Hot Blooded (Wolf Springs Chronicles) - By Nancy Holder Page 0,108

the woods. So I hid it.”

“It was wrong of you to deceive him,” Mr. Fenner said, knitting his brows. “But you saved his life.”

She knew that. And if it was true that the mine was filled with silver bullets, then finding it would give her even more status. Maybe even enough to make sure no one ever tried to harm her again . . . and to bring Cordelia home.

“Sometimes, when it seems like we’re being disobedient,” she said cautiously, “we’re really the most loyal.”

“Does Justin know about this?”

“No. I brought the gun with me in case Babette started fighting us. I didn’t tell him about it, though, and when he kept thinking he smelled silver in the truck, I pretended that I didn’t.”

“Show me exactly where you found it. Now,” he ordered her. He pointed at the driver’s seat, indicating for her to get behind the wheel. Then he jogged around to the passenger side and climbed in.

She looked from him to the pack. They were milling and watching. From his place at Lucy’s side, Jesse bounced on his heels and waved at her while Arial gaped open-mouthed as she watched her father get into the truck. Justin’s face was a neutral mask. Katelyn wanted to reassure him that their secrets were still their own. She had never told him about the gun — he would be stunned when he found out.

He had left the keys in the ignition so she started the engine and the two drove away. She could feel everyone’s eyes on them. Mr. Fenner hadn’t explained or told them what to do and obviously he expected them to wait for further orders.

Lee seemed to take up all the room in the truck. Although he was just a man, he was larger than life. Her hands on the wheel were sweaty, and Katelyn had to concentrate hard on her driving. He held out the gun and she almost screamed.

“This thing is making me itch,” he said. “Take it.”

The gun was heavy in her hand. I could shoot him, she thought. For a second or two, she gave it serious thought. Then even more serious thought. Sweat beaded on her forehead. If he was gone . . .

She couldn’t kill him in cold blood. She just couldn’t do it.

What do you think he’s going to tell you to do with this gun? she asked herself. Shoot people.

All she had been thinking of when she gave him the gun was protecting herself. But there were consequences to her actions. Dire ones. And killing Mr. Fenner would only bring on more of them.

Unless I ran. If I went to the Gaudins.

Right. The same pack Cordelia had been forced to join?

She put the gun under the driver’s seat, one of the usual places for keeping guns in Wolf Springs.

Taking a huge breath to force down her aggression, she turned off the road into the meadow where she and Justin had found the silver animal trap. She reasoned that Mr. Fenner might smell silver residue on the earth where it had lain, confirming her story that she’d found the gun there. She pulled to a stop and they got out.

They began to wade through waist-high ferns and undergrowth. “It’s been a long time,” she began, “but it was somewhere around—”

He cupped his hand over her nose and mouth and threw both himself and Katelyn to the ground. She began to panic but he whispered into her ear, “Intruders.”

He drew his hand away and she inhaled. There was something subtle in the air that grew sharper with the next breath. It was a pungent scent like sweat — the smell of other people.

Then she heard a male voice speaking in French. The Gaudins were French-speaking Cajuns. She listened intently, but she couldn’t make out a single word. Giddy hysteria threatened to bubble out of her. If only she’d known she’d grow up in a world where bilingual werewolves were her sworn enemies, she’d have asked her mother to teach her the language properly.

Mr. Fenner pressed his finger across her lips and she nodded: stay quiet.

“Where’s the gun?” he whispered.

“Truck,” she whispered back.

The French-speaking man said something else. Katelyn assumed he was on his phone. Then she remembered that she hadn’t been able to get cell reception, just as a second voice replied to the first.

Mr. Fenner raised himself on his elbows and looked back at the truck. It sat in plain sight. The voices drifted closer and she could see the frustration