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“No. I’ve never met awerewolf.”
“I think we’re about to.” I could feel the auras of the pack drawingcloser.
The sheer number of them made me uneasy, especially with Mom and her dog here. I would have suggested running back to civilization, but we were too many miles from the parking area and campgrounds, and werewolves could move a lot more quickly than wecould.
“Do you have a gun or just that axe?” I waved to the hatchet strapped to her pack, one more suitable to cutting branches than clubbing hostile magicalenemies.
I already had Fezzik out and was loading a magazine of Nin’s special cartridges. Even though I rarely hunted werewolves—they usually only killed livestock, and the government didn’t consider that enough of a crime to send out an assassin—there was some silver twined in with the other magical stuff in theammunition.
“I’ve got a Glock in case the coyotes come after Rocket,” Mom said. “Up until a couple of years ago, I never saw anything weird in these hills, and coyotes and the occasional mountain lion were the only things you had to worry about. Maybe some black bears, but they’re usually easy to scare away. Rocket has a bigbark.”
“I don’t think he’s going to keep werewolvesaway.”
Nor did the dog look like he had barking in mind, not anymore. Maybe he had a sense of what was outthere.
Rocket tried to jerk away from Mom, but she caught hiscollar.
“Get him leashed up and stay here. I’ll go ahead and talk to them.” I hefted Fezzik meaningfully and didn’t miss the irritated look Mom gave me as I stepped past her. She wasn’t used to me giving her orders, but this was my expertise, nothers.
“I’m not letting you go up there alone,” she said. “Can we back down the trail? Maybe they won’tfollow.”
I saw the first glimpse of gray fur between the trees ahead of us. My senses told me more accurately than my eyes that they were closing in on us from multipledirections.
One howled, an ear-splitting wail that wasn’t at all romantic, despite what the stories liked to say. It sent a chill down my spine. It was the sound of wolves on the hunt, not a friendly greeting or a mere warning that we should get out of theirterritory.
“They want something,” I said, sure of it. “Probablyme.”
“You,why?”
I’d taken out werewolves in Idaho after one had contracted rabies and killed a bunch of people on the Washington border. I wondered if this pack knew aboutthat.
“Because of my job.” I took a few more steps, hoping Mom would back away, and touched the cat figurine. “Sindari, I could use some tigerintimidation.”
Mist formed at my side as the wolves drew closer, massive beasts that were over four hundred pounds, their heads level with my chest. Fortunately, Sindari was even larger, and he glowed with magical power that should give them pause. Unfortunately, there was only one of him. I could pick out twelve werewolvesnow.
Mom let out a startled gasp, though I didn’t know if it was because of Sindari or thewolves.
One black male with yellow eyes stopped on the trail twenty feet ahead of us. He rose on two legs as he morphed into a human form, a powerful, tall, broad-shouldered, and noticeably naked human form. He had to be seven feet tall, maybe more. The alpha, I assumed, unless he’d been sent out as cannon fodder to speak with us. Maybe all the others wereninefeet tall in humanform.
Are we hunting wolves?Sindari’s gaze locked on to the one on the path, as his ears twitched, following the noises of the others. His magic would doubtless tell him exactly where they were even withoutsound.
That wasn’t the plan, but they’ve placed themselves in ourpath.
Canines arerude.
Yes.
I lifted my chin and met the werewolf’s cold eyes. “Will you let us pass? We’re not looking for anytrouble.”
“You are well-armed for one who seeks no trouble.” His voice had an alien edge, the accent unplaceable, but I had no trouble understanding him. “Maybe you are here to hunt the pack,no?”
“No. Today, my weapons are for defenseonly.”
“Humans are always so full of lies. They spill out, like owl pellets hacked up in theforest.”
“I’m capable of lying without making gagging and coughing noises, actually. We’re looking to talk to someone out here. Notyou.”
He tilted his head, glancing pastme.
