Joy to the Wolves

by Terry Spear

  What bothered her was that Josh had run off on his own to take down the shooters and could get himself killed! Maybe they wouldn’t shoot at an officer of the law. Maybe only at what they had probably thought was a guard dog. Still, she couldn’t help worrying about him.

  When she tried to dress, she needed Maverick’s assistance. She hated not being able to do things on her own, especially something as simple as dressing herself. But she was shaking, hurting, and unbelievably wobbly. She couldn’t pull on her panties without falling over, and she absolutely couldn’t fasten her bra in back.

  Desperate to hurry before human police officers arrived who wouldn’t understand why she’d been naked in the attic, Brooke knew she had to rush, which was only making things worse. Maverick was fumbling around, not used to dressing women, she suspected. At least she was glad she only had a couple of flesh wounds, but it was going to be hard to explain why she was naked when she got shot since there were no bullet holes in her clothes. Unless they didn’t mention it, which would make the case—and the men—seem less dangerous.

  “I need to stop the bleeding,” Maverick said as he pulled on her socks.

  “Later. I need to finish getting dressed.”

  “Do you have a first aid kit in the shop?”

  “In the bathroom on the second floor under the sink.”

  “I’ll be right back.”

  “I need to get dressed! What will the police think?”

  Maverick glanced around the attic room. “That rack of vintage clothes! You were about to try one of the gowns on when you heard the men coming up the stairs. You didn’t have time to grab your sweater and skirt. You just had time to grab your phone and hide and call Josh.”

  “That sounds suspicious.”

  “Better than that you were wearing your fur coat when you were shot.”

  Then she heard more sirens headed their way. And cars squealing to a stop. Doors slammed, and a rush of people headed into her shop.

  “Shoot. We need to have your injuries documented,” Maverick said.

  “I don’t like it.”

  “We have to do it. They have to be charged with attempted murder.”

  They heard people moving through the shop on the first floor.

  “I was a wolf,” she whispered.

  “I know, but they have to be charged with shooting you,” Maverick insisted.

  One of the officers dashed up the stairs to the second floor.

  Maverick called out, “The shop owner, Miss Cerise, is up here. She’s safe. We need an EMT. Two bullets grazed her. Detective Josh Wilding ran after the two men.”

  The police officer ran up the stairs to the attic and entered the room. He had his gun out and was wearing blue jeans and a shirt and parka. He was a fair-haired man, his green eyes narrowed. He hollered to the EMTs, and two more men ran up the stairs.

  “Adam. Am I glad to see you,” Maverick said.

  “Josh is trying to chase down two men who shot up my whole attic,” Brooke said. “Go after him and help him. He needs backup.”

  “He called it in, Miss Cerise. I’m Detective Adam Holmes. I’m Josh’s partner, and I’m here to investigate the crime scene. Some of our men are in pursuit of the two men. The others are downstairs, making sure no one else is here that shouldn’t be. It was just you here and no one else?” He moved in closer to take her hand.

  Breathing in her scent, he raised his eyebrows. “You were wounded as a wolf. I smell blood, just yours.” Then his frown deepened. “Unless you bit the men.”

  “It’s my blood. The bullets just grazed me, but I can’t let anyone know because—”

  “You were wearing your wolf coat. It doesn’t matter. We need to have your wounds documented.”

  A policeman with a camera joined them and photographed her wounds and then began photographing the attic. The EMTs hurried into the attic and took care of her wounds.

  Then Maverick pulled her sweater over her head while the EMTs left the attic.

  “Do you have security cameras?” Adam asked.

  “No. The man was installing them next week.”

  “We’ll have it done pronto,” Adam said.

  “Thanks.”

  Maverick lifted her leggings off the floor, but she shook her head. “Just my skirt and boots, thanks.”

  “Do you know what the intruders were after?” the detective asked her.

  “I have no idea. I just inherited the store and house. All the contents came with it. One of the men mentioned they were searching for boxes. So not just breaking in to steal stuff in general.”

  “What about a description of the men?” the detective asked.

  Maverick helped her into her skirt and then had her sit on one of the trunks while he pulled her boots on for her. “She needs to catch her breath.”

  “No, it’s okay if it helps us catch them. I don’t want them returning anytime soon. One was blond-haired, and the other had dark-brown hair. Both had blue eyes, and whiskers like they hadn’t shaved for a few days. They were wearing black ski hats, but no masks. They were tall, maybe six feet. They were of average weight, wearing jeans, boots, and bulky, dark-gray parkas. Oh, and black gloves. One of the men had been here earlier. He helped carry in a box the mail carrier had delivered. The man didn’t buy anything, but he wandered throughout the shop, even where he shouldn’t have been.”

  The police photographer headed down the stairs to the first floor to take more photographs.

  “Thanks. It sounds to me like he was casing the shop,” the detective said. “So exactly what do we say about how we found you dressed?”

  “She had stripped down to her panties and bra and was going to try on one of those vintage dresses”—Maverick pointed at the rack of them in the corner of the attic—“when she heard the shooters in the shop. She grabbed her phone and hid behind a trunk while she called Josh. She didn’t have time to reach her clothes.”

  Adam smiled at Maverick. “Thank you, Maverick. Is that how you want to describe your actions prior to being shot, Brooke?”

  “Yes. The floor creaks. I didn’t want to walk across the floor to grab my clothes and give myself away. I think it works. Don’t you?”

  Adam glanced around the room. “Yeah. Where were you hiding when they began shooting?”

  She pointed behind the trunk.

  “Then you showed your wolf self?” Adam asked quietly.

  “Yes. They were going to shoot off the locks. I’d turned the sound off on my phone, but the darn thing lit up with a call, and one of the men noticed it. He started to come around the trunk and saw me, but I knocked him down before they started shooting. And I hid back there.” She pointed to the crates where she’d hidden. “Then they broke the window and escaped right before Josh arrived.”

  “That works. When you can, I’d like to have you give a description of the men to our sketch artist. We’ll be able to recognize the men by scent, but we need a visual sent out to everyone. I’ll have the artist come to your house. Why don’t you go there and take it easy.”

  “Thanks.”

  “We’ll see you later,” Maverick said to Adam.

  A couple of men were coming up the stairs, and Brooke and Maverick had to wait until they reached the attic and moved out of their way.

  Adam told them who she was, but everyone knew Josh’s brother. Then she started down the stairs while Adam gave orders to the policemen. Other police officers were checking out the mess downstairs. In disbelief, Brooke stared at the breakage and was totally disheartened, wanting to cry and scream out in frustration. Though the passing thought crossed her mind that tearing into them as a wolf would make her feel even better. The intruders had thrown everything everywhere, glass and pottery broken all over the floor. Despite being angry and not wanting to show how bad she felt, she couldn’t help it when her eyes puddled up
with tears.

  “What are you doing here, Maverick?” one of the officers asked. He wasn’t a wolf.

  Brooke recognized his voice. He was the officer who had hung up on her at the police station when she had reported she had a reindeer calf at her shop.

  “I’m just here helping a friend.”

  She wanted to tell the guy off, but then again, she didn’t want to cause trouble for herself later, in case he decided to hassle her.

  Brows raised, the officer snapped his fingers. “You’re the woman who called about the reindeer calf in the shop. I remember the name of the shop now.”

  “You’re the officer who dismissed me as a crank caller and hung up on me.” Oh well, he’d brought it up, and she was feeling too much pain and not in the best mood to deal with someone like him.

  The man’s face turned a little red.

  Maverick said, “The calf was one of ours. We’re still trying to figure out how it ended up at Miss Cerise’s shop.”

  “Uh, sorry, ma’am. You wouldn’t believe how many crank calls we get about Santa and his reindeer around Christmastime,” the officer said, sounding truly apologetic.

  She was grateful the officer had told her the reason for his rudeness and had apologized. “I was just glad I found where he belonged.”

  “Josh and Maverick are good friends of mine, and I had no idea.”

  “No problem.”

  “Any word on Detective Wilding?” she asked the officer, worried about Josh.

  “He said he’s headed back to the store. He lost sight of the men about a mile from here.”

  That was bad news. If the thieves didn’t get what they were coming for, they’d surely be back again. But she was glad they hadn’t shot Josh too.

  “Adam told me to escort Miss Cerise to her home so she can take it easy for a bit,” Maverick said. “She’s feeling pretty shaky.”

  “All right.”

  She and Maverick left the shop as she tried not to limp too much, but the wound on her leg was hurting like crazy. Her arm too, but as long as she didn’t have to use it, it wasn’t as bad. Maverick held onto her good arm, keeping her from stumbling. At least the intruders hadn’t shot bullets through the fabric of her sweater and skirt, which would have ruined them.

  She fished out her keys and unlocked the door of her house, then hurried inside to turn off her security alarm. “Would you mind starting a fire in the fireplace and turning on the Christmas lights on the tree?” She wanted the cheerfulness to help block out what she’d gone through. “I’m going to put on something else.”

  “Right on it.” Maverick locked the door after her. “Did you need my help to change?”

  “I’m good.” Once she was in her bedroom, trying to pull off her sweater, she hurt way too much. She could kill the men for breaking into her place, breaking her things, and shooting her! Worse, she was certain they would return for whatever they’d been looking for.

  Chapter 10

  His blood hot with anger, Josh raced after the two intruders who slipped down a side street. He berated himself for not having gone after the men sooner, yet he wouldn’t have forgiven himself if Brooke had been injured worse and he hadn’t ensured she lived. It didn’t matter that his brother had been there. As a police detective and the older brother, Josh felt it was his responsibility to make sure she was okay.

  He couldn’t catch up to the men, no matter how hard he tried. They had way too much of a lead on him. If he’d been in his wolf coat, they would never have escaped him. He yanked out his phone and alerted Adam that he was in hot pursuit of the two shooters, but it didn’t look like he was going to catch up to them on foot. “One of them is bleeding. I thought it would slow him down, but it doesn’t seem to be.”

  “I’m sending men after you. I’m pulling into the parking lot of the store now.”

  “Good. Brooke’s going to be fine. We have to get these guys.”

  “We will.” Adam was running up the stairs in the shop, his footsteps heavy on the wooden floor.

  “I’m turning onto Fern Street, headed north.”

  Adam directed men on a radio to meet up with Josh. “They’re on the way.”

  “All right. Talk later.”

  Sirens sounded in Josh’s direction, and he knew the officers would at least be chasing the shooters down in cars. When he reached Fern Street, he heard a car peeling off around the corner of Fern and Oak, headed away from him, so he couldn’t see the vehicle. He was certain the shooters were driving off in the vehicle. He rounded the corner, and three patrol cars rushed to meet up with him. The car was gone. No sign of the men. Josh listened for running footsteps, looked for more drops of blood like a bread-crumb trail, but they stopped right where he imagined the car had torn off.

  Damn it!

  Then he realized the one man’s scent seemed familiar. He remembered he’d been concerned when he’d first met Brooke that she had set out boxes to be recycled and a man had been looking over them. Later, the boxes were gone, but the trash collector might have picked them up by then. Still, the fact that one of the men who shot up her attic had been looking over her boxes earlier made Josh suspect the man had been looking for something of hers.

  One of the officers gave Josh a lift back to the shop, while the other patrol cars searched for the vehicle.

  He glanced up at the full moon hanging in the night sky, and he prayed to God Brooke hadn’t bitten the man and that was why he was losing blood! He could just imagine the bitten man turning and then him biting the other man. They’d have two brand-new lupus garous on the loose in Portland. And not the kind of men they’d want in the pack either.

  * * *

  Someone was knocking at the door when Brooke managed to get the sweater sleeve off her good arm, and she was silently swearing as she struggled to pull off the other sleeve.

  She hoped the person at the door wasn’t the police sketch artist.

  Maverick called out to Brooke, “It’s just Josh.” He unlocked the door. “Hey, Brother, we were worried about you.”

  “I’m fine.” Josh sounded disgruntled.

  She was glad Josh had made it back all right and hadn’t been injured.

  “Did you get them?” Maverick asked.

  “Hell, no. They had a ride before I could reach the street where they took off. Patrol cars are still out looking for them. I wanted to get back here and make sure Brooke’s okay. How’s our patient?”

  “Struggling to get out of my clothes.” Brooke figured Josh was asking his brother the question, not her. Before she knew it, Josh was entering her bedroom.

  “Here, I’ll help you. Maverick is making the fire.”

  Like Maverick wouldn’t have offered to assist her and then return to finish making the fire.

  “Did the EMTs see to you?”

  “They did, and a policeman took pictures of the injuries, but I want to get into something more comfortable. I can’t get out of my things.”

  Josh was gentle with her, while Maverick had been rushed while attempting to get her dressed in the attic. Josh slid the sweater off her injured arm, then unbuttoned her skirt while she held onto his shoulders to keep her balance.

  He sat her down on her chair and pulled off her boots and socks. “What do you want to wear?”

  “I was going to put on something soft and warm for bed.” She wanted to go to bed.

  “Which drawer?”

  “Top left drawer of the tall chest.”

  “Got it.” Josh crossed the room to the tall chest and pulled open the drawer. He didn’t ask which one of her nightclothes she wanted to wear. He just sorted through them and then pulled out a blue pajama set with white owls flying across the soft, warm flannel fabric. He set them on the bed and removed her bra first, then pulled on her flannel top and buttoned it for her. Then he helped her out of her panties and pul
led on her pajama bottoms. “Socks? Slippers?”

  “Slippers. Wolf. In the closet on the shoe shelf.”

  He went into the closet and came out smiling, looking them over. “These are cool.”

  “I know they’re kind of silly, but they’re nice and warm.”

  “I think they’re great.” After he slipped them on her feet, he helped her up. “Can you walk?”

  “Since I was little.”

  Josh cast her an elusive smile. “You should be sitting down, taking the weight off your leg. We heal faster than humans, but not instantaneously. Besides, you look pale.” He assisted her into the living room. “Did you want to talk about what happened?”

  “Sure. Adam said a sketch artist will be coming.”

  “That would be Sierra Redding. She’ll get you through it painlessly.” Josh helped Brooke sit in her favorite recliner. “I’ll be giving her a description too. Adam told me how much of a description you gave of the intruders. I was surprised you could notice that much detail, considering they were shooting at you.”

  “I got a good look at them before they started shooting.” She told him about the man who had come to the shop earlier.

  Josh told her about the man who had been looking at the boxes she’d set out for the trash earlier.

  “So one of them was looking at where the boxes were from maybe.” She shivered.

  “How bad are your wounds?”

  “Thankfully, they’re flesh wounds. With our enhanced healing abilities, they’ll heal up in a few days.”

  Josh said, “Even so, keep checking them to make sure they don’t become infected.”

  “I will. Thanks to both of you for coming to my rescue.” Even though the fire was going and the heater was on, she was feeling chilled and wished she’d thought about getting a robe before she left the bedroom. She realized how much she was still getting over the shock of the shoot-out and her injuries and let out her breath. “I’ll be right back. I’m going to get a robe.”