Beauty's Beast - By Jenna Kernan Page 0,17

from them by the whirlwinds and that she feared for his safety. Finally she said she had not yet found Bess but was in her home. Samantha pressed Send and glanced around, noting that the bare windows had gone dark. Nightfall, she realized.

When would he be back?

She headed upstairs to one of the bathrooms and took a moment to wash then transformed her bearskin into fitted jeans and a gauzy peasant blouse. She wore no underwear, socks or shoes. She had preferred it that way since she was a child. The less restraining her garments, the better.

“Now, let’s just see who lives here.”

When she was finished exploring the house, she reached the conclusion that Cesar Garza and Bess Suncatcher did live here until quite recently. So Alon had not lied about that. The Thunderbirds could find people, especially people who were not where you expected them to be. Yet they had plunked her here in this empty house.

It made no sense.

Samantha stared out the picture windows into the night. Should she stay or go? Alon could be bluffing, but thus far everything she could verify had been true.

The yearlings were out there. How dangerous could they be? She was a grizzly bear for goodness’ sakes. Nothing could defeat her.

Alon had.

Samantha sighed and decided to check her email again. Perhaps there was some word. The inbox popped up with one new message.

Samantha saw Blake’s address and suddenly she could breathe again. Her brother was alive.

A moment later she scanned his message. He had arrived uninjured at the home of the wolf and the Dream Walker. Nicholas had left Blake in charge of his family as he went to search for their father. Samantha sagged in her chair. The wolf was going to help her father. He’d find him. She knew a wolf’s gifts. Nicholas could track down anyone he had ever met. But would he be too late?

The worry gnawed at her like termites in dry wood as she read on. Tomorrow Blake would meet the chief of the Northwestern Council. In less than an afternoon he had found whom he sought, been trusted with Nicholas’s family and begun the process of becoming a member of their mother’s people, while she had spent the afternoon running through the woods like a headless chicken and creepy-crawling a stranger’s house.

Samantha wilted a little in her chair.

Oh, and let’s not forget that she had met a Toe Tagger who could steal a creature’s living soul. She shivered.

“What’s wrong?”

Samantha exploded out of the chair at the same instant she recognized Alon’s voice. She clutched her chest with both hands as her gaze snapped to his. He stood in the door to the pantry, arms folded over his chest, his silvery blond hair now pulled back into a neat ponytail.

Samantha gasped. “You might have given me a heart attack.”

“Your heart is strong,” he said.

Was he referring to the self-imposed stress test she’d given herself in the forest?

Why hadn’t she heard him or smelled him? Her senses were excellent, far better than a human’s. Nobody sneaked up on her, yet he had gotten all the way to the doorway of the pantry before she’d noticed him.

And now he blocked the only exit.

The hairs on her neck lifted.

His broad shoulders did not leave her enough territory to squeeze by him. She did not like the way he stared unblinking at her. It made her feel...hunted.

“Step back, Alon,” she growled, lowering her chin as she prepared for a fight she would likely lose.

His smile widened as if anxious to answer the challenge in her voice.

He arched a brow. “Or what?”

Samantha lowered her chin a notch. “Or I’ll make you step back.”

He didn’t move for a long, silent moment. Then he stood sideways and swept a hand toward the opening, like a courtier moving aside to let a lady pass.

He gave a half grin that made her stomach flutter and churn all at once. She’d never met anyone who made her feel anxious and thrilled at the same time. It was as if his presence made her senses go haywire.

She tried to judge his intent and failed, losing herself in those fathomless blue eyes. He was so effortlessly appealing, but terrifying too. She couldn’t decide if she should run from him or to him.

She took a step in his direction. Unlike humans, she listened to her instincts, and they told her not to be trapped between escape and this Halfling. But there was another instinct, a deeper, more disquieting urging