Wolf Moon Read online

  "Shit." Alex shoved his foot into the door before it shut and shouldered his way through. Why did she have to run? He was going to look bad in front of Jamie when he was winded after the chase. At least Mike wasn't here to make fun of him.

  "What...?" Jamie started, following him into the house.

  "Lycan."

  The woman rushed up the stairs, taking them two at a time, her footfalls silent on the steps despite her speed. Alex hesitated, uncertain, but then started up after her. He couldn’t let her get away.

  Three rooms opened off a narrow hallway at the top of the staircase. From the landing he could see into a master bedroom with plain white walls and a mattress on the floor as well as into a tiled bathroom done in a shocking shade of green. The woman wasn't in either room. The third door was shut.

  Jamie squeezed around him and started towards the closed door. Alex grabbed her arm to stop her. "Bad idea."

  "Why?" Jamie asked.

  Alex just shook his head. He raised his voice so that it carried through the wood door. "There's no need to panic, ma'am. We just want to ask you some questions.

  A furious string of words in a language he didn't recognize shot back at him from the other side of the door.

  "Seriously, Ma'am. My usual partner is a lycan or, well, something in between. You seem like a reasonable person," Alex tried again. It wasn't really a lie. She hadn't attacked them so far which already made her the most reasonable lycan he'd ever met. Upstairs. Why had she run upstairs?

  The door opened a crack and a sapphire blue eye pressed to the opening. A human eye. Forget why she'd come upstairs, why hadn't she shifted?

  "Someone called in a report of a dead lycan last night. Was that you?"

  The eye bobbed up and down as she nodded. "I did not know what to do. I...," the woman sobbed, a tear rolling down her cheek. "I could not help him." The skin around the eye was red and puffy as if this wasn't the first time she’d cried today.

  Alex took the necklace out of his pocket and slipped it through the opening. "I found this."

  "Not all of us are monsters," the woman said, taking the necklace from his fingers.

  "I didn't say that you were," Alex said. Also not a lie. He'd thought it, but he hadn't said it out loud--at least not to this woman. "I just want to know what happened and why you're here."

  The door swung open about a foot. Now two eyes glared at him. "I heard what you called me. I am not a lycan. A Shifter, yes, but not a lycan. I bear no curse. I am not forced to change."

  "What are you then?"

  "Our name is sacred and ours alone." Her eyes darkened to a stormy grey. "I am not going to share it with a dog catcher."

  "Hey," Alex said. "No need for name calling, it was an honest mistake. A wolf is a wolf."

  "We are Protectors, not Destroyers."

  "You haven't ripped my throat out yet, so I'm convinced. There were claw marks on the body though, I doubt those were from another Protector."

  More tears fell and the woman turned away from the door.

  "Now look what you've done," Jamie said, elbowing him in the ribs. She pushed the door open and two grey puff balls tumbled out. The little ones growled and snapped, tugging on Jamie's shoelaces and pant legs.

  The woman said something in the unknown language and the pups scampered back into the room, their tails tucked between their legs. "I'm sorry," she said. "They're too little to control the change yet."

  "They're adorable," Jamie said, crouching down so that she was at the pups’ level.

  "They will grow up without a father now. The dead wolf was my mate."

  "I'm sorry," Alex said and he was surprised to find he actually meant it.

  "It is what it is." The woman wiped the tears from her cheek. “We have been on the run. Pups are not common among our kind and a pack of werebeasts wishes to claim them for their own."

  The pups bounced over to Jamie and she scratched behind their ears. They closed their eyes in bliss, tails thumping in unison against the floor. "Why do they want the pups?" Jamie asked.

  "Protectors are granted special gifts that the cursed are forbidden. It is said the lycans were once Protectors that chose the path of darkness and their gifts were stripped from them in punishment." The woman paused, brushing more tears from her eyes. Her mascara had run, leaving black streaks on her cheeks. She didn't seem to notice. "What happened to his body?"

  "It...." For some reason, Alex hesitated to tell her that her husband's body was locked away in the animal control freezer. "He's well taken care of. If you have something you want done with his remains...."

  "Cremation is traditional," the woman said.

  Alex fought back tears of his own. "That can be done. Are you safe here?"

  The woman looked to the pups who were now playing tug of war with an old t-shirt that Alex assumed had belonged to their father. "For the time being," the woman said. "The full moon is tonight though. They will have the werewolves with them then."

  Chapter 4

  The office had exploded while they were gone. Every square inch was covered in a layer of white fluff, the tattered remains of Mike's bed laying in a heap in the center of the room. Alex brushed the stuffing off his chair. Other than the temperature, it was hard to tell the office from outside where snow was starting to collect on the ground.

  "I can understand your frustration, Mike," Alex said. "Things are a bit...complicated this time."

  Jamie surveyed the damage and turned to leave.

  "Where do you think you're going?" Alex asked.

  "Back to my desk."

  Alex glanced at the wolf laying in the center of the destruction, head on his front paws, pouting. It was nice to have a normal partner again. "There's an extra desk here. That is, if you're interested in seeing this through."

  "What do we do now?" Jamie asked, her voice bright.

  "Paperwork."

  "Oh." Her voice fell.

  "Then we go kick some lycan butt."

  Mike barked his approval of the second portion of the plan.

  Alex rummaged through the desk drawers looking for the form he needed. It wasn't often that he licensed Shifters to stay in the city limits. A hazardous animal permit should do. They were wolves after all.

  In the hour since they’d left the Shifter and her pups, nearly an inch of snow had accumulated. Alex knocked on the door again. No answer. He frowned, feelings of dread starting to build in his stomach. They'd told the woman to be ready to move.

  Motioning Jamie back, Alex placed one hand on the gun in his holster and then kicked the door. The door shuttered but held, not easily intimidated. Alex's frown deepened as Jamie giggled behind him.

  "Did you try the doorknob?" she asked, reaching around and twisting the handle. The door swung in without any resistance.

  "I was going to try that next," Alex grumbled as he stepped into the house. He half expected teeth and fur to rush him the second he stepped foot over the threshold, but the house was silent. He kept his hand on his gun just in case.

  The window in the living room was shattered, pieces of glass crunching under foot as Alex made his way through the room. Empty. Unless it was spectral, nothing else was present on the first floor at least. Alex considered the air around him. He had failed his spiritualism exam at the Academy.

  "Mike," he whispered into his radio.

  Alex crept up the stairs. The house was as silent as a crypt. Alex shivered, drawing his gun from its holster. Maybe it was.

  Alex used his foot to push open the door where they'd cornered the woman earlier. The body of a black wolf lay in the center of the room. Blood soaked into the carpet around her and intestines trailed from a gaping wound in her abdomen. Alex knelt next to the body and covered the wolf's dull eyes with his hand. They never closed their eyes. He slipped the silver necklace over hear head.

  "So much for being safe," Jamie said, turning away so that she didn't have to look at the body any longer.

  Mike padded into the room a
nd Jamie raised her gun instinctively.

  "Whoa!" Alex said, jumping up and grabbing at Jamie's arm. "It's just Mike."

  "How do you know?" Jamie asked, her voice and hand trembling.

  "I know." Mike had been his partner since he'd started on the force. Granted the guy had only been trapped in this form for a couple years, but Alex would recognize him anywhere. "Plus, the bullet proof vest tends to give it away."

  "I can't believe they make bullet proof vests for dogs," Jamie said, holstering her gun.

  "Dogs need protection too," Alex argued. "They may have plenty of teeth but they need to get close enough to use them."

  Mike grinned at Jamie, showing off his pearly whites, then walked over to the dead wolf. He buried his nose in the wolf's fur and took deep breaths as if he was trying to inhale the essence of what had happened to her.

  "The pups are missing," Alex said.

  "Maybe they're hiding."

  Alex glanced around the room. A twin mattress lay on the floor in the corner with a tangle of thrift store blankets on top that had been twisted into a cozy nest. An assortment of toys was scattered over the floor--cars and wooden puzzles mixed in with rope and squeaky toys that had been designed for four-legged children. "Maybe."

  The rest of the house was just as bare. The master bedroom had a slightly larger mattress on the floor and a couple cardboard boxes of neatly folded clothes against one wall. The bathroom had a stack of freshly laundered towels and a selection of travel size toiletries hidden away under the sink. Downstairs a threadbare couch that had seen better days dominated the living room facing a bulky square television of a style Alex was pretty sure hadn't been in vogue since the early ‘90s. The kitchen was spotless but the glasses and plates in the dish drainer were all mismatched.

  Everything was neat and tidy, but disposable. Alex had no doubt that the family could have run and left all this behind with only a moment's notice. He frowned at the empty cabinets. What a crappy way to have to raise your kids.

  "No pups," Jamie said, walking into the kitchen.

  "Mike have any luck?" Alex asked.

  "I don't think so but I don't speak dog."

  Alex opened the refrigerator, finding only a few Tupperware containers full of food and a half empty gallon of milk. No pups. He shut the refrigerator door. "Before we get any deeper into this, you realize Mike's a wolf, right?"

  "So I've heard."

  "Are you okay with that? I mean, I've had a while to get used to the idea, but you're still new to all of this."

  Jamie shrugged. "Is there a reason I shouldn't be okay with it?"

  "It's just...a lot of people...." Alex shook his head, smiling. He wished Mike could have been in the kitchen to hear that. The rest of the department tried to be discrete, but he'd heard all their whispered complaints about the powers that be allowing Mike to stay on the force and he was pretty sure Mike had heard them all as well. "Never mind."

  "What do we do now?"

  "Bag up the remains," Alex said.

  "I meant about the pups."

  "I know you meant about the pups. Bag up the wolf first."

  While Jamie headed out after one of the big contractor bags that he kept on the truck for the more morbid of his duties, Alex retraced his steps through the house. He found the other necklace tucked away inside a pillow case in the master bedroom and slipped it into his pocket. Jamie had already loaded the wolf's remains into the back of the truck when he came back downstairs. Mike was pacing back and forth in the living room, nose to the ground and a low growl humming deep in his chest.

  "You'll get glass in your paws," Alex warned. He motioned to the broken window. Mike ignored him.

  "How are we going to find the pups?"

  "We have two options that I can think of. The Mages are pretty good at finding things."

  "Finding spells take too long," Jamie said. "Tonight’s the full moon. What's option number two?"

  "Know anything about ranch sorting?"

  "No."

  "Well, you're about to learn then. We’re going to go see a man about a horse.”

  Chapter 5

  "What the heck is that?" Jamie asked as she leaned forward to look out the windshield, her head twisted back at an unnatural angle.

  Alex glanced up at the giant yellow oil worker with his hand on an oversized oil rig that stood at the entrance to the fairgrounds. The flakes of snow were collecting over the statue’s shoulders and somewhat obscene pectorals. "That's the Golden Driller. Never been to the state fair?"

  "I moved here two weeks ago from Denver."

  Alex navigated the truck through the maze of snow-covered parking lots to the Mustang arena. Rows of matching aluminum horse trailers, pulled by equally identical white pickup trucks, filled the parking lot behind the arena. Alex parked the truck behind one of the trailers to help protect it from the winter storm.

  The temperature had dropped several more degrees and his face stung where the wind blew half frozen snowflakes against his skin. He grabbed a leash and collar out of his pocket and slipped it over Mike's head. Mike growled, his eyes narrowing. "Leash law," Alex said, shrugging. "Try to look like a dog." They hurried to the barn, slipping and sliding where their feet found thin sheets of hidden ice under the snow.

  The warm air in the arena was sweet with the smell of horse sweat and Alex could hear the shifting and low mooing of cattle penned up outside. They climbed the rickety stairs to the stands. Several people were setting up two small pens made of pipe panels in the center of the arena while several others cantered horses around the outside of the construction.

  "Who are we looking for?" Jamie asked.

  Alex nodded towards a heavy set man on a horse at the far end of the arena talking to a woman on a short stocky bay. "Don's the one on the Arab."

  Jamie stared at him.

  "The big chestnut with lots of chrome?" Alex offered.

  Jamie continued to stare, her eyes clouded with confusion.

  "The brown horse with the big blaze on its face and high white on its legs. Haven't been around many horses, have you?" Alex waved at Don, catching his eye, and the guy turned his horse towards the gate.

  "Been a while since I've seen you around," Don said as he led his horse out of the arena. "See you're keeping Mike in line."

  "I try," Alex said, shaking Don's hand. "How are things with you?"

  "Same old, same old--can't complain."

  "Kind of crappy weather for a horse show."

  Don shrugged. "Clinic, not show. It's January in Oklahoma, could be 60 and sunny or could be snowing. This year it snowed. Looks like everyone got in before it started and it will be melted by the end of the weekend." They headed up the ramp to the stalls. "Horse people are crazy anyway. Who's your friend?"

  Alex blushed, realizing he'd forgotten about Jamie. "This is Jamie. She's helping me out with a case."

  "Nice ta' meet ya'," Don said, tipping the brim of his cowboy hat. "Sorry Alex drug you all the way out here in the cold.” He turned back to Alex. “You wouldn't say over the phone what it is that you're looking for."

  Alex sighed, rubbing the back of his neck. "It's a long story."

  "Always is." Don stopped at the second aisle of stalls. He dropped the reins he'd been carrying on the ground and started to loosen the cinch on his saddle. Alex ran his hand down the horse's neck. The thick winter coat still had some dampness to it where the horse had sweated during its workout. The horse nuzzled at his side, looking for treats, and Don handed him a peppermint. Alex barely got the plastic wrapper off before the horse inhaled it.

  "Haven't seen this one before," Alex said.

  "He's one of my reiners. Thought I’d try him on some cow work. Roads still passable?" Don pulled the saddle off and set it into a stall full of feed bags, hay, and miscellaneous tack.

  "Enough."

  "Good, I'm starving. Tally's?" Don asked, throwing a cooler over the horse and leading it down to an open stall.

  "If we have to."r />
  "Dinner first, then dowsing. You guys go ahead. I've got to toss the ponies some hay and I'll meet you up there."

  * * *

  Tally's was mostly deserted thanks to the weather and the odd time of the afternoon--past the lunch rush, but still too early for dinner. Alex slid into an open booth. It was a nice change. Tally’s was Don's favorite but usually whenever there was a horse event going on at the fairgrounds the place was packed to capacity--which made for less than private conversations.

  "We've got one more coming," he told the waitress as she approached. "We'll take some water though and you might as well bring a Coke. Don's gonna need the caffeine." The waitress nodded, jotting a note down on her order pad. "How much do you know about werebeasts?" Alex asked Jamie when they were alone again.

  "A little." She glanced out the window to where the truck was parked along the street. "Is Mike going to be okay?"

  "He's got a fur coat, he'll be fine." The waitress returned with their drinks and Alex waited until she'd disappeared back behind the counter before he spoke again. "There are several types of werebeasts stemming from all sorts of animals. Werecats and werewolves are the most common around here, though there are others."

  "They keep some human form, right?" Jamie asked.

  Alex nodded. "They're grotesque animal-human hybrids that look like they were pieced together with the left over bits someone found in hell and they only change according to the moon cycle."

  "Lycans are different, aren't they?"

  "They’re a different breed of Shifter--cursed same as the werewolves, but they have a bit more control over their form. They can change outside of the moon cycle and can turn all the way into a wolf."