Hot Blooded (Wolf Springs Chronicles) - By Nancy Holder Page 0,100

hadn’t just overplayed her hand.

“I didn’t realize anyone had told her,” he said, his voice soft. “But, yeah. The bullet was really odd. Non-standard. There was silver in it.”

Oh, God.

Katelyn’s hands tightened so hard around the phone she thought she might break it. “Thanks,” she managed to whisper. “That’s what I thought I heard.”

“We kept it out of the news,” he said, “to see if anyone would come forward. You know how these things work.”

She nodded without speaking. Her father had been killed with a silver bullet after he’d been bitten by a wolf. Time seemed to stand still. Because it was too awful to think about. Her father must have been a werewolf! Must have gone through what she was facing right now. And her mom must have known or suspected. Why else would she have sent that article to her grandfather?

See, told you so.

That he was a werewolf. Or at least someone thought he was.

Katelyn didn’t want to know anything more. She couldn’t deal with it. If she thought about it for another second, she would go insane.

“Katelyn?” Detective Cranston queried. “Are you still there?”

“Mmm,” she managed to answer.

“Listen, if something breaks, I will let you know. I promise. I’m sorry nobody told you about the . . . unusual evidence we collected. But you’re older now, and if I hear anything, I’ll give you a call. Is this your number?”

She covered her mouth and nodded silently again. “Hmm-mmm,” she said.

“Okay, Katelyn. You take it easy. I’ll check in on you soon.”

“Yeah,” she rasped.

Then she hung up.

Almost immediately, her phone rang again.

“Katie,” said her grandfather, “are you and Paulette—”

“I’m on my way home,” she interrupted.

“Okay, see you soon.”

She hung up and focused on driving, and when she finally parked in front of the cabin she climbed slowly out of the Subaru. Somewhere off in the woods she heard a branch crack and she turned her head toward the sound.

And a low growl met her ears.

Someone was out there. Maybe it was one of Quentin Lloyd’s relatives, already coming for revenge. She ran up onto the porch. She threw open the door and was startled to find her grandfather waiting just inside, face strained. As soon as she stepped inside he closed the door behind her.

“What’s wrong?” she asked.

“Did you know Mike Wright?” he asked, voice tense.

Panic flared through her. Mike had told on her. She could get into trouble for having hurt him.

“Yes, he’s a big bully, why?” she blurted out.

“Well, honey, he’s dead.”

She stared at him incredulously. It was impossible.

When I left him he was alive and conscious. There’s no way I hurt him bad enough for him to be dead. What if it was the pack, hunting? What if — oh, God, what if I helped kill him?

What if I did it on my own?

He wrapped an arm around her. “Oh, Katelyn, I’m sorry.”

“What happened to him?” she asked in a strained, anxious voice. She couldn’t take any more. She just couldn’t.

He took a deep breath. “From what Pat said, same thing that happened to those girls and that Inner Wolf guy.”

She blinked, not sure she had heard him correctly. “You mean he was mauled by an animal?”

His face was hard to read. “Something like that, it appears.”

“That’s — oh, that’s terrible.” She felt dizzy. “Where was — where did they find him?”

“In the forest, on the road here.”

She slumped with relief. That was far away from the pack’s established hunting grounds — too far to hunt him down and then return to the meadow before sunrise, even accounting for superior werewolf speed.

A beat. He looked toward the front door. “Look, I’ve got to go into town for a little while.”

“Can I come with you?”

He shook his head, then looked at the rifle on the wall.

“Not this time.”

“Why, what aren’t you telling me?” Her voice was shrill.

He sighed, low and long and sadly. “Well, the sergeant’s got to do some investigating, ask questions.” He paused. “Everyone knows there was bad blood between Mike and Trick.”

She stared at him in disbelief. “He can’t think Trick had anything to do with this!”

He half raised his hand. “No, he just needs to ask him some questions. And since Trick is a minor and his folks are out of town again, I have to go down there.”

She tried to make sense of what he was saying. She wouldn’t have dreamed that a godparent would count as a legal guardian. Perhaps in this part of the world it did. Maybe it