Savage Read Free

suffer?” Cordelia asked, and Katelyn couldn’t gauge her tone of voice. Did Cordelia hope he’d suffered?
    “I don’t know,” she replied. “Justin shot him while they were both in human form. Justin can’t change at will yet,” she added, nerves making her complicate the story when she didn’t need to say anything more. But she did suppose that he had suffered. Silver was poison to werewolves. So being shot with a silver bullet would be like having silver injected into your body, wouldn’t it?
    Is that what it was like for my father?
    “If he was here right now, I’d make sure he suffered,” Cordelia said bitterly. “He would beg to die.”
    Katelyn shivered. Cordelia sounded like a different person — bloodthirsty and cruel — but Katelyn reminded herself that what they’d both been through had been horrific. Fenners had died today. And if what Cordelia said was true, Luc had betrayed them all.
    “I’m glad it was Justin who shot him,” Cordelia added. “He tried to get my father to listen to Dom and accept the terms for peace. Forgiving me,” she said in a hushed voice. “Daddy wouldn’t forgive me.” She exhaled slowly, then piped up, “Oh, I almost forgot. I found your phone in the swamp. Here.” Katelyn felt Cordelia press the phone into her hand. “Someone called you during the fracas. I didn’t have time to see who it was.”
    And then Katelyn realized that Cordelia knew that there was bad news. She was doing everything she could to avoid hearing it. Katelyn took a deep breath. Cordelia’s relationship with her father had been so complicated. She had loved, hated, and feared him in equal measure. She should be glad that he was dead. And yet . . . “I’m sorry. But you have to listen . . .”
    “No,” Cordelia whispered. “No.” She let out a hard, heavy sob. “Don’t. Don’t say it.”
    “Your father loved you,” Katelyn said. “He did. He and I had a deal. If I found the mine, then he would bring you home.”
    Cordelia made a low, keening noise, one that Katelyn had heard before — in the heavy rain when her grandfather had driven her from the airport to the tiny, cursed town of Wolf Springs. A howl so mournful, and in such pain . . .
    A werewolf died the day I came here, she thought. And he — or she — was mourned. Who died? Who did I hear howling that night?
    And then she put her arms around her friend, and held her as she sobbed. But she couldn’t help but tense at every sound, every smell.
    The Hellhound was still out there. It could be stalking them even at that moment.
    Katelyn . . . can you feel me? I’m getting closer. And then—
    She gasped. The voice she heard in her dreams was echoing around in her head now — when she was awake.
    “No!” she shouted.
    Cordelia jerked back with a startled cry. “What, Kat?”
    “I-I think the Hellhound spoke to me. I heard him,” she said. “In my mind.”
    Cordelia went silent for a few beats. “I can smell him,” she whispered.
    The hair on Katelyn’s arms lifted and a shiver ran up her spine.
    Cordelia grabbed Katelyn’s hand and together the two crept cautiously out of the cave, then ran.
    Maybe it was fear that supercharged her senses. And now she smelled fear rippling off Cordelia and it only made her own terror worse. Cordelia yanked down on her arm and the two dropped to the ground, sliding underneath a massive fallen log that was partially decayed. They lay still for a minute, struggling to control their breathing. Katelyn strained her ears, listening for any sound, hoping she wouldn’t hear his voice again in her mind.
    A minute passed. Another.
    Somewhere far off a twig snapped. A minute later she could swear she heard growling.
    Cordelia began to slide backwards, using the fallen log as a shield. Katelyn did the same. She sniffed the air but could only smell sweat — hers and Cordelia’s, mingled. She wondered if they were upwind or down from the creature.
    “Can you still smell it?”