Page 66 of Way of the Wolf

“I heard about you being Aunt Umbra’s heir and her wanting you to have the medallion and her cabin. She actually called me in along with some of the other female werewolves with reasonable power and strong ties to the pack. She wanted us all to touch the medallion.” Jasmine’s mouth twisted. “It didn’t so much as glow or pulse for me.”

“Sorry.” It might have been better for my life if ithadn’treacted to me in any way. Would it be wrong for me to be envious of my niece?

“I overheard some discussions I wasn’t supposed to, such as that Augustus might want to get rid of you to ensure his mate was chosen as the heir. I think he was researching that medallion and knows more about it, maybe even more than your mom. Anyway, I thought about going to warn you, but I knew you weren’t… uhm, quite yourself.”

She’d known about the potion, yes. She’d already admitted that.

“I dragged my sister to Shoreline, and we… convinced the alchemist lady in your apartment complex to return to her native land. She was from Ireland, did you know?”

“Youconvincedher?”

“Well, we strongly suggested that it was time for her to leave the area. We didn’t threaten her, but we did change in front of her, and that might have scared her. She left, which was what we were hoping for.”

“Why?”

“So she wouldn’t continue to make you potions. So you’d have to come back to us—to yourmother. Your mom believed it would happen without intervention, that you’d see the light—themoonlight—and eventually come, but it had been more thantwenty-five years, and she was dying… so… we felt we needed to help her. And to helpyou. If Augustus was going to come gunning for you, you needed your wolf power.” Jasmine shrugged.

Maybe I should have been mad at the manipulation—and certainly that they’d scared an old lady away—but at least Jasmine had been looking out for my mother. And, I supposed, for me. If I hadn’t been out of potions, would I have had a chance of surviving Augustus’s attempts to kill me?

Maybe not.

“Beatrice is okay?” I asked.

“She should be. We didn’t hurt her. I think she just moved.”

“In a hurry. Without leaving her key, collecting her damage deposit, and notifying the leasing office.”

“Well, a wolf did growl at her right outside her front door.” Jasmine touched her chest. “That can hasten move-outs.”

I rubbed my face but didn’t contemplate the situation for long. Naked and damp, with the cold night air nipping at my bare skin, I was ready to go home. And I needed to check on Bolin too.

“I should have talked to you about the situation,” Jasmine said in an apologetic tone, “but I didn’t know you or how you would react or if you hated the pack. None of us have been real sure about you.”

“I haven’t been real sure about myself either.” I’d always thought I would have my whole life figured out by this age, but it seemed more chaotic than ever.

Jasmine smiled uncertainly. “Maybe the witch lady will come back or call when she’s recovered from…”

“Being scared off her ass by a giant wolf?”

“It wasn’t agiantwolf. Just a medium-sized one.”

I sighed. “I don’t know whether to thank you for wanting to help me or resent you for meddling and terrifying one of my tenants.”

“If you decide on the former, I like sausage logs.”

“What if I decide on the latter?”

“You can club me with a sausage log?”

“As long as I leave it on the ground for you after I’m done?”

Her smile grew a little braver. “Ideally, yes.”

EPILOGUE

As morning settled over Shoreline,I drove into the parking lot for the apartment complex. Since I hadn’t been able to summon the wolf again, it had been a long walk back to my mother’s cabin and my truck. The sun had come up before I’d made it out of Monroe, my body aching and weary.

I scanned the lot for Duncan’s van, and it wasn’t there. That should have given me relief, but a touch of wistfulness crept over me. He’d been… entertaining. More, he’d understood the werewolf thing, and he’d been decent company. Too bad my first impression of him had been right, that his arrival here had been suspicious. In the end, I’d been foolish to let my guard down.

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