Page 5 of Relics of the Wolf

I would have expected Duncan to have wandered through the botanical gardens to the walkway, where he could toss his magnets on ropes over the railing and into the ship canal, but the side door was cracked open. Maybe he was inside, taking a nap. Or waiting for me?

A curious silver cylinder in the shape of a bullet—or maybe a rocket—squatted on the pavement next to the open door. And there was a satellite dish mounted to the van that I hadn’t noticed before. Maybe the rocket was a gift from his mother ship.

I snorted at the idea that Duncan might be an alien. No, he was a werewolf—I’d hunted with him in wolf form the week before. He was just oddly strong for one.

Maybe it had to do with his old-world origins. My pack had originated in Italy, but they’d been in the New World for generations, hunting in the Pacific Northwest since Seattle had been a logging town and launch-off destination for prospectors heading up to mine in the Yukon.

When I parked and opened the door of my truck, a scintillating scent of cooking beef wafted to me. Brisket? Oh, was the bullet-shaped object asmoker?

My nostrils and salivary glands drew me for a closer investigation.

“Greetings, my lady!” Duncan said with enthusiasm as the door slid farther open and he hopped out of his van.

Halfway to the smoker, I paused with one foot in the air. Why did I feel like a cartoon rabbit led toward a box trap by a carrot lying innocuously underneath?

I put my foot down, reminding myself that I’d reached out to Duncan. Okay, technically, Bolin had. But, either way, Duncan hadn’tluredme here.

“I’m delighted to see you.” Smiling, he stuck his arm out, as if sweeping a cloak wide, and bowed as deeply as a medieval knight. A briny breeze wafting in from Puget Sound tossed his wavy salt-and-pepper hair and stirred the scents of the meat, the scintillating smoke tempting me closer. “I didn’t know if I would encounter you ever again.”

“My intern thought I should ask you about something.” I eyed Duncan, trying to tell from his expression if he was scheming or had deception in mind. Also if he had my case.

But if he had hired that thug and stashed the artifact in his van, would he be lingering in the Seattle area? Where I—or my large werewolf family—might find him?

“You mean you weren’t pining achingly and deeply for my company?” Duncan peered past me toward the truck. “Did you bring your big wrench?”

“Do youwantto be pounded by it?”

“No, but you’re appealingly fierce when you wield it.” He winked.

“Don’t you think you should be more respectful and less irreverent, given that you accepted a gig to break into my apartment and steal from me?”

“I did leave you an apology gift.”

“So, all should be forgiven?”

“Perhaps not.” His expression grew more sober, and he bowed again. “I do apologize for allowing my craving for adventure to entice me into rummaging in your apartment and deceiving you.”

“Apology not accepted.” If someone besides my cheating ex-husband had hired him, maybe I could have gotten over it, but Chad was an ass who’d slept all around the world on me. Worse, and even more unforgivable in my eyes, he’d stolen the kids’ college funds before the divorce had been finalized.

“Not even if it’s accompanied by brisket?” Duncan lifted the lid on the smoker, revealing a perfectly cooked haunch of meat dripping with juices and allowing out an even more intense aroma of delicious, mouthwatering seasoned beef.

“No,” I said, though I couldn’t help but lean closer and inhale.

My primal werewolf side wanted me to spring upon the brisket, rip it from its mount, and drag it off into the forest to enjoy. Not that there were many forests remaining around the Locks in Ballard. Maybe the bare-branched trees in the botanical garden would do.

“It was your intern’s idea to reach out to me, you say?” Duncan asked, though he’d fielded Bolin’s messages and knew.

“Yeah. We’re searching for something.” I tore my gaze from the brisket so I could study him.

He merely lifted his eyebrows.

“Did you hire the guy who mugged Bolin and stole the case?” I watched his eyes for a reaction.

He blinked a couple of times. “The little magical wolf case that I came looking for?”

“Yes. I assume you still want it. That youremployerstill wants it.”

Duncan had the grace to wince. “He’s not my employer. I was just… doing work for him.”

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