"Kit Reed - What Wolves Know" - читать интересную книгу автора (Reed Kit)

Then she prods him with her toe. Her voice drops so he will know she
is serious. тАЬOkay then, get up.тАЭ

Slowly Happy rolls over and rises on his hind legs, although he is not
all that accustomed. Susan shows her teeth at him, but in a nice way, and
her voice lightens. тАЬThatтАЩs better. LetтАЩs get him in the car.тАЭ

****

With wolves, you are always certain. Your wolf mother loves you. Get
out of line and she will swat you. Grey Sonia did it as needed. Get too far
out of line and your father will kill you. Happy bears the marks of TimboтАЩs
fangs in his tender hideтАФthis torn ear, that spot on his flank where the gash
is healing.
 If you are male and live long enough, you will have to kill your father. It
is the way of the pack.

The wolves arenтАЩt HappyтАЩs real parents. In a way this is news to him,
but from the beginning he had suspicions. HappyтАЩs captorтАФer,
rescuerтАФdoesnтАЩt know what Happy knows, and what the boy knows is
buried so deep in early childhood that it is only now coming to the surface.
All his life Happy has run after the hope that the next thing will be better.

He only left the woods after Timbo tried to kill him.

He thought his real family would be kinder, although for reasons he
only partially understands, he had forgotten them.

In fact, he was the last child in a big family. Happy made one too
many, and the mother put him in clean clothes when they went out but at
home he was forgotten, sitting for hours in his own messes. She yelled at
him for being in the way. One did things that hurt, but he will not remember
which person. When he cried nobody cared. They didnтАЩt much notice. He
wasnтАЩt supposed to hear his mother snap, тАЬAnd this oneтАЩs my mistake.тАЭ

Words are like weapons, no wonder he forgot.

The night the wolves took him, Happy was alone in his little stroller in a
mall parking lot, hours after the family car pulled out with everyone else
inside. He was so thoroughly combed and scrubbed that it may have been
accident, not neglect, that found him there in the dark, crying. A central fact
about Happy is that he doesnтАЩt know.

He cried and cried. Then the wolves swarmed down on Happy in his
stroller and the bawling toddler lifted his arms to them. The big males
paced, slavering. The child didnтАЩt read their watchful eyes but Sonia knew.
She turned on them, bunched and snarling. They backed away. Then she
nosed Happy. He looked into her yellow eyes and clamped his arms around
her magnificent neck. He buried his face deep in her thick white ruff. Timbo