Page 59 of Way of the Wolf

Duncan lifted his hands. “Look, I’m sorry, Luna. I just came here to find a lost thing. It sounded like an adventure, and you understand that I crave that, right? I didn’t mean to?—”

“Get out!” I thrust a finger toward the exit. “Or I’ll have your van towed and dumped into Puget Sound, and you’ll never find a magnet big enough to lift it out. Especially since I’m going to kick your ass all the way to Canada while that’s happening.”

Duncan opened his mouth again, but I growled. It came from deep within my chest and sounded far more like a wolf growl than anything a human could utter.

He must have realized how close I was to changing and making good on my threats.

“Okay.” Duncan fished in his pocket and flicked something toward me, like someone tossing a coin into a fountain.

Worried it was more dangerous than acoin, I jumped back instead of catching it. The small object landed on the pavement with a fainttink.

My wariness made Duncan shake his head sadly, but all he did was whisper, “Good luck,” before closing the sliding door, climbing into the cab, and starting the van.

My chest rose and fell with deep breaths. I couldn’t stop seething. Even more people had stopped to watch, and I tried to calm myself. I couldn’t change into a werewolf in front of them. I’d lose my job if I did. I might lose everything.

I snatched up the small coin—no, it was the locket we’d found the night before—and almost hurled it after Duncan, but that wouldn’t do anything. Besides, his van was already rumbling through puddles on its way out, spraying the mailboxes at the entrance. It turned out into the street and drove away.

I stood there for a long time, my fists clenched and rain falling on my head.

20

I eyedthe fuel gauge on the dashboard as my truck rumbled through Monroe and into the woods for the second time that week. Since I lived and worked in the same place, I didn’t usually drive much—or budget much for fuel. The amount of cash left in the GAS envelope wouldn’t fill the tank. My life had grown very odd this week.

“Tonight, we resolve this. One way or another.”

Except that I could only hope to resolvepartof my problem. There was still that case.

I’d hoped Bolin would return with it before I left, but he’d texted that he needed to wait for his father to get home to open the safe. I appreciated that it was being stored in a good place, but I’d hoped I might be able to take a look at it through wolf eyes before leaving to meet my family. Maybe I could have learned something new about it, something that might have given me an advantage if I had to deal with pack members who didn’t want me to survive tonight’s hunt.

Since I hadn’t told my mother for certain that I was coming, I hoped my cousins wouldn’t have time to plan anything. A part ofme wished they wouldn’t be there at all, but they were the reason I was going. They were the ones I needed answers from.

“One way or another,” I repeated softly.

Tonight, clouds hid the moon, but I could still feel the call of its magic as I approached the long driveway that led to my mother’s cabin. Before turning in, I stopped the truck and dug into my pocket, pulling out the locket that I’d almost hurled back at Duncan. Instead, as I’d seen the witch do in the vision, I grasped it and tilted my face toward the night sky in the direction of the moon. Because of the clouds, I couldn’t see it with my eyes, but I sensed its presence. Always.

A faint charge of magic swept through me, making my insides buzz and gooseflesh rise on my arms. For a moment, I felt amazing—almostinvincible. But all too soon, the sensation faded, and I questioned whether the locket had done anything.

I hadn’t wanted to come up here to hunt with my cousins without a plan, but I hadn’t been able to think of much. Other than the locket, it wasn’t as if I had a stash of magical artifacts that could protect me. Nor could I have packed guns under a trench coat. As I’d learned long ago, clothing and items disappeared into the ether during a werewolf change. If I wanted to shoot my cousins, it would have to be as a human, and then… Then I’d have to worry about more than the family’s ire. What happened as a wolf tended not to be punishable by human laws, since they didn’t acknowledge that our kind existed. But in the world of humans… things were different. Repercussions were different.

Sighing, I put the locket away, hoping the magic had donesomething. I also hoped I wouldn’t need it, that the hunt would go better than expected.

“Wishful thinking.”

I drove up the driveway, the window cracked, allowing in the night scent. It had stopped raining, but the air still smelled ofdamp foliage and earth. It was invigorating and, under different circumstances, I might have looked forward to this.

When I reached the cabin, wolves who’d already changed were meandering through the area, and men and a couple of women lounged on the porch. All sets of eyes, lupine and human, turned toward my truck. My memory dredged up names for faces I hadn’t seen in more than twenty years. Some of the younger faces I’d never seen.

When I spotted Augustus, I had to resist the urge to turn the truck around and hit the accelerator. As I reminded myself, he was the one I needed answers from. Hopefully, the presence of the rest of the family would force him to be civil—or at least not attack me without provocation. But it was hard to be certain of that, especially when I thought the young man next to him on the porch, his elbows propped on the railing, was one of the people—the thenwolf—who’d helped attack Duncan.

Given recent revelations, I felt less guilty now about my family attacking Duncan. I almost wondered if they’d known he was up to no good. That didn’t, however, explain Augustus trying to killme.

There was no sign of my mother, not yet. The lights weren’t on in the cabin. Did she intend to hunt with us? She was the only one I could be fairly certain wasn’t plotting against me.

I parked next to a couple of trucks, no doubt belonging to other pack members who lived in the city most of the time and came out for hunts. When I turned mine off, I had to wipe my palms on my sweatpants before getting out. The idea of undressing in front of this crowd didn’t appeal, but some of the men on the porch were already removing their clothes as they glanced toward the cloudy sky.

The young and affable Emilio trotted down the steps to the driveway, waving for another man to follow him, one who lookedsimilar aside from a shorter haircut and less baby fat on the face. An older brother?

“Hi, Luna. Glad you could come.” Emilio lifted a hand in a wave, or maybe to pat me on the shoulder, but it diverted toward the passenger door of my truck. Grinning, he opened it and sniffed the interior. “Did you bring any more giant salamis? That was amazing, but my brother and his wife stole most of it.”

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