“You probably don’t want different levels then,” Paul pondered. “More along the lines of a dog run, maybe.”
“I want something to come right up to the back of the house, and a dog door in the kitchen door.” Nathan folded his arms, his mouth set in stubborn lines. “I want her to be able to get into the house if something is after her.”
Joe ran a big hand through his hair. “If we make a dog door big enough to fit her antlers, especially as she grows bigger, most anything that might be after her, short of a bear, will be able to follow her right in.”
“Okay, wait,” Naomi said, pulling out her phone. “Just wait. I’ve got an idea. Let me call Jacinth.”
“The Djinn?” one of the construction crew—Naomi thought it was Alex, the Canadian lynx shifter—asked. If he’d been in his lynx form, she thought, his ears would have perked up.
“Yes. Hang on a sec.” In a few words, she explained the situation to Jacinth.
Next to Joe, Nathan paled. “Djinn?”
“Oh, oops.” Naomi gave him an apologetic glance. “Uh, yes? Do you need to sit down again?”
He gave this serious consideration before shaking his head. “No, I think I’m good. But, seriously. Djinn? That’s a genie, right?”
“Right.” Liam confirmed, as Naomi spoke on the phone to Jacinth. “And no, she doesn’t grant wishes.” He paused, considering. “Well, she used to, that’s how she met Douglas, but I don’t think she does anymore. At least, not that she’s mentioned.”
“And Douglas is…” Nathan prompted.
“Her husband, and one of Troy’s partners in the veterinary clinic.”
“Okay, listen up,” Naomi announced, sliding her phone back into her pocket. “Jacinth says to go ahead and section off one side of the yard, along with a gate to get in and out, but not to worry about a roof. Tomorrow Julian will come up from New York, and she’ll bring him over. He’s going to spell the area so no predator can get inside, whether through the fence or from above… human, animal, or raptor.”
Nathan looked like he was going to pass out. “Spell?” His voice trembled.
“He’s a mage, spells are his thing,” Naomi said, scowling at Liam to forestall him from mentioning that Julian was a six-hundred-year-old mage from Genoa, Italy. Liam got the message, miming zipping his lip and throwing away the key.
Paul, however, just nodded. “So we don’t need to build a cover of any kind?”
“Nope, just walls and gate.”
“Okay, guys, you heard the lady. Let’s get to it.”
In what seemed like a very short time later, a sturdy, spacious pen, a good fifteen feet square, stood in Nathan’s back yard. Anchored to the back and side walls of the yard, it featured a walled and roofed enclosure in the back corner, slightly raised off the ground with a ramp, to shelter the little creature from the weather.
“Hell,” Nathan commented, gazing at the pen. “It’s almost as big as my living room. I’ll need to get some straw to lay down in her little house so she can make a… a nest, or something. I googled rabbits as soon as we got home from the clinic. I’ll need to get some timothy hay, and some food pellets. Did you know they’re not supposed to eat cabbage?”
“There’s a feed store nearby,” Joe said knowledgeably. “I’ll send you the address. I’m a farrier, by the way, so if you ever need shoes for her...”
He winked, pulling out his phone and tapping away. A minute later, Nathan’s phone chimed with the alert.
“Thanks,” he said, looking happier than he had all day long. “Let me go get her and see how she likes it.”
“You do that,” Paul advised, “while we clean up here, get all this leftover stuff out of the way.”
“Why don’t I go pick up the straw, and hay, and pellets, right now,” Naomi offered. “It’ll fit in the back of Liam’s Jeep, while you guys do all that. I can swing by the supermarket and pick up some beer for everyone, too.”
“Oh, hell, yeah,” Alex enthused. “Beer works.”
Liam lifted a brow at Naomi. “You’re going to wrestle bales of hay and straw? This I’ve got to see.”
She lifted her chin. “Not at all. The staff at the feed store will load them into the Jeep, and when I get back, you guys get to muscle them into the back yard.”
“Let me get you some money,” Nathan said, heading for the back door. “I guess I’ll need a tarp, too, to cover the straw and hay, and some tie-downs.”
“Yeah, and you’ll need a pallet to keep it off the ground and dry,” Paul said, beckoning to his crew. “We can build that from the left-over lumber. Guys, if we start now we can have it done before Naomi gets back.”
