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

"Mrs. Gruber didn't tell you?" Audry asked, going to where she could see if the vegan choices had been made yet.

Raising his eyebrows, Rick said, "You told Mrs. Gruber about Paris?"

"Not everything." Audry shrugged, seeing most of it wasn’t. "Just that I bumped into you there."

She found the vegan bagels and went for the jam. As always, there was no honey on the table. It was probably out in the dining hall. That was Audry's one guilty pleasure. Technically, she shouldn't use honey. Sometimes bees died during the taking of honey, or at least that was what people claimed.

"Oh." Rick then went back to eating his bacon.

As he devoured another strip of flesh off his heaped plate, Audry said with an eye on it, "Isn't that a little excessive?"

Rick blinked at her then looked at his plate. He shrugged. "What can I say? I like bacon."

"Bacon…" Audry shook her head. It was the same stupid argument every meat-eater gave.

"What?" Rick stared back at her. "I'll let you be a vegan, ok? But I am an omnivore. Give it up."

In disgust, Audry rose from the table with her bagel, deciding to go into the dining hall in her pajamas anyway and fetch that honey. But before she left, she called back to him, "You mean carnivore. And it looks like you just knocked down one of the pigs' houses after calling out 'Little pig, little pig, let me come in'."

His mouth hug open wordlessly as she walked away, going out the swinging door.

Triumph.

Audry felt good. In her few interactions with that guy, she had never once knocked him speechless, until now.

She found the honey.

Once finished with a solid breakfast, Audry returned to her room, washed, brushed, and dressed. She made her bed, put things away, and gathered up her things for her morning trip out. In the mornings, sometimes she opted for skis. They took her to places out in that open snowy expanse a lot quicker and gave her some free time before lunch examine her data and upload footage so she could edit it.

Thankfully, Rick Deacon wasn't in the kitchen when she passed through on her way out. And Mrs. Gruber gave her a nod when she went outside. Audry went toward the sanctuary den first. She wanted to check out the data on the camera to see if the wolf had stayed there.

Her cellphone chimed as she peered into the den.

Heaving a sigh, Audry slid to a halt and dug through her puffy pockets to get it out. As it chimed again, letting off a new age tune, she pressed talk and listened. "Hello?"

<< Audry! >> Harlin's deep baritone hailed her with pleasure. << Long time! When are you coming back? >> As usual, he had cut to the chase.

Looking about at the bright morning shine off the snow, Audry heaved another sigh. Admittedly, she had missed his voice. "Hi, Harlin. I have at least two more days here. I also want to stop by my brother's place before I head back to NYU, so won’t be for about three says."

<< That long, huh? >>

Long? Three days was nothing.

<< I really miss you. >>

"Do you?" Audry asked. Rick's remarks about his ringtone from the day before replayed in her head and she started to wonder if he was being sincere. It was annoying her actually

<< Of course I do. What kind of tone is that? I have the perfect date planned for us as soon as you return. >>

Sighing while mustering up the guts to just out and say what was on her mind, Audry got out, "Ok…"

<< Just 'Ok'? Audry, I really mean it. These days without you here have made me really think about how empty my life is without you. >>

Audry melted a little. He could be so sweet.

<< I miss your hand in mine. Just hearing your voice. And I was stupid for even thinking that… >>

She waited, but he did not finish. So she prompted, "Thinking what?"

<< This is so petty, but, when I was mad I thought that any girl would do. But I was so wrong. I only really want you. >>

Audry melted more. She hoped he meant it. When he wasn’t being handsy, she really liked him.

Yet she asked, "I have a weird question."

<< Like what? >>

Mustering the right words as she wanted to be clear yet not brutal, Audry asked, "Does your ringtone still play Duran Duran's Hungry Like the Wolf?"

He laughed. << No. I changed it to Animals by Maroon 5. >>

Audry blinked for a second. What were the lyrics to Animals? She hummed them to herself for a minute and stared into space as her mind went over the words. She felt cold. That song's meaning was practically the same as Hungry Like the Wolf. It was a stalker song. She tensed. The music video certainly showed that with the weird butcher guy watching and following that lady. And all that blood? It was gross. He actually admitted to liking as song with a music video that was so entirely anti-vegan?

"Why do you like those songs?" she asked, feeling that ill-boding in her throat and stomach.

He got deathly quiet for the tiniest second. His response came off as calculatingly flippant, << Oh, great sound. Maroon 5 is awesome. >>

"They’re stalker songs," Audry said, stiffening more. "Have you even seen the music videos? Besides, a guy here says your last ringtone is the ringtone of a player."

<< You talked about my ringtone with a guy there? >>

She huffed. "He had the same ringtone. It came up."

He went quiet, though this time she could almost feel his annoyance as he breathed into the mouthpiece. << Audry, is this player hitting on you? Do I need to come over there? >>

She rolled her eyes, peering once more into the den. "No." It was empty. She then crawled in on her hands and knees to check the camera footage then change the sim card.

He heaved another sigh and said, << Look, I don’t know that guy. And I don't care to know him—unless he is messing around with you. Then I want to deck him. >>

Audry chuckled. It would be funny to see Harlin just show up and punch Rick Deacon on the nose. It’d be classic. She’d pay to see that.

<< I just wanted to say that I am innocent. I am not a player. I am in love with you. And though we may have been on the outs for a while, you really are the only girl for me. >>

Audry melted once more. It was the perfect thing to say. She missed him a lot. She really did want to make their relationship work.

"I miss you too," she said, leaning against the inside wall of the den. Its prickly bramble walls were uncommonly warm despite the layer of snow on top. The den itself was surprisingly comfortable.

Harlin sighed with relief. << So, when you get back we need to talk. I really want our relationship to go forward, you know. >>

Her heart thumped. Was it going to go forward towards marriage or back toward them 'going all the way' in an open yet uncommitted relationship? She really wanted him to have changed. She wanted him to realize that to keep her meant he had to marry her. She didn't want to have another argument.

<< Love you, >> he said, preparing to end the call.

Audry felt breathless, his voice melting her heart. "I love you too."

And he hung up.

Holding her cell phone to her chest, Audry breathed in then out. They were getting back together. In two days she would see him, and they would be on their date. But was he just playing her as Mrs. Gruber believed? Or was this relationship going to be real?

Sighing, Audry decided to continue on her data-collecting route. Harlin had to wait, and she still needed to think about their relationship more. He hadn’t exactly answered her question, she realized. He had just skirted around it.

Audry decided to inspect the high traffic areas next. Animals occasionally crossed into the ski runs and the possibility of 'road kill'—or at least collisions—came to mind every time she went there. She skied slowly, her eyes raking the snow for disturbed spots and paw prints. She spotted a few bird marks, possibly tracks of a raccoon, but no signs that the wolves or the foxes had tread near the ski lanes. No chipmunk road kill. No rabbits either.

She skied across to the other tree line, carefully avoiding traffic so she could inspect the wildlife within that area. She also had a camouflaged camera set up there tracking the ski run with another time lapse recording. Exchanging sim cards, Audry looked up with a satisfied breath. She was nearly half done with her morning’s work.

Further up the hill, Audry noticed a trio of guys unwrapping something one of them had taken from his pocket and eating it. She found it curious as they seemed to be doing it surreptitiously. So, her nosy side getting the better of her, Audry pulled out her camera and zoomed in on them with the automatic telephoto lens. Out of habit, she pressed the video record button. Sure enough, as her instincts hardly lied, when they finished their brief snack, instead of pocketing the wrappers like they ought to, they tossed them into the bushes.

Incensed, Audry lowered her camera and skied over them. "Hey! Pick that up!"

All three men turned and stared at her.

"Mind your own business," one of them called out.

"Yeah," his friend chimed in. "Shut up you b—"

"That is my business!" Audry shouted, pointing to the trash. "I work to preserve the environment and you are damaging it."

But like the total jerks that they were, the busted up into laughter. It was like they though she was being cute.

"You?" one heckled. "Little girl gonna take on the big bad world all by herself?"

Audry bristled.

Another puffed himself up so that he stood much taller than her—which was easy since Audry was five foot five and towered over nobody. "What are you going to do about it?"

But having faced various predators on a number of animal rescue and tracking trips to Africa and the American northwest, this man's lack of sharp canines made him unimpressive. She merely stared back and said, "I happen to know the owner of this place personally. And he is here right now. And, for the record, this place is a wildlife reserve first, ski resort second. If you don't pick up your trash right now, I'll just find him and tell him what you are doing, and he'll have you kicked out."

"You lie," one of them said, brazen as anything.

"Not," Audry snapped back, skiing backwards to do just that. "But even if I don’t find him, I can always find one of the rangers or someone on the ski patrol—"

One of them reached out for her.

Letting out a scream, Audry pushed on her ski poles and launched away, darting down the mountain. It was a good thing she was a skilled skier.

Zooming down at top speed, Audry didn't look back to see if they were chasing her until she got past one turn. But sure enough, they were right behind her. Maybe they realized that she was telling the truth, or more likely they considered that her telling the ski patrol was bad enough.

Audry, for her credit, was a great skier. Had she been a lousy one, they would have caught up with her and things would have gotten bad. She had no idea what they would do to her—but people who purposely littered on animal reserves were clearly no good, and she figured they would stoop to anything. She mentally located her tranquilizer gun, just in case.

The lodge was in sight. Audry glided over the powder, weaving in and out and away from poorer skilled skiers until she got within range to search for members of the ski patrol or a park