Page 20 of The Wolf

A gasp. “A present? For me?” Chesh asked with glee.

Hook, line, and sinker. The cat was a glutton for cheese.

“A gift for our journey.”

“More like an incentive for me to hurry up.”

“Perhaps.” Brine did smile then. While Chesh loved cheese, he was loathe to eat it without a fine wine and bread.

They’d arrive in Samiliere in no time.

* * *

“You’re a horrible bully and slavedriver,”Chesh grumbled as they reached the pub the next night. “My feet are going to hurt for ages.”

Brine rolled his eyes at his dramatic friend. “You’ll live.”

He pushed into the huge tavern and wrinkled his nose. The place was hot and damp beneath the sway of a hundred bodies. It seemed like every pirate who had docked in the port came to this one pub. More than one was in clear need of a bath. Brine scanned the area around them. No sign of Pyre yet, but that didn’t mean anything. The sly fox was probably watching them right now.

“What I wouldn’t give for a bath, a pint, a woman, and a bed,” Chesh muttered in Brine’s ear as they made their way through the throng. Brine glanced at the cat from the corner of his eye as Chesh cast a roguish smile his way. “Not necessarily in that order.”

“Have you ever considerednotvocalizing all the filthy thoughts in your head?”

Chesh shrugged. “Considered it, yes. Followed through on it? No.”

“Clearly.” Brine’s gaze snagged on a familiar pair of red kitsune ears, poking out of a floppy hat. “There’s Pyre,” he replied in a low voice, surreptitiously pointing toward the edge of the long bar that took up much of the space in the room. The wood was pockmarked with the scratchings of daggers, and was in need of a varnish, but it still fulfilled its job of acting as a surface to hold the drinks of twenty people well. A genuine smile tipped up Brine’s lips as he spotted another familiar friend.

A bear of a man who was indeed a bear shifter. Briggs.

Brine’s heart lightened when he saw his friend, who looked awkward as he tried to balance on the tiny barstool clearly made for a child. Brine hid his snicker as they approached.

Chesh snuck passed him and snatched Pyre’s hat clean off his head. The kitsune smiled lazily as he turned to face them. The feline spun Pyre’s hat around and around on his hand before handing it back to the fox with a chuckle.

“Didn’t hear me coming, did you?” Chesh crowed.

“No, but I could smell the cheese you ate for breakfast,” Briggs cut in, touching the tip of his nose before whacking Chesh on the back of the head.

“Hey! What was that for?” Chesh protested, as he and Brine sat down beside their friends and ordered some watered-down wine. “And I smell like roses, I’ll have you know.”

Briggs snorted. “If you want to lie to yourself.” The bear glanced at Pyre and the laugh slid off his face. “In all seriousness, this isn’t the time or place for your tomfoolery.”

Brine blinked slowly at his friend and turned his attention to the fox. It was then that he caught the tense set of Pyre’s shoulders. Which was saying something, because the leader of the Dark Court almost never displayed how he was feeling on the outside—and certainly not in public.

“What has happened?” Brine demanded, Chesh uncharacteristically quiet by his side.

The kitsune’s sharp eyes cut to his and he nodded minutely. Brine noted with concern the deep shadows beneath Pyre’s eyes. Anxiety knotted in his gut. Whatever news the spymaster needed to share, it wasn’t good.

“It concerns your pack connections.”

A chill ran down Brine’s spine.

“We’ve had to stop sending spies into Betraz,” Pyre said in an undertone. “The last one just showed up dead. We sent him out a month ago.”

All at once a wave of nausea overcame Brine. That was twelve in three months.Twelve.Too many good spies lost for one province.Hisprovince. His grandmother’s greed and bloodthirsty viciousness truly was never-ending. Brine knew—and in fact had known most of his life—that this would come back to bite him. That he’d have to deal with his grandmother at some point.

Now it seemed that time had come.

“Lady Betraz and her wolves now have complete control over not just Betraz but over Fiergone,” Pyre continued. He took a long swig of fire whiskey, downing his glass before indicating toward the barmaid that he wanted another. That meant things were very, very bad, indeed.

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