Werewolf in Denver (25 page)

She couldn’t believe that the same Duncan who’d loved her so thoroughly mere hours ago could have posted this blog, but she’d confessed her fears about her sister last night, and the night before, she’d confessed her silly attraction to this TV actor.

Swallowing the bile that rose in her throat, she handed the phone back to Heidi. “I have to talk to him.”

“
Talk
to him? How about you, me, and the rest of the Howlers lure him into a dark hallway and beat the living shit out of him? How about that?”

“I just can’t believe…Let me at least see what he says.”

“What can he say? He’s mounted a smear campaign with a Photoshopped picture! Some Weres will recognize that, but not all of them. We need to take him out.” Heidi quivered with rage. “I’m so furious I could do it right now with my bare hands. I don’t care if he outweighs me by a hundred pounds. Let me at him.”

But Kate had already pulled out her phone and texted Duncan—
How could you post that blog?

His response came back almost immediately.
We agreed to highlight our differences, remember?

Not like that!

Kate, I hope you don’t expect me to back off from the Woofer position because of last night.

A cold chill traveled down her spine.
You’ve betrayed me, Duncan!

How?

If you don’t know, then there’s no way I could ever explain it to you.
A red mist of fury settled over her brain as she looked up from her phone. “Beating the shit out of him is too private a punishment, Heidi. I want the whole of Were cyberspace to know what I think of that slimy bastard.”

“Now you’re talking!”

“Let’s get out of here. I need to go up to my room and concentrate on this.” She nearly crashed into Neil as she stormed out into the hall.

“Hey, Kate!” He caught her arm. “Anything wrong? You look furious.”

She was in no mood to play nice with her cousin. “Sorry. No time to talk. Heidi and I have something that needs doing immediately.” Adrenaline pumping, she headed for her room with Heidi by her side.

Chapter 16

Sniffer Update: @newshound—
Blog attack! Just as WERECON2012 started to bore me, MacDowell and Stillman unloaded…on each other! #mesmerized

Knox Trevelyan stopped Duncan in the hallway between sessions. “I admire all your work and have always admired your dedication to the Woofer cause, but I’m not sure what to think about that blog, buddy. It doesn’t sound like you.”

“I wanted to make sure everyone knows where I stand.” Duncan went back over the blog he’d written and couldn’t see why Kate, and now Knox, objected to it.

“Oh, you did that, all right. And she’s responded in kind. Can’t say I blame her, either.”

“Guess I should take a look at her blog, then.” He’d written his quickly during the first hour, finished it in about fifteen minutes, and posted it right away. He thought he’d done a decent job of stating the Woofer position while still supporting the mission statement. Her reaction made no sense. Had their time together
convinced her that he would never say anything negative about the Howlers again? That was unrealistic and not what he’d expect of her.

“If I were you,” Knox said, “I’d issue an apology before this gets any nastier.”

“Nasty?” Duncan frowned. “I wasn’t nasty.”

“Then you and I have different standards. Well, I’m off to another session. I hope you two get this over with before Howard sees it. He’ll blow a gasket.” Knox headed on down the hallway to one of the meeting rooms.

Duncan found a quiet corner with two easy chairs tucked into it, sat down, and took his laptop out of his briefcase. Something wasn’t right. He quickly called up Kate’s blog and read it in growing amazement.

OPEN LETTER TO DUNCAN MACDOWELL

Dear So-Not-a-Prince Duncan—I made the mistake of thinking that you had a touch of honor in your soul, but your recent actions have convinced me that you have none whatsoever. I also deluded myself that you had a few brains in that swelled head of yours, but apparently that’s not true, either. Otherwise you’d realize that Weres are intelligent beings who will recognize a smear campaign when they see it.

Your opinion of your kind must be exceedingly low if you think they can be duped as you have attempted to dupe them. No wonder you prefer human females. You probably seek out those who are not very bright, so that you can amaze them with your supposed brilliance. I, however, have seen the light, and it does not come from you, Duncan MacDowell. All that I see when I look at you is the dark
pit of hell. May you spend the rest of your life roasting in it. Kate

A hive of angry bees buzzed in his head. Smear campaign? Duping other Weres? What was she talking about? He called up his own blog, and there was the reasoned post he’d written.

Now that he thought about it, everyone wearing a purple shirt had been glaring at him for the past hour, and a few had made some rude gestures, too. He’d wondered about that, because he hadn’t thought his post was the least bit inflammatory. It still wasn’t. Sure, he’d restated his belief in ending the secrecy and allowing Weres and humans to mate without fear, but there was nothing insulting about his argument.

At some point he’d planned a follow-up blog to acknowledge his new understanding regarding Were-human mating. A Were female mating with a human had a different situation, and he’d planned to invite some comments from his followers on the subject and get a civilized debate going. But now…Kate had consigned him to hell!

Something was very wrong, but he couldn’t find out what it was unless he saw her in person. Taking his phone from his pocket, he texted her.
We need to talk.

Her response came back quickly.
Not in this lifetime.

I don’t know why you’re so upset.

Then you’re even more stupid than I thought.

Please, can I meet you somewhere?

No, and hell no.

He sighed and stared at his phone. This exchange was getting him nowhere. Then he noted the time. A lunch break would be next, followed by the autograph session
featuring him, Kate, and Emma Wallace, Aidan Wallace’s mate and a best-selling novelist.

Earlier today he’d been looking forward to the autographing as a chance to be in the same room with Kate. After the rumors about them he’d been careful to avoid her, thinking that was for the best until they worked out how they’d proceed. Judging from her blog post, there would be no
proceeding
at all, ever. She absolutely hated him. How could that be?

He was thoroughly bewildered and wished she’d been willing to meet him privately to discuss the problem, whatever it was. She hadn’t been, but she couldn’t duck him forever. They would both be in the room for the autographing, and he’d find a way to talk to her then.

Bolstered by that thought, he admitted to himself that he was exhausted. He needed sleep more than he needed lunch. Returning to his room, he set his phone alarm, pulled off his clothes, and fell into bed. He was asleep instantly.

The alarm woke him thirty minutes before he was due at the autographing. He also had a text from Howard on his phone.
Glad you took that terrible blog post down. Don’t know if you did it or one of your Woofers, but you owe Kate an apology. We can’t have this kind of animosity on the council.

Muttering a few swearwords in Gaelic, Duncan treated himself to a very hot shower and clean clothes. Even though he’d showered this morning, he felt dirty. As he dressed in a black turtleneck, slacks, and a sport coat, he thought of something that didn’t match up and quickly checked his blog. His original post was still there, so what did Howard mean about being glad he’d taken it down?

If he hadn’t known for sure that he was wide-awake,
he’d think this was some horrible nightmare. But he knew what nightmares felt like, and this was real. Too damned real. He intended to get some answers.

The autograph session had been set up in the ballroom, because the debate was to follow immediately afterward and that allowed Duncan and Kate to remain in the same room. Delegates were already lined up outside the door waiting for the autographing to begin. The Woofers gave him a grin and a thumbs-up, but the Howlers simply glared.

“Don’t think you’re off the hook because you took it down,” one female in a purple shirt called out to him.

“Yeah, better stay out of dark alleys,” said another.

Frustrated, he turned to them, hands outstretched. “I don’t know what you’re talking about!”

One Howler turned to another. “Short memory.”

“That’s a Woofer for you.”

“Hey!” A male with a long lanyard full of buttons gestured to the two Howlers. “I’m glad MacDowell finally took the gloves off. It’s about time. If I had my way, we’d—”

“That’s enough, my friends.” Howard came down the hallway with Emma, his daughter-in-law, and Aidan, his son and heir to the alpha position. Emma, a curvy blonde, was dwarfed by the Weres flanking her.

Duncan finally had the two Wallace brothers straight in his mind. Aidan, who was now striding toward him, had brown hair and eyes that were almost golden. Roarke, who had blond hair, was not with the others at the moment.

“The blog has been taken down,” Howard said to the
Weres standing in line. “And I’m sure Duncan plans to make amends, don’t you, Duncan?”

“First I have to find out what I’m supposed to have done.”

Howard gave him a sharp glance. “That wasn’t quite the response I was looking for.” Then he turned back to the lines of autograph seekers. “I warn you, we can’t have arguments breaking out during what’s supposed to be a pleasant author event. The doors will open shortly. Please be civil to one another.” He walked forward and held the door for Emma, Aidan, and Duncan.

“We need to talk,” he said in a low voice as Duncan walked through the door.

“I’d like that very much.” Maybe the mystery would finally be solved. He glanced to the front of the room where Kate had already ensconced herself at a table piled high with books. A petite brunette stood by her side, and he made a guess that was Heidi, her assistant.

Howard motioned him toward the back of the room. “I’ll admit I was surprised and disappointed to see your blog this morning,” he said. “I thought you understood that inflaming the opposition wasn’t going to help this organization function.”

“I fail to see how my blog inflamed anyone. In fact, I was afraid that my followers would accuse me of pulling my punches.”

Howard studied him for a long moment. Then he sighed. “I wondered if that’s what had happened.”

“What?”

“I’m afraid somebody hacked into your blog, Duncan. They posted something really offensive as if it had come from you.”

A trickle of cold sweat worked its way down Duncan’s spine. “Tell me about it.”

“This morning, sometime before the end of the first round of seminars, your blog post included a picture of Kate in bed with a TV star. He’s on one of those cop shows. Emma would know it.”

Duncan’s jaw dropped. “No, it didn’t. I don’t know what blog you were looking at, but I’d sure as hell like to find out. That’s outrageous. It’s…” He trailed off. “Is that what she thinks was on my blog, too?”

“She doesn’t just think, Duncan. She knows. She saw it. We all did. There’s no doubt it was your blog.”

“It couldn’t have been.”

“Well, it was. A couple of us might have been mistaken, but when nearly all the convention delegates say they saw it, then it was there. And it was yours.”

Duncan swallowed. “What…what else was on there?” He listened in horror as Howard described the rest of the blog’s contents.

“So you see why she was so upset,” Howard said. “Why we all were, except some of the Woofers.”

“I didn’t do it. By all the saints, I didn’t put up that blog.” Duncan turned toward the front of the room. “I have to go tell her. I can’t let her think that I—”

“Hold on a minute, son.” Howard laid a heavy hand on his shoulder. “I doubt she’ll believe you, and you’ll only cause more of a commotion.”

Duncan glanced back at him. “Do you believe me?”

“Yes, I do. But before you go trying to convince Kate or anyone about your innocence, let me put Aidan on the job. He handles security for Wallace Enterprises, and when it comes to something like this, he’s the best. Let
him nose around and find out what happened with your blog.”

Duncan scrubbed a hand over his face. “I hate for her to go on thinking I would sabotage her like that. No wonder she wants me to burn in hell.”

Howard gave Duncan’s shoulder a squeeze and stepped back. “We’ll get it fixed. Let me have a word with Aidan. Right now it’s time to open those doors so you three can sign some books.”

“Aye.” Duncan walked up to the front of the room feeling like a condemned man going in front of the firing squad. An innocent condemned man, at that.

Kate glanced up once and then turned to talk with her assistant.

His heart ached at the disdain he’d glimpsed in her blue eyes before she turned away. Her assistant didn’t turn away, though, and she had more than disdain in her eyes. Duncan would describe what he saw there as bloodlust.

He didn’t blame Heidi for that, either. In fact, he was happy to know that Kate had such a loyal friend on her side. In Heidi’s place, he’d feel the same. He’d want to kill whoever had hurt Kate.

Three rectangular tables had been lined up across the front of the room. Kate was on the far right and Duncan was on the far left. Emma sat at the middle table, and she gave him a tight smile. Howard had already pulled Aidan over into a corner, leaving Emma alone at her table.

He glanced at her and sighed. “I didn’t do it, Emma,” he said as he walked around behind the table with his name tent on it. “Howard’s asking your mate to investigate a potential blog hijacking.”

Some of the tenseness left Emma’s expression. “Really? You didn’t put that up there?”

“No, I didn’t. And I wouldn’t. That’s not my way.”