Cry Wolf (Alpha & Omega 1)

"I wasn't an Omega then," Anna said. "I was just a human. "

Charles gave her a small smile and started eating his stew. "You were born an Omega, just as my father was dominant and dangerous from his first step, human or not. Being a werewolf just brings it out, and age puts a polish on it."

"She doesn't know that?" Tag asked.

"Leo did his best to keep her ignorant and under his thumb," Charles told him.

Tag raised a fuzzy red eyebrow at her. "I never liked Leo, too damned underhanded by half. It's hard for a dominant wolf to hurt a submissive wolf if he's sane-our instincts tell us to protect them. Omega is one step beyond that. When you were human, you'd have been even more fragile than you are now-just ups those instincts. A human Omega is something that it takes a mad-dog-a wolf crazy with killing-to attack."

Both men had started eating again before Anna decided to challenge his statement. "None of the wolves in Leo's pack seemed to have trouble hurting me."

Tag's eyes met Charles's, and she remembered that there was a wolf underneath the brash cheeriness.

"They should have had trouble," said Charles harshly. "If Leo hadn't pushed, they'd have let you be."

"None of them stood up to him?" Tag asked.

"He'd weeded out the strong ones already," said Charles. "The others were under his thumb. They jumped when he told them."

"You sure you killed him?" asked Tag.

"Yes."

Tag's eyes skated across her again. "Good."

As soon as everyone finished eating, Tag got the map he'd brought and spread it over the table.

Anna collected the dirty dishes and cleaned up after dinner, while Charles and Tag mumbled over the map.

"All the attacks were within a few miles of Baree Lake," Tag was saying when she came back to peer over Charles's shoulder. "There's an old cabin in those woods, I've heard, but I've never seen it."

"I know where it is. That's a good thought." Charles tapped a finger on the map. "It's about there, not too far from the attacks. I haven't been out to Baree Lake in the winter for ten or fifteen years. Is this still the best road?"

"That's the way I went in today. You'll want to take this little road here." He pointed, but Anna didn't see a road.

"That's right," Charles said. "Then we'll hike over Silver Butte Pass."

"Now the first attack was up this way." He pointed slightly to the left of Baree Lake. "Right on the trail you'd take in the summer, a couple of miles from the lake. The dead hunter was found here, about a half mile from the lake. He probably came up Silver Butte Pass, like you're going to. We had a lot of snow in late October; by hunting season the old forest service road would already have been impassable. Heather and Jack were attacked here, about four miles from their truck. I was able to drive another quarter of a mile closer-you'll be able to do a little better in the Humvee."

Charles hummed, then said, "It could be a lot worse; we could be trying to get to Vimy Ridge."

Tag laughed shortly. "Which is where you'd hole up. I wouldn't want to be the wolf hunting you in that place in high summer, let alone midwinter. Happily, Baree Lake is as close to a Sunday hike as you can find in the Cabinets." He looked at Anna. "Not that it's easy, mind you. But possible. The only way to get to Vimy Ridge in this weather is by chopper. The snowpack can get over fourteen feet deep in some of the high country-you'll see some of that up there in the ridges above Baree. You go with this old lobo, and you listen to him, or-werewolf or not-we'll likely be out searching for your dead body."

"No need to frighten her," Charles said.

Tag leaned back in his chair and smiled. "She's not afraid. Are you, dovie?" And in that last phrase she heard a hint of an Irish lilt, or maybe Cockney. She might have a good ear, but she needed more than three words.

Tag looked at Charles. "Heather had to hike to the high stuff to call me. Most of the Cabinets still don't get cell phone reception. I parked here"-he tapped the map-"and walking around a little bit I found cell reception. I suggest you park near there and leave the cell phones in the car."

Charles gave him a sharp look. "In case this isn't a lone rogue?"

"You and Bran aren't the only ones who can add two and two," Tag said. "If this is an attack of some sort, you don't want to let the villains track you by that neat little locator cell phones carry nowadays."

"I hadn't intended to," agreed Charles. He leaned over the map again. "Just from the attacks, it looks as though Baree is the center of his territory-but..."

"Once the snow falls, you aren't going to get a lot of people east or west of the lake," Tag said decisively. "Baree Lake could as easily be the edge of his territory as the center."

Charles frowned. "I don't think we'll find him to the east. If he was in that big valley on the other side of the ridge above Baree, the natural lay of land would set his territory through the valley and maybe up to Buck Lake or even Wanless, but not over the ridge. That climb out of the valley to Baree is next to impossible this time of year, even on four feet."

"West then."

Charles ran a finger from Baree to a couple of smaller lakes. "I think we'll go to Baree and head west, over to the Bear Lakes through Iron Meadows and back over this mountain to the Vee. If we haven't encountered him by then, I think it will be time to call out the whole pack."

"You'll have to be careful, there's a lot of avalanche country up by the Bears," Tag said, but Anna could hear the approval in his voice.

They spent some time planning a route that would take four days to hike. When they were finished, Tag touched his hand to his forehead as if tugging an invisible hat.

"Pleased to meet you, ma'am," he told Anna. Then, without giving her time to say anything, he left as precipitously as he had come.

Chapter SIX

"He likes you," Charles said, folding up the map.

"How do you know that?" she asked.

"People he doesn't like, he doesn't talk to." He started to say something else but lifted his head and stared at the door with a frown instead. "I wonder what he wants?"

Once he drew her attention to it, she heard the car drive up, too.

"Who?" she asked, but he didn't answer, just stalked out to the living room, leaving her to follow hesitantly.

Charles jerked open the door, revealing the wolf from the funeral. Asil. He had one hand raised to knock on the door. In the other he had a bouquet of flowers, mostly yellow roses, but there were a few purple daisy-looking things, too.