The Boy and His Wolf (5 page)

“
A teenager?” I nearly yelled.

“
Maria Evans. 16 years old. Her parents called in a day ago saying Maria hadn’t checked in. Apparently they had a fight and Maria said she was going to a friend’s house for the night. She never showed up.” His voice was heavy with despair.

I stared at the business card holder on the edge of the desk. I kept reading Sheriff Settino but it wouldn’t register in my head. An elderly man and a teenager. Not just murdered, but torn to shreds. Gutted. Slaughtered. All because a rogue pack wanted to threaten the Amber Pines wolves to show them what they were capable of. They attacked me for some reason and they knew this meant war. This was breaking the golden rule with wolf packs: you didn’t enter into another pack’s territory and you certainly didn’t kill innocent residents.

The images from the folders flooded through my brain. My mouth began to salivate and I stood up before I vomited on the desk. Even after all of the gore I had seen in my life, I still was not used to it.

“
You alright, son?” My father asked, standing as well.

“
This is war, Dad.” The words sounded foreign coming from my mouth. “There’s a rogue pack out there attacking people in our territory. The pack will be going after them.”

“
What do you mean war? What’s going to happen?”

I didn’t know what to say. I wasn’t the person with the answers. Dash would know. Marco would know.

I was almost out the door before my father grabbed me gently by my arm.

“
What’s going to happen?” he asked, concern and uncertainty in his voice.

“
I don’t know, Dad. I need to tell Dash or Marco. They’ll know.”

I walked out of the office and headed towards the lobby.

“
Where are you going?” he asked.

“
The memorial. I need to tell the pack that these wolves have killed.”

“
Wait,” he said. “Tanner, wait.”

Looking around, my father pushed me down a hall away from the other officers. I caught a glimpse of Officer Patton staring at us questioningly.

“
What is going on? Dash is outside right now?” he asked, forehead crunched.

The sound that came from my mouth was a mix of ‘ugh’ and ‘no’. I ignored the confused look on my father’s face and corrected myself. “Everyone’s at Dash’s house for Richton’s memorial barbeque. I’ll tell them there.”

“
I thought we agreed we weren’t going to talk about the bodies?” He leaned forward, waiting for my answer.

“
That was before rogue wolves started killing Amber Pines residents,” I whispered back, looking down the hall to make sure nobody was within earshot.

“
When did you and Dash see each other?” he asked, his voice fluctuating between curiosity and happiness.

“
We didn’t,” I lied, not about to discuss the wolves or the fact that my ex-boyfriend, who was magically my life mate, was currently on a sex spree.

“
But you saw Marco?”

“
Yes, and Dad, I really have to let them know what’s going on.” I felt guilty for leaving him so soon but people’s lives were in danger.

“
Okay, okay,” my father said, looking expectant.

“
Dad, promise me you won’t go after these wolves.” I stared at his gentle face that was frosted with light wrinkles.

“
I’m the Sheriff here, Tanner.”

“
I know that, Dad, but these are supernatural wolves. Please leave this to the pack.”

“
I’m supposed to be the one worrying about you. I’m the father here.” He softened his stance, his shoulders relaxing.

“
I know.” I made sure the words held a respectful tone.

Richton’s memorial service was in full-swing when I walked around the house and into the backyard. The idea with the pack was to celebrate the Alpha’s life with food, drinks, and memories. Richton wouldn’t have wanted sappy music and flowers.

Even though it was Dash’s house, Marco stood behind the grill with a tattered apron that read- Whose Your Daddy? He held tongs in one hand and a beer in the other.

“
Look who it is,” Grady called out, jumping off the picnic table and jogging over to me. I don’t know how it was possible, but he got taller and more buff since I last saw him. With skin the color of licorice and most likely 6’6’’, Grady was a beautiful mountain of a man.

“
Hey friend.” He wrapped me up in a bear hug and lifted me easily from the ground.

“
Jesus, man. You do know steroids are bad for your health, right?”

“
You’re one to talk.” I smacked my hand against his 12 pack.

“
No. Way.” Jacey was behind me, bewilderment in her wide eyes. “What happened to you?”

“
Look at you.” I laughed, running my fingers through a strand of her fire truck red hair.

“
Do you like it?” She peered at me out of one eye, hesitantly.

“
Of course. You look like a bombshell.”

She jumped up and down, clapping her hands. “Yay.”

She latched her arm through mine and dragged me towards the picnic table. I made a quick scan of the backyard, a lump in my throat, as I looked for Dash. Besides him, the only other person I hadn’t seen yet was Carson. The redhead was hot tempered and the only pack member I never fully connected with. Carson was the type of person who enjoyed being a dick for no reason, and apparently, like Dash, enjoyed using his dick just as much. He and I had clashed more than once in the past.

The screen door opened on queue and Carson walked out with two cases of beer. Behind him, Dash stepped onto the porch with a bag of hamburger buns. Speaking of buns, there were Dash’s, crammed inside his too-tight jeans. I silently cursed my quickly wavering feelings and accepted the fact that for a man who was all legs, Dash could fill out a pair of jeans like nobody else.

“
Hey.” Carson nodded towards me and walked past. That was typical.

“
Hello to you, too.” I flashed him a forced smile and glanced at Dash’s legs again. I could see him looking at me as he walked towards the grill, but I couldn’t bring myself to raise my eyes. I desperately wanted to smile at him, see what I imagined was the curved grin on his face, but I couldn’t. Call me on overreacting, but I felt betrayed.

“
Come and get it,” Marco called, and then looked past me. “Oh hey, just in time.”

Sylvia Night. A whole lot of boobs and a bunch of bad ass. She walked around the house in a black dress and a red trench coat. Talk about channeling Carmen Sandiego. Behind her trailed three men who neared Grady’s gigantic size. She was Alpha of Hartwood, one of the three Rocky Mountain packs, and looked just as sexy as I knew she was deadly.

She was friends with Richton and it made sense that she would attend the memorial barbeque in his honor. The goons behind her were obviously her muscle and from the dumb looks on their faces, they were just following orders.

“
We’re gonna need more burgers.” Jacey squeezed my arm and I chuckled.

Sylvia walked past Jacey and I, throwing me a suspicious glance, before giving Dash a fake half hug and a kiss on the cheek.

“
Thank you for inviting me, Mr. Howell.” Her voice was a rich velvet, both smooth and bold. She sounded exactly like an Alpha would, with confidence and power.

“
You’re always a guest here, Sylvia.” Dash made things more casual and despite knowing he’s a gay man, jealousy still scratched at my gut.

You’re always a guest, I repeated in my head. Ugh.

“
Please come eat.” Marco brought a plate of burgers over to the picnic table and motioned with his hand for Sylvia to sit at the patio table with Dash.

It wasn’t a secret that Dash was the obvious choice for Alpha. Richton would have picked him, I was certain of that. He would probably be talking Alpha business with Sylvia and I was fine with that, because it meant I could catch up with old friends.

We ate and talked, laughed and retold old stories. Marco was in tears, slapping the table, as he tried to tell the story of the time a spirit latched onto me.

“
That was not funny, dude.” I laughed, remembering how terrified I had been. “That was scary.”

Marco waved his hand in front of his face. “No, no…oh man, you wouldn’t even look in a mirror. Like, you were a mess for a week.”

“
I had a ghost following me around.” I looked to Jacey for backup.

She held her hand over her mouth, but I could see she was stifling a laugh. “The ghost just had a little crush on you.”

Grady snickered and nearly spit out his beer.

“
It was a female ghost who tried to watch me shower. She would appear out of nowhere. It freaked me out.”

Everybody broke into laughter again.

“
I don’t know if you guys know this or not.” Marco gave me an apologetic look. “But Tanner had me stand in the bathroom with him so he could shower.”

“
Marco.” I let the end of his name drag out.

“
I’m sorry, bro.”

I took another swig of my beer and glanced around the table. Pride and lightheartedness filled me up as much as the food did. I had missed this, truly missed this. Marco’s jokes, Grady’s acceptance, and Jacey’s gentle ability to make anyone feel special. Being back, right now, made me realize how different my life was in California. Sure, I had friends and a job, but this was rooted much deeper. This was natural to me. I could truly be myself.

I smiled on the outside, listening to another of Marco’s stories, but a piece of me questioned how I would be able to leave. How I would walk away from these guys again.

“
Anyone need a refill?” I asked, needing a moment to feel the guilt out of sight.

“
I’ll take another.” Grady raised his bottle.

“
Same.” Jacey winked.

I grabbed the empty bottles and headed for the house. “Be right back.”

The kitchen fridge was empty of beer and I headed into the garage for the second one. No sooner than the door closed behind me did it open. Dash stood in the doorframe, lips pressed and one hand in pocket.

“
Something wrong?” His head leaned in with his words.

“
No.” The word cracked as it came out.

He took a few steps closer.

“
You won’t even look at me.”

I still couldn’t. My eyes wouldn’t look away from a shelf full of power tools. He would be able to smell the mixture of emotions on me, so there was no point in trying to fail at hiding my hurt any longer.

“
I heard about your recent flings.” I barely got the words out.

He was silent for a moment and I could see his body stiffen. He hadn’t wanted me to figure that out. Go figure.

“
Yeah…don’t deny it or anything.” I flicked my eyes up at him, my own face scrunching in disgust.

Dash licked his lower lip slowly and his heavy gaze dropped. “I won’t lie to you.”

“
Sooo, that’s it?” I shook my head. He had nothing else to say?

He tossed his hands up. “What do you want me to say? No, I didn’t have sex with people. I did. I had meaningless sex with college guys. I’m not going to lie to you about that.”