Ice -- Wolv book II

29 - Regret

"Why are we going there?" Daanis growled, turning around in circles in the back of my car anxiously. "I don't understand! We are going the wrong way!!"

"I know we are."

"So then turn around! You said that that place has been abandoned for years! There's no way anyone is gonna be there!"

"Maybe not. We don't know that for a fact though, do we!" I let my foot sink down onto the gas even more. It was well past noon already; it would be dark before I knew it. "Look, Elizabeth--the Timberwolves' Matriarch--told me that they get a certain amount of money each year from the government. In her words, it is 'only a matter of collecting it.'"

"So?!?"

"So, nobody knows about the community up at Minikwakunis Lake! So any money that they get would have to be sent to Kinwaw Lake, because on paper, that's where they are! Somebody has to be there, collecting the money from Kinwaw, or at the very least, keeping up appearances. If it came to light that the entire community no longer existed, than their only real source of income would dry up pretty fast!"

Daanis snarled at me. "How can you know any of that? You're just assuming that that's what is going on!"

Mingan sat up and shook his head at the Alpha wolf. "You know, what he is saying does make sense. There would have to be somebody at Kinwaw, at least at some point during the year, to collect. People used to have ceremonies when treaty obligations were bein' fulfilled."

I looked over at Mingan, surprised. I hadn't known that. "Really? Do they still do that kind of thing?"

He shrugged. "I don't know. I've been a wolv for a long time, but they were still doing it in many places before I was bitten. I would imagine that there is, at the very least, some kind of formality involved, regardless of location."

"Fair enough."

Daanis still was unconvinced. "Mingan was bitten, like, ten years ago! A lot could have changed! And how are we to know if these people still have collection ceremonies? How do we know they ever did?!?"

I rolled my eyes at her. "Well, the people of Minikwakunis do seem to be pretty set in tradition." After all, they had undertaken a smudging ceremony, as well as a traditional meal in preparation for their winter shift. It would be safe to assume that those kinds of things were still important up here.

But then again, Daanis did have a point...it was only an assumption.

"Come on, what's the point! For all we know, the government just sends 'em a check in the mail. And what if there is somebody there, what then? What good is that gonna do us?"

"For starters, I highly doubt that such a large sum of cash would be 'sent in the mail.' Secondly, if there is somebody there, well...they must've gotten from Minikwakunis Lake to Kinwaw somehow."

Daanis frowned, and finally sat back down. "So What? Wait...are you gonna steal something from them? That's  your plan?!?"

I looked forward, smirking softly to myself. "...Maybe. Ha! It wouldn't be the first time!" I shook my head. What's happening to me? I really had sunk pretty low over the past few months--I'd gone from a model employee at a warehouse, to a petty thief.

Petty? Ha! I may be just a thief, but at least I'm a good one! I hadn't been caught yet, anyways!

Not that my criminal record really mattered up here...

Daanis snarled angrily once more. "If I could drive, I would throw you out the window."

I looked at her through the rear view mirror. "Really?"