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“I might have tugged on a quill or two, but you prompted him to fire a few.”

“Was his own fault, too,” Roark grumbled. “But thinking about your hunt, we’re going to need to balance the menu if we can. I’ll get with Charlie down at the ice fishing shack and see if we can’t add to the stores.”

“Sounds good. With any luck, we’ll be able to pack both freezers.”

“From your lips to the Goddess’s ears,” Roark said. “I’ve been thinking about something ever since I sat down with the Sullivan Boys about their goat farm.”

“Let’s hear it,” Baz said, hands folded in his lap.

This was one of the many things Roark loved about working with him. The levity in between serious moments made the business aspects seem less dull, but when it was time to work, he was all focus.

“While the borderlands are the perfect spot for raising big animals like goats and sheep, what would your thoughts be on wolves nearer to town raising turkeys and geese?”

“Go on,” Baz said, leaning forward, elbows resting on his knees as he studied Roark.

“If this winter has already proven one thing, it’s that we may not always be able to rely on our ability to hunt to sustain us.”

Baz nodded but said nothing, waiting for Roark to continue.

“The proposal would be to the council this time to see if they would sponsor the startup costs for wolves willing to raise the animals for the pack,” I said. “The family would be allotted a share, the same as those raising the sheep and goats, with the rest being sent to the community kitchen, school, meat market, etc. With your contacts in the borderlands, I thought you could look into who might be interested out there, so they’d have a ready supply of meat for when hunting conditions grow too difficult.”

Baz stroked his chin, then reached for the clipboard on the L-shaped desk they shared and started writing. “I love it. It’s exactly the sort of thing the council was hoping for when it came to the Badlands expansion project. Do you think geese are as small as we want to go, or should we add chickens?”

“What if we label it fowl and allow wolves to determine for themselves which they’d prefer to raise? We determine a cap on each animal habitat, so things don’t get out of hand. With goats and sheep it’s three and three. With three sheep farms already in operation, that means three families can set up goat operations.”

“I like that ratio,” Baz said. “If too many applications come in for the same animal, the council can encourage them to pick another and resubmit.”

“Exactly.”

“What about rabbits?”

“They’re delicious…and there are breeds raised specifically for their meat. Alright, rabbit and fowl proposal, it is.”

Roark checked the time, then glanced back at the corner to see the pups still sleeping peacefully. “If I get on it now, I can submit it in time to get on the next agenda.”

“Better hop to it then. I’ll tend to the pups if they wake.”

“Thanks.”

Fortunately, Roark had created a template when he’d written the goat proposal, so it only required a few small tweaks here and there before he printed a copy and passed it to Baz to read over. If he’d missed anything, Baz would catch it. Most of what they’d learned so far had been through trial and error. The dialogue between them allowed them to fully conceptualize things with more clarity than in their early days in the office.

They were growing alongside their pups, leaving the reckless wolves they’d been behind them as they sought to learn other ways of problem-solving. That wasn’t to say the old ones were wrong, they’d been effective and what was called for in those moments. This was just a different life phase for them, one that involved responsibilities they hadn’t had in their wilder days.

“Hang on,” Baz said, squinting at the page. “I think we forgot something.”

“What’s that?”

“Aren’t there rabbits known for their fur? Weavers and knitter use it, I think, when they can get it anyway.”

He was right. Roark could practically feel the texture of the fur beneath his fingers. “Angora.”

“That’s the one. Better work those in too.”

“On it.”

Roark turned back to the laptop, making the necessary adjustments. A cut and paste of the section he’d previously removed, and the angoras were added. When neither he nor Baz came up with anything else to add, Roark submitted it to the council office with a cc to Brooks. Having his backing right from the jump would go a long way towards securing the needed votes.

“Just in under the wire, but I got the confirmation email,” Roark declared as a pup let out a whimper that set off the rest of their pack.