Dark Wolf (Spirit Wild) - By Kate Douglas Page 0,35
his hands occupied when they talked. She was convinced it was his way of reminding himself she was an adult and he could no longer run her life, so she schooled her features to present a mature, adult appearance. “I’m fine, Dad. I told you not to worry. I said I’d call as soon as I showered.”
“Nothing.” Well, almost nothing, but her dad was the ultimate worrier and “nothing” was her standard answer to the question he always asked. The last thing she wanted to do was give him something to worry about that might actually be an issue.
Like Sebastian Xenakis.
“But I do have a few things I’d like you to check.”
“About Aldo or his son?”
Someday, she might actually surprise him. “Both. Here’s the deal. I’m not going to hide anything from you and Mom. Sebastian is . . .” She shrugged and figured her father would read all sorts of things into that. Sometimes she wished phones lacked such good video. “I think he could be the one, Dad. I remember how you said when you met Mom, you just knew. When I saw Sebastian last night, I don’t know how to explain it, but there was a connection.”
“Was that before or after you passed out?”
His dry comment actually let her know he wasn’t totally going nuts worrying about her.
“Thanks for reminding me.” She chuckled softly. “That’s part of what I want you to check. See if you can find out the extent of Aldo Xenakis’s power. I’m convinced he’s a practitioner of the dark arts. There’s something wrong about him, as if the residue of evil clings to his skin. When he interrupted my lunch with Jill Bradley on Monday, I forced him to shake hands, even though my first instinct was to run far and fast.” She laughed softly. “I should have listened to my instincts. I felt like I needed to disinfect my entire body.”
“Obviously you sensed nothing foul about his son.”
She almost laughed at his dry comment, but then she thought about it. Sebastian’s energy wasn’t like hers. “No. Not anything offensive like I did with his father, but definitely something dark. Especially when he shifted last night. Something weird happened. I’m still trying to work through that.”
“Will you tell me?”
“I will, but I don’t want you to judge Sebastian by what happened. I have a strong feeling someone was controlling him. And yes, I’m convinced his father was involved.” She noticed her father’s subtle nod, as if he considered her comments and then filed them for later perusal.
“We started out running, playing tag, just goofing around, and then something changed. He got this feral look in his eyes, and when I tried to mindspeak, he didn’t respond.”
Anton’s look went from fatherly concern to feral wolf in a heartbeat. Her alpha questioned her now, not her father. “What did he do, Lily? Did he hurt you?”
“Boy, do I remember that look,” she said, hoping to lighten the moment. “No, he didn’t, though I think he would have mounted me if he could have caught me. That’s not the man I know. It’s like Sebastian wasn’t in there, if you get my drift.”
“You don’t know him well enough to say that.”
“Possibly true. But I’ve never doubted my instincts, and my original response was to trust him. And, Dad, he didn’t mount me.”
Anton nodded. “I’ll accept that. What stopped him?”
She was pretty impressed. Anton Cheval could be rather hotheaded at times, and he was controlling himself admirably, though she wondered if she should mention that he’d just bent one of her mom’s best sterling serving spoons into a perfect U.
“That’s another thing I want you to check on. Remember those tests the army was doing, trying to find Chanku among the troops to create a shapeshifting force?”
“Of course I remember. It was an abject failure. Chanku are killers by nature, but they won’t follow a leader merely because of his rank. The military couldn’t seem to understand that the number of stars on a helmet doesn’t always equate with pack alpha standing. They had no control over the few troops they found.”
“Exactly. But what happened to those Chanku the military discovered? Were they assimilated back into the general military population?”
The silence was telling. Frowning, Anton finally said, “I don’t know. I think a few of them have registered with the pack, but I have no idea how many eventually were turned and what became of them. I