Luc ate his doughnuts and drank his coffee while reviewing the papers from his lawyers. The two reporters that got bit had tried to sue. Luc provided his lawyers with all papers as well as the video of the two reporters in the warehouse. The reporters had dropped the suit.
“Luc, you have those two installations at 10am,” Ginny said as she dropped the paperwork on his desk. Luc smiled, gathered his gear and headed out the door at 9:40am.
Meg sat up and straightened her clothes. “So, how are the kids?” she asked Jeff.
“They’re doing great. Growing well and sounding healthy,” he said.
“So, can Luc and I go camping?” she asked.
“Well, if you were doing the whole RV thing in a national park, yes. However, I know where you two like to go. In all honesty, I’d worry myself sick until you got home. Picnic, but no overnight unless you are somewhere more civilized. Sorry Meg,” he said.
Meg sighed. “Okay. Have to admit that the idea of sleeping on the ground didn’t exactly thrill me as much as I want to get out of the city. That trip up to Spoon River made me realize how much I had missed camping,” she said.
“I understand. Civilized camping, yes. Rough camping, no. Do you need me to thump it into Luc’s head?” Jeff asked.
“No, but don’t be surprised if you get called,” said Meg.
“I won’t. See you in two weeks,” Jeff said and opened the door for her.
*
Luc was disappointed when he got home, but they planned a picnic. Saturday dawned early and Meg got the fried chicken, biscuits and coleslaw out of the fridge and placed it in the cooler with the water bottles. Luc packed what he called his daypack. He had more emergency stuff in there than most people took on a week long backpack, but to be honest he was taking no chances. He also had Patrick’s 9mm.
They were packed and on the road in thirty minutes and out of town less than twenty minutes after that.
“You know the last time we were on this road, I was out of it and you were driving,” said Luc.
“I know. I thought about that,” said Meg.
“Well, hopefully that bear has moved on or didn’t survive the event,” said Luc.
Meg nodded and watched the scenery. The Subaru climbed higher and higher into the mountains. Around 10am, they reached the lower campground. Meg headed for the outhouse and Luc looked around.
“So, do you see a place you want to eat, or do you want to go higher?” Luc asked.
“If you drive slow, can we go higher?” she asked.
“Tell you what, we’ll go as high as you feel comfortable,” said Luc.
“Deal!” said Meg as they climbed back into the car.
*
Thirty minutes later, they were up in the meadow that they’d camped in months ago. Luc spread a blanket out and they had their chicken picnic. Meg was stretched out on the blanket relaxing and enjoying the sun as well as the breeze when Luc touched her shoulder.
“Look very slowly to your left,” he whispered.
Meg slowly moved her head and for a minute, she didn’t see a thing. Then out of the low bushes, she saw movement. She and Luc held absolutely still. Finally, a wolf cub appeared, and then another and another. Three of them played at the edge of the meadow for probably ten minutes and then there was a sharp yip. The three little cubs sat up and then out of the shadows appeared their mother. She was lean from nursing. She looked right at Luc and Meg then disappeared with her cubs into the bushes with her babies.
When they’d gone, Luc turned to Meg. “That was cool!” he said.
“Do you think that was our little wolf who bumped the tent?” Meg asked.
Luc sniffed the air, thought a moment and then nodded. “I think so. That was so neat. Are you done with the chicken?” he asked.
“What?” Meg asked wondering what he was thinking.
“I’m going to give it to them. She’s a little lean,” he said.
“Go ahead if you’ll think they’ll eat it,” Meg said.
Luc just gave her this dumbfounded look and then laughed. He scooped up the chicken and headed towards where the cubs had first appeared. He was back in a few minutes.
“I found the den and left the chicken nearby. They’ll find it,” said Luc.
“Shall we go?” asked Meg. She was getting uncomfortable and the ride down would be bumpy.
“Yeah. We can take a drive instead of a hike if you’d like,” he suggested.
“That would be great,” said Meg and gave him a kiss.
They packed up and were almost done when Luc nudged Meg and pointed towards the edge of the meadow. Meg turned to see a wolf cub run across the edge of the meadow with a piece of chicken held high as his litter mates chased after him.
The two of them laughed and got in the car for the drive home.
***
“News Journal and Reporters Fined $15, 000, 000 for Fallacious Journalism!” read the headline in the morning papers. Luc smiled and Ginny literally bounced with happiness as she flitted around the office. She even brought in maple doughnuts for everyone. Hopefully now they could all breathe a sigh of relief. The intense media attentions were wearing thin on everyone. Especially the shifters. None had dared shift for fear of some idiot with a camera lurking in the bushes. Now, maybe they might relax.
Luc had left the courthouse the day before with a feeling of grim satisfaction. At the suggestion of one of the lawyers, all the companies with ‘wolf’ in the title joined together to file suit against the reporters and the newspapers who had perpetrated the break-ins, vandalism and stories to stir people up. It had taken a month, but today saw all of the victims earn a final reprieve. The newspapers and the reporters got reamed. Fines, injunctions and a few got jail time. They were the reporters that had gotten caught on the security cameras at Alpha Wolf and two other companies.