Ellie's Wolf by Maddy Barone Page B

glances their way. The carpet was stained by a small puddle in front of the door of room 1001. As the mother of a toddler, Ellie knew what that puddle was. Someone had gotten sick right there, probably only a few minutes ago. Quill’s nostrils quivered as he inhaled. It wasn’t the vomit he mentioned though.
    “Blood,” he said grimly.
    Oh, dear God , Ellie breathed to herself. The Fosse brothers can’t have already killed Mel.
    Stone outraged Sara by putting his arms around her and dragging her back from the door. “You’ll stay out here, where it’s safe,” he ordered.
    Sara threw off his arms with an expression of withering scorn on her face. “Don’t try to boss me around.”
    She marched to the door, avoiding the sick in spite of the stuck-up angle of her head, and stumbled to a stop. Her mouth and both eyes were perfect circles as she backpedalled with frantic haste.
    “Oh, my God!” she bleated, and this time when Stone pulled her to his chest she didn’t push him away.
    Paint stepped out into the hall. “We’ve got trouble. When we got here, Mrs. Fosse was in this room, screaming. We could hear three men laughing and slapping noises, like somebody hitting someone with an open palm. It sounded ugly. Snake busted in the door, and we saw the lady was fighting with everything she had, but those men were holding her down, trying to tear her clothes off.”
    Several of the men growled.
    Paint agreed grimly. “Yeah. Well, Snake took one look and went crazy. I think his wolf had chosen her to be his mate. He changed and killed all three of those men. Just tore them to pieces.” Paint shook his head and adjusted his eye patch. “Now he won’t let anyone close. Those men down there with the weak stomachs found that out the hard way.” He flicked a glance from the vomit to the men still huddled together at the far end of the hallway. “The lady ain’t crying anymore, but Snake hasn’t changed back. He just stands in front of her and shows his teeth at any man who comes into the room.”
    Quill brushed past the others and entered the room. Ellie could hear his voice speaking in a low, soothing tone, but she couldn’t make out the words. A low rumble of growls drowned out his voice. Ellie shivered in spite of the sweat that ran down her back. After a minute, Quill came back out. He took her hands and looked into her eyes.
    “I think he’ll listen to you,” he said. “He knows you, and his wolf won’t see a woman as a threat.”
    “Me?” Ellie squeaked.
    “Yeah. Just go one step into the room but don’t look around, okay? It’s ugly in there. Concentrate on Snake. See if you can get him to make the change.”
    Ellie swallowed. No wolf would ever hurt a woman. Taye and all of his Pack had told her that over and over. So why was she trembling? Quill gave her hands a squeeze and let her go, stepping out of her way. Ellie walked forward. She forgot about the puddle until her shoe landed squarely in it. She shook it off and stepped into the room. Taking a deep breath, she almost forgot about Snake. A strong smell hung in the air like a curtain. Ellie held her finger beneath her nose to block the stench and looked around.
    An extra-large bed was on the left, its covers half dragged to the floor in a tangle of darkly stained sheets and blankets. Mel was half-crouched on the mattress, pressing herself into the headboard, her torn shirt clutched over her front, her eyes fixed and staring at one of the lumps that were scattered over the bed and floor. Ellie’s mind had trouble processing the lumps. They looked like red glistening hunks of meat wrapped in burlap sacks…
    Ellie’s stomach tried to turn itself inside out. None of the lumps was big enough to be a whole man. The lump lying just beyond the footboard had a boot at the end of it, and a pool of blood clotted with flies beneath it. She recognized the stench now. It was like the butchering pen in Odessa, magnified by the heat of the room.
    Finally,