Hot Blooded (Wolf Springs Chronicles) - By Nancy Holder Page 0,111
him by surprise. “No. We have individual scents; we don’t have pack scents,” he said. “But we do have instincts. Loyalty to the pack, for one.” He set his jaw. “At least, most of us feel loyalty.”
“I don’t feel any loyalty to the Gaudins,” she said. But neither did she feel any loyalty to Mr. Fenner. Not a minute before, she’d considered shooting him. “I could have killed you in the meadow. I didn’t.”
That gave him pause. Then he nodded. “That doesn’t mean you’re loyal. It just means you’re not stupid.”
They reached the house. Mr. Fenner told her to bring the gun and she put it in the pocket of her jacket and followed him back into the yard. His daughters swarmed him, bringing him a robe and fussing over his wound; he was fake-crotchety with them, smiling as they fussed over him, batting their hands away and stomping into the house. Katelyn wasn’t sure where she should be in the parade. Arial and Regan had glued themselves to either side of Mr. Fenner. Doug and Al went next, and then Justin. Katelyn stepped in behind him, and the door shut behind her.
They sat at the dining room table and Mr. Fenner described what had happened. The group was thunderstruck — Justin especially — when she pulled out the gun. She put it down on the table but no one moved to examine it. In fact, Arial excused herself and hurried to the bathroom.
“Gaudins in our territory,” Justin said, when Mr. Fenner had finished.
“Don’t sound so shocked, boy,” Mr. Fenner said. “We’re in theirs.”
“One thing, Daddy,” Regan said. “If she took you near the mine, wouldn’t you be able to smell all the silver inside it?”
“Maybe there isn’t any,” Justin said quickly, and Katelyn stole a glance at him. “Maybe that’s just as much of a myth as the Hellhound.”
“Oh, Lord, not that again,” Arial said as she came back into the room. “I thought we’d heard the last of that.”
The two sisters tittered. They thought they’d heard the last because Cordelia had been banished, Katelyn translated. She had been the only one in the family who had believed in the Hellhound — the Bogey Man of the werewolf world. Misbehave and it will come and get you . . . Except, as it turned out, maybe Lee did as well.
“Perhaps the silver is buried deep,” Mr. Fenner said. “But it exists.”
That caught the attention of everyone at the table, but no one pressed Mr. Fenner to elaborate. Katelyn spun a fantasy where each new alpha learned various secrets of Wolf Springs. And that if the alpha wasn’t in his right mind, he might begin to spill them.
Heads turned toward Katelyn, as if she knew the secrets, too. She just shrugged and picked up the gun.
“Put that down!” Arial cried. “Daddy, you should get rid of that!”
“She’s the only one who can use it, and we can’t trust her,” Regan concurred.
Their husbands remained silent. Mr. Fenner sat very still. Then he glared at each of them in turn.
“Are you questioning my judgment?”
“No, of course not, Daddy,” Arial whined, practically batting her lashes at him. “It’s just, well, you know, we’re still upset about what a lying, cheating bitch—”
“Enough!” he thundered, slamming his fist on the table. “Do you take me for an idiot? I know what you’re trying to do.” He rose from his chair. “Don’t push me, girl. Ever.” Then he winced, and Katelyn saw his hand start to move toward his wound. But he slammed his fist down on the table instead. Concealing his vulnerability. Masking his weakness.
“She was the best of you,” he said brokenly. He sighed heavily and lowered his head. Katelyn thought he might be crying. But when he raised it again, his expression was hard. “This is a war council. Let’s get down to it. Twenty will go. Ten will stay behind with the kids. We’ll leave tomorrow morning, before dawn. It’s an eleven-hour drive to the Bayou des Loupes. If we leave early enough, we can prepare before moonrise.”
“We should wait until the full moon,” Justin said. “Some of us won’t be able to change.”
“I’m not waiting that long. They’re already nosing around up here. Sometimes the first change comes in the heat of battle,” Lee Fenner replied. “That’s how they used to do it back in the old country. Take the pups out, attack some Vikings.” He chuckled as if the image amused him.