Page 16 of Quest of the Wolf

“Correct.”

The being I sensed didn’t feel like Rue. It felt like a werewolf.

I grabbed the sword from the corner. So soon after a change, I wouldn’t likely be able to turn again. I might have to defend myself in the human way. “With a swift poke to the eye.”

“What?” Jasmine asked.

“Someone’s here. I’ll call you back.”

I waited for the doorbell to ring. It didn’t. As I leaned close to check the peep hole, I decided the werewolf’s aura was familiar. Someone from the pack.

When I peeked through the hole, I realizedwhymy visitor hadn’t rung the doorbell. The big white male was in wolf form.

“Lorenzo?” I set aside the sword, tied the belt on my robe, and opened the door.

Maybe I should have found clothes to put on first, but after thefight and sitting in damp pine needles, I craved a hot shower. Besides, it wasn’t as if a wolf cared about human nudity.

“Where were you when I was hoping something would scare away the prospective buyer and real-estate photographer?” I asked.

From the threshold, he gazed at me with soulful blue eyes, and I regretted making a joke. Mud spattered his chest and paws. Had he traveled all the way here in wolf form? Had something happened to my mother?

“Everything okay?” I asked, certain it wasn’t.

Lorenzo turned his head to gaze toward the woods. To draw my attention in that direction? It looked more like he sought answers out there than that he wanted me to look at something.

“Is…Momokay?” I clarified.

His bushy white tail drooped. By the moon, had she passed?

I gripped the doorframe. She’d been getting weaker from the cancer, but I’d thought… The last I’d seen her, she’d still been walking around and eating and drinking. It hadn’t been that long.

A hint of magic swirled around the wolf, and Lorenzo sat back on his haunches as the change overtook him. Once he returned to his human form, he straightened and met my gaze again.

“We need to speak,” he said.

“I was afraid of that.”

7

After inviting Lorenzo in,I went to the bedroom to grab a blanket. If he hadn’t driven down here, he wouldn’t have a vehicle—or a change of clothes. Wordlessly, he accepted the blanket and wrapped it halfway around himself before sitting on the couch.

Despite his proclamation that we needed to talk, Lorenzo took his time getting started. I sat in the nearest chair and thought about getting him something to drink, but he’d worried me, and I wanted whatever news he had to share.

Finally, he spoke. “Last night, your mother went on a hunt alone. She didn’t invite me along or even tell me that she was going, even though… I had asked her to do so. On the hunt, she battled a bear. Having been disturbed from its winter hibernation, it was particularly belligerent.”

He paused, a long pause that had me wringing my hands.

“Is Mom okay?” I asked.

A solo werewolf in his or her prime might handle a bear, but Mom was a long way from her prime. Unfortunately. My throat tightened. For so many years, she’d been so powerful, soindomitable. In the past, I never would have worried about her hunting alone. But now…

“She did survive the encounter. She received numerous wounds, however, and is now resting in bed.”

I sagged back in the chair, relieved she was alive, but Lorenzo didn’t appear to share my relief. He gazed pensively at the kitchen cabinets.

“I believe she only survived because I showed up in time to help. Even though she hadn’t told me she was going, when I went by for a visit and found her cabin empty, I had a hunch. If I hadn’t gone to see her and hadn’t been able to track her into the woods…”

“Why did she pick a fight with a cranky bear?” I asked. “Especially in her condition?”

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