“The motel,” Pietr said. “Max?”
“Yeah,” he replied, his voice merely a whisper. “This is definitely the place. It smells of wolves.”
We pulled into a parking space and quietly exited the truck, each watching for any sign of the pack or Jessie. Max’s nostrils flared as he tried to work out where the scents thickened, which way we should go to find them—or avoid them.
“Here,” he said, jogging toward the steps. “Wolves upstairs. I’d guess that’s where the pack’s rooms are.” But he froze at the base of the stairs, his eyes narrowing with wariness. “Amy was right,” he said slowly. “He’s been here.”
Cat adjusted the gun in her jacket pocket, keeping her hands hidden, her bright blue eyes roaming. “Is he still here?”
“I cannot be certain.…”
Pietr was already bounding up the steps, giving us no choice but to follow him.
Up we went, cresting the stairs and turning down the long, slender cement porch that stretched like one continuous balcony.
Max stopped us at room 204 and signaled Pietr to come back. “This is one of their rooms.”
Pietr pounded on the door, and my face and palm slammed together. Cat and I jumped back, flanking the door. Pietr had always been impulsive, but never so socially inept. Cat and I pressed our backs to the wall.
The hint of noise from inside had come to a halt.
Max shook his head. “Stupid,” he said, looking at Pietr.
“Ironic,” I said, looking at Max.
Max pressed his lips together and spared me a brief glare. “You’ve scared them,” he said to Pietr. He rapped on the door with his knuckles, making a simple sound. A nonthreatening sound completely unlike Pietr’s previous attempt. “Look,” he said, just loud enough for the pups inside to hear him. “We just want to talk. One of our friends went missing. We’re hoping you know where she is.”
Nothing but silence.
“She’s part of our pack. You’d want us to help if someone in your pack was in trouble, da?” he tried. He glanced at me, cupping his mouth and speaking in the barest whisper. “Movement inside.”
The curtain that hung heavily across the big picture window stirred, faces pressed to the glass. I relaxed my pose, looking more like a man bored with waiting than one ready to storm a room of werewolves in a hail of bullets.
“It’s Max, by the way,” Max said. “Max and Pietr and Alexi…”
“Is Cat missing?” someone asked from inside.
Max looked at me, and Cat flattened herself more completely against the wall to his right. “Would it matter to them if Jessie’s missing?” he whispered. “Do they see her as part of our pack?”
“Be honest with them,” Cat returned softly. “Perhaps a change of pace is exactly what they need.”
Max nodded. “Nyet. Cat is here and safe.”
“Allo,” Cat called out cheerfully.
“Then who…” Distrust crept into the pup’s tone.
“Do you remember the human girl who came with us to the campfire party you guys had?” Max asked, thankfully not adding, You know, the event after which we nearly died in a strange car accident?
“The pretty redhead?”
“Nyet,” he said. “That was Amy.” He tried again. “Do you remember the brunette? Jessie?”
“The one who didn’t dance much?” they asked.
“She has a poor sense of rhythm,” Max tried.
“And timing. Do not forget her bad sense of timing,” I muttered, watching the snow start to thicken just beyond the lip of the roof.
“She didn’t howl much, either,” another pup grumbled.
They were not Jessie’s biggest fans.
“Her throat was sore that night,” Pietr said. “She would apologize if she were here to.”
“Pietr?” More faces pressed to the glass.
“Da. It is me,” Pietr answered, trying to smile. “Jessie is gone. She has disappeared and I must find her. Can you help me?”
The bolt clicked open, the chain slid across, and the door opened for us.
Marlaena
When people claimed “the Devil made me do it,” I had to believe they meant “Uncle” Dmitri.
I’d left Gareth out cold, in the cold, and I was beginning to wonder if there was any way I could ever come back from the dark place Gabriel and Dmitri had towed me into. Jessica still lay unconscious in the trunk; Gabe was driving, with Dmitri riding shotgun. I was stowed in the backseat like a disgruntled kid on the most hellishly dysfunctional family road trip ever.
“She’s pouting,” Gabe muttered, looking back at me in the rearview mirror.
“She is a female. They are often moody.”
“You’re just a ray of sunshine yourself,” I retorted.
He ignored me, saying instead to Gabe, “She will get happy soon. Very soon. I will have Pietr and I will leave you with the money you need to make it into springtime and without having the hassle of trying to appease me.”
“That is happy-making news,” I said, staring out the window. The car slowed, taking us more cautiously up one of the roads leading into the mountains ringing the town of Junction like a crown. Outside, the snow continued to fall, lightly at some points, and then it suddenly washed across our windshield like a foamy ocean wave crashing and we crawled a few feet forward, nearly blinded by a whiteout, until it cleared again.
The only good part about it was that we didn’t have to worry about any other traffic on the road. Almost no one else was crazy enough to be out in weather like this.
“This is insane,” I said, curling in on myself, my cheek to the cold glass of the window. “We should let her go.”
“I think it is time you stop suggesting that and go along with the established plan,” Dmitri advised.
“I wasn’t involved in establishing any frikkin’ plan. I wasn’t even consulted,” I protested.
“You haven’t been in the right state of mind,” Gabe stated.
“What is the right state of mind for a kidnapping? Dangerous? Risky? Crazy? That’s all I see when I look at you two.”
“No,” Gabe snapped. “You’ve been pining over Pietr Rusakova and you’re so blind to it all that you don’t even realize that’s what you’re doing.”