Page 11 of Wild Wolf

“Alevtina Petrovna Volkova,” I greeted.

“Sergei Sokolov.” She gestured to the werewolf keeping her company. “This is Grigorij Jakovlevich Maslov. Thank you for coming. I see you have brought your dog?”

Petra kept close to my legs, behaving more like an exceptionally well-trained Siberian husky rather than a proud wolf. “There was no reason not to bring her, and she has preferred to keep me company as of late.” Unlike at my cabin, I took a little more care with my Russian, although I still made the ved’ma wince. “I can’t promise my contact will answer. I don’t know what the time zone difference is, but if you want me to call, point me to a phone, and I will call.”

Grigorij approached me and held out a cell phone. “Use mine, please.”

I expected he would try to use the number later, so I would warn Dante to change his number or take whatever care he needed to protect himself. I accepted the phone, dialed the number from memory, and held it to my ear, listening to the dial tone.

“Anderson,” he answered with a yawn.

“Bob,” I greeted.

I almost smiled at Dante’s startled yelp. Once he recovered, he demanded, “Do you know what time it is?”

“I’m in Russia o’clock,” I replied. “I don’t know where you’re at right now, so I can’t even begin to guess what time it is. Does your group know anything about Blagoveshchensk, Russia?”

“We only operate in Moscow and St. Petersburg.”

“There are some people who’d like to meet Desmond in Blagoveshchensk.”

“Are you okay?”

“I’m fine. You?”

“We’re good for the most part.”

“For the most part?”

“Is the owner of this phone Normal?”

“No, he’s not.”

“Okay, good. Amber’s getting old, and her witchcraft can’t keep up anymore. Nicolina isn’t handling it well. My brother wants to authorize her becoming a Fenerec, but that can only happen under certain circumstances. So, I’m glad you called, because you happen to be one of those circumstances.”

“I am? How so?” I sighed and raised my hand, pinching the bridge of my nose. “Toad-spotted ratsbane. You just had to make this more complicated.”

“I’m good at complicated. You should know this by now, Declan.”

“All right. How can I help?”

“Basically, you’ll perform the ritual on her after getting her consent. Or maybe even without her consent if she is having severe health problems. Since you’re a dominant rogue wolf, sanctioned by my brother, with a severe case of single, he can write it off as amorous young wolf falling hopelessly in love with the woman who can still kick the asses of six SEALs at one time without thinking about it.”

My wolf sighed his longing in my head, and for a rare change, I agreed with him. “I want to watch her do that.”

“Of course you do. I’m happily mated, and it’s still one of the sexiest things I’ve ever seen. Not even my mate can argue with me over this one, because she thinks it’s sexy, too.”

“Does Amber want to become one of us?”

“She would if she could, but the current circumstances state she can’t. Since she’s old and has been in the Inquisition for a long time, she’s convinced there’s no chance for her to undergo the ritual. However, if I send her your way, and you take her off to wherever it is you’re denning, you can do it without real consequence. Depending on your wolf and hers, you might end up with her for life, but for some reason, I don’t think you’d mind that.”

“Is this revenge for having slipped off? I’m feeling like you are getting revenge for that.”

“No. It’s revenge for not calling sooner,” Dante replied.

“That seems cruel and unusual, but I also can’t state it’s not fair.” I sighed. “I had Bodwin’s wolf, and she’d been shot. I took the way out I had, and we ended up in Russia. It just happened I came here.”

“What is your current name?”