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“Did you see that?”
“What?”
“Eyes. They glowed yellow.”
The female officer’s negation followed as I turned tail and fled deeper into the forest. Slid on my belly through brush until even the spotlight’s glare was gone.
All that linked me to the crime scene now was the subtle char of moth wings making contact with the halogen. That...and the distant but unmistakable aroma of wild fur.
Of course, this was a forest. Animals—both domesticated and native—had been through here frequently.
But this furriness was familiar. I’d smelled it on myself every time I shifted from lupine to human. Wild and warm and faintly electric. The aroma of a woelfin’s pelt.
The scent was so strong I half expected to trip over Bastion’s fur. Not that the murderer would have discarded such a precious possession. Still, I followed my nose so intently I walked straight into a patch of briars. Without fingers to disentangle myself, I accepted scratches and pushed on through.
On the other side, the forest opened. No more bushes, no more undergrowth. This was a continuation of the path Luke and I had come in on. An obvious route of travel for someone possessing only human feet.
No wonder the reek of woelfin pelt strengthened here until it grew overwhelming. I sneezed, then jumped as warmth pressed up against my flank.
Luke. He’d scouted the other half of the perimeter before being drawn to the same spot I’d ended up in. His nose dropped to the ground. Mine mirrored the descent.
I’d expected to be able to confirm that Mrs. Smythewhite was our murderer once I found her access point. But the ground was hard and dry despite the brief thunderstorm a few days earlier. No footprints were evident, and the scent profile was so deeply overwhelmed by Bastion’s pelt that I could smell nothing else.
Well, that wasn’t quite true. Beneath the furry scent was something rotten and unpleasant. The killer’s intent to harm a small child. The killer’s glee in her fatal success.
The reek was so vile I found myself running away from the crime scene, following the path backwards. Surely at some point the rot would lessen.
It did not. This was the way the killer had both come and gone.
I found myself panting, not from exertion but from a vain attempt to breathe without smelling. It was a relief when we reached a parking lot and the scent trail ran dry.
A relief...then a profound disappointment. The murderer had gotten into a car just like Jimmy English had. She’d gotten in a car and taken her rotten, furry scent away while leaving no evidence behind.
***
THE ROAD THAT THIS parking lot branched off of was empty. Trees lined both sides. We’d traveled to the outskirts of town.
Perhaps that’s why Luke felt comfortable unfolding himself into humanity. Long limbs turned into even longer limbs. Ears and snout receded. Barrel chest broadened and flattened while fur fled.
Well, most of his fur fled. A curl flopped down onto his forehead and he brushed it back absently. Smaller curls V’ed down to a spot where I really shouldn’t have had the temerity to look.
I turned away, sliding my pelt forward as it fell from my body. Hunching over to hide it from view, I felt more naked than I’d ever been.
Behind me stood a skinless whom I’d sniped at for the terrible crime of being who he was...and who’d come when I called anyway. I cleared my throat, hunting for an apology, but Luke interrupted before I could begin.
“Your pack doesn’t shift much, does it?”
“No.” I shook my head, wishing I could share the details. Back when our parents had been alive, the eight of us had played together in one big jumble of woelfin high spirits. We’d transformed back and forth, to and from humanity, without concern for human prudishness.
But that was years ago. Justice dressed for his law internship in a suit and tie now. Grace spent her time designing high-end clothing. I’d shifted in front of my pack out of desperation while hunting Bastion’s pelt. Most of the time, though, being lupine in front of woelfin so entrenched in their humanity felt like applying a slap to each beloved face.
Luke, on the other hand, was a werewolf. A skinless and packless one, but still quite familiar with naked humanity.
Apologies don’t always have to be verbal. I let my pelt slide further down to my side until it was hidden by darkness. Then I swallowed my shyness and turned around.
***
LUKE’S GAZE DIDN’T drop below my clavicle. His smile was warmer than the night.
I closed my eyes for one split second, blocking out the way my body yearned to lean closer and closer. Instead, I stuck to business. “I could definitely smell Bastion’s pelt. But not who was carrying it. Could you?”
He shook his head, and I waited. After all, Luke was an alpha werewolf. He’d want to lead the chase.
“Your hunt, your plan,” he said at last.
Like a stopper removed from a bathtub, his answer unleashed words I hadn’t realized were pent up inside. “The murderer hunted tonight, so we have most of the day to catch her,” I mused, letting my thoughts ramble as I would have with Bastion. “We can’t count on it being Mrs. Smythewhite, though. I learned that lesson the hard way. So we’ll keep tabs on everyone who’s come in contact with me while also attempting to reel the killer in.”
Luke nodded and his simple acceptance warmed me. “Who have you touched?”
“You.” He’d rubbed up against me in wolf form after all. “Slim. Bastion....”
“And Clarence.” Luke’s flaring nostrils were the only sign that it was hard for him to second-guess himself. “I was wrong. He might not be a wolf after all. The scent....”
“Yeah.” I cut him off before he could explain that he’d mistaken Bastion’s pelt for a soon-to-be-shifted werewolf. I’d guessed that already. “I’ll have Grace continue watching him, just in case he does shift randomly. Justice can stay with Bastion.”
“And you want me to keep an eye on Slim.”
I tensed, expecting rejection as I turned an alpha werewolf into a bit player in this life-or-death drama. Instead, Luke reached forward. I didn’t realize what he was going for until his fingers hesitated one inch away from my pelt.
“May I?”
I should have hidden it. I should never have shifted. I should have....
I swallowed recriminations and nodded silently. Released my pelt and tried not to quiver as the skinless drew my most precious possession out of my hands.
His touch was fire and icicles. Goosebumps rose along my forearms as Luke wound my fur around his torso like a towel. Heat bit into my belly as he slid the leather side back and forth against his bare skin.
“What are you doing?” Even to my own ears, my voice sounded high-pitched and syncopated. I could hardly breathe.
His voice rumbled between us. “Making sure I’m the biggest target.”
Task completed, he lifted my hair and slipped the pelt back over my shoulders. As if he hadn’t just proven he knew I was a woelfin. As if he hadn’t utilized my pelt’s magic just as I’d always been told would happen if I let down my guard around a skinless...only his purpose was nothing like the destructive selfishness I’d been led to expect.
I had questions but no time to ask them. Just a werewolf before me and a pelt around my shoulders. The warmth of the latter soothed me, as if Luke’s arm rather than my own skin lay there.
“The biggest target after you, of course,” Luke continued. His eyes bored into me. “Take care of yourself, Honor. I want to be part of your next hunt.”