by Lexi Blake
“I found blood,” he whispered, as though saying it quietly could make the words less real. “So much blood. I guess someone else got there first and took the carcass. It had to be dead. There was so much blood.”
I exchanged a long look with Trent, whose expression had gone tight. I knew what he was thinking. He was imagining how terrible it would be to get caught like that. When we run back home, we’re careful to stick to the land the North Texas pack owns and makes sure is safe. I couldn’t imagine what the pack would do to a person who encroached on their land and set up traps there.
Lupus Solum might not own the woods but they would consider it their territory.
“Something tore my cattle apart. It was the most horrific thing I’ve ever seen,” he admitted. “I don’t even know what the hell could do that to an animal. Hell, yeah, I put the traps out. Whatever it was, it ain’t been back in a few days. I don’t know how it got out of the trap or what it was, but I hope it’s dead somewhere. I lose more and there won’t be much reason for me to stay. I’m going to try to get through the spring and then I’m thinking I might move to Laramie. My daughter lives there. It would be good to be around my grandkids. I thought I would leave this place to them one day, but now I wonder if I would be leaving them with a nightmare.”
“Could you show us where you placed the trap?” Trent asked. “I’m a decent tracker and I think we would all feel better if we figured out what you caught out there and if it’s dead. I really don’t like the thought of some kid running around the woods with this thing.”
I didn’t either. The wolf we’d seen the night before hadn’t been injured, but then as a werecreature he could have gnawed his own leg off and regrown the sucker. Though it usually took longer than a day or two for that to work, and wolfy had looked all whole and healthy the night before.
“Easy enough to find. You start at the fence line at the edge of mile marker eighteen on the highway. Follow it around to the west where my land touches national forest land. You can’t miss it. Still blood on the ground,” Jensen said with a shudder. “I can’t go back there. It’s like I could feel something watching me.”
“We’ll check it out,” Gray promised. “We’ll go to the site this afternoon and see if Trent can figure out where the animal got off to.”
“Are you sure you’re okay out here alone?” I didn’t like the thought of leaving him. It was obvious the pack was punishing him. It was also obvious this situation was far more complicated then we’d imagined. “I’m going to give you my phone number and if you feel threatened by anyone or anything, I want you to call me.” If Lupus Solum was trying to get payback, I needed to know. The king wanted to keep the peace, but if they were hurting people, I could certainly shake things up. I learned long ago to ask forgiveness rather than permission. Hell, most of the time I don’t even ask for forgiveness.
He took my card and we all stood. We had the information we needed, but I felt weird leaving the guy behind.
“And if you see that boy again, please call me.” It would be easy to get lost in the weeds on this case. We were here to find a rabid wolf, but if this kiddo had run from Lupus Solum, he probably had a reason.
I was going to find out why.
Chapter Nine
“How much shit are we dealing with here?” Trent slid into the back seat of the SUV. “We’ve got a kid wolf running around and that thing from last night. Now we’ve got a third whatever out there because it couldn’t be the wolf we saw. No wolf heals that fast.”
“I’m more worried about the kid than that wolf,” I said. “He has to be a runaway. If he was from anywhere except the compound, his parents would be moving heaven and earth to find him. We haven’t heard a peep about a lost little boy, and I assure you someone would be banging on the Council doors, asking for help.”
As parents, wolves tend to rate high on the helicopter scale. Like apache attack helicopters. When you think about it, it makes sense. A wolf couple might try for forty years to get pregnant before it actually happens. Most of them don’t do what Lupus Solum does and carefully select sexual partners to enhance their chances of pregnancy. Nope. Most wolves are dumb as dirt and fall mad in love and simply go at it as hard as they can because they want a kiddo with their mate. When it happens, they know that baby is likely the only one they’ll have. One or two kids are normal for the werewolf family. Even my uncle, who lives near a fertility god, has only managed to produce one. So wolf parents watch their children closely and yell a lot when one goes missing. Unless there’s a reason to keep it off the radar.
Trent was silent for a moment. “We should assume he’s from the compound and he’s either trying to get away or he’s been deemed unacceptable for some reason. It would explain why he’s breaking into houses. What I’m worried about is that he might have been the one in that trap and we’re going to find a corpse. Or that he’s out in those woods and that army the mutant gathered will eat him and we’ll find a corpse. Or…well, I don’t want to think about that.”
“What?” Gray asked, starting the SUV. “You have to tell me what I’m getting into. The king doesn’t want trouble with Lupus Solum, but if they’re hurting kids, he’s going to be disappointed because I’m not letting it lie.”
I turned around, looking back at my wolf. “You’re worried they brought the hunter from last night in to kill the boy, aren’t you? If it is my stepfather, he wouldn’t have a single problem killing a kid werewolf. I’ve watched him do it before.”
I was going to need a whole lot of beer tonight. I prayed we didn’t have a replay of the previous night because I was feeling twitchy and anxious. Being in between them would ease me, but there were hours and hours before we could be together. If we could be together. I had to pray Gray’s somewhat good mood held up.
“Yeah, that’s exactly what I’m worried about,” Trent said. “I’m worried we’ve walked into some kind of a perfect shit storm. We’ve got a kid out there alone, being hunted, and a massive killer wolf looking for his next meal.”
“Don’t forget the witches,” Gray pointed out. “The moon’s full tomorrow night and my father has instructed them to perform their ritual or else. We’ve got a lot of balls up in the air and I think many of them might drop to the ground as dead bodies. A couple more and there’s no way to keep the press out of it. I’m going to take us up to the place where Jensen laid the trap and maybe we can at least figure out what’s mauling his cattle.”
“When we’re done there, I’ll get Liv and go into town. It’s obvious Lupus Solum is doing something freaky out here.” Focusing on the case and that little boy would help keep my anxiety down. “I need to talk to some of the locals. Two females will be far less threatening than a couple of hulking guys. And I’ll get Casey on a computer. He can find out if there have been any other sightings or reports filed. He can also check the freak web.”
There’s the web. That’s where you buy shit online and check your socials. There’s the Deep Web. That’s where you hire an assassin and buy shit that could get you arrested. Terrorists hang out there. But the supernatural world is on what I like to call the freak web. It’s technically a part of the Deep Web, meaning you have to know a specific address to get there. The freak web is where you can buy magical crap and yes, there’s a Craigslist-style place where witches can get rid of their unwanted caldrons and weres can find a hookup on a full moon. But it’s also the place supernaturals talk. If there was a discussion about weird things going on in this part of the world, it would be on the freak web. Luckily, that was where Casey spent most of his time.
“We’ve got trouble.” Trent touched the button to let his window down and breathed in deeply. “Someone’s waiting at the end of the road. Two cars and four people. I suspect they’re all male. They’re armed.”
“Everyone’s armed out here.” Gray said the words calmly, but his hands tensed around the steering wheel. “I figure we’re about to meet Lupus Solum or the local authorities.”
Sure enough, a moment later I could see two big SUVs blocking our way out of the drive. The lights weren’t on, but there was no way to mistake those suckers for anything except police. There were three large men in khakis standing outside the vehicles.
“Maybe we should blow past them.” I could see a fourth figure sitting inside one of the SUVs. I didn’t like the feel of this. It felt like an ambush.
“I don’t think that’s a good idea.” Gray’s jaw had gone tight, his words clipped and professional. “If they know we’re here, we need to figure out how much trouble they’re going to give us. And how they found out.”
“I would bet a lot that it was the motel owner,” Trent said.
I glanced in the rearview mirror and he was flexing his hands as though preparing for a fight. Or to change.
“Or they could have been watching Jensen,” Gray pointed out. “Either way it gives us some information. Let’s take it. If they’re going to give us hell, then it’s time to introduce ourselves. We should use these guys to let Lupus Solum know who sent us. They don’t want a fight with the king.”
“Everyone wants a fight with the king.” It seemed like I put one down constantly. The wolves in particular always had a faction looking to take out King Daniel.
“I assure you the family does not,” Trent corrected. “Not unless they’ve found their Lupus Rex. Only when the wolf king sits at the head of the pack will they move. Until then they have one goal and one goal only and that’s to bring him into the world.”
That struck me as very sexist. “And if it’s a wolf queen?”
That got Trent’s lips to curl up. I was glad I could take away some of his tension. “They wouldn’t have any idea what to do with a wolf queen, baby. I don’t think they’ll know what to do with you.”
“Which is precisely why she’s going to keep quiet,” Gray said as he brought the SUV to a stop. “She’s our secret weapon. We don’t give her up until we have to use her.”
I stared at him because that sounded like an awfully good excuse to protect the little woman.
He held his hands up after he’d put the vehicle in park. “Babe, you took on an angel from the Heaven plane. Trust me, if shit gets real, Trent and I will hide behind you.”
I doubted that, but at least he was saying the right things. “Fine, I’ll let you do the talking.”
“But I’m not some intern, Gray.” Trent had his hand on the door. “And I don’t steal women’s underwear.” His smile went distinctly wolfish, as though he was calmer now and ready to tease us both. “Though I do sniff hers. Don’t pretend like you don’t.”
Gray grinned, too. “Fuck yeah, I do. They smell like her.”
“I stole a pair the last time she came out to the cabin,” Trent admitted. “I keep them around so I can surround myself with her scent.”
“Okay, ewww.” But it had cut through the tension. We would be better if we were loose and teasing each other and being a team. “You’re both perverts.”
But they were my perverts.
Gray sobered as he opened the door and started to slide out. “You two let me do the talking. I’ve got the badge. I know how to deal with these guys. It’s what I do every day. Okay?”
I nodded and Trent was out of his seat, opening the door for me and lending me a hand up. I was used to it because my last boyfriend had been a two-thousand-year-old vampire who believed in courtly manners. I was also perfectly happy with Gray dealing with local law enforcement. Though Donovan liked to call me his “sheriff,” I didn’t truly consider myself one. I was just a chick who got shit done.
“Is there a problem here, Officers?” Gray asked, walking out to the open gate.
The largest of the men stepped up doing that swagger thing I’ve noticed a lot of men in authority do. I think they teach it in cop school. Or they just watch a whole bunch of John Wayne films. Even Gray does it. It’s kind of like his dick is too big to walk normally, so he’s gotta swagger.
“Sheriff, please,” the man with the deep Western drawl said. He wore a pair of mirrored aviators that hid his eyes. “And yes, there’s a problem when a Texas Ranger shows up in my county and doesn’t give me the courtesy of checking in. I could have told you that you’re out of your jurisdiction, Lieutenant Sloane.”
So they had good intelligence since we hadn’t given the motel owner Gray’s name. The reservation had been under mine. They’d moved quickly when they’d learned there were strangers in town.
“I’m here in an unofficial capacity, Sheriff Marsh,” Gray explained, letting him know we’d done our homework, too.
“Unofficial?” Sheriff Marsh put his hands on his hips and his deputies backed him up. They all looked like they hit the gym often. No donuts for these boys. “Somehow I think you’re here in a very official way, Sloane, though I understand you’re not here for the Rangers.”
Gray’s half smile turned into a frown because apparently the local authorities knew way more than they should. “I’m here to take care of business. Are you going to make things difficult for me?”
“There’s no business to be taken care of here,” the sheriff said. “Certainly not business that would concern outsiders. We can take care of our own.”
“If that kid belongs to the group out in the forest, then they haven’t taken care of anything,” Gray said carefully. We were playing word games with each other, neither one willing to say the words Council or Lupus Solum. It was obnoxious, but Gray understood these people way better than I did. When I worked with local law enforcement, they were open and honest about what freaked them out and usually incredibly welcoming of any help that let them forget what they’d just seen. So I got the dance Gray and the sheriff were doing, but I was more interested in the man they’d left behind in the vehicle.
“He’s human.” Trent stood beside me, our hands brushing each other. He spoke quietly, but somehow the man always knew when I was getting anxious. He also usually knew what I was getting anxious about. “All four of them are, but the sheriff and the deputies have some wolf scent on them. I would bet they’ve been out to the compound. The man in the SUV hasn’t. He smells like the motel. And he’s been handling gun oil. He’s the one who took the shot at the wolf last night.”
My gut twisted. I couldn’t see much more than a vague profile. “Anything else?”
Trent’s fingers gently rubbed against mine, the touch obviously meant to comfort. “They recently cleaned the cars. I’m getting a whole lot of bleach, which is odd on a car. You have to view these guys as enforcers for the family. They’re likely paid, and well, to do the pack’s dirty work when it comes to humans. And to keep everyone off their backs.”
I whispered because they were human and couldn’t listen in, though I was sure Gray could hear me. “What will they do if we stick around?”
“No idea. They obviously know we’ve come from the Council. They can’t want to piss off the Council,” Trent promised. “Now let’s talk about how to deal with the man in the car. Your heart rate ticks up when you look his way. Is it because he was the one who took the shot last night or because you think he’s your stepfather?”
“You want to explain what exactly you’re looking for, Lieutenant?” the sheriff asked. “You said something about a kid. We don’t have any lost kids around here, and if you check, the park rangers out in the forest will tell you it’s been quiet.”
“I think the park rangers will tell me exactly what you want me to hear,” Gray replied. “But I know you’ve got trouble out there in the woods. And we just heard a story about a kid breaking into a house to find food. It’s odd because the police reports state that it was a wolf that got into that house. Now I wonder why that is.”
The sheriff and his deputies chuckled. “Old man Jensen? We all know he’s been losing it since his wife died. And he hits the bottle pretty hard. I made a report but I also noted that I smelled a lot of liquor on his breath. Only prints in and around the house were animal. No little boys left a mark on that place.
Now the way I see it, I didn’t give him hell for filing a false report, but if he’s bringing other law enforcement professionals into it, then I’ll have to reconsider how I handle him.”
That felt like a threat. “And how would you handle him, Sheriff?”
Those aviators got pulled down now as he carefully inspected me. His eyes went over my body, giving me a wholly asshole-male once-over. Every woman in the world knows what it feels like. This isn’t the dude who glances over you because he’s got a biological imperative. We all do that. Trust me, I will check out a guy even though I have way too many of them in my life. This particular leer is meant to make me understand that I’m nothing more than boobs and an ass, and if I’m not hot enough to fuck, I’m not good enough to know.
It also made Trent growl. It was a low, aggressive sound that came from the back of his throat and made the hair on his arms stand up straight. That sound promised great violence. And yes, it made me hot. I can’t help it.
It made the deputies nervous as hell. Their hands were on their weapons, but the sheriff waved them off. He pushed his sunglasses back up his nose and a smirk came across his face. “Sorry. Didn’t realize the situation here. It’s good to know.”
Gray flashed Trent a what-the-fuck look because we’d just given away a whole lot. The sheriff probably knew that Trent was a werewolf and that he considered me his mate. We hadn’t gone through anything like a ceremony, but he was possessive enough to protect his “territory.”
“As to what the lovely female asked,” the sheriff continued, “I only meant that I need to pay more attention to Mr. Jensen. In fact, I think we should go and talk to him, see if he needs anything. You know in a small town the sheriff has to watch out for the community.”
I was certain exactly how he would look out for Mr. Jensen. “I’m coming back tomorrow. You should know I won’t take it well if Mr. Jensen is hurt.”
He put a hand on his chest as though aggrieved that I would think so little of him. “I’m sure he’ll be in excellent spirits. Now the fact that you’re planning on staying in town, that worries me a bit. It worries my friends as well.”
