The next second, Winifred called.
A flicker of hope shot through me and I picked up fast, only to hear Christian's voice on the other end.
"Back when I was growing fruit trees in those hills, I never saw so much as a copper wire, let alone gold."
Then Winifred's voice cut in. "Ha. Chris is right here, so don't even try to con me."
"Coming up with some ridiculous excuse like that just to keep a garbage zookeeper job. Pathetic."
"Tomorrow you go work for Chris like a good boy, and no more nonsense."
She didn't give me a chance to say a word. She just hung up.
I didn't listen. The next morning I showed up at the zoo right on time and took the alpha wolf out for its walk.
【*The new guy's not bad.*】
【*Come with me. I'll take you to the gold.*】
Its thoughts reached me.
So wherever it went, I followed.
About twenty-odd minutes in, it stopped and took a piss.
【*New guy.*】
【*I've marked it for you. Now we'll see if you can remember it.*】
I quickly tossed down a stinky red sock as a marker, so I could come back and check that night.
On the way back from the walk, I ran into Christian.
He was staring at me.
It actually gave me the creeps.
"What are you doing here?" I asked, forcing myself to look calm.
"Dragging you back to be my stockroom clerk, obviously." Christian rolled his eyes at me, sour about it. "It's boiling out. What's wrong with sitting in my AC instead of wandering around out here? You're not scared of running into something?"
"Not going."
I refused without a shred of hesitation.
"Listen, you—"
Christian, big and thick as he was, was about to make it physical.
The alpha wolf suddenly bared its teeth and let out a low, warning growl.
Christian jumped, then turned and left.
【*Every time I go for a walk I run into this pissing-and-shitting-wherever-he-wants, no-manners piece of trash.*】
The alpha's thoughts spilled out in a rant.
I hadn't thought much of it before, but now I was on guard.
Could it just be a coincidence?
An hour later.
Winifred called. "Feeling brave, are you? Not only did you skip working for Chris, you set your wolf on him. How low can you get?"
I explained that Christian was exaggerating.
Winifred ignored it and only got angrier. "Herbert Gilbert! You think I don't know exactly what kind of person you are? Quit playing dumb here."
That cut deep.
Seven years together.
I gave up a good-paying job in another city to come back to this small town with her without a second thought. Every month I handed her half my paycheck, and I never once skimped on gifts for the holidays.
When she couldn't find work, I never pushed her.
And now she reduced me to something this worthless.
"You can hit a clam three times and not get a single word out of him."
Winifred was losing patience by the second. "Go buy two cartons of cigarettes, right now, and come with me to apologize to Chris and make it right."
I refused, frowning.
"What?"
Her voice shot up. "You really don't know a good thing when it's handed to you. Not going? Fine. Then don't count on ever seeing me again."
After she hung up, a few more messages came through.
【*Herbert Gilbert!*】
【*You're sick, your whole family's sick! Broke your entire lives, living as pathetic as a dog, no face and nothing to back it up either.*】
【*I should've broken up with you ages ago! And I'll tell you this, Chris has been thinking about me all these years!*】
I wanted to give her a few days to cool off, to wait until I'd dug up the gold. But the second the message sent, a red exclamation mark popped up.
Winifred had blocked and deleted me.
