Page 50 of Kin of the Wolf

“Okay,” he said.

By now, Jasmine had finished dressing and stood. She caught my gaze and tilted her head meaningfully toward the open door.

“Anything else, Bolin?” I asked.

“Not that I can’t handle.”

“Great. Thanks.” I thumped him on the shoulder.

As my niece started through the door, he said, “It was nice meeting you, Jasmine.”

She looked distracted, probably by the news she intended to give me, but managed a smile and a wave for him. “Sure. You too, uhm, Bolin, right?”

“Yes.” Never had someone beamed such pleasure because a woman remembered his name. “Here.” He thrust a coffee cup toward her, the one with whipped cream on top. Goodness. “I just got it a few minutes ago and haven’t taken a drink.”

“Oh.” Jasmine brightened with interest and reached for it before pausing to look at me.

Asking if there would be strings attached? I wasn’t sure, but I nodded, sure Bolin wouldn’t be too much of a pest. He seemed to acceptnofrom women without more than disappointment.

“Cool, thanks.” Jasmine accepted the cup, waved again, and turned on the lights as she stepped inside.

Between the late sunrise and gray sky, not much natural daylight permeated my apartment this time of year.

“Sorry I was gone all night,” I said after closing the door. “I was up at Mom’s.”

“Ithoughtyou might have gone up there. But I wasn’t sure. You could have gone somewhere with your hot guy too.”

“Technically, I did.” I cast a worried look toward a north-facing window, thoughts of Duncan’s disappearance returning to mind.

“Oh! Did you get horizontal?” Jasmine sipped from the coffee, made a contented sound, and cradled it to her chest.

“Not for long. Not with Mom in the area.”

Jasmine wrinkled her nose. “That would be a deterrent. Aunt Umbra is even sterner than my mom. She probably doesn’t like Duncan because he’s a lone wolf and didn’t bring an offering when he showed up in the area.”

“She’s okay with him now.” I did not mention Mom’s words on mating with him and birthing babies. “I also had a showdown with Augustus when I was there.”

“That’s what I came to warn you about. He’s gunning for you.”

“He tricked me into dueling him one-on-one last night, but he got treacherous and didn’t play fair. If you can imagine.” I briefly summarized the fight for her, leaving out the part where Duncan had turned into a bipedfuris. She would hear about it eventually, but I felt compelled to keep his secrets. Or at least not be the one to blab them.

“Shoot, I’d hoped to warn you about thatbeforeyou ran intoAugustus again. He called a family meeting last night, but it was out at his lake house in Sammamish, not in the traditional spot, the hunting grounds by your mom’s cabin.”

“His lake house?” I asked, though I’d heard about the home already. “You say that like he’s gotmultiplehouses. He’s not scamming enough money out of people forthat,is he?”

Sammamish, home to hordes of highly paid IT people that overflowed from Redmond and Bellevue, was an expensive suburb in which to live. Even if Augustus had the money for it, however ill-gotten, it was hard for me to imagine my thugly cousin fitting in there. Jasmine’s dad, maybe. I’d yet to meet him, but he sounded like a hardcore geek.

Jasmine shrugged. “I heard there’s a home in Arizona too.”

“Arizona? It’shotthere for someone furry.”

“For anyone without scales, I’d think. The snakes reputedly sunbathe when the temperatures rise over a hundred.”

“I’d say Augustus isn’t a snake, but that’s not really true.”

Jasmine snorted. “I think the home is in Sedona. There’s some elevation there, so it’s not as hot and snake-laden. It’s pretty though, in a scorched-earth, red-rocks kind of way.”

“I’ll take your word for it.” My salary had never been such that vacations to exotic places had been affordable. “Did you go to the meeting? Or did someone blab about what Augustus said?”

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