Page 43 of The Patron Saint of Timber Hollow

"And Ivy is a black Bear?" Again, I nod at my friend. "Does she know about the Hunters?"

"She's not in the Timber Hollow pack, so I don't know."

"You should tell her, too, then."

"I don't want to get into all the Ethan bullshit...I can just tell her that my Pack believes hunters are in the area specifically looking for animals with black coats, right?"

"Sure. That is true, at least, right?"

"Right."

"Well, alright, then. We'll do the rest of the inventory quickly, then we'll go back up, and you'll tell Ivy what you know. At the end of your shift, you'llgo homeand tell Jay what you told me. Yeah?"

I take a deep breath and then another. I don't feel quite so overwhelmed anymore, but now I'm just left with the urge to run. One that I will not give in to. Not tonight. "Yeah. Okay. I can do that. Thanks, Sam."

"Of course. And suppose you so happen to be right about Ethan, and you need somewhere to hide a body or something... In that case, I can always swallow the little rat bastard whole," Sam says cheerfully, smiling a cherub's smile at me with her manicured nails tucked under her chin.

It makes me huff out a surprised laugh, a bead of tension broken. "Very demure."

"Yes, I know," Sam grins.

"So what's new with you?" I ask, needing to change the subjectnowbefore I rip my skin off.

Like always, my friend picks up the switch in me and answers with an almost absent-minded reply: "I'm looking into design stuff around here. There's a Rodeo in the spring. I'm going to see if they need anything."

I whip my face back toward her, nearly dropping my clipboard. "Aw, does that mean you'll be leaving the Coyotes?"

Sam snorts, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear. "Nah, I like it here too much, and I'm making the same as I had been in California right now with less than half the stress. I justlikedesigning."

"So this is just freelance stuff?"

"Yep, I'll still be here four nights a week," Sam winks, blowing a kiss at me.

"Good," I concede, blowing a smooch back at her. "I would have been distraught."

"Inconsolable?"

"Positively miserable. I would yearn for your swift return."

Thisis why working with your besties is thebest.When I walked in here, I felt like I was going to implode, spill my guts all over, and make a mess of everything. Now, I could conquer the unknown realms as long as my friends had my back.

"Are you ready to go back upstairs and bitch slap some assholes?" Sam asks, waggling her eyebrows at me.

I laugh and answer, "Well, when you put it that way, how can I resist?"

When Sam and I go back upstairs, I manage to corner Ivy to tell her to be aware of Hunters.

Quickly as possible, I lay out the facts, including my Alpha's suspicion that they are specifically after shifters with dark coats.

Ivy takes the news in stride, her shoulders squaring.

"Thank you for telling me, Artemis," Ivy replies, squashing me into a quick hug.

"Don't die, yeah?" I say, returning her hug.

"Don't die," She says back. Then, the hug ends, and I feel about another ten pounds lighter.

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