Page 32 of Waifs And Strays
Nothing about this was good and Thane hadn’t finished. ‘Five days after the second attack on me, Nick’s parents were killed.’
‘That was an accident,’ I said. Supposedly.
Thane snorted. ‘Sure it was. You know they completed the unbinding ritual before Nick was born, right? They had each other so they weren’t true lone werewolves, but they didn’t have a proper pack, either. They weren’t considered MacTire.’
‘You think somebody is targeting lone werewolves.’
‘I don’t think that,’ he said with absolute certainty. ‘I know it.’
Chapter
Thirteen
Taking Thane home with me seemed the most prudent course of action: for one thing, he already knew where I lived and I’d proved I could take him in a fight if I needed to; for another, he was in dire need of a hot shower and clean clothes.
I reckoned that once he was clean and had some decent food inside him, I’d be able to winkle more information out of him. Anyway, I didn’t want to let him out of my sight for long; I wasn’t going to be swayed from my mission to find Nick and Thane was the only person I’d met who seemed to have any real information about him. He certainly seemed to know far more than Nick’s own blood uncle, Alexander MacTire.
Before we left the old Galbraith house I made Thane wrench up the bloodstained floorboards and dismantle his booby trap. He might be prepared to take reckless chances with his own body fluids but I wasn’t that stupid. ‘What would you have done if a nosy kid had set off the trap by accident?’ I enquired.
Thane looked considerably more relaxed and cheerful now that I wasn't trying to render him unconscious. ‘I’ve dealt withthe local children. I told them not to come around for a few days. They promised to stay away.’
‘You’ve not spent much time around kids, have you?’ I asked drily.
He frowned and didn’t answer.
He Who Crunches Bird Bones was curled up asleep on the garden path when I pushed open the gate. Or at least he was pretending to be asleep; as soon as I set foot in the garden, his tail twitched and he opened one yellow eye to squint at me. She Who Loves Sunbeams also slunk into view from around the corner.
‘It’s okay,’ I told them softly. ‘You can stand down.’ Whoever had taken Nick had already got what they wanted and I doubted they’d be back. There was no need for the cats to stand guard.
Behind me, Thane grunted, ‘Huh?’
‘Not you,’ I said. ‘The cats.’ I looked over my shoulder at him. ‘I did tell you that I’m a cat lady.’
He snorted. ‘Yeah, yeah. You know, I tried to persuade Nick to stay away from Danksville by telling him that people here ate cats.’
‘That was you?’
He grinned suddenly and I shook my head in disgust. ‘You’re going to need to watch that mouth. You’re on my territory now.’ I gestured to the cats. ‘And theirs.’
His smirk didn’t diminish. ‘You mean you could kill me with your thumbs and then your cats will eat what remains of my body?’
‘Something like that.’ I gave him a long look because yes, if I wanted to I could definitely kill him with my thumbs.
Dave strolled out of his house with his hands in his pockets, whistling off-tune and making a show of staring in our direction. Some nosy neighbours watched from behind their lacecurtains but others displayed their curiosity with unabashed glee. ‘Another damned wolf. Who the fuck is this one?’ he asked.
‘His name is Thane,’ I said.
‘What kind of name is Thane?’
It was my turn to smirk.
Thane moved to my side, presented Dave with a disarming smile and stuck out his hand. ‘It’s wonderful to meet you.’
Dave gazed at him as if he were mad – actually, so did I. This was not the same man who’d been trying to kick my arse to kingdom come less than an hour ago. Now he wouldn’t have looked out of place at a royal garden party; somehow even his clothes looked less grubby and crumpled. How had he done that?
Dave’s gaze started to morph into a glare but Thane didn’t appear to notice; he simply held out his hand and continued to smile.
A shaft of sunlight had emerged from the clouds overhead, illuminating him as if he were some sort of angel. It glinted off his coppery red hair and, as I watched him, I realised that he was better looking than I’d initially registered. Charisma was oozing out of him as if he’d turned it on with a tap. Then I noticed She Who Loves Sunbeams padding towards his feet, blinking slowly with pure feline adoration.
