Chapter 9

9

I stepped toward the window, surprised to see that night had fallen and intending to find out who was knocking before I answered. But Duncan opened the door first. He was still shirtless, and the eyes of the man on the threshold widened. No, not the man on the threshold. The werewolf.

Oh, he looked human—broad-shouldered and in his late thirties with a Starter jacket, ripped jeans, and slicked-back black hair—but I was close enough now to sense him, the same as Duncan had. And, after a moment, I recognized him, though I hadn’t seen him in decades. Cousin Augustus was one of six sons and daughters my mother’s sister had birthed. Long ago, I’d been his babysitter.

“Who are you?” Augustus asked Duncan, his shoulders bunching under his jacket, his muscles straining against the sleeves.

“I’m here servicing Luna’s needs.” Duncan lifted a hand to the doorframe, flexing his biceps in the process.

“He isn’t servicing anything but the lawn,” I called over his shoulder, then tapped Duncan, wanting him to let me past .

Augustus didn’t bristle any less at the announcement and continued to glare at Duncan. It didn’t help that Duncan didn’t move to make things easy for me. I had to duck to slip out under his arm. Duncan stepped out with me and stood at my side as I faced my cousin.

“You’re here a lot, lawn boy,” Augustus said.

He was more than a decade younger than Duncan, so using boy was nothing but insulting. Not that Duncan wasn’t goofy and boyish most of the time, but Augustus wouldn’t know about that.

Nothing in Duncan’s cool expression was youthful or naive now. He gazed back without sign of intimidation, though Augustus stood several inches taller than he and had filled out like a refrigerator since last I’d seen him. A very muscled refrigerator.

“It’s a big lawn,” Duncan said.

“What can I do for you, Augie?” I suspected the childhood nickname might make him bristle but wanted to remind him of a time when I’d been in charge of him.

He finally shifted his gaze to me, though he maintained a tense and wary stance, fingers ready to snap into fists, and he kept Duncan in his sights. “You didn’t answer my call.”

“You haven’t called for more than a decade. I assumed you butt-dialed me.”

Augustus mouthed the word, “ Butt ,” then shook his head. “I left a message asking you to meet me at Echo Lake Park last night. It’s important.”

“Sorry. I’ve been busy and haven’t checked my messages.”

“ Busy . With the lawn boy.”

“No,” I said, but Duncan spoke over me.

“We had a fabulous dinner together last night. Except for being attacked by a pack of wolves and stray dogs. You wouldn’t know anything about that, would you?”

Even though it had crossed my mind that Augustus or someone else in the pack might have been connected to the attack, Duncan’s accusation surprised me. After all, he’d just met my cousin. He couldn’t know anything about my family’s dynamics. Or so I assumed. His eyes were slits as he regarded Augustus, as if he already knew the answer.

“Luna is my cousin,” Augustus said. “I have no reason to attack her.”

“Or have minions attack her?”

“No. You , on the other paw… Who the hell are you? This is Snohomish Savager territory. You came on our turf without asking permission or bringing an offering. There aren’t many wolves in this area anymore. I would have heard about it if you’d visited our alpha. I keep in close communication with the family.” Augustus gave me a scathing look.

“You know why I don’t communicate with them,” I said quietly. “No, why they don’t communicate with me .”

When I’d left the pack, I’d been running from my own demons, not spurning the family. Once, I’d gone back long enough to explain it to my mother, but she hadn’t understood. And, going by the years of silence since then, she still didn’t understand. My family had cut ties with me, not the other way.

“Because you’ve turned human ,” Augustus said as if that were the most egregious crime in the world. “You don’t hunt, you don’t change, you don’t heed the call, and you smell like them. You’re weak like them. It’s disgusting .”

Duncan took a step forward, as if he might spring at Augustus to defend me.

I held up a hand, not wanting him to get involved. Even though I didn’t trust him and doubted he had my best interests in mind, I didn’t want him picking a fight with the pack. That was a good way for a lone wolf to get killed. If Duncan hurt Augustus, the entire family would hunt him down. More werewolves than Augustus might be in the area right now. The rest of my cousins and some of my half-brothers could be lurking in the woods .

“Not that it’s any of your business,” I told Augustus, “but I did it for a reason.”

He sneered. “So you could mate with a weakling human and spawn feeble human offspring.”

“I’m so delighted you’ve been keeping tabs on me.” I thought of the cameras.

“Your mother keeps tabs. And your aunt. Only they care, and I don’t know why. Your mother has other offspring, offspring loyal to the pack, and you— you are dead to the rest of us.”

“So… you came to chat up a ghost?”

“I came because you didn’t show up at the park.”

“What would have happened if I had? What do you want?”

“To talk .”

I resisted the urge to point out that the conversational skills he was displaying wouldn’t make anyone eager to show up to chat with him. I didn’t need to go out of my way to insult him. His words, you are dead to the rest of us , were chilling. I’d had suspicions but hadn’t fully realized the family had been that deeply affronted by my choice. What if it was only because of my mother that the pack hadn’t done more than ignore me these past decades? She wouldn’t live forever. What then?

“I’m here, and you’re here.” I shrugged. “Talk now.”

“It’s a private matter. Send the lawn boy away.”

Duncan didn’t budge.

This wasn’t any of his business, and I would have preferred not to have an outsider witness me arguing with a family member, but Augustus’s eyes held a dangerous glint. If he had been the werewolf howling the night before, and he had sent those four-legged minions, that meant he either wanted me wounded or dead. Conversing alone with him could be a bad idea.

“Just tell me what you want, Augustus,” I said. “Duncan is only visiting and doesn’t have a pack of his own. It’s not like he’s going to gossip about our family to his kin. ”

Duncan’s face twisted in a quick pained wince before he recovered, putting his insouciant mask back on. My words had only been a guess, and I hadn’t meant to offend him, so I winced myself. I should have known that a lone wolf might have a troubled past. Few left their packs of their own accord. Usually, they had to depart because they’d challenged an alpha and lost or because they’d been ostracized for other reasons.

Augustus’s nostrils twitched as he looked past us and into my apartment. What he was smelling besides the lingering aroma of coffee, I didn’t know, but his senses were keener than mine.

“Send him away, and let’s go inside,” Augustus said, meeting my gaze. “You will speak with me.”

He lifted a hand, as if to push me back into the apartment.

I tensed, ready to attack the bastard, however suicidal it might be. But Duncan sprang first, blocking him.

My cousin turned on him, grabbing for his throat. Duncan ducked the snatch and bowled into Augustus. They crashed to the ground, rolling and grabbing and snarling like the wolves they could be. Like they would become if this escalated.

“Augustus, stop!” I blurted, not wanting Duncan to be hurt because of me. “I’ll talk to you.”

But the men didn’t listen. Maybe they didn’t even hear me.

I ran inside and opened my toolkit, grabbing the largest wrench I had.

“A proper property manager should pack heat,” I grumbled, running back to the doorway.

For twenty years, I’d never felt the need to own a weapon in Shoreline, but the last two days had brought biker gangs, an enraged cousin, and magically controlled strays. It might be time to rethink that choice.

Wrench raised, I sprang onto the walkway. A loud snarl rang out, a lupine snarl .

Two wolves snapped and writhed on the lawn in front of my door. Savage snarls and growls emanated from the fight.

The combatants were huge, a dark-gray wolf that had to be Augustus and his salt-and-pepper furred aggressor—Duncan. Though Duncan was older, he was as heavily muscled as Augustus and just as large. Maybe larger. As men, they hadn’t been the same size, but more powerful magic sometimes created a larger and more powerful wolf. Duncan was the one driving my cousin back, using speed and strength to his advantage. Already, a gash in the gray wolf’s shoulder had spattered blood onto the walkway.

Someone in an upstairs apartment screamed.

I winced. Of course there would be witnesses.

The noise startled Duncan more than Augustus, and my cousin took advantage. He charged, bowling into the bigger wolf, and they tumbled into a rhododendron. Leaves flew, and branches snapped.

“Hey! I’m the landscaper, you idiots.” I raised the wrench but had no idea how to break up the fight.

Neither wolf glanced at me nor looked up again as a woman in an upstairs apartment yelled at someone to call Animal Control.

Yeah, that would work.

Duncan and Augustus rolled about in the grass, fangs blurring as they snapped for each other’s throats. Before long, Duncan recovered from his surprise and came out on top. Standing over Augustus, he lunged for my cousin’s throat. Augustus twisted enough to take the bite on the shoulder instead but yelped in pain as the salt-and-pepper wolf tore out a piece of flesh. Duncan shook his lupine head, like a hound that had caught a rabbit. More blood flew, spattering the walkway again as well as the siding and door.

I should have been disgusted, but witnessing the battle and the savagery of wild animals called to the wild in me . My blood tingled in my veins as a fierce urge to not only stop the fight but help came to me. Whether the wolf in me wanted me to assist Duncan or my own family member, I wasn’t sure, but I swore, afraid the magic I’d kept sublimated for so long would rise. My wolf might feel territorial toward the complex I’d lived in for so long and kill both of them.

Two angry howls came from the greenbelt, startling me. Who else was out there?

Augustus whined and rolled under the rhododendron to escape Duncan. He was only successful because Duncan paused to look toward the woods. Whoever had howled wasn’t visible, but the two wolves sounded close. More of my cousins, as I’d been thinking earlier? I didn’t know.

Augustus surged to his feet and snarled, his fear fading. Yes, those had to be allies of his. Back stiff, tail straight, and head up, he looked a lot more confident, despite blood dripping from numerous wounds.

He ran across the lawn, not toward Duncan but toward me. His eyes blazed with the savage determination of a wolf on a mission. A mission to kill me.

Though I had no idea why he wanted that, I had little doubt in that moment that he did.

I backed into the doorway, so the frame would guard my flanks, and lifted my wrench. My blood burned hot in my veins, and my skin prickled all over my body. Damn it, I was about to change.

But Duncan crashed into Augustus, knocking him off his trajectory. The gray wolf came so close that I could feel his hot slavering breath on my skin. When I swung my wrench, I connected. It struck Augustus in the side of the head right before Duncan took him to the ground.

Standing over my cousin, the advantage all his, Duncan might have delivered a killing blow, but two more large wolves charged across the lawn toward us. They snarled, their cold eyes locked on him.

He’d been an equal for Augustus, but he couldn’t win against three. Duncan must have realized that, even with the savagery of werewolf instincts hazing his thoughts, because when he looked at them, he sprang off Augustus and ran.

The pair veered after him with murder in their eyes. Even if Duncan hadn’t been hurting Augustus, they would have gone after a lone wolf for intruding upon the pack’s territory. But this was especially egregious.

I stepped back onto the walkway and threw my wrench at one of them. If I could buy Duncan some time, he could get away, change, and make it back to his van and drive off. At this rate, I might have to go with him.

My wrench struck one of the wolves in the shoulder. It was a heavy tool, but it wasn’t enough to deter him. The pair continued after Duncan, who raced through the apartment complex, rounded one building, and headed out toward the woods.

Still in his lupine form, Augustus groaned. Blood pooled on the walkway under him, but werewolves were notorious for shrugging off pain when they were on the hunt or in battle. Or trying to kill a family member? I had no idea, but I ran inside and grabbed the largest butcher knife in my block.

When I returned to the doorway, the weapon gripped tightly in my hand, Augustus had risen to his feet. After glancing dismissively at the knife, he glared at me and prowled forward. He limped, but he kept coming.

Heart pounding, I raised the blade. “It’ll hurt a lot more than the wrench, you betraying bastard.”

My blood still surged hot, and I could feel the wolf trying to come out. If the potion hadn’t lingered in my veins, I suspected I would already have turned .

The dark-gray wolf paused, nostrils twitching. Sampling the air? No, he was sniffing me.

His eyes closed to slits as he considered me for a long moment before snarling in frustration, then running into the grass. With his wound making his gait uneven, he loped off in the direction the others had gone. To help his allies with Duncan, I had no doubt.

I lowered the knife, at a loss for how to keep my family from killing Duncan. I wished I’d been able to buy him time. Would he be fast enough to outrun those two wolves? Two fresh wolves who’d just arrived and weren’t injured or tired from the fight?

I didn’t know.