Hunting Ground

NINE

WHICH way? Which way? A

The hunt.

It didn’t matter that the moon’s song was only a will-o’-the-wisp chime in her heart, or that the prize was a bag of pork that had been spoiling for two days and might or might not also have a ring inside. For the first time ever, she loved the hunt even when Charles wasn’t ru

Because we are with you, Brother Wolf told her. That is what mating means. You are never alone. Never so long as we live.

Good, she told him.

They’d followed Angus’s scent for a long time before it ended in a note propped in front of a very small battery emergency light. It read, “I didn’t hide any of them-Angus.” They weren’t the first ones there-she could smell the scents of several other wolves-and another wolf showed up just as they were leaving.

Then Ric had picked up another scent-presumably belonging to another of Angus’s pack, though she didn’t recognize it. And she’d been hot on his tail when his Alpha threw his weight against her and she stumbled sideways against the wall as a net snapped up and jerked Ric off his feet in a nicely packaged bundle.

Between her jaws and Isaac’s, it had taken them only a moment to get it off-after they teased him a little. Five turns later they’d come upon a wolf hanging upside down in a tall shaft that ran all the way to the open air some four stories above their head.

Isaac made a noise in his throat that sounded sympathetic and probably wasn’t. The trapped wolf snarled as they left him behind, and Ric’s Alpha appeared extremely happy for a while after that.

A

It dumped them off into a small, almost airless chamber. They were coughing with distress by the time Ric managed to destroy the two-by-six wooden wall lined with a moisture barrier that had kept the air out. A

“ANYONE here have Arthur’s mate’s cell phone number?” Charles growled. No one answered, and so he took his own cell and dialed his father for it.

“What’s wrong?” asked Bran when he answered on the first ring.

“That’s what we’re trying to find out. Do you have Su

“Yes, give me a second.” As good as his word, Bran was back on in a moment and read him off the number.

“I’ll call you when I know what’s happened,” Charles said, and hit the END button.

He called it, but was unsurprised, given Arthur’s distress, that she didn’t answer. Then he called another number. “I need to know where this cell phone is: 360-555-1834. GPS location, then an address for that if there is one.” He didn’t bother waiting for a reply, just hung up.

Arthur was pale and sweating, his skin chill to the touch. His body twitched, but he remained unconscious.

It would take a while before his man could track the phone. Hacking a system without leaving a trail took time. He could have done it, given a computer, Internet access, and a few days-his man was better. But time was not Su

Twenty minutes passed, maybe twenty-five, before his phone rang.

“Charles?”

“Yes?”

“That phone is about a quarter mile from yours, and it isn’t moving.”

He looked at Angus. “I have to check this out. You’ll watch over her for me?”

The Emerald City Alpha nodded. “I, my pack, Isaac, his Omega, and the fae, we all will watch.”

THEY found Su

Su

A spirit knelt beside her, one of the forest folk. He seldom saw them, though he could tell when they were about. The spirit’s slender brown hands petted Su

Poor thing, it told him. She was so scared, so scared. Alone. She was all alone.

Distracted, Charles barely remembered to stop the others before they could touch her.

“Let me catch the scent,” he said. “So I’ll know her killer.” It wouldn’t help to question the spirit. They told him what they wanted to, whether he wanted to hear it or not.

The other wolves backed away, and he set his nose between her neck and jaw, where scent would linger. And he smelled, not unexpectedly, a familiar villain. How many things could there be ru

He didn’t touch her as he moved from one pulse point to the next. Where the vampires had fed, the flesh was torn, but there had been no time for bruising. And they had fed everywhere.

He smelled her fear, her suffering, and stood her witness. He was thorough, making sure they hadn’t added to their hunting party. But he found no surprises: there were just the four vampires who’d attacked A

Brother Wolf went wild as he understood that this could have been her, this could have been their A

Charles closed his eyes and forced his body to stillness. Long, cool fingers stroked his face and sang to the wolf-which didn’t help. What a forest spirit was doing out here in the middle of the city, he didn’t know-and he seized upon the distraction of the mystery it offered.

He opened his eyes and looked around. There were any number of abandoned warehouses nearby-and blackberries, the infamous weed of the Pacific Northwest, were taking over their empty parking lots, creating a sanctuary for those who didn’t mind their thorns.

One mystery down. Charles let the sound of one of his grandfather’s songs run through his head, bringing clarity and peace-despite the spirit that patted and petted him. If he’d been alone, he would have knocked the spirit away-Brother Wolf didn’t like to be touched by anyone except A

When he could be reasonably sure that Brother Wolf would allow him to behave in a civilized ma

“Vampires,” he said. “Bring her into the warehouse for Arthur.” It wouldn’t help the British wolf-except as confirmation that she was out of the vampires’ hands.

FRUSTRATED, A

As she stared at it, a wolf snatched victory out of their reach.

It was too dark to be sure who it was, even if she had known all the other wolves in their furred form. The wolf leapt out of an opening a story above the bag, snatched the prize, and disappeared into another opening a floor lower, still well over A

Isaac snorted in disgust.

And Brother Wolf was… surrounding her, his anxiety, his fear and love making her stagger against Isaac-which Brother Wolf did not like at all.