Dead as a Doornail

deep voice was not angry, merely matter-of-fact.
    “I’m not a pack member.”
    “You challenge the contest?” Quinn was looking at me now. All the pack members who’d been standing close around me dropped back until I stood alone with the two fairies, who were looking down at me with some surprise and dismay.
    “You bet your ass I do. Smell the gloves Patrick’s second was wearing.”
    The blond second looked completely blindsided. And guilty.
    “Drop the bars,” Quinn commanded, and the two wolves complied, Jackson Herveaux with a whimper. Alcide dropped to his knees by his father, putting his arms around the older wolf.
    Quinn, moving as smoothly as if his joints were oiled, knelt to retrieve the gloves that Patrick’s second had tossed to the floor. Libby Furnan’s hand darted over the velvet rope to snatch them up, but a deep snarl from Quinn told her to stop. It made my own spine tingle, and I was much farther away than Libby.
    Quinn picked up the gloves and smelled them.
    He looked down at Patrick Furnan with a contempt so heavy that I was surprised the wolf didn’t crumple under its weight.
    He turned to face the rest of the crowd. “The woman is right.” Quinn’s deep voice gave the words the gravity of stone. “There’s a drug on the gloves. It made Furnan’s skin numb when the silver was placed in his mouth, so he could last longer. I declare him loser of this part of the contest.The pack will have to decide whether he should forfeit any right to continue, and whether his second should still be a pack member.” The fair-haired Were was cringing as if he expected someone to hit him. I didn’t know why his punishment should be worse than Patrick’s; maybe the lower your rank, the worse your punishment? Not exactly fair; but then, I wasn’t a Were.
    “The pack will vote,” Christine called. She met my eyes and I knew this was why she wanted me here. “If the rest of you would step into the outer room?”
    Quinn, Claude, Claudine, and three shape-shifters moved with me to the doors leading into the other room. There was more natural light there, which was a pleasure. Less of a pleasure was the curiosity that pooled around me. My shields were still down, and I felt the suspicion and conjecture flowing from the brains of my companions, except, of course, from the two fairies. To Claude and Claudine, my peculiarity was a rare gift, and I was a lucky woman.
    “Come here,” Quinn rumbled, and I thought about telling him to take his commands and shove them where the sun don’t shine. But that would be childish, and I had nothing to fear. (At least that’s what I told myself about seven times in rapid succession.) I made my spine stiffen, and I strode up to him and looked up into his face.
    “You don’t have to stick your jaw out like that,” he said calmly. “I’m not going to hit you.”
    “I never thought you were,” I said with a snap in my voice that I was proud of. I found that his round eyes were the very dark, rich, purple-brown of pansies. Wow, they were pretty! I smiled out of sheer pleasure . . . and a dollop of relief.
    Unexpectedly, he smiled back. He had full lips, very even white teeth, and a sturdy column of a neck.
    “How often do you have to shave?” I asked, fascinated with his smoothness.
    He laughed from the belly.
    “Are you scared of anything?” he asked.
    “So many things,” I said regretfully.
    He considered that for a moment. “Do you have an extrasensitive sense of smell?”
    “Nope.”
    “Do you know the blond one?”
    “Never saw him before.”
    “Then how did you know?”
    “Sookie is a telepath,” Claude said. When he got the full weight of the big man’s stare, he looked like he was sorry he’d interrupted. “My sister is her, ah, guardian,” Claude concluded in a rush.
    “Then you’re doing a terrible job,” Quinn told Claudine.
    “Don’t you get onto Claudine,” I said indignantly. “Claudine’s saved my life a bunch.”
    Quinn looked exasperated. “Fairies,” he muttered. “The Weres aren’t going to be happy about your piece of information,” he told me. “At least half of them are going to wish you were dead. If your safety is Claudine’s top priority, she should have held your mouth shut.”
    Claudine looked crushed.
    “Hey,” I said, “cut it out. I know you’ve got friends in there you’re worried about, but don’t take that out on Claudine. Or me,” I added hastily, as his eyes fixed on mine.
    “I