Mercy Thompson 01-05 - THE MERCY THOMPSON COLLECTION

for so long?”
    â€œMercy.” He caught my hand—his own felt cold, but that might have been from the wind. “A werewolf?”
    He didn’t really believe me—that might be more dangerous. “Twenty years ago no one believed in the fae, either. Look, I can prove it to you.”
    I looked at a thicket of leafless bushes. They weren’t really thick enough for me to strip and shift in, but there weren’t any boats out on the water, and as long as we didn’t get another biker at the wrong moment. . . . I could just shift in my clothes—I get smaller, not bigger—but I’d rather be given a ticket for indecent exposure. A coyote in human clothes looks ridiculous.
    â€œWait here.” I gave him the trench coat so it wouldn’t get dirty, then hopped off the swing and waded through the old grass into the bushes. I took off my clothes as fast as I could and shifted as soon as I dropped the last piece of clothing.
    I stopped on the path and sat down, trying to look harmless.
    â€œMercy?” Kyle had his lawyer face on, which told me how shocked he was. He really hadn’t believed me.
    I wagged my tail and made a crooning noise. He got out of the swing like an old, old man and approached me.
    â€œA coyote?” he asked.
    When I went down to get my clothes, he followed me. I shifted right in front of him—then scrambled back into my clothes as I heard another bicycle coming along.
    â€œI’m not a werewolf,” I told him, running my fingers through my hair. “But I’m as close as you’re going to get until you talk Warren into changing for you.”
    Kyle made an impatient sound and pulled my hands away, rearranging my hair himself.
    â€œWerewolves are bigger,” I said, feeling as though I ought to warn him. “A lot bigger. They don’t look like wolves. They look like really, really big wolves who might eat you.”
    â€œOkay,” he said, stepping back. I thought he was talking about my hair, until he continued. “Warren’s a werewolf.”
    I looked at his lawyer face and sighed. “He couldn’t tell you. If I tell you, and you don’t do anything stupid—you and he are both safe. But if he told you, no matter how you reacted, he would have disobeyed a direct order. The penalty for that is brutal.”
    He still wasn’t giving anything away. He was so closed off, I couldn’t sense what he was feeling. Most humans don’t have that kind of control over themselves.
    â€œWon’t his pack—” He stumbled over that word a little. “Won’t they think he told me?”
    â€œA lot of werewolves can smell a lie,” I said. “They’ll know how you found out.”
    He went back to the swing, picked up the trench coat, and held it out to me. “Tell me about werewolves.”
    I was in the middle of trying to explain just how dangerous a werewolf could be and why it wasn’t a good idea for him to flirt with Samuel—or Darryl—when my cell phone rang.
    It was Zee.
    â€œBusiness?” Kyle asked when I hung up.
    â€œYes.” I bit my lip.
    He smiled. “It’s all right. I think I’ve heard enough secrets for one day. I take it you need to go back to Warren’s?”
    â€œDon’t talk to him yet,” I said. “Wait for it to sink in. If you have other questions, you can call me.”
    â€œThanks, Mercy.” He wrapped an arm around my shoulder. “But I think I need to talk the rest out with Warren—after his business is finished.”

chapter 9
    Samuel and Warren were seated on opposite sides of the living room when I walked in, and the air smelled thick with anger. I couldn’t tell, just by looking at them, whether they were angry with each other or something else. But then, werewolves are always ready to be angry about something. I’d forgotten what it was like.
    Of course, I wasn’t the only one with a nose. Warren, sitting closest to the door, took a deep breath.
    â€œShe’s been with Kyle,” he said, his voice flat. “She smells like the cologne I gave him. You told him.” He swore at me, but there was more pain than anger in it. I felt a sharp twinge of guilt.
    â€œ You weren’t going to tell him,” I said. I was not apologizing. “And he deserved to know that all the crap he has to put up with is not all your doing.”
    Warren shook