Hot Blooded (Wolf Springs Chronicles) - By Nancy Holder Page 0,33
For us Gaudins, being banished from the pack is a fate worse than death. I would rather have my heart torn out than suffer what she has suffered.”
She nodded, but she couldn’t imagine wanting to be a member of the Fenner pack. From what little she had seen of the Gaudins, the Fenners were kind of like the loser werewolves.
“Do you know if there’s a cure for being a werewolf?” she asked him hopefully.
He cocked his head. “Ah, I am sorry. We don’t have one. But we’ve never looked.”
She leaned her head on the back of the seat. “Why are you helping us?” she asked and then regretted it. “I mean, there’ve been hints that there’s not exactly — that maybe there’s bad blood—”
He sighed heavily. “When first our two packs settled in this country there was already a rivalry. We wanted to protect our borders, our hunting grounds. It is no different than our wild brothers or even the lion packs of Africa. And to complicate things we are human as well. We have nothing in common with one another but the fact that we change. Our culture, our heritage, our way of life are different. Over the years a thousand slights or discourtesies created more and more friction. For our part, we avoided them at all costs.”
“What happened?” Katelyn asked, sensing that there was more to the story.
“More people settled on both our territories, clearing the forests, decreasing our lands and the animals we take sustenance from. The packs have grown larger but the resources smaller. And then, about eighty or ninety years ago, before you and I were even born, some terrible things happened around here.”
Katelyn sat up straighter, sensing the importance of what was coming next.
Luc cleared his throat. “Even worse, forty years ago, it happened again: there was a string of murders among the people here. Savage. Brutal. The Fenners accused us, but we knew none of us could be responsible. Then, when we were having a pack meeting and all members were present, three more murders were committed, but this time they were on our lands. The Fenners had a rogue werewolf and it was killing, threatening the safety of all.”
She felt cold all over, as if someone had just walked over her grave. The Fenners had lied to her. Even Justin.
Unless he’s been lied to, too.
“Who was it?” she asked.
“Which Fenner? We don’t know.”
“Well, what made it stop?”
“That was the strangest part. It just did. A short while later we were informed that Lee Fenner was the new alpha and we hoped that the pack had sorted it out, and that he could keep his people in check in the future. But the intrusions onto our land had only just begun,” Luc said, his voice hardening. “They began to poison our streams with silver. As I’m sure you know, a werewolf may touch silver, though it is painful, but it must not pierce the skin and enter the bloodstream or one becomes incredibly sick and will probably die. We learned the hard way that drinking the silver would also kill us. I will never forget the day that I watched my sister die, screaming, as silver in our water burned her from the inside.”
Katelyn shuddered. “That’s awful,” she whispered.
Luc nodded. “My brother, he wishes for peace, not war. He once thought that a union between him and Cordelia could end the suffering. But now those dreams are gone.”
Which meant there was nothing else standing in the way of war, Katelyn realized. Dejected, afraid, she crossed her arms and looked out the window.
“You still haven’t answered my question. Why are you helping us?” she asked.
Luc flashed her a smile. “Why does any man do anything?”
“I don’t know.”
“Love, cher. Dom is in love with Cordelia and he would not see her come to harm.”
After countless twists and turns, the car pulled to a stop, and Luc smiled at her.
“We’re here.”
Katelyn undid her seat belt and jumped out, racing toward a narrow A-frame building sided with shingles. Smoke was pouring out of a chimney. There were no windows.
The door of the hut flew open and Cordelia stood framed in the doorway. Katelyn ran over and began to throw her arms around her, then stopped. Cordelia’s face was puffy with crying, and she looked as if she hadn’t eaten or slept in days.
“Hey,” Katelyn said awkwardly, then raised her head as Dom came up behind Cordelia and put a hand on her shoulder.