Mercy Thompson 01-05 - THE MERCY THOMPSON COLLECTION

they don’t seem to bother you.” It wasn’t that I was a coyote shifter that bothered her. I knew it. I just wondered if she knew it. It did bother some of the pack; maybe Auriele and Darryl bothered some of them, too. If so, those pack members were smart enough to keep it to themselves.
    Mary Jo tightened her lips but didn’t say anything.
    â€œHow long have you wanted him?” I asked her. “You had all these years since Jesse’s mother left.”
    Bran’s methods sucked. I watched her eyes darken with pain and wanted to kick myself. But she’d been at least partially responsible for Adam’s wounds. And I agreed with Warren about fire after watching Samuel scrub dead flesh from live. Mary Jo had been stupid. I was betting she hadn’t hurt Adam on purpose, but I had to know.
    I observed the anger that followed pain rise in her face and just watched her.
    â€œYou are nothing ,” she spit. “I’m nothing, too. That’s how I know. Adam deserves the best. A wolf strong and beautiful, a woman who is—”
    â€œMore?” I suggested. “Smart, well-bred?”
    â€œNot a half-breed coyote,” she snapped. Her wolf was in her eyes, and her voice was raw. “Not a stupid mechanic or a freaking fireman. There isn’t even a proper word for what I am. Fireman. He needs someone soft, someone feminine.”
    â€œHe deserves so much,” I said slowly. I had her, even though it made me sick. Coyotes aren’t cats; we don’t play with our prey. “I think he deserves a pack who has his back.”
    â€œI have his back,” she said. I couldn’t see her hands. Through all this she’d held to parade rest, and her hands were hidden behind her back. From the flex of her biceps I would bet that they were clenched in fists, and her voice wasn’t as hard and certain as she meant it to be. But her words told me what I’d been watching for, told me that she hadn’t wanted him dead. That made the rest of this both harder and easier. Harder because she was going to be hurting even more before this was over—easier because she would survive it.
    â€œYou have his back, do you?” I kept my voice soft, my body relaxed. “Funny, I could have sworn that you just set him up to be killed.”
    â€œI got him out,” she said. “I ran in after him with Darryl and pulled him out.”
    â€œNot soon enough, Mary Jo,” I said. “He could have easily died in there.” I had to take a breath so I could maintain my relaxed posture. He could have died. But I had to keep up the momentum, make her listen to me, make her listen to herself.
    â€œWho was it that was out there with you?” I asked coolly. “Ben says whoever it was, he has to be more dominant than you. It wasn’t Warren or Darryl.” Ben would have noticed if Darryl hadn’t been at the meeting. He’d have said something to me because if it was Darryl who was running the show, it would have been too dangerous to hold his tongue. The same was true of Auriele.
    â€œHow does the pack run from there?” I watched her sweat. Ben was right that it was someone higher up. She was expecting me to name him soon, so not too far down the pack hierarchy. “Auriele. It wasn’t her either, was it? She likes Adam. She’d never send him into a burning building to rescue someone who wasn’t there.”
    She stiffened at the dig.
    â€œThen there is Paul.” That got her—wasn’t that interesting? But I knew better. “It wasn’t him, though. Adam doesn’t trust Paul at his back. He’d have kept him right here through the whole pack meeting.” Paul had been my pick for the jerk who’d influenced me at the bowling alley before I’d understood how angry Mary Jo was. He’d probably been Adam’s pick, too. Paul was still angry about losing a fight to Warren, and he’d put the blame on Adam for that. Like Ben, Paul was a bitter and difficult person who didn’t like many people. Mary Jo was one he did like, her and her boyfriend, Henry.
    I watched her face closely. She was worried I’d guess. Not Paul, then who? Further down the ranks things could get murky to an outsider as I had been and really still was. I ran the wolves I knew well through my head, then stopped. Henry? He was a nice guy. Smart and quick. A banker, I thought, but I wasn’t sure,