Book 1 - Page 24 (1/2)

”Out,” Carl said, holding the door for me.

I complied and we shut the door behind us. Carl held it shut while I turned the key in the dead bolt. Unlike most motel rooms, this dead bolt operated by key from both sides-for just such situations. The windows were barred, the vents sealed. Number one served as prison and hospital on occasion: sometimes both.

Adam was safe-for now. Once he'd regained a little more strength things could still get problematical unless I tracked down Bran.

”Do you know where Bran took the new wolves?” I asked, shutting the back hatch of the van. Carl hadn't asked me about Mac-he didn't have a wolf's nose to tell him what was in the tarp-and I decided that Mac could ride with me for a while longer. Bran could decide what to do with his body.

”You don't want to go after him, Mercy,” Carl was saying. ”Too dangerous. Why don't you come home with me. We'll feed you while you wait.”

”How many wolves are left in town?” I asked. ”Is there anyone who could resist Adam's wolf?”

That was the downside of being dominant. If you did go moonstruck, you took everyone who was less dominant with you.

Carl hesitated. ”Adam's pretty weak yet. Bran will be back by dark.”

Something hit the door, and we both jumped.

”He took them up to the Lover's Canyon,” Carl told me, giving in to the obvious. ”Be careful.”

”Bran will have control of the new ones,” I told him. ”I'll be all right.”

”I'm not worried about them. You left enemies behind you, girl.”

I smiled tightly. ”I can't help what I am. If they are my enemies, it was not by my choice.”

”I know. But they'll still kill you if they can.”

The lovers were a pair of trees that had grown up twined around each other near the entrance to a small canyon about ten miles north of town. I parked next to a pair of old-style Land Rovers, a nearly new Chevy Tahoe, and a HumVee-the expensive version. Charles, Bran's son, was a financial genius, and the Marrok's pack would never be begging on street corners. When I left here, I'd had ten thousand dollars in a bank account, the result of part of my minimum wage earnings invested by Charles.

I stripped off my clothes in the van, jumped out into knee-deep snow, and shut the door. It was colder up in the mountains than it had been in Troy, and the snow had a crust of hard ice crystals that cut into the bare skin of my feet.