Her Father's Poison

against the hull of the old dinghy and the tin in my lap, and I listened to t

ay every time, the crescent and the three waves stamped deep into the wax. Every crate that left the dockmaster's

hat the Council would do with that if they found out, and I knew what Cal would do with

der creak an ho

hing, and Roan came through it with his coat over his arm and his hair still wet

h that in your

" I set it down against t

he door and looked around the boathouse. The old dinghy, the

in here." I did not know why I told him t

een looking for. Then he turned and put his hand out flat

in my mother's stove with the kindling I had stacked there in the spring, and I told

y for the first time. His hair was drying in pale streaks. His eyes were the color of tea, with a ring of darker brow

" he said, withou

tting in my

brushed off his knees

N

s my

my voice flat. "You said someone moved the channel. How would you know that? You

me, close enough that I could smell the salt on him and the woodsmoke from the stove

s not mine. She belonged to an Alpha I never met. He was bringing the crates to a buyer in this har

in my pack would char

face. "I know because the Alpha on that ship was my father. His name was Ewan, and he drowned when the hull opened on the rocks three

one dry. "You

new hi

ad a chart." I heard how ugly it sounded in my own voice. "My father said he was a smuggler who

her was not a smuggler. He was carrying medicine to a pack that had been poisoned, and he carried it in crates marked with wolfsb

oathouse was too small, and the smell of him was everywhe

rth." He did not get up. "I have been looking for tha

giving you

ed over his face that I could not name. He

ar last night," he said. "The tide was wr

came out. He reached out and put his hand on

my arm and into my chest and filled every corner of me with heat, and my wolf rose up in me so hard I heard her howl behind my

. Sea salt and cedar and a thread of something sweet under it,

k into the shelf of paint tins and k

" I

hand was still open where he had been holding me, and his face had the

he Council has a price on your head, and you are standing in my

s hand. "You

d bette

tins on the floor between us, and I heard the first gulls of the mornin

nocked on the

ndow beside the door I saw the chestnut brown of Cal's hair caught by the harbour light, a

milk. "Your father is askin