Page 36 of Kissed the Mark
“I can chat with her for you and reportback.”
“I need her here in person,” Leandrainsisted.
Was she trying to get me to lure thewerewolf out so that she could murder her for real this time?Because she knew that the werewolf knew too much? I was going tofucking pass out.
“I’ll see what I can do,” I said.
“Thanks, Olympia. I miss you. Are you comingback soon?”
Unease stirred in my gut. “Uh, yeah. Iguess.”
“Cool. I’ll see you then.”
What the hell? What was this to her? Did shecatch drift that other people were sniffing around the turned girlas a source of information right after Mateo told me? I flipped thephone over, expecting to see some kind of monitoring device. Butphones were their own monitoring devices these days, weren’tthey?
I held down the power button until thescreen went black.
Nothing could ever be simple around here,apparently. Now I had to decide if I wanted to interrogate the girlfor Mateo or if I wanted to convince her to come out to getpossibly killed by Leandra, or both if I could manage it.
As I usually did, I chose myself first, andmy agenda lined most closely with Mateo’s. I needed answers fromthe girl, too. I would tell Leandra I couldn’t find the werewolves,or that they told me to mind my business and wouldn’t let me seeher. They still might do that, I realized.
I was so deep in thought that I had barelynoticed the soft padding of two pairs of footsteps. I whirledaround and stood face-to-face with two men with burly chests thatstretched against their clothing. “Ah—hello there,” I said, tryingto smile and probably looking like some kind of loon.
“Who are you?” the one on the left asked. Hewas Black, tall, with hair cropped close to his head and bulgingforearms that definitely could strangle me if they wanted to.
“My name is Olympia Carter. I’m here torequest an—”
“The bounty hunter,” the one on the rightsaid to the one on the left. He was white and had impressivelyhairy limbs, though he didn’t look like he exercised as much as theother guy. Could probably still strangle me to death.
“What is a bounty hunter doing here? No onein our pack has done anything wrong,” the left one said.
“Right. No one has done anything wrong. I’mactually not here on Guild business, I just have one little favorto ask…”
The one from the right was next to me now,exuding a level of heat unique to their species. “You want to be awerewolf, little fairy?” he asked, and his gaze was menacing. “Youwant to run with us and howl at the moon?”
The other one had crept up to my other side.“We’re not accepting newcomers now,” he growled, “but I’d be happyto put you on the waiting list.”
I gulped. Through the fog in the woods,others emerged now, people who didn’t bear weapons because theydidn’t need them. There were at least ten, possibly scouts from thepack if such a thing existed. “I wanted to talk to the girl who hadbeen attacked by the Chicago werewolf,” I blurted. “I needed toknow if she was hurt by someone else first.”
Twelve pairs of eyes narrowed at me. “Wheredid you hear that?” the man who had been on the right asked me. Thewording indicated to me that I had a kernel of truth. Blood rushedto my head.
“From a source I’m not allowed to disclose.May I speak with her?” I asked, my voice trembling. They could tearme apart here and no one would ever know. It seemed like everyonewas trying to kill me these days.
Nobody moved. I hardly dared to breathe. Andthen, slowly, one of the werewolves undid her hair, and offered theribbon to the two men who had approached me first—clearly theleaders of this group.
One of the men thrust my arms behind myback, holding me in place as the other used the hair ribbon toblindfold me. A whiff of strawberry-scented shampoo assaulted mynostrils. Just my luck that I would get pink eye or something herebefore dying. I wished fervently I had mentioned to Leandra that Iwas out here in the woods—she may not save me, but Mateodefinitelydid not care if I lived or died and would notsend anyone after me if I went missing, and he was the only one whoknew I was here.
“We will take you there,” the first mansaid, and they led me off.
?
A long time passed in utter silence, brokenonly by the wind brushing through the trees and the crunching ofour footsteps—mine much louder than the soft-footed werewolves, whowere used to stalking prey in these woods and knew how to be quiet.Subconsciously, I reached out to the trees to feel some reassuringmagic. There wasn’t going to be an easy way to use them as ananchor point to escape to Faerie if I couldn’t see anything and myarms were bound, but my mind was working overtime to find a way outof this mess. Even if Leandra did suspect I’d gone here anddisappeared, she wouldn’t come out until night to investigate,because she couldn’t.
Some of the werewolves muttered too quietlyfor me to hear to each other, and I could smell smoke—not the kindthat swept through woods like a wildfire, but the kind that roastedmeat and vegetables. Delicious spices wafted my way. My mouthwatered involuntarily. I doubted they would be feeding me amid-afternoon meal. There were more voices now, more footsteps,more werewolves, the sounds of people singing and chatting. It mustbe their encampment.
They led me through a doorway, and when Icould no longer feel the wind and heard the door shut quietlybehind me, the blindfold was removed. I blinked for a second,getting used to my surroundings. We were in a hut—for some reason Ihad always pictured these wolves living in tents and sleeping amongthe stars, but there was actual structure to this building—andthere was a homey fire burning in one corner, a kettle placed overit with steam pouring out.
“This is Olympia Carter, a bounty hunter,”the first man I’d noticed before said. There was an older womansitting before the fire, her hair in two long braids at each side,wearing the kind of old person nightgown I’d only ever seen on TV.“She wishes to speak to Melanie.”
