Page 41 of Kin of the Wolf

“Youhavegrandchildren,” Rosaria reminded her.

“Not from her loins. She’s the only one who came from him, from the one who stirred my passions like none other, and who had the power of the ancients.” She wasn’t talking about Lorenzo but my long-gone father.

Duncan shifted away, and disappointment swept through me. I was tempted to sit up and try to reclaim the moment, but I didn’t want him to think there was any truth to my mom’s words, that I’d kissed him because I wanted him to give meoffspring. The moon forbid, I had no desire to have babies again. I didn’t care what my mother wanted.

“I’m sorry.” My ears and sense for the magical told me that Mom and Rosaria had left the area, heading back to the cabin and giving us privacy now that they’d made sure I didn’t need help, but the moment had passed. “I don’t want you because of, you know.” I waved vaguely toward my uterus.

“I know,” Duncan said, but there was a distance to him now.

Mom had definitely ruined the moment.

“I didn’t evenwantyouup until recently.”

He managed a faint smile. “I know that too. You’re still ambivalent about me.”

“I don’t think my kiss was that ambivalent,” I muttered, wondering if I’d left fingernail marks on his shoulders.

“No.” His smile broadened. “I enjoyed it. I…” He squinted, peering toward the top of the gully.

I couldn’t detect any werewolves up there, but that didn’t mean Mom wasn’t headed back.

“Did you intend to confront your cousins tonight?” Duncan asked quietly.

“I intended to ask my mom if she wasokaywith me confronting them. If I can’t convince the elders to do anything.”

Duncan nodded, his gaze still toward the top of the gully. “And?”

“You were there. I almost think she wants me to challenge them, but she also said that if I could get evidence of their wrongdoing, the elders might kick them out of their own accord.”

Duncan rose to his feet, grabbed our shirts, and gave me mine while offering a hand up. “It’s good that she didn’t forbid you to fight them.”

“Why?” I accepted his hand warily, letting him pull me to my feet. “They’re not here, are they?”

“They are. Augustus and several others.”

“Hell.”

13

Again fully clothed,Duncan and I walked out of the gully and toward the cabin. Once we climbed out of the depression, I could also sense other werewolves in the area. Mom was in the cabin, and the others were lurking in her driveway.

“It’s after midnight.” I’d glanced at my phone as we’d climbed. “You’d think they would have elsewhere to be.”

“Someone may have told them you were here.” Duncan slanted me a look.

Was he implying the packwise wolfwould have gotten involved? I was sure my mom hadn’t reached out to my cousins. She might accept it was the way of the wolf if I confronted them and died, but… she wanted me to live and be her heir. At that very moment, I wore the medallion she intended to leave to me. She wouldn’t have told them I was here tonight.

It must have been Rosaria. Or maybe chance had brought my cousins by—this did seem to be a favorite launching point for wolves heading out to hunt. I also thought of the magical driveway devices we’d passed and wondered again who had set them up forMom. Was it possible they reported whenever someone came onto the property? Like magical security cameras?

A howl came from the driveway, raising the hair on the back of my neck. That was one of my cousins, one who’d helped Augustus attack me on the train trestle the night of the hunt.

At the cabin, two more trucks had joined mine in the parking area. No, notjoined. They were hemming mine in. Trapping it.

I swallowed and told myself I could drive off road and escape if needed. There weren’t somany trees lining the driveway that I couldn’t find a route out. But I didn’t want to escape. I wanted evidence, or, even better, a confession. Ideally one that Mom would hear. Mom and Lorenzo. Was he around? No, I sensed five or six male werewolves in the driveway, but I didn’t detect his aura.

When we stopped out front, we found Mom on the porch of her cabin, the wise wolf still with her. These were enough witnesses, surely. If Mom and Rosaria told Lorenzo to kick Augustus and his trouble-making siblings out of the pack, Lorenzo would gather enough elders and less wayward young wolves to make it happen. I was certain of it.

Augustus, Marco, and two more of my cousins waited about fifteen yards up the driveway from the cabin. They were in human form, standing to further block the way out. Two more of their allies who were shape-changed into wolves lurked in the trees.

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