Hot Blooded (Wolf Springs Chronicles #2) (34 page)

Justin had blood on his shirt and, looking down, she realized that she did now, too. Babette’s blood might be on her clothes, but at least her death wouldn’t have to be on Katelyn’s conscience.

When they finally trudged out of the woods and made it back to the house, Katelyn saw that everyone was still gathered. Heads turned at their arrival and she forced herself to try and stay calm. There was no reason to panic.

She felt a text message come in on her phone but she kept it in her pocket — she couldn’t read any messages until she was alone. And as she and Justin came to a stop before Mr. Fenner and the rest of the pack, Katelyn had never felt so alone.

Lucy was staring at them both, fire in her eyes. “How could you!” she demanded before anyone else could speak.

Katelyn froze as her mind tried to process what was happening.

“I can smell you all over him!”

Katelyn blinked in shock. All the times that Justin had kissed her and they’d never been caught, and now, over just a simple hug, Lucy was coming unglued. She opened her mouth to say something, anything.

“Lu, you’re just upset,” Justin said soothingly.

“You go to hell, Justin Fenner! You lying, cheating bastard!” Lucy shouted.

Then Lucy leaped at Katelyn, knocking her to the ground, and wrapped her hands around Katelyn’s throat. Katelyn felt her phone fall out of her pocket as she flailed at Lucy, arms windmilling, trying to bat at her. She was too panicked to remember how to defend herself.

Over Lucy’s shoulder, Jesse was screaming and Justin was holding him back.

Holding him back from helping either one of us. This is a challenge.

To the death.

Then Katelyn’s vision swam before her eyes. She needed oxygen. Everything hurt; she couldn’t breathe.

They rolled to the side and in the confusion, somehow Katelyn drew up her right leg and slammed her knee into Lucy’s body. She didn’t know where the blow landed, but Lucy grunted and loosened her grip. Katelyn hit her in the face and got to her feet, preparing to run. The rest of the pack was keeping their distance, as Jesse cried and Justin held him, and Katelyn half ran, half staggered toward the driveway. Her ears were ringing.

I don’t have my car
, she thought, lurching forward, dizzy and disoriented.

“Kill her, Lucy!” someone shouted.

They’ve come to watch her kill me
, Katelyn realized in a panic.
I’m going to die and Trick and my grandfather will never know why.

“I’ll get you, bitch!” Lucy screamed, yanking Katelyn by the hair. Then they heard roaring, and Lucy spun her half around.

Katelyn blinked and slowly realized that Mr. Fenner was standing alone, hands on his hips, and he was speaking.

“— going on here?”

Before Lucy could say a word, accuse her of stealing Justin from her, Jesse shouted. All eyes swiveled toward him and in horror Katelyn realized he was holding her phone.

“What is it, Buddy?” Justin asked.

“Cordelia married that no-good Dom,” Jesse said, waving the phone in the air.

“No,” Katelyn whispered. “Oh, no.”

That must have been the text she got. Now everyone would know she’d been in contact with Cordelia.

“Ssh,” Justin warned her. “Not a word.”

The silence was terrible. Katelyn braced herself for Mr. Fenner’s fury. The entire pack held its breath.

Then, with icy calm, the patriarch of the Fenner clan, leader of the descendants of the Fenris Wolf, squared his shoulders and raised his chin.

“War,” he said, his voice ringing out. He looked at his daughter, Regan.

“War,” Regan replied.

He looked at Arial.

“War,” she concurred.

Then Doug: “War.”

And Al, Arial’s mate: “War.”

And then it was Justin who said, “War.”

Then Justin slid a knowing glance at Katelyn, who was heaving, trying to catch her breath. They had a secret, just them two. She was his secret weapon. But he wasn’t planning on making his move then.

A thrill of pure, unadulterated horror shot through her. So much had changed in the past few hours.

And she knew, with crystal clarity, that right there, right then, so much was about to change again.

Trick
, she thought, her heart breaking.
Take care. I love you
.

“I can be your secret weapon, Mr. Fenner,” Katelyn said in a loud voice as she took a deep gulp of air.

Justin’s knowing little smile broke. She read his expression —
What the heck are you doing?
— but she ignored him, staring straight at Lee Fenner.

“I’m immune to silver,” she announced. “It can’t hurt me.”

A ripple of shock and a few strained laughs of disbelief went through the crowd as Mr. Fenner strode past Lucy, forcing her to get out of his way or get slammed into, and grabbed Katelyn by the hair. He yanked back her head and glared down into her eyes. His eyes began to glow as the wolf took him over. She forced herself not to betray any fear.

“I’m not lying,” she said. “You can test me.”

“Right, because we’re always testing each other for that,” Lucy said between clenched teeth. She was practically pawing the ground. “She’ll do
anything
to save her skin. Let me finish what I started. It’s my right.”

“Lucy, shut up,” Justin said quietly.

“Justin, go get the sword,” Mr. Fenner ordered him, staring down into Katelyn’s eyes. Her scalp was on fire. She was dizzy, and in pain, but she forced herself not to blink at the mention of a sword.

It seemed her entire life flashed past as Mr. Fenner held her in his agonizing embrace. She heard footfalls, and then the unmistakable odor of silver. Chills rushed through her as the odor grew stronger. Were they actually going to cut her, stab her? She was immune to silver, but she wasn’t invincible.

Mr. Fenner pushed her away and she fell down hard on her knees. He was holding a silver sword, its hilt wrapped several times in some kind of cloth, in his right hand. She started to panic, imagining he was going to cut off her head.

“This sword is our most priceless possession,” Mr. Fenner said. “It’s the silver sword that the gods used to attack our father the Great Fenris Wolf, but they failed to cut him down. In retaliation, the Great Wolf devoured his enemy. He was forever after called Moon Snatcher, and we were born of his blood. For that, the gods cursed all silver that we touch.”

“Don’t hurt Kat!” Jesse shouted, and there were a few ripples of nervous laughter. Katelyn couldn’t move her head, couldn’t see what was going on. Her heart was nearly leaping out of her chest.

“Alpha,” Justin said. “If it will save her life, then I—”

Katelyn felt a sharp cut across her right bicep. Jesse screamed, which covered her own cry. Then Mr. Fenner yanked her up to her feet and took a step away from her, pointing the sword at her heart. Tears stinging her eyes, she clasped her hand over the wound, but she quickly realized he hadn’t cut her very badly. Just enough to make her bleed.

Blood trickled through Katelyn’s fingers, and Jesse started sobbing. Katelyn looked around and saw horror on the faces of most of the pack, but a few cruel smiles of anticipation as well.

Though she was swaying, Katelyn stayed on her feet. Mr. Fenner pushed her hand away and inspected the wound. Then he looked down at the sword. After a beat, he raised it upward to the sky.

“It’s true!” he bellowed.

“Kat, Kat!” Jesse shouted, rushing over and throwing his arms around her. Then he planted a big wet kiss on her cheek. “Kat is so awesome!”

20

That seemed to be the signal for the rest of the pack to touch her, shake her hand, kiss her cheek. Everyone wanted to see her cut and marvel at the fact that she wasn’t dead. She was soon surrounded by Fenner werewolves throwing back their heads and howling for joy. Some approached her cautiously, reverently. She heard the words “miracle,” “game changer,” and “mutation.” At Mr. Fenner’s order, Justin cleaned the cut and put a bandage over it. He smiled at her but Katelyn could tell there were mixed emotions in that smile — fear, pride, and maybe a little anger — and he kissed her cheek just like everyone else.

“Well played,” he whispered softly, giving her hand a quick squeeze.

Arial, Regan, and their husbands approached. Arial was white-faced with shock; Regan looked like she wanted to grab the sword out of her father’s hand and run Katelyn through with it.

“You
freak
,” she whispered in Katelyn’s ear. “Don’t think this changes
anything
.”

Pack politics might confuse Katelyn, but she knew her immunity changed a lot. She wasn’t the least important member of the pack anymore, a fact Mr. Fenner confirmed as he came up to Katelyn and possessively put his arm around her shoulders. The well-wishers moved away, forming an impromptu circle in anticipation of more revelations.

“I believe a challenge was made,” he said, almost jovially. “Lucy, where do you stand on that, darlin’?”

Lucy blinked and looked at Justin. He was standing closer to Katelyn than he was to her, and he stayed there. Shock flashed over Lucy’s face, then anger, then hurt. But she cleared her throat and squared her shoulders, clearly making the best of a severely altered situation.

“I’m willing to put that on hold until we take the Gaudins down.” Her voice was shaky. The wind had been taken out of her sails, and Katelyn nearly howled with relief. She would lose to Lucy in a fight. She might be immune to silver, but Lucy was still stronger and faster than her.

“Good girl,” Mr. Fenner said. He walked over to Lucy and patted her cheek. She went scarlet and clenched her fists.

“Softly, softly,” Jesse said, also patting her cheek.

“So how did you find this out?” Mr. Fenner asked.

Justin looked stricken. She let her gaze pass over his face without any expression, but she’d thought this through and there was no way she was going to implicate him.

“I was cleaning my grandma’s silver, and I cut myself.” She surreptitiously waited to see if Mr. Fenner — or anyone else — reacted. She was still trying to figure out who had broken into the cabin. No one did, not even Justin.

“You could have died,” Mr. Fenner said.

“I thought I was going to.”

“But you didn’t say anything to your grandfather?”

She shook her head. “He wasn’t home. I didn’t say a word.”

“Good. Very good. A quick thinker,” Mr. Fenner said approvingly. “You
are
our secret weapon.”

Oh, yay
, she thought bitterly, but that was exactly how she wanted him to regard her. Indispensable.

“War council in the house, now,” he said. “Justin, Arial, Regan, Doug, and Al. And Kat.” He beamed at her. “Lucy, you take care of Jesse.”

“Yes, Uncle Lee,” Lucy muttered, looking even more downcast. Locked out of the action. Katelyn would have gladly traded places.

With that in mind, Katelyn made another decision. She said to Mr. Fenner, “I have something else to show you. Just you,” she emphasized.

When he raised a brow, she began to walk toward Justin’s truck. She heard him grunt in amusement, then trail after her. She was violating some kind of etiquette by having him follow her but she didn’t know what else to do.

“I smell silver,” he said, and she nodded.

She opened the passenger’s side door and fished the gun from underneath her seat. Taking a deep breath, she held it pointed to the ground so he would know that she wasn’t threatening him and that she knew how to handle a gun.

She said, “I found this, Mr. Fenner. It’s loaded with silver bullets.”

For a moment, she thought he was having a heart attack. His lips moved but no sound came out — he was truly speechless. Then he moved as if to shield the two of them from prying eyes, reaching out for the gun before jerking his hand away.

“Where?” he demanded.

“In the forest,” she lied. “I was out running and I smelled it.”

“Did you see anything else?” he asked excitedly.

Now would be the time to tell him about the trap. Obviously, Justin hadn’t. Mr. Fenner was not her friend. He was acting normal at the moment, but in her experience, that didn’t last. He could turn on her in a heartbeat, just as he had turned on so many others. She thought of Quentin Lloyd with a shiver.

And besides, Justin was . . . Justin. She had a split-second fantasy where they got together and led the pack. But she didn’t want to lead anything. And she didn’t want Justin. She just wanted her life back. And she wanted to bring Cordelia home.

And be with Trick.

Always.

Never.

But before she could lie to him, he said, “That’s from the mine. The Madre Vena. That’s what’s in it. It’s not just a silver mine, it’s also a stockpile where those who used it stored guns that shoot silver bullets. And more swords and knives, made out of silver.”

Mr. Fenner regarded the gun. “Show me the bullets.”

She blinked down at the gun. There was more? Is that where her grandfather had gotten the box of deadly ammo? She cracked open the weapon and let the shiny bullets fall into her hand. She wished she’d replaced them with tarnished ones; that would have added a touch of realism to her story.

“I shined them up,” she said. “At first I wasn’t sure if they were silver.”

His face changed. “I know how it happened. She dropped it. She found the mine and told the Gaudins and they’ve stolen everything. It belongs to us. The mine is on our land.”

She
? Did he mean Cordelia? Was he blaming her for this whole mess?

“But who . . . who made the bullets?” she asked, her voice quavering as she thought of her grandfather inside the mine. Knowing all this time where it was. Did
he
know? “Did they come from the mine? Where is it?”

“That’s something only Fenner alphas should ever know,” he said. “It’s a secret.”

Did he know?
Tell me. Tell me, please
, she silently begged him.