Page 35 of Kin of the Wolf

I expected another head shake, but Mom nodded. “The females in our line have always had appealing anatomy.”

I snorted, accepted the map when she tore it out of her journal, and opened the door. Duncan stood there, the refilled whiskey glass in hand. With his hearing, he’d probably caught every word of the discussion. He set the glass on the bedside table, then walked out with me, glancing at the medallion and piece of paper.

“My mom offered me a quest,” I said. “Do you want to come?”

“You drove, so I think that’s required.”

I considered the map, the directions starting at the back door of the cabin. “This looks like a walking quest.”

“Ah. I always enjoy an amble with a fine lady.”

“Good. Thanks.”

“Since you are seeking a mission,” he said as we headed into the woods, “it’s kind of the world to keep offering them to you.”

“I suppose.”

“Will you need a mask and cape for your mother’s quest?”

“I think capes are optional at sacred caves.”

11

Twilight settledin as we padded through the woods behind Mom’s home, heading toward a gully that would eventually lead into state land. Since I hadn’t grown up in the cabin, I didn’t know the area that well. I attempted to pull up a map on my phone to use alongside her sketch, but the poor reception made it take a long time to load.

“It’ll be hard to see if we continue in human form.” Duncan walked at my side as we navigated over logs and between ferns.

Apparently, Mom hadn’t visited her sacred cave often enough to wear a path in the earth.

“It’s hard to hold a map in wolf form,” I said.

“True.”

I slanted him a sidelong look. “Can you hold things while in the two-legged form?”

Duncan hadn’t gone into details on that, and I didn’t know if he’d chosen to become the bipedfuris at the potion factory, or if Lord Abrams pressing buttons on his control device had caused that to happen. Since I was incapable of turning into that, I had no idea how the magic decided whether it was time for a person tobecome a wolf or the classical two-legged werewolf from the old days.

“Yes, but the claws tend to shred paper, and I can’t fully grasp words—reading. For a lover of literature, that’s alarming. If I’m to change, I prefer to be a wolf.”

“Is that actually true or are you saying that because you think I find your lupine form less alarming?”

“Mylupineform didn’t try to keep you from escaping that compound.” Duncan grimaced and swiped his fingers through the air to mimic clawed paws.

That hadn’t answered my question, but we had to focus on climbing down into the gully, rocks and earth slipping under our feet, and I didn’t press him. Water trickled along the bottom, gurgling as it meandered past mossy boulders and aged stumps. According to Mom’s drawing, we needed to follow the waterway until the sides of the gully grew rocky with steeper slopes. At that point, we would find a cave among the crags.

Near the bottom, Duncan stopped me with a light touch. He gazed upstream into the deepening gloom. It felt much later than the five p.m. that my phone reported, but we were nearing the winter solstice, and the days were short.

“I sense something in that direction.” Duncan pointed with his chin. “Multiple somethings, and… more.”

“More than somethings?”

“Quite.”

“Whatever it is, it’s probably not dangerous. Mom wouldn’t have sent me into a den of vipers.”

Duncan kept gazing into the gloom and didn’t comment.

“Vipers are in short supply in Western Washington anyway,” I said. “The worst we have are garter snakes.”

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