Page 29 of Curse of the Wolf
Before we reached it, Bolin veered in from the side, the daughter walking with him and asking him questions about druids and if he could change into a bear. She wasn’t being quiet, and numerous people turned toward them with curious or puzzled expressions.
“Jasmine,” Bolin whispered, “can you help me with something?”
He glanced at the girl.
“This isn’t a good idea,” Izzy whispered to her brother as they walked ahead of us. “Don’t give her access to anything. She could come back and take everything you’ve got.”
“She won’t do that,” Ivan replied. “I’m good at reading people. It’s how I’ve negotiated so many successful deals.”
“Oh, please. You lucked into getting into the market at the bottom of the crash, like everyone else here. You couldn’t deal your way to a part-time gig at a convenience store.”
“Have I mentioned how much your sisterly support means to me?”
“You called me up to the Pacific Northwest in the middle of its gray and dreary winter. And Icame. How much more support do you want?”
Not answering, Ivan led me into a bedroom larger than my apartment. Bolin had successfully diverted Jasmine away. I didn’t know whether to be concerned about being alone with these two or not.
In the bedroom, a gas fireplace blazed cheerily in front of a seating area separate from the king bedroom set that faced floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the lake. Outside, it had grown too dark to see much of the water, but the city lights of Seattle were visible on the far shoreline.
“In here, Ms. Valens.” Ivan stepped into a spacious closet, built-in mahogany shelves and cabinets lining the walls. Two posh leather chairs offered spots to sit to put on one’s socks in the morning.
Before I could follow Ivan inside, Izzy grasped my forearm. Her grip was strong, a testament to her lupine heritage, and her fingers dug in.
My hackles rose as I glared at her. “What’s your problem?”
“Myproblemis that some wolf reeking of the Snohomish Savagers walked into my brother’s party.” Izzy squinted at me. “You’re from that pack, aren’t you?”
I tried to hide my surprise, not that she could tell about my heritage from my scent or aura but that she was familiar with the local pack. Wasn’t she from Arizona? Or had she also grown up in Yelm?
“Yes. So?”
“You’renotto be trusted. None of them are.”
“What pack areyoufrom?” I asked quietly.
She might have filled in her half-brother on my heritage, but he wasn’t a werewolf, so I didn’t want to confess anything in front of him. Someone like Ivan had the power to ruin my real estate ambitions—maybeallof my ambitions.
I glanced toward the bedroom door, thinking of pulling away and leaving. Finding out about Ivan’s missing bracelet and if he knew more about who’d taken it wasn’tthatimportant.
“Before they departed, devastated by the loss of a prominent up-and-coming alpha, I belonged to the Cascade Crushers.” Izzy stared me in the eye. “I’ve been in Arizona a long time, but I haven’t forgotten about my pack or what prompted them to leave this area.”
“Oh,” I mouthed at the unexpected revelation.
Despite the gathering outside, it had grown silent in the bedroom. Inside the closet, Ivan knelt, touching a panel that slid up to reveal a safe, the side torched black, the door askew. Not focusing on us, he set about opening it, not with a fingerprint or keypad but a pry bar. The thieves must have warped the door when they’d broken into it.
“Raoul was my cousin.” Izzy’s fingers dug deeper into my arm. “He was a good kid, a lover, not a fighter, despite his power.”
Yes, I’d often described him that way myself. The night we’d fought, when I’d lost myself to the savage wild instincts that always lurked, threatening to take over my body and deprive me of my rational mind… Raoul hadn’t fought back as much as he could have. As heshouldhave. If he had, he would have defeated me instead of the other way around.
“He was.” I struggled for calm, but the wolf wanted to burst out of me. My body tensed, hating that a threat stood so close, her fingers presumptuously and painfully gripping my arm.
“I think I know who you are, what you did,” Izzy said.
“I loved him.”
“Youkilledhim.” Magic rippled around her, and she released me to step back. Would she shift into a wolf to attack me?
“There we go.” Ivan stepped into the doorway of the closet. “Ms. Valens?”
