Page 80 of Quest of the Wolf

“You don’t have either?” a male voice asked.

That wasn’t Radomir, whom I’d originally dubbed Mr. Raspy. Nor was it Abrams, who had an accent not unlike Duncan’s. This sounded like a garden-variety thug. Ihopedthat was all we would have to deal with, but I doubted it.

“Who am I talking to?” I eyed the GPS tracker on Bolin’s phone again.

Duncan’s dot remained in the same spot in the park by the shoreline. Or maybe he’d gone into the water for some reason? It was hard to tell.

“If they don’t have any of the artifacts, there’s no point in any of this.” It sounded like the guy was talking to someone else, not me. How many thugs were there?

“I don’t have the medallion.” Ididhave the case. Normally, I wouldn’t announce that, but if that was what they wanted, and they decided to kill Austin because I hadn’t brought it…

“What about the wolf case?” the man asked. “You have it?”

“Austin, are you okay?” I asked. “What’s happening?”

“I’m—” He broke off with a grunt of pain.

“If you bastards hurt my son, I’ll kill you all,” I shouted. No, it was a scream. The frantic protection instincts of a mother had kicked in, and my skin pricked as my emotions threatened to bring forth the wolf.

Jasmine looked over at me with concern. I wouldn’t be able to drive as a wolf—or control myself. But imagining them hurting or killing Austin… I almost didn’t care.

Something broke in the background—it sounded like a vase or dish hitting the floor.

“I told you to stay put or we’ll throw your dead body in the lake,” someone said. “All we need is her kid.”

Jaw clenched, I glanced at the map again. We were almost tothe cabin. The breaking vase implied that was where they were, not the park. Duncan’s dot hadn’t moved much in these past minutes. Maybe Radomir was waiting at the park with him, intending to send him in when I arrived.

“Do you have the case or not?” the first speaker said into the phone. “Your kid is fine.For now.”

I wanted to threaten him further, to reach through the phone and strangle him, but I needed a few more minutes to get there. Better to keep him talking.

“I have it.”

“Okay, good. That’s the most important one, they said.”

“Radomir and Abrams? What do they want it for?”

“A memento. You bring it, and we’ll trade it for the kid and his dumbass friends. You screw around and— Here, tell your mommy what we’ll do, kid.”

An agonizing moment passed in silence, and I imagined Austin licking dry lips.

We’d reached the first of the houses along the lake. Many were dark, no lights on, no tire marks in the snowy driveways. Probably unoccupied vacation homes. The lots were large and treed, the driveways winding back from the road before reaching their destinations. I forced myself to slow the van so we wouldn’t miss the Airbnb cabin.

“I’m okay, Mom, but they clobbered Mark. There are a lot of guys, inside and out. And there’s a shaggy wolf that almost killed Oakley when he tried to escape out the back.”

Damn it, was the GPS wrong? Was Duncan at the cabin?

Thank the moon I hadn’t wasted time pulling into that park.

I envisioned Radomir with his controller, standing in a snowy yard and ordering Duncan to attack my son’s friends. It would be against his will, but that wouldn’t make it any better. An image of blood drops spattering all over the snow entered my mind.

“We’re stuck inside and?—”

“That’s enough,” the speaker said, cutting Austin off. “Bring the case, Valens. Put it on the porch, and we’ll let the kids go. If not, the wolf will tear out your son’s throat.”

The call ended before I could snap a furious rebuttal.

“Duncan won’t do that,” Jasmine tried to assure me.

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