Rogue Wolf Read online

  Sensing us coming back down the trail, Zeus left his post guarding the SUV and ran to meet us. The deputy didn’t even know he wasn’t alone until Zeus gave a happy bark from right behind him. Already terrified at being left to guard the trail alone, the officer spun around and went for his gun.

  I went into motion even as I shouted a mental command at my guardian to run. Zeus immediately scrambled back towards the parking lot as the deputy pointed his gun at him. I reached him just as he was pulling the trigger. Remembering that he was a fragile human, I shoved him sideways instead of tearing his arm off.

  Despite my care, I used too much force and he went tumbling head over heels into the bushes. Rolling over onto his back, he pointed his gun at me. His face went pale when he realized he was about to shoot a federal agent.

  I glared down at him until he shakily holstered his weapon and struggled to his feet. “Why is your weapon unsecured, Deputy?” I asked him coldly. “I was under the impression that it is standard protocol to have your gun holstered and secured at all times unless your life is in direct threat.”

  He flushed and fumbled the clip on his revolver shut. “It is,” he admitted. “I guess I’m a bit freaked out about there being man-eating wolves in the woods. When I saw that gigantic black dog, I panicked.”

  “So did I the first time I saw him,” Flynn said and clapped the officer on the shoulder as he walked past. “I’d like to say his bark is worse than his bite, but that would be a lie.”

  Going ghostly white, the deputy’s hand strayed towards his gun again before he could control himself. He clasped his hands together to avoid the temptation. “Did you find anything helpful, Agent Steel?” he asked.

  Mark shook his head. “I’m afraid not. I’ll contact the coroner tomorrow and ask for a status update.” He had no intention at all of calling anyone. He had the means to hack into any database and there was no need to officially request the information.

  Zeus slunk out from behind the SUV and warily watched the deputy as I opened the backdoor for him. Our line of work was dangerous and he’d frequently be in situations where he could come to harm. I almost wished he hadn’t attached himself to me. With a low whine, he nuzzled my hair when I climbed into the backseat. You know I love you, I reassured him. He was my responsibility, but I didn’t think of him as a burden. I just didn’t want to see him come to any harm.

  Flynn’s stomach rumbled when he climbed in beside me. “Did anyone think to bring any food?” he asked hopefully. His appetite wasn’t as ferocious as wolves or cougars, but he still needed to eat regularly.

  Mark opened the glove box and tossed a bag of nuts over his shoulder without turning around. “Do you really need to ask?”

  Snatching the bag out of the air, Flynn tore it open with his teeth. He offered it to me first and I held out my hand. He poured a small pile into my palm and I tossed them into my mouth. Zeus’ head came over the seat and he stared at Flynn from only a couple of inches away.

  Feeling my guardian’s breath on his face, Flynn turned. He recoiled when Zeus licked him from his chin to his hairline. “Gross!” he complained and used his sleeve to wipe the drool off his face.

  I laughed so hard that I choked on a peanut and had to pound myself on the chest to dislodge it.

  “Why did he do that?” Flynn asked with a scowl.

  “Because he likes you and he’s hungry,” I replied, wiping away tears of mirth.

  “Why does he like me? I haven’t even been very friendly to him.”

  “We’re all members of his pack. Even though three of you are a different species from us, he’s willing to accept you all because of how I feel about you.”

  Mark turned to view me. As always, he wanted to learn more about our kind. “How do you feel about us?”

  “You’re my family,” I said with a shrug. “I haven’t known you for very long, but I love you all anyway.”

  “We love you, too,” Mark replied with a smile and I felt like weeping. My father might be alive, but I still felt as if I’d lost him. Mark was used to taking in strays. He was willing to step up and become a father figure to me if I needed him to.

  Manfully holding in his emotions, Flynn held out the bag of peanuts to me. Before I could reach inside, Zeus plucked the bag out of his hand and gobbled the contents down. “Bad dog!” he scolded and received a wounded look.

  “He didn’t mean it,” I soothed my companion and scratched him under the chin when he looked at me soulfully. “You’re a good dog.”

  “If you start talking baby talk to him, I’m going to have to re-think our bond,” Reece warned me. None of us had ever had pets before and this was an adjustment for us all. Maybe if I thought of Zeus as a member of the team, I’d be able to avoid the dreaded oogy-woogums baby talk.

  “Do you have any more food?” Flynn asked and Mark shook his head. “I’m going to eat half of that turkey myself when we get back.”

  “I’ll fight you for the other half,” I said with a grin. A small handful of nuts wasn’t going to tide me over for long.

  He assessed me critically. “I can still take you,” he said. “You might be an alpha, but your fighting skills kind of suck.”

  “She’ll get better,” Reece said before I could defend myself. “With time and practice, she’ll be just as combat ready as the rest of us.”

  They’d had years of training and I’d only had a few months. I sometimes despaired that I’d ever get the hang of hand to hand fighting. I was better with knives and other weapons, which gave me some hope that I wasn’t completely useless.

  As always, Reece drove with his usual reckless speed and disdain for the law. I’d finally realized that our government plates would ensure that we weren’t pulled over by the cops. We had an automatic indemnity that would allow us to get away with things that would get most people locked up.

  It was nearing dark when we finally reached Bradbury. We drove past the café where four of the six dark coven members had died. Two cop cars were parked out front. Someone had discovered the bodies. Soon, the town would be crawling with police and curious onlookers.

  “How long do you think it’ll take them to find the death pits in the park?” Flynn asked Mark.

  “I imagine they’ll stumble across them quickly enough,” he said with an enigmatic smile.

  “You asked one of your contacts to give the Sheriff an anonymous tip,” Reece guessed. He’d slowed down to the speed limit once he’d reached the town. He was just as hungry as Flynn and me, but he wasn’t willing to endanger lives just so we could reach our base a couple of minutes more quickly.

  Mark inclined his head. “They’ll also find the farm where Lexi was held captive.” I’d given him a rough idea of where the property that I’d been taken to was. It would be enough for the police to find the place. When they did, they’d find the remains of one of the warlocks. He was in bits and pieces, just like his brothers and sisters.

  Hundreds of young men and women had died at the hands of the Dark Coven. Their ghosts had been trapped in Bradbury once their mortal lives had been stolen from them. They’d been waiting for an opportunity to seek revenge and I’d given it to them. I’d destroyed a talisman that had been protecting the witches. Without their magic, they’d become vulnerable. I doubted I’d ever forget the sight of the ghosts turning vengeful. One thing was certain, I never wanted to be on the receiving end of their fury.

  ₪₪₪

  Chapter Five

  We were still five minutes away from Dawson’s Retreat when Flynn wrinkled his nose. “Ugh! What is that horrible smell?” he asked then gagged.

  Mark’s human nose wasn’t up to the task of smelling what we could. “What is it?” he said anxiously.

  I shook my head. “Something indescribably horrible.” I clapped a hand over my mouth and nose in a futile effort to block the smell.

  We all came to the same conclusion. “Kala has been cooking,” Reece said with grim certainty.

  “Oh, no,” Flynn
breathed. “Margaret let her loose on the turkey!”

  By the time we reached Dawson’s Retreat, even Mark could smell the hideous odor that was issuing from the three story Victorian house. Luckily for them, the other guests had left. Just our squad, Margaret and Edward would be subjected to Kala’s questionable version of a thanksgiving meal.

  Zeus whined in reluctance when I opened the backdoor of the SUV. He told me that he was going to move far enough away that he didn’t have to smell the turkey. With his sense of smell, he’d probably have to trek into the woods for several miles.

  “Don’t you want dinner before you slink away?” I asked him as he trotted towards the trees that bordered the property. He sent me a look over his shoulder that spoke volumes. Even he couldn’t stomach the awful smell coming from the house. His hunger would have to wait.

  “Kala has the power to kill even Zeus’ appetite,” Flynn said with a grimace. He sent a wistful look after the Rottweiler, plainly wishing he could join him in his self-imposed exile.

  “What are we going to do?” Reece whispered. The smell of whatever Kala had done to the turkey was almost bad enough to make our eyes water.

  “We just have to grin and bear it,” Mark said stoically. “You know how she feels about her lack of cooking skills.”

  Glum silence met his words. Kala was touchy about her cooking talents. She refused to acknowledge that she had no proficiency in the kitchen and snapped at anyone who tried to help her or pointed out her flaws. We usually just forced her meals down, but I didn’t think that was going to be possible this time.

  Margaret had been waiting for us to arrive. She appeared in the doorway and hurried out to meet us. Her face was usually wreathed in a smile, but this time she looked worried. “I tried to stop her,” she said with quiet desperation when she reached us. She didn’t know about our uncanny hearing, but spoke very quietly anyway. “I told her it was a bad idea, but she just wouldn’t listen.” She was nearly in tears of distress.

  Mark patted her on the shoulder in understanding. “I’m sorry Kala ruined your thanksgiving meal,” he said. He hadn’t even seen the bird yet, but it was obvious to us all that it would be inedible.

  “She seemed so confident when she was stuffing the turkey,” Margaret said with a watery smile. “I thought she knew what she was doing, so I left her to it. When I came back, she’d already put it in the oven and it was too late to undo what she’d done.”

  Flynn put a hand over his face. “I’m almost afraid to ask what she did,” he said in a muffled voice.

  Margaret shuddered and Mark tightened his hold on her. He’d survived enough of Kala’s cooking attempts to have some idea of what we’d be facing. “I don’t even want to describe it,” she said and wiped a tear away with her apron. “Beatrice left a few hours ago. She said there was an emergency back home in England, but I think she just made a run for it.”

  “Can you blame her?” Flynn asked sourly.

  Reece looked down at the ground, but his shoulders shook in a silent laugh.

  Surely it can’t be worse than my birthday cake, I thought.

  I think this Thanksgiving meal is going to be worse than anything that has ever been created in a kitchen before, he thought back at me. It’s going to be the food equivalent of an apocalypse. It could kill us all.

  Now it was my turn to hide my laughter. We linked arms and braced ourselves as we stepped into the house and became bathed in the awful fumes.

  Flynn gasped for air and turned to flee. Mark caught him by the elbow before he could make a run for it. “If we have to suffer through this, then so do you,” he ordered grimly.

  “Dinner will be ready in two hours,” Margaret said. She was oblivious to the short lived mutiny. “I’ll bring you coffee and some pastries in the parlor if you like.”

  “That would be lovely,” Mark said. His voice sounded squeezed. Like us, he was trying not to breathe too deeply. I didn’t know about the others, but I planned to stuff myself before dinner. I wasn’t going to eat any more of the disastrous meal than I absolutely had to.

  Kala was waiting for us when we filed into the parlor. Judging by her sour expression, she was well aware that the turkey hadn’t turned out quite as well as she’d planned. “Don’t say a word,” she warned us when we took our seats. “I’m sure it will taste better than it smells.”

  Flynn grimaced again, but kept his mouth shut when Mark flicked a glance at him. “I’m sure it will be fine,” our boss said. He was adept at keeping the peace. After raising three shifters who sometimes had volatile tempers, he was a master at it.

  Margaret appeared a few minutes later, pushing the trolley ahead of her. We waited for her to leave before a short scuffle broke out. I hadn’t been alone in my plan to eat my fill. Only crumbs remained of the food that had been on display. Mark had managed to snag two cookies while the rest of us had fought over the rest. Our hands had moved almost too fast to follow as we’d snatched up the snacks.

  Even Kala had raided the plates. She hunkered over her feast and bared her teeth in warning when Flynn eyed her stash covetously.

  Feeling bad for Mark for missing out, I heaved an internal sigh and handed my plate over to him. My stomach protested loudly when he smiled gratefully and took a couple of pastries. Reece proved that his affection for me was strong when he sacrificed some of his food to me until we had an even share.

  Disgruntled by her efforts in the kitchen, Kala’s shoulders sagged as she chewed her food. She didn’t eat with her usual speed and remained quiet while Mark described the murder scene and the lack of evidence that we’d found.

  “So, we haven’t really learned anything new,” she said around a half-chewed pastry.

  “We know it’s a young male,” Reece argued. “That’s more than we knew before.”

  Mark broke in before they could descend into a squabble. “Dumping the body near a popular nature hike was deliberate. I’m wondering if that was for our benefit. It seems too coincidental for this to have happened just as we’re in the area investigating a different case.” His thoughts echoed Reece’s.

  “Do you think he knows who we are?” Flynn asked. He wasn’t particularly concerned. A lone wolf wouldn’t pose much of a threat to our pack.

  Mark shrugged. “It’s a possibility that I can’t discount until we learn more about him.”

  “What’s your plan?” I asked. I knew he had one. Mark was always several steps ahead of us.

  “I’m going to run a search on all of the animal attacks and missing people in the area for the past few years and see if I can find a pattern. This might not be his first human kill. If there have been others, I’ll find them.”

  It was a solid plan and that meant we’d be staying in West Virginia for longer than we’d anticipated. The B&B was nice enough, but I didn’t want to live here indefinitely. It was hard to remember to act normal when we were around other people all the time. I was bound to slip up sooner or later. Plus, Zeus was tired of hiding in the bushes. He wanted to spend more time with me.

  ₪₪₪

  Chapter Six

  We talked shop until it was time to eat then dispersed to wash up. I spent a few minutes in my room trying to gird myself for the ordeal ahead. My stomach was twisted in dread at the horrors that it was about to be subjected to.

  I opened my door to find Reece waiting for me. I stepped out and he took my key from me. Pulling the door shut, he locked it then stepped in close. Our eyes locked when he slid the key into the front pocket of my jeans. My body tingled in anticipation as I picked up on his intentions.

  Pressing me against the door, he tilted my head back and kissed me. I melted into him, pressing my body against his until we were meshed together. I ran my hands from the small of his back up to his wide shoulders. No matter how many times we were together, I never tired of being in his arms. For a few short moments, I almost forgot about the nauseating smell that clogged my sinuses.

  “Dinner is ready, if you two can force
yourselves to stop sucking face for a few minutes!” Kala hissed from the base of the steps. Flynn’s deep chuckle echoed up to us as he left his room on the second floor.

  Reece pulled away and smiled down at me. He brushed a thumb over my red cheek, causing the color to deepen even more. “We’d better head down before Mark sends them up to get us.”

  “I really, really, don’t want to eat that bird,” I whispered too quietly for Kala to overhear me.

  “Neither do I,” he agreed. “We’ll force ourselves to because she tried hard and because we love her.”

  Kala was the closest person I’d ever had to a sister. I couldn’t be selfish and disappoint her. Giving into the inevitable, we linked arms and began our death march down the stairs.

  Reece slowed his pace to match mine. I suspected he was trying to delay for a few moments longer. We entered the dining room to see that several tables had been joined together. Edward sat at the head of the table and politely stood when we entered. In his late seventies or early eighties, he had old-fashioned manners.

  Mark stood as well and elbowed Flynn and Kala when they remained seated. Margaret appeared moments later. I left her a chair at the end of the table so she could sit near her father. Mark was across from me with Kala on his left and Flynn on his right. Kala was staring down at the table with a sour expression. Mark looked resigned and Flynn looked like he was about to bolt.

  We waited for Margaret to push the trolley over to the tables before we sat. Even covered by a silver dish, the bird reeked. Our hostess was nearly in tears again. She dithered around rather than placing the turkey in front of Edward.

  Picking up the carving knife, Edward motioned at the dish. “I’m not getting any younger, you know,” he said with a smile. Apparently, his sense of smell was much duller than normal. Otherwise he wouldn’t have been so eager to expose the bird.

  Bracing herself, Margaret put the dish in front of him, closed her eyes and lifted the lid. We all stared at the carcass in varying degrees of horror. Kala’s lips pinched tight when Flynn snorted out a laugh. “That brings new meaning to the word, fowl,” he said with a tinge of awe.