Frostbitten
Page 76

I'd figured I'd be able to find the place on my own, but it was like when someone offers directions to a house you've visited before. You think you'll remember your way there. But now I realized that hoping to find a specific cabin in all these miles of wilderness was like hoping to find a single house in a neighborhood of hundreds.
The best chance to fulfill my promise and get Noah back was to follow the Teslers now. We'd barely set out when they turned off the road and had to slow down. A brisk jog kept us close enough to track them.
We followed the sleds back to the cottage, which wasn't as far away as I'd thought, proving how screwed we would have been.
Once we neared the cabin, I remembered the territory down to the last tree. The snowmobile shed was on the other side of the cottage. We cut through the forest, staying downwind and coming out there, hidden in the bushes, too far for them to pick up our scent.
As soon as the engines died, the brothers started talking. We could only pick up snatches of the conversation, just enough to know they'd been looking for me, which I could have guessed. Tesler had gone back to the stakeout point to find broken ropes, paw prints and bloodied snow.
"Oh, come on," Eddie said as they came out of the shed. "You've got to admit, it is kind of funny. You stake her out, trying to scare her with stories of that beast thing… and it really does carry her off. What do you think it's doing with her?"
Tesler snarled something.
"Hey, don't give me that look," Eddie said. "If you'd kept your cool, you wouldn't have lost her. I told you to bring her back inside. But you had to push it. Time to focus on the consolation prize, which you gotta admit is a helluva score. Six months from now, you won't remember what Elena Michaels looked like. All that'll matter is that you get the credit for killing her… and for killing Clayton Danvers."
I didn't hear what Tesler said next. The next thing I knew I was facedown in the snow, rage and panic pumping through me, Nick's knee digging in my back, his voice at my ear telling me it was okay, Clay was okay, they hadn't found him, just lie still and listen.
"… would have been easier if plan A worked out," Eddie was saying as their boots crunched across the snow. "Stillwell delivers Elena and tells us where her hubby's stashed. Now we have to wait for Danvers to show up. But he will. No doubt about that, not after the way he went after you the other day. He'll come for her, and we'll be waiting."
Their boots clomped up the cabin steps. Eddie kept talking, trying to lift his brother's mood.
"If we kill those two, we won't have to hide out in this godforsaken wilderness anymore. We can ply our trade anywhere in the country, because there's not going to be any Pack to worry about."
"Still got four more where they came from," Tesler grumbled.
"Who? Two old men and a jewel thief?"
A frown creased Nick's handsome face.
"Oh, wait," Eddie said. "We can't forget Nick Sorrentino."
Nick nodded.
"No, actually, I think we can," Eddie continued. "Unless we're competing for best-dressed pansy-ass. Muss up his hair and he'll run screaming for his stylist."
That got a chuckle from Tesler… and then it was my turn to hold Nick down.
"We have to figure out what we're going to do with Danvers when he shows up," Eddie said as the door whooshed open. "It has to be good. And we need to take photos. That'll cement our reps. We'll have every mutt in the country begging us for jobs."
"Speaking of which," Tesler said, as they went inside. "We have to call the others. Tell them to get their asses back here… "
I waited until the door closed and lights turned on inside, tracking their passage through the cottage. Then I let Nick up.
"Pansy-ass," he muttered as he scooped snow from his collar.
"It's a front. Which he's about to find out."
"Damn right."
Nick's lips twitched in the faintest sardonic smile. He knew he wasn't the Pack's best fighter. His father and Clay never let him be-they'd always been quick to jump in and fend off any threats, as they did with Jeremy. But like Jeremy, Nick could hold his own, and unlike Jeremy, he enjoyed the chance to prove it.
"Junior is mine," he said as we rose and stretched.
"Good, because I own Senior. And no one better get in my way."
We brushed ourselves off, then I looked around for any sign that our local werewolf had found Clay or Antonio. Nothing.
"Do we wait?" Nick asked. "There's only two of them, and it sounds like there will be more soon."
"Not too soon. They're talking about their comrades, who are in the Lower 48 on business." I looked from the house to the gray woods. "As long as the Teslers stay put, we should wait."
 
AGAIN I TRIED to do the right thing and wait for backup. Again, an interruption made me rethink the wisdom of that. This time it wasn't a sound, but a scent.
When I lifted my face to catch it again, Nick inhaled, too.
"Mutt," he said. "Is that Joey's boy? Maybe he escaped."
For a moment, I hesitated. I don't know why-the scent clearly wasn't Noah's-yet something in it made me pause before shaking my head.
"Those Shifter things?"
"No, they smell different. And very distinct. Their cave was well appointed, but I don't think it included hot showers."
Nick made a face, then sniffed again. "So it's not the Shifters. It's not Joey or his boy. It's not Reese, not the Teslers, not the wolf-guy… Exactly how many werewolves and werewolflike critters are running around out here?"
"Too many." I pushed to my feet and looked at the cabin. The lights were still on and I could hear the faint clatter of dishes, as if they were making breakfast. "Let's go see who's sniffing around."
 
 
MISSION
 

WHAT WE FOUND were two werewolves dressed in full winter walking garb, from boots to gloves to parkas that covered their faces. One whiff told me I'd never met these mutts before. I had, however, smelled them-or traces of them, earlier tonight, in the cottage. When Tesler told Eddie they needed to call their men in, he didn't mean bring them back to Alaska. They were already here.