Page 62 of Triumph of the Wolf
“You are also attempting to manipulate me.”
The kid wasn’t a dummy, was he? Nor that young and naive.
“Every chance I get,” I said, opting for honesty instead of denying it. “Like I said, Duncan is my mate. And I’m watching out for him, the way he watches out for me. I also don’t want to see one of his relatives killed. It would hurt him.” I pointed at Lykos, assuming he understood the cloning thing and that he and Duncan were siblings, however great their age difference.
“When I succeed in slaying him, will you attempt to exact revenge?” Lykos touched his chest.
“You’re not going to slay him.”
“It is my duty, but it is regrettable that it would leave you without a mate.”
“Yourdutyis to think for yourself. Abrams is a dick, and he’s not even a werewolf. Not a pack leader. You don’t need toobeyhim.”
“I… must obey him.”
“Why? Is he magically compelling you somehow?” I eyed the kid’s forehead, but he didn’t have a scar to indicate a link to acontrol device. I did, however, remember magic flowing into him when we’d been together before. It had seemed to force him to attack me.
“When I mature, I can become your mate, if you wish,” Lykos said. “As a replacement for the one who I will slay.”
“Sorry, kid. I’m not a cougar.”
He blinked in confusion. “You are a wolf.”
“I know. I meant— Never mind. Duncan is a good guy. He’d like to be yourfriend, not your enemy. Not yourassassinationtarget.”
Lykos’s head swiveled around.
At first, I thought Duncan had done something to draw his attention, but Lykos was looking toward the woods to one side, not toward the parking lot.
Had one of my relatives returned? I sensed… not a magical being, but I did detect a magical item. A mundane human carrying an artifact?
A branch snapped, and a man in a cowboy hat stepped into view. His face grim, he carried a revolver in one hand, a small metal device in the other, and he wore a bracelet on his left wrist, the golden edge visible below the sleeve of a suit jacket.
“Ivan?” I asked, though maybe I shouldn’t have been surprised. He’d called twice, looking for his sister.
He’d been scrutinizing Lykos—guided to him by whatever that device was?—and blinked in surprise when he spotted me. “Luna?”
“Yeah. We’re about to head out to look for Izzy and my niece, Jasmine. She’s missing too. We had to gather a few things to help us find them, but we think they might be located in the same spot.”
“The ransom letter I received said they were kidnapped here and that a brown-haired wolf boy was helping identify the targets.” Jaw clenching, Ivan strode toward Lykos.
He didn’t point the gun at the kid, but his finger flexed on the trigger, as if he were thinking about it.
Lykos sprang behind a tree for cover, then ran deeper into the woods. Ivan started after him, but I surged forward to intercept him. I grabbed his arm in case he got a dumb idea about firing that gun. I had no idea if Lykos had anything to do with those kidnappings, but I couldn’t let Duncan’s little brother be hurt.
The kid glanced back, meeting my eyes, before disappearing from view—and my senses.
“He wasn’t responsible,” I told Ivan. “And what letter? If it was from Abrams, it can’t be trusted. If it was aransomletter—isn’t that what you said?—it certainly can’t be trusted.”
“No. I know.” Ivan looked down at my grip on his arm.
I released him. I didn’t know if he’d activated that bracelet—when we’d first met, he’d said it could temporarily give one the strength and regenerative power of a werewolf—but he hadn’t tried to shove me away. He’d also seemed conflicted about attacking a kid. Ihopedhe was.
“I actually came to give you something and implore you to help find Izzy.”
“I’m working on it. Honest. I had to get some advice first.” I left out that theadvicehad come from a magical cave in the form of a vision. Just because Ivan believed in werewolves didn’t mean he would buy that. “We’ve got a pretty good idea where they’re being kept now.”
“Izzy is a pain in the ass,” Ivan said, “but she’s still my sister. And I can’t let Olivia lose her mother.”
