Page 89 of Quest of the Wolf

Yes,I replied.We’ll come see you about it tomorrow.

“Should I be nervous?” Duncan asked as he drove us through Monroe and out toward my mother’s cabin.

We’d waited until midmorning to head out, since I’d wanted to be there when Austin returned, but he’d gone straight to his room without saying much. I worried he would need months rather than a few hours to process that his mother was a werewolf.

“The whole pack has seen you as the bipedfuris now.” I opened my purse, fished out my GAS envelope, and tucked a twenty-dollar bill under the bobblehead doll on the dash. Since we’d driven Duncan’s van all the way to Maple Falls and back the night before, I owed him extra for gas money. “I don’t think anyone is going to mess with you over borrowing the medallion.”

“If you really thought that, you wouldn’t have stopped to buy all those salamis, including the gourmet summer sausage made from wagyu beef.”

“They got some new offerings in at the farm store. I wanted to support them. Though I’m not sure about the beef-and-cranberry one the clerk assured me is fabulous. Wolves aren’t that known for hoovering fruit out of cranberry bogs. Maybe Emilio will eat it.”

Duncan’s knowing gaze promised he believed I had changed the subject on purpose.

“Okay, I don’t knowif they’ll be delighted by the idea of you wearing it. I figured some meat bribes couldn’t hurt.”

“I thought so. That’s why I got these early this morning.” Duncan reached behind his seat and pulled out a Trader Joe’s bag stuffed with sausage and salami logs as well as bars of dark chocolate.

I drew out some of the bars. They had cacao nibsandespresso beans in them and promised 70mg of caffeine in each serving.

“You want my family to be perky while they try to rip the medallion off your neck?”

Duncan eyed the label as I pointed to the caffeine amount. “It’s possible I didn’t think out that choice well.”

“You should have visited the cannabis store instead. Weed is known to mellow out werewolves, and it goes well with chocolate. I even have a recipe for pot brownies.”

“An interesting thing for a mother of two and a generally upright citizen to admit.”

“Marijuana is legal in Washington.”Now, it was. I’d possiblyacquired that recipebeforethat change had been made. “And mothers of two often unruly boysneedmellow time now and then. Trust me.”

“I do.” Duncan gazed thoughtfully out the windshield.

I wondered if he was thinking of his young clone brother. Had he gotten to speak with the boy yet? Did he want to? Having a clone wasn’t the same as having a child. And a sibling more than forty years younger than oneself had to be a weird thing.

When we arrived, we found numerous family members around the property, most in wolf form. They sure liked to hang out here, didn’t they?

Jasmine stepped out the front door. Maybe she was the reason the pack had shown up. Either she or Lorenzo could have told them I would come visit this morning.

“There are no secrets in a family, I suppose,” I murmured.

“Did your packgrow? There are wolves here I haven’t seen before.”

“Extended family.”

“Maybe I should have brought more salami.”

“I think so.”

Numerous sets of lupine eyes turned toward us—towardDuncan—and I suspected Jasmine had mentioned the medallion. This close, the werewolves might also senseit.

As we parked next to a couple of trucks, Lorenzo stepped into the doorway, fully clothed today, and said something to Jasmine. Duncan, perhaps feeling presumptuous about wearing the medallion, removed it from his neck and handed it to me.

I wanted to assure him, once again, that he’d found it, after it had been lost for generations, so nobody would object to him modeling it or even borrowing it for a while, but I couldn’t speak for the rest of the pack. In a logical world, they would feel the same way I did, but when did family ever act logically?

“Not a lot of Mr. Spock werewolves,” I said.

Duncan looked over at me, making me wonder if I should explain my thoughts, but he waved at the wolves and said, “Most of themdohave pointed ears.”

He hopped out of the van before I could reply.

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