Rob knew this was foolish, but Old Man Jacobs was a staple personality in town. His store would be hard enough to lose, his death would destroy people deep down. But he wouldn’t go in blindly. That would be foolhardy, to say the least. No, he used his nose for this. Not an easy feat with this smoke. But a wolf’s sense of smell was far different that a human’s. Rob threw his clothes in some brush behind the hardware store. He needed to work quickly before the fire department got there. It was one group of emergency services that wolves hadn’t infiltrated in the area. The fire wasn’t burning as quickly as he’d expected. Whoever set this, didn’t use all that much accelerant, if any. That would be something obvious to even a human investigator. Rob didn’t stand about long. The back door was open, and he knew it led up to the apartment above. In his wolf form, the old hollow-core door of the apartment didn’t stand a chance. He just went into it shoulder first through it l
The street hummed with activity. The firemen were dealing with the affected buildings. Eventually, the ambulance left with Old Man Jacobs in it. He’d not recovered consciousness. Somehow, Jane Ann’s grandmother was there. Wandering around with a cat carrier. “Grammy, what are you doing with that cat carrier? You don’t have a cat.” “I do for now, but I can’t keep him. Well, I can, but not right now. Poor Ron will need help when he wakes up. He’s all alone in the world. I’m going to stay with him for a few days while he’s in the hospital. Then he can come back and live over my garage while he figures everything out.” “Grammy, who’s cat is this?” Jane Ann finally got a better look at the panic-stricken cat. “Grammy, why do you have Felix? Where’s Leanne?” Felix’s name got Becky’s full attention right then. “Oh, sweetie, Leanne handed Felix to me to make sure he’d be safe if the diner went up in smoke. I know it won’t, but she’s gone to help Ji
Bart watched the wolves, and their mates return to the Wolf’s Den bar with a cat. He’d enjoy thinking about the insanity that will ensure from that later. Now he needed to get his head in the game. The evidence collection was going well, but that’s because there wasn’t much to process. Jon claimed there was a scent trail from the people that broke into the vet clinic. He needed to study that to find a fresh start point where he could pick it up later after the human investigation cleared out of there. He wanted that point found before the trail got too mangled for him to identify it. Bart wanted to know if it led to one or more of the hunters or the rogues. For all the proof he had right now, the trail could lead to a bunch of hired goons from some land developer. Bart couldn’t see the lab doing this to wolf shifters knowingly, so either they didn’t know, or they now had a way to identify a wolf shifter from a human. That scared him. With his notebo
The gorgeous officer may have fascinated Grace. Bart Hebbs, was far too hyper focused on her to make Grace comfortable. She kept waiting for him to either ask her out for coffee, or tell her when they’ll be getting married. No pressure. No pressure at all. But all day he stuck to her side and steered her from one location to another, as if he were hiding something. Her Spidey sense was wreaking havoc to her train of thought that it was driving her mad. Now he had to disappear to work. Yet he kept going to speak with a small group of people who were no one in all of this. They weren’t investigating anything, just bystanders. What was going on?Like most scenes of disaster, there were groups of people lingering. Some talked, while others gawked.Grace noticed the vacationing hunters hung about, glaring at people. They seemed unhappy with what others were doing. Not a single hunter showed interest in the fire or what was happening. The hunters huddled together,
Bart was investigating the scent as best as he could in this form. No point in terrifying the innocent, mundane people around here. With the hunter-types and the guys he worked with around, he was more likely to get shot. It’s not like the provincial park where a wolf or wolf-dog could be explained away. So, there he was sniffing around when he hears a voice behind him. “What are you doing?” A familiar feminine voice asked. He would swear later that he could hear her raise a questioning eyebrow in the very tone of her voice. Crap. His stomach and heart nearly fell out of his body when he heard it. Grace was standing right behind him. What did she notice? Would she say something? How did he explain this? He felt like a guy who’d been caught by his girlfriend kissing another woman. “Hey, uh… you’ll not believe me if I told you.” All that ran through his head was ‘Don’t ask. Don’t ask. Don’t ask.’ “Try me slugger.” Ohhh…he knew without turning around to loo
Paul thought his job would be to look in on the search, but leave it to the experts. His pack mates, really. They trained these wolves to human standards to be forest rangers. Little did the humans know they knew more about the forests on a bad day than any human could teach them. Dog and human were wolf shifters. Smarter, faster, and stronger. They knew the territory and how to find a person better than anyone. So, what was holding them back? That’s why Paul was here. To find out what they knew, they couldn’t tell a human cop. “We’re in luck with this missing persons’ case. The trail hasn’t ended at the edge of the park, like the others. Which means they’re missing hikers, not missing persons. We’re closing in on them. Hopefully, we’ll have them before nightfall.” Alex looked up from the satellite radio he’d just received a check in on from one team of searchers. “Not missing like the others. Well, I guess that’s better than adding numbers to the list. No s
“Rob, we need to do something. If the hunters didn’t set those fires, then it’s the rogues. We’re running out of guilty parties. When you found Old Man Jacobs, there wasn’t any fire around him, so he’s ruled out.” Jon washed the floors as Rob organized the bar. “The door to the backstairs wasn’t locked, but the door to the shop was forced open. My guess, he left the backdoor unlocked, and locked the shop door. Hiding the break-in to witnesses. We know about the recent appearances of the rogues. The supposed hunters spending a lot of time in town.” The old building had two back doors. One door led to stairs going to the apartment and a second door leading into the store. “Yeah, for hunting on the off-season, they’re very conspicuous. The rogues, there’s been another seven sightings, two were physical. One may explain the break-in at the clinic. They were looking for medical supplies and medicines that work on wolf shifters.” Jon now finished with the floors,
“What happened to your neck?! That looks painful.” Becky couldn’t believe Jane Ann walking around with a huge bandage on her neck. “Nah, but it was a long time coming. I should have known hormones would rule us. Like a couple of randy teens, we got into it, and you know what I mean by into it. Well, instinct and nature got the better of us. I knew it would happen. I didn’t think to tell you about it. Sorry, for worrying you.” “You still haven’t told me what happened.” Becky looked at Jane Ann askance. How could she be so calm about this? “Okay, this is typical of wolf shifters. Each group has a way of marking their mates. Wolves, it’s bites. Bears leave claw marks. Cats… Well, don’t get me started on cats. They’re just plain weird.” “You’ve still not explained anything beyond there’s a zoo out there of animals pretending to be human.” “It’s a mating thing. This is like a permanent ring. Seal the deal for all time. Becky, these guys