Hot Blooded (Wolf Springs Chronicles) - By Nancy Holder Page 0,37

blazing away. Her phobia about fire had been so great when she’d arrived that she couldn’t even handle being in the living room — a fact she had kept well hidden from her grandfather. But after struggling with her conscience, she hesitantly threw the business card in the fire to erase possibly incriminating evidence — thereby protecting the pack. Despite the fire, she felt a cold chill. She sacked out on the leather couch and stared at the blaze as she kept replaying the entire weird night.

I’m going to find that mine, she swore. I’m going to find what’s in it. And I’m not going to get killed by the Hellhound in the process.

She didn’t realize she’d dozed off until she jerked awake to the sound of the front door opening. Footfalls crossed the room well behind the couch, then went up the stairs. A door opened and closed. Her grandfather.

I should let him know I’m home, she thought. She lay on the couch for a couple of minutes debating what to do. Maybe he hadn’t realized she’d been gone. But maybe he’d been looking for her. Finally her conscience won out. Nothing in her wanted to, but she knew what it was like to worry. So she went and crept up the stairs, facing the music, and rapped lightly on his door.

“Grandpa?” she called softly.

“Katie?” There was a rustling, and then he opened his door. He was wearing pajamas. “Is there something wrong?”

“Oh.” Holy cow, she wasn’t busted. Now what? “I thought I heard a noise.”

He frowned, looking concerned. “Like what?”

Like you? Maybe she’d awakened him when she’d come in, and he’d gone outside to look around. She shrugged. “Um, maybe like a car?”

He covered a yawn. “I’ll go see.” He took his rifle off the wall and she followed him to the front door. He opened it, peered around, shook his head, and closed the door. Then he went to the back yard. She started to get scared, wondering if there were Fenners out there. What would happen if he spotted one of them?

“Nope.”

“I’m sorry,” she said. “I didn’t mean to wake you up.”

“That’s okay, honey,” he said. “I’ve probably slept long enough for one night anyway. Old guys don’t need much sleep. Anything ever bothers you, don’t hesitate to come get me.”

He went back upstairs, looking expectantly over his shoulder. She followed him, and when he went into his bedroom she tiptoed over to the couch to get her blanket and pillow. In the silence, her hearing went into overdrive. She could hear the creak of her grandfather’s bed as he turned over, and a moment later he was snoring softly. The crackling of the fire was as loud as thunder. And outside she could hear small noises from the engine of his truck as it cooled off.

He lied to me, she thought. He hadn’t been home, either. She looked up at the second floor of the cabin as if she could see through the floor and ask him why. But apparently werewolves didn’t have X-ray vision.

Gazing cautiously out the window, she thought she saw something move in the shadows. She locked the door and hurried back upstairs.

Katelyn was tired when she drove to school the next morning. The crowded hallways seemed even harder to deal with. People had B.O. or were wearing so much perfume that she wanted to gag. The heat was on and it was sweltering. Miserable, she pulled in her shoulders and tried to get through the crowd as fast as possible. She had almost made it to the door of her first class when she collided with Mike Wright.

“Hey, bitch, watch it,” he said, glaring down at her.

And without thinking she made a fist and would have punched him in the stomach except that someone jostled her from behind and instead of hitting him, her fist flailed at thin air.

Mike didn’t see it; he just walked on, muttering about stupid blind bimbos. Adrenaline coursed through her and she glared at him with hatred.

In all the turmoil, she had forgotten that it was a minimum day. Which meant no lunch period to get through, though at the end of it, Trick was standing beside her locker. An ambush.

Nervously she walked up to him and he said, “I was texting Sam last night, then chatting with her.”

“How is she?”

Sam’s party had been the site of their one and only date, the night that Katelyn had been attacked and bitten. Sam had moved to Little