Thornhill (Hemlock) Read Online Free PDF Page B

shook his head as though trying to clear it, and the fabric at his neck gaped open. I stared, horrified, as his tattoo was fully displayed.
    I quickly pulled his collar closed, but I was too late. One man was already setting down his pool cue. He swore under his breath as he drew closer.
    A single word was tossed from wolf to wolf: Tracker.
    Games and drinks were abandoned as a semicircle of wolves closed around us. Kyle and Serena yelled our names, but I couldn’t see them through the crowd.
    Jason’s fingers tightened around mine, and my hip bumped the pool table as I stepped back.
    “He’s a spy. They sent a spy.” I couldn’t see the speaker, but it didn’t matter: the accusation was picked up and passed along until every face reflected a dangerous combination of fear and anger.
    Kyle managed to break through the throng. He put himself between us and the nearest wolves. “He’s not a Tracker.”
    A heavyset man with a lion’s mane of gray hair stalked forward. The muscles in his arms moved under his skin. “He has the tattoo.”
    Kyle repositioned himself so that he was partially blocking Jason from their view. His voice was steady but with an unmistakable undercurrent of desperation. “He didn’t go through the initiation. The tattoo’s not complete. He’s not one of them.”
    “You expect us to believe you? After everyone saw you talking to him? What did you do, give him the address?”
    “No one gave us the address,” I said breathlessly. I caught a glimpse of Serena as she tried to make her way to the front of the crowd. “We came with Eve. She knows we’re here.”
    “Bullshit,” replied the wolf. “Eve would never let a Tracker in.” The wolves pressed forward, a noose tightening around our necks.
    The back of Kyle’s shirt was damp with sweat and I thought I could see muscles twitch under the fabric. “I swear: he’s just an ordinary reg. Harmless.”
    “And her?” rose a voice in the crowd.
    Kyle glanced at me and hesitated. Which version of the truth would get us out of this unscathed?
    The wolves didn’t wait for him to decide.
    In a blur of motion, a woman—partially transformed with inhuman hands and teeth—broke through the throng and tore me away from Kyle and Jason. My knees collided painfully with the floor as she forced me down. Serena shouted my name a second before the woman shredded the collar of my shirt and jacket with her claw-tipped fingers. Cold air hit my neck as she pushed my head to the side, looking for the Tracker’s brand.
    Kyle was on her in an instant. His face was a mask of fury, and for the first time, I looked at him and saw a man who had killed to keep me safe. He pulled the woman off of me but lost his grip when she started to shift completely.
    Bones cracked, muscles tore, and clothing fell away until a wolf with fur the color of honey had taken the woman’s place.
    I tried to stand, but someone grabbed me from behind and shoved me back to my knees.
    “ENOUGH!” A roar split the air, and the silence that followed was deafening.
    A man strode through the crowd, two gigantic rust-colored wolves padding at his side. I strained to glimpse his face, but a hand on the back of my skull forced my gaze to the floor.
    The man placed himself between me and the bulk of the wolves. “Let her go.”
    That voice. I knew that voice.
    The pressure on my skull fell away. I looked up just as the man turned his back on me. He was tall and lean and he held himself like someone who was used to violence. His hair, black with hints of gray, just grazed the collar of a flannel shirt.
    The set of his shoulders and the way he tilted his head to the side were horribly familiar, but I couldn’t see his face.
    “They’re Trackers, Curtis.” The wolf with the gray hair stepped forward. “He has the brand.”
    Relief washed over me. The voice hadn’t really been familiar. Curtis . I knew how disposable names could be, but I seized it like a lifeline as I pushed myself to my