knelt to keep myself lower than Bran. I sucked in my breath at the chill of the wind and the snow under my shins. Samuel moved between me and the worst of the wind. It helped, but not enough.
"I came on pack business," I told them.
Charles raised his eyebrows. "You come smelling of blood and death." Charles had always had a good nose.
I nodded. "I brought the Columbia Basin Alpha here. He's been badly wounded. I also brought the body of another wolf, hoping someone here could tell me how he died and who killed him."
Bran made a soft sound, and Charles nodded. "Tell us what is necessary now. You can give us the details later."
So I told them what I knew, as succinctly as possible, beginning with Mac's story, as he had told it to me, and ending with Mac's death, Adam's wounds, and Jesse's kidnapping. By the time I was finished, my teeth were chattering, and I could barely understand myself. Even when I shifted back into coyote form, I couldn't quite warm up.
Bran glanced at Samuel, who gave a woof and took off at a dead run.
"Bran will finish the hunt with the new ones," Charles told me. "It is their first hunt, and should not be interrupted. Samuel is going back to take care of Adam-He'll take a shorter route than the automobiles can manage, so he'll be there before us. I'll ride back with you and take care of your dead."
On the tail end of Charles's words, Bran trotted off into the forest without looking at me again. Leah rose from her submissive pose, growled at me-like it was my fault she'd gotten herself in trouble-and followed Bran.
Charles, still in human form, strode off in the direction of the cars. He wasn't talkative at the best of times and, with me still four-footed and mute, he didn't bother to say anything at all. He waited politely on the passenger side of the van while I transformed again and dove into my clothes.
He didn't object to my driving as Samuel would have. I'd never seen Charles drive a car; he preferred to ride horseback or run as a wolf. He climbed into the passenger seat and glanced once behind him at the tarped body. Without commenting, he belted himself in.
When we got back to the motel, I pulled in at the office door. Carl was in the office with a red-eyed young woman who must be the missing Marlie, though I couldn't see the six-year-old I'd known.
"Mercedes needs a room," Charles told them.
Carl didn't question him, just handed me a key. "This is on the side away from the road, as far from #1 as we get."
I looked down at the #18 stamped on the key. "Don't you know that you're not supposed to put the room number on the key anymore?" I asked.
"We don't have much trouble with burglary," Carl said, smiling. "Besides, I know you spent a couple of years working here. Except for number one, there are only three different locks for all the rooms."
I smiled at him and tossed the key up once and caught it. "True enough."
Charles opened the door for me as we left. "If you'll get your luggage and give me your car keys, I'll take care of the body."
I must have looked surprised.
"Don't worry," he told me dryly. "I'll have Carl drive."
"No luggage," I told him. I pulled out my keys and gave them to him, but caught his hand before he pulled away. "Mac was a good man," I told him. I don't know why I said it.
Charles didn't touch anyone casually. I had always thought he rather despised me, though he treated me with the same remote courtesy he used with everyone else. But he put his free hand on the back of my head and pulled my forehead briefly against his shoulder.
"I'll take care of him," he promised as he stepped back.
"His full name was Alan MacKenzie Frazier."
He nodded. "I'll see that he is treated well."
"Thank you," I told him, then turned and walked toward my room before I could start to cry again.
Chapter 6
There was a pile of National Geographic s and a paperback mystery stacked neatly on the nightstand. As I recall, the reading material was put there originally to make up for the absence of a TV. When I'd cleaned rooms here, you couldn't get reception so far in the mountains. Now there was a dish on top of the motel and