Page 6 of Kin of the Wolf

“Touché.” I accepted the bacon.

“You were cute with the tail dangling out of your mouth.”

“An observation that nobody in the world but a werewolf would make.”

“The constant struggle, conflict, and risk inherent in our lives teaches us to appreciate what others can’t.”

“Like mouse tails.”

“Cutelydanglingmouse tails.”

Duncan smiled again, the easy handsome smile that always drew me, whether I should let myself be attracted to him or not. With Abrams and his Duncan-control device out there somewhere, keeping my distance seemed wise.

“I was hoping you’d invite me into your bedroom last night,” he murmured, unaware of my thoughts.

“So you could get fur on my sheets too?”

“I could have changed first.” Duncan patted his flat stomach and waggled his eyebrows. “And then… I could have given you the adventure of a lifetime.”

I sipped coffee from my mug. “Given what you consider an adventure, I’m not sure how enticed I should be.”

“Ipromiseyou there’s something good in that pond.”

Someone knocked at my front door. I didn’t know whether to be relieved or disappointed. Whether I should be drawn to him or not, Duncan was good company and easy to spend time with.

“I guess that answers my question about whether you need to work today,” he said as I tightened my robe and went to answer the door.

It had grown light out, meaning the hour when Duncan could travel naked to the parking lot without garnering notice had passed. Oh well. I’d knotted the blanket well.

Bolin stood on the threshold, a newspaper tucked under his arm, a whipped-cream-covered mocha in his hand, and bags under his eyes.

“I haven’t given you the case back,” I said, surprised to see him on a Saturday, “so I know you weren’t up late researching it.”

“No, I was playingDWS—Destiny Wields a Sword.It’s a new MMORPG.”

“An Em-what?”

“A computer game. You slay vampires.”

“Hang around here at night, and you can slay werewolves.”

Bolin opened his mouth, closed it, then opened it again. “A month ago, I would have thought that was a joke.”

“Sorry.” We hadn’t yet discussed that I was a werewolf, less because I worried about him sharing the secret and more because he’d started his internship here not believing in werewolves. It wasn’t my duty to disavow a youth of his childhood fancies. “If it helps, a month ago, I didn’t know druids still existed in the world.”

“Really?”

“Well, no. I was aware of the witches, warlocks, and clairvoyants in the area, and assumed some druids might be spattered in, but I didn’t know any of the ones that existed were allowed to swill coffee, carry man purses, and drive monstrous, gas-guzzling SUVs.”

He mouthed the termman purses, reminding me that I’d onlythoughtthat about his expensive leather bag, not voiced the words aloud. But it was the SUV comment that he took offense to. “There’s nothing in any druid tenets anywhere that forbids driving a nice car.”

“Uh-huh. Are the birds still pooping on it?”

He squinted at me.

“Iknowthe plastic scarecrow owls didn’t deter them. I saw them abandoned in the maintenance shed with droppings all over them.” What did it say about my life that droppings had come up more than once already that morning? That I was close to nature? Or that I was even weirder than Duncan?

“The plastic bubble is working when I take the time to put it up.” Bolin shook his head. “I can’t believe I came here at the crack of dawn to bring you a newspaper.”

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