Ellie's Wolf by Maddy Barone Page A

was even scarier than Snake’s.
    “Quit fooling around,” Quill snapped at them. He turned back to Moore. “Now, where’s Ellie’s son?”
    When Moore didn’t answer, Quill tapped his heel into his horse’s side to move him almost on top of the man. “Where is Connor?”
    Moore backed up. “The kids are inside. Hold on, I’ll bring ’em out.”
    Ellie frowned when he turned and went into the mill. Why would he have the boys in there? He couldn’t stand having children under foot.
    The door slammed closed and locked with an audible click. A shotgun barrel slid through a peephole beside the door. “You want the brat?” Moore yelled from inside. “Fine. He’s up at the house.”
    Quill placed himself squarely between Ellie and the gun. “Standing Bear, go check out the house.” In a much lower voice, too quiet for Mr. Moore to be able to hear, he added, “Snake, Stone, let’s back the ladies up out of range of that scattergun. Paint, Snow, keep watch here.”
    Ellie clenched her teeth and watched one of the gray wolves race off toward the house, the fur on his back still raised. “I’m so tired of waiting,” she told Quill’s back. “Mr. Moore isn’t acting right.”
    “He’s scared,” Quill said, backing his horse into hers so she had to move. He didn’t look at her, keeping his eyes on the gun barrel. “I don’t have the best nose, and even I could smell it.”
    “What does he have to be scared of?” Ellie burst out. “If he’s hurt Connor…”
    “He’ll pay for it,” Quill finished for her in even tones, still keeping his horse backing hers up and his eyes on the shotgun barrel. “But it might just be that he’s afraid of us.”
    That might be it , Ellie admitted to herself. The wolves could be intimidating. Actually, terrifying, to their enemies. She watched one of the wolves trot around the back of the mill. Once they were all a distance from the house and to one side where the shotgun wouldn’t have a clear shot at them, they stopped.
    “I don’t like him,” Sara announced in a tone that surprised Ellie. She expected the younger woman to yell or sneer, but she sounded thoughtful. “He holes up with his gun and leaves his children to the mercy of strangers? For all he knows, we’ll steal the kids. What an idiot.”
    That note of disgust sounded more like Sara. It made Ellie smile, but the smile died when the wolf who’d run to the house howled. “Is that bad?” she cried.
    Quill was silent for a moment. “I don’t know. Let’s go find out.”
    While Quill rode in the lead, Ellie kept her eyes fixed on the house and stared until her eyes watered, but she couldn’t see any sign of Connor. Sara and Mel were right beside her, along with Snake and Stone still in wolf form. Ellie jumped off her horse, and even tumbling to the ground when her knees gave out didn’t stop her from jumping up and making her way to front door. She could hear a voice crying inside and recognized it as Tommy, Moore’s five-year-old son. Quill was there first, holding her back.
    “Tommy, are you all right?” she called. “Connor?”
    Standing Bear, the wolf Quill had sent ahead, came out of the front door, naked except for a towel he had tied around his hips. “He’s not in here,” he said. “Only a boy named Matthew and a little ’un named Tommy are in the house. The bigger boy is nasty. He won’t tell me where Connor is, and when Tommy tried to tell me, he clobbered him.”
    Quill snapped his head around. “Stone, we’ll need your nose to sniff the boy out.”
    Ellie made an exasperated sound. “Matthew is a bully, but he knows better than to try that with me.” She pushed against Quill’s restraining arm. Reluctantly, he allowed her to enter the house but kept close beside her as she went through the hall and into the kitchen in the back of the house.
    The kitchen she had kept pristine for three years was a shambles. Unwashed dishes were stacked in the sink and on the stove. The