Page 60 of Way of the Wolf

“We just wanted apieceof it.” The older sibling held up thumb and forefinger to demonstrate the size of the piece.

Emilio shook his head and held out his arms to demonstrate a piece larger than the original salami had been. “You can’t use wolf fangs to bite off apiece. You tookmostof it.”

“I had to. Tanya is trying to get pregnant. She needs nourishment. Also, she’s huge as a wolf and can kick my ass if I don’t treat her right.”

“Mostpeople can kick your ass,” Augustus grumbled from the porch, watching our exchange through narrowed eyes.

“I did bring some summer sausages.” I delved into the seat well to hold up a large gift box that had done even more to deplete my budget this month than the need for extra gas. Next pay period, I might have to start an envelope labeled WEREWOLF BRIBES. “Enough for everyone who wants some.” I eyed Augustus. “Even those who don’t deserve gifts.”

His lip curled in a sneer—or maybe asnarl.

“Perfect!” Oblivious to our glares, Emilio grabbed the gift box. “I’ll dole out the sausage fairly.”

“Sure you will.” His brother peered over his shoulder as Emilio opened the box.

A couple more men walked off the porch to investigate its contents. Several wolves with nostrils twitching in the air also wandered over.

At leastsomeof the family might think more kindly of me if I brought gifts every time I visited.

Augustus jumped off the porch, shoulder muscles flexing against the fabric of a black T-shirt, and walked toward me. I tensed and, for a fleeting moment, wished Duncan were there, standing at my side to face my cousin. But no, I couldn’t wish for that. Duncan’s betrayal stung me even more than that of my cousin. He’daccepted a job from my loathsome ex. Augustus was only trying to kill me. Maybe it wasn’t logical, but that seemed like a lesser crime.

My cousin stopped in front of me, looking me slowly up and down.

“You’ve heeded the call,” he stated.

I almost asked how he knew but remembered the white wolf who’d spotted us before dawn and had shared the word—the howl—of our hunt. By now, the whole pack probably knew. It was also possible that Augustus could smell or magically sense the change in me.

“Yeah,” I admitted.

Augustus lifted his arm, and I tensed, prepared to spring away. My blood heated, tingling in my veins, the wolf ready to be unleashed.

But Augustus thumped me on the shoulder. “Good. It’s about time. Your mom is relieved.”

He looked and pointed toward the front of the cabin.

I eyed his profile. Did his words mean he wasn’t after me anymore? I couldn’t believe that my use of the potion and refusal to change had been the only reasons he’d attacked in the first place.

“Can we talk for a few minutes, Augustus?” I asked.

Maybe I could learn what I needed without going off on a hunt with him.

The front door opened before he replied, and the white wolf I’d seen the night before padded out of the cabin. Lorenzo. My mom, still in her human form, came out after him. Her shirt washalf unbuttoned. I didn’t know if that meant she’d just had sex—did seventy-year-old women with cancer still feel theurgeto have sex?—or simply that she was prepared to change and hunt with us. The latter seemed more likely.That, I trusted, werewolves would do until the day they died.

“Later,” Augustus replied and walked away, tugging his T-shirt over his head. Recent wounds marred his back, the blows that Duncan had landed on him.

As more people tugged off their clothes, tossing them on trucks and the porch railing, a woman in her late twenties walked over. She glanced toward the guys—and wolves—delving into the sausage box, and I thought that might have been what brought her over, but she stopped in front of me. Wearing a UW hoodie and with her black hair swept back into a perky ponytail, she looked like a college student.

“Hi, Luna. Do you remember me?”

“Uhm, sorry, I don’t.”

“This might help.” With a self-deprecating smirk, she stuck her phone out, tapped the photos app, and held up a picture of a black-haired toddler wandering around with pudgy legs, as revealed by a lack of pants. “My mom posted that on Facebook recently to mortify me and use my kindness against me—Iwas the one who scanned her old photo albums so she would have digital copies. Anyway, that’s probably about how I looked the last time we met.”

“Jasmine?” I guessed.

“Your niece, yup.”

“I thought my half-sister—your mom—and her husband left the pack to return to the Old World. That’s what I heard.”

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