

"I've just gotten fond of them after a while," he explained to her.

Mrs. Gruber nodded.

The staff looked amused, each one peeking at Audry whom they clearly thought had been 'owned'. But really, for a zinger, it was nothing. However, Rick Deacon really did have a smart mouth.

"But for the record," Rick said to Audry with a smile which she thought was condescending, "Maybe I am wrong about your boyfriend. Maybe he just loves wolves or is a big Duran Duran fan. I mean, I don't know him."

"I'd better get the chickens," one of the staff announced right then, taking off his apron. He grabbed the keys to the large snowmobile off the hook, which he would take to the nearest... wherever, while he hooked up the apron to the right of the door. Audry assumed they bought their chickens from a local farm because no grocery store sold live chickens.

But Audry remained upset. His words lingered in her brain... Not so much because that smug rich kid had gotten the last word, but because Rick was most likely right about Harlin. Her blasted boyfriend had chosen that ringtone. If that really was an indication of his personality then he was actually player and she had been blind to it this entire time. Rick’s words had woken her up to the nasty possibility. And the more she thought about it, the angrier she got because that meant Harlin's entire reason for dating her was just to get laid. Unfortunately for her, Harlin wasn't there to interrogate to find out if that was honestly the case. Instead she had this mocking rich guy who looked too pleased with himself as he was perusing the refrigerator again.

Audry said to him, still irritated, "Why do you need them to buy living chickens? Isn't a store-bought, already-dead bird good enough for a meat eater? I mean, do you like to kill it yourself? Or do you just want to traumatize the staff with the job?"

Rick stiffened at her words. Peeking once to Mrs. Gruber who just shook her head at him while remaining silent, he calmed then sat down in the seat across from her. Those wolfish gray eyes watched her carefully, sending shivers down her spine. He said, "I take it you don't eat meat."

Audry shook her head, meeting his gaze solidly. "I am a vegan."

"Oh..." Nodding, he looked smugly amused again. "I see..."

"Are you sneering at that?" Audry inquired, feeling that bristling of skin again, his offensive pride really irking her.  

Rick immediately shook his head, chuckling. "No. Not at all. Each to his own, I say. But a lot of vegans are judgmental towards meat eaters--like you are being."

She merely shrugged, not to be put off. "Meat is murder."

"Cute chant," he said, hardly bothered.

Her face flushed. "Cute?"

Nodding, Rick rose from his chair. "Yeah. I mean, there are three types of vegans in the world. The trendy vegan who does it to look good to her peers and spends her time virtue-signaling. The vegan who chooses it for dietary reasons. And the vegans who honestly respect animal life and have convinced themselves that eating anything with a face is an immoral idea. I can respect the last two as they really believe what they say, but I have little tolerance for the first. The thing is, the first kind is the most vocal and the most abundant. And they love to chant 'meat is murder'."

"I am the last one," Audry replied, glaring at him. "I am vegan on principle."

He lifted his eyebrows. "Really?"

She nodded.

"Then what is your stance on abortion?" he asked.

That sensation rippled over her again. Glaring sharper at him, realizing that was the true test of a real honest to goodness, pro-living creature vegan, she said, "Though I don't believe I have the right to tell people what to do with their own bodies, I myself am anti-abortion. A life is a life."

He smiled at her, nodding. "Ok."

And that was it. He turned to go, leaving it there. No argument.

It was kind of weird, actually. Usually meat eaters threw at her phrases like: 'What about bacon?' which made no sense. But this guy actually did believe in 'each to his own'.

However one of the staff muttered before Rick could get out the door (which was where he seemed to be headed), "But why don’t we just buy already killed chicken? Every time we get the live ones the wolves kill them. Every time."

Rick hesitated then veered to the kitchen cupboards as if searching for something. He was in the section for cereals and random dried fruits and things. It was like he was lingering to listen to their conversation, yet Rick was not going to argue this point either.

"I haven't seen any wolves on the lot," Audry put in, looking to that person. "Maybe they won't. Maybe it is the foxes."

Kindly, Mrs. Gruber nodded to her as she said to that staff member, "Maybe the wolves won’t kill the chickens this year." She had peeked to Rick also.

He just shrugged. Then sighing, he added, "It really depends on if there is enough wildlife in the area for the wolves to eat."

"Then why don't you ask Audry," Mrs. Gruber said with that tiny look in her eye of someone trying to set a couple up. "That’s what she is researching."

"Audry?" Rick then looked to her. "That's a familiar name."

Audry waited for him to remember her, finally.

But he shrugged and said, "I think I saw a cartoon about a girl followed by rainclouds called Audry."

Audry groaned. 

He pulled up the chair again. "So... you are studying the local wildlife. Are you cataloging the kinds of wildlife, or are you studying how much there is? Can I get details?"

What do you know…? The rich boy actually was interested. But then Audry recalled that he had seemed interested in the project when he had approved it two years ago. In fact, she had noted that they wanted a copy of her research after she was all finished. So she decided to answer honestly as there was no point in messing around with him in this case.

"I was researching the effects of human recreational activities on wildlife reserves," she said.

His eyes widened. "Really?"

She nodded.

He sat nearer, getting on the edge of his seat, waiting for more. "What did you find out? You know, so far..."

Deciding he was not messing with her, Audry frankly replied, "Though the business has not impeded animal life in the area, there have been a few incidents where some visitors have not been entirely respectful to the habitat. I think I have caught a handful of people littering each time I have visited your different recreational facilities--and that includes here and the hiking areas out in California."

Rick nodded. He even pulled out a small notebook with a pencil, jotting something down. Gazing at her, he said, "Anything else?"

"The foxes are the main predators in this area. I have not seen wolves at all," she said, peeking once to the lodge staff. "But as for the rest—currently, most of the animals are hibernating. There is a small herd of deer which passes through, and there are plenty of birds, including falcons. Lots of ravens. I've seen raccoons, possums, and a heap load of squirrels. You do have rabbits who come out—"

"See?" Mrs. Gruber said.

"—most of which keep to the shrubbed areas," Audry explained, glancing up at Mrs. Gruber, confused that she spoke up at the mention of the rabbits. "The foxes usually hunt those."

Rick's expression looked thoughtful as he considered her words carefully. But look in his eyes was intense, like he intended to hunt rabbit and was just checking out to see if there was enough game.

It bugged her so much that Audry said, "By the way, I think hunting is a despicable practice."

Nodding in agreement, subdued as he was thinking, Rick replied, "...As long as what is hunted is not eaten by the hunter, yeah. But hunting for food is a necessity for many."

"For animals, maybe," she said with a dry stare. "But you really should go vegan."

He laughed, rising with mirth in his eyes. "Plug number two for veganism."

"But if you really are against hunting, as you claim," Audry protested, "Then you really should go vegan. Otherwise you are just being hypocritical. Farmed meat is worse than eating wild animals."

He nodded as if agreeing. Yet he said with a laugh, "Maybe. But I could never go vegan."

With that, he walked off--not into the main lodge, but back to his room via the ‘secret door', saying to Mrs. Gruber, "I'll be in my room studying for an upcoming business meeting my dad wants me stand in for him—if you need me."

The woman nodded commiserating, then went back to working on dinner. It was nearly done. The biscuits were out of the oven. The gravy was perfectly dished into the huge ceramic tureen, along with the ladle, and she had just finished assembling the vegetarian option--Moroccan Veggie Delight and was now scooping the chickpeas on top of the platterful for garnish.

He was gone in a few long strides.

As he was out of earshot, Audry grumbled to herself, "I can never go vegan. Has he no sympathy at all? Animals are people too. What a spoiled rich boy."

"You shouldn't say that," Mrs. Gruber interjected, taking out the pies next. The staff were handling all of these dishes, putting them onto the food carts to take out to the dining area.

"Why? Because he has these amazing ears? Or that he is your boss and he could fire you?" Audry gazed sympathetically on her.

"No," Mrs. Gruber replied patiently. "Because it isn't true."

But Audry didn't believe it. Her wan stare said as much.

"Look," Mrs. Gruber said while heaving up the warm potato and cheese casserole next, slipping it onto the cart. "I've known Howie Deacon most of his life. When he was a kid and his parents used to visit the lodge for skiing, I spent a lot of time babysitting him while they went off together."

That explained the hugs and kisses. Apparently she was like family to him.

"So you know him well," Audry pried, curious.

Mrs. Gruber nodded, realizing that she had more than Audry as an audience. So, putting down the salad bowl on the cart, she said, "Alright. You all want the goods on the Deacon family? Fine. I'd love to break up all these foolish rumors being spread about them. So here we go....

"As far as I know, Mr. Deacon the First was a self-made man who built up his fortune from scratch. And he was also the one who started buying up land for animal reserves--starting with his home town where there used to be a pack of wolves but they