Savage by Nancy Holder Read Free Book Online

queried, failing to keep the suspicion out of her voice.
    He cocked a brow at her. “I went to the Fenner compound once when I was very young,” he said.
    That took her aback.
    “Why? Do they know you?”
    “They wouldn’t remember me,” he said. “It was just a visit.”
    “A visit?”
    He frowned at her. “It’s got nothing to do with what’s going on.”
    “I sincerely doubt that. They told me about your pack. They didn’t like you.”
    “Why would they? We have the moral high ground. And the power to destroy them.”
    “Well, if you think they’re so bad, why haven’t you?”
    “We wait to learn of God’s will in all things,” he replied with the confidence of someone who is convinced he is right.
    “And God told you that He wants you to kill them now?”
    He was quiet for a moment, and he didn’t look at her. She waited.
    “Once you’ve joined us, Daniel can explain this to you more clearly,” he said. “Now, as to your question, I was here once, with my great-aunt. On a visit.”
    “Once. And all these trees aren’t confusing you.”
    “You really are new at this, aren’t you?” His smile was unbearably patronizing. “You’ll soon learn that those of us with the gift have an excellent sense of direction, much like our wild brethren.”
    “Gift. ‘Curse’ is more like it,” she said flatly.
    “Not at all. It’s an honor to fight for God, to destroy the demons that would overrun this earth. ‘Blessed are they that go down into the earth for my sake.’”
    “Is that in the Bible?”
    “In our holy scripture, from the Inquisition trial of Thiess,” he replied.
    Justin thought of it — being a werewolf — as a gift as well. Katelyn hadn’t gotten there yet. She doubted she ever would.
    Then she studied Magus’s profile, his green eyes. The werewolf who had attacked her had had blue eyes. She’d been compiling a list of werewolves with blue eyes ever since. Justin was on it, and a few other people as well. Not as many as she would have expected.
    “If you think it such a gift, why don’t you bestow it on everyone?” she asked. Maybe that was exactly what someone in his pack — or group, or whatever they called it — had done to her. Who said her attacker had to have been a Fenner or a Gaudin?
    Magus shook his head sharply. “The gift must be protected. The responsibilities that come with it can be overwhelming. The mantle is not to be taken up lightly.”
    “Wow,” she said, aloud this time.
    “And beyond that, we don’t bring strangers in,” he went on. “I told you that we’re not changed through a bite. We become werewolves through a magic ritual, and one must participate willingly, or it won’t work.”
    “So can you undo it with a magic ritual?” she asked hopefully. “If someone isn’t doing too well with the gift, can you take it back?”
    She held her breath as he fell silent, and tried to read his hesitation. She caught herself hopefully crossing her fingers, like she did when she was little.
    Please , she prayed. Please .
    “That’s something that hasn’t been revealed to me,” he said carefully. “But I’ve never heard of it being done.”
    Crestfallen, Katelyn chewed the inside of her cheek as she resumed staring at the endless lines of trees. Maybe she could hold out a little hope there. He might be lying. Maybe their leader, Daniel, knew how to do it. Cordelia had been definite that you had to be bitten to become a werewolf. So were the Hounds of God actually werewolves, or something else? This other world was much more complicated than Cordelia had led her to believe.
    “Of all people, you should welcome the gift,” he said.
    She jerked. “Why is that? Why have you guys picked me out?” Did they know about her immunity to silver?
    “Daniel will explain,” he said. “I’m just his messenger.”
    “But you must know more than you’re telling me.” She tried a different tack. “Did you ever hear about the string of murders around