Page 61 of Kin of the Wolf

Jasmine laughed. “With your plan. When I was over at his house, he called my dad a dweeb. I don’t knowwhyhe thinks I’m on his side.”

“Because he’s an idiot with the persuasive power of a blobfish.”

“Dadisa dweeb, but only my mom, my sister, and I get to call him that. And only in a lovingly teasing kind of way.”

“I actually could use some help.”

It was nice of her to volunteer.

“I’m going to try to arrange a meeting with him to enact my plan,” I added. “I could use a videographer.”

“I can do that. Just let me know when you find out a time. I’m not doing anything after my class tonight.”

“I’ll call if this works out. Thanks.”

Jasmine waved and departed. Alone again, I fortified myself with a square of dark chocolate, then pulled up a recording app on my phone. I’d had to sift through a lot of programs to find one that didn’t announce to the person on the receiving end that the call was being recorded. Once it was running, I dialed the phone.

Augustus answered so promptly that I wondered if he’d expected my call.

Summoning all the acting power I had, I yelled, “You poisoned him, you asshole!”

It wasn’t as hard as I thought to sound angry. Iwasangry and tired of dealing with relatives who couldn’t mind their own business and had decided to hate me because of mypersonal choices, choices that had nothing to do with them.

“Is he dead?” Augustus asked without passion.

“You know he’s not. Not yet. It acts slowly, doesn’t it?”

“Are you recording this?”

“Yes, and I’ve got the cops standing right next to me listening to you on speaker phone.”

Augustus snorted. “That’s a lie. They don’t give a shit about our kind. If they believe we exist at all.”

“Duncan doesn’t have anything to do with your feud with me. You had no right to try toassassinatehim.”

“He’s been interfering with ourfeud, as you call it, since day one. What he sees in you and why he bothers, I can’t guess.”

“I’m a good lay, asshole.”

“You must be.”

“Is there an antidote?”

Augustus didn’t answer. Maybe he hadn’t expected that question. Maybe he had no idea.

“Isthere?” I yelled, as if I was losing it. I took an audible deep breath. “A witch I talked to who knows about poisons said there might be.”

“Yes.” Augustus sounded like he’d decided that on the spot. With a croon in his voice, he added, “How much is it worth to you?”

“I can’t let him die. He never should have been involved.”

“Maybe you should have thought about that before bringing him into pack territory.”

“Do you have the antidote? What do you want for it?”

“What are you offering?” Augustus asked softly, smugly. Like he was baiting a trap and luring me in, and we both knew it.

“What do you want? Me dead?”

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