After a night spent tossing and turning and thinking of nothing but his missed opportunity with Natalie, Luca drove into Wolf’s Peak. Despite not having any idea of how to get Natalie off of her obsession with the ranch, he was looking forward to seeing her. He found himself humming along with the radio and a country song about women with generous proportions. Oh, yeah, that man knew what he was singing about. Nothing like a woman with something to hold on to, and Natalie had all the right curves in all the right places.

He found a parking spot down the street from the Brunch Palace, right in front of Wulfric’s Sandwich Shop, turned off the engine and sat, trying to get his thoughts in order.

He liked Natalie, really liked her. She was sassy and sexy, and in the normal course of things he thought he’d date her. But she wasn’t pack, and while that wouldn’t put a stop to dating her, it would put a stop to anything serious. Anything at all.

Pack only mated with pack with the right DNA. In fact, there was fierce competition for pack mates. He’d heard of a few shifters who’d dated humans now and then before finding their mate, but it was all in fun. A few nights here or there.

Of course, there were always the dormants. Still pack, sometimes they carried one of the three magic genes, and occasionally, one would be born without any of the genes that responded to the Lycanthroism virus. They were still pack, still viable mates, even if they never showed the magic of being a shifter, or walked on the dreamscape like the dreamwalkers. Or were able to commune with the elder spirits like the spelltalkers.

Everyone in pack had value. Even lone wolves like him.

And then there was the issue of the blood on the edge of Windy Gap property. He had no idea what had gone on there, but someone on the ranch did. He’d have to tread carefully. Whoever had done the clean-up of what was likely Yvette’s murder, had done a good job. But they hadn’t expected Natalie, that was for sure. And now, Natalie was in hunting mode.

His wolf gave the lupine equivalent of a purr. It loved the idea of Natalie hunting and resonated with the thought, but Luca had to see if he could talk her down. Maybe it would be enough to tell her he’d look into it. Or else he’d be forced to go to Chief Howler and confess what he’d done by bringing a non-pack human into his cabin. If that happened, he’d likely be brought up in front of the pack council, and those women were ruthless.

He got out of the truck and made his way to the sidewalk, so engrossed in his dilemma that he didn’t even notice Rico Villalobos and Gabe Wulfric coming out of the sandwich shop Gabe owned with his brother Sam.

“Hey Luca, how’re they hanging?” The two enforcers came over and Rico gave him a slap on the shoulder. “What’s going on, man. You look serious.”

“Nothing much. Just heading to breakfast.”

He contemplated asking for help. Of anyone on the force these two would be the ones he thought he could trust with something like this. They’d always been fair.

But then he spotted Natalie waving at him from the window of the Brunch Palace and smiling at him today like none of the disaster at the cabin had even happened. She was hot, so hot, wearing a low-cut white blouse, the dusky tops of her breasts peeking out, distracting him from the men in front of him. He had to at least see if maybe she’d changed her mind about going to the sheriff. He had to give her a chance.

“Hey, Weylyn.” Gabe gave him a friendly shove. “You sure everything’s okay?”

“No. I’m good.” He shook off Natalie’s pull and refocused on the men in front of him. “You two on duty today?”

“Yeah, Rico’s stuck with me.” Gabe shouldered the other, slighter man. Rico shouldered him right back.

Luca had a brief spurt of envy. Rico was one of the few full-time enforcers so he got preference when choosing partners and he alternated between the two Wulfric brothers, Sam and Gabe, while Luca usually got the short straw of men like Brandon Bertolf.

Natalie waved again.

“Hey guys I gotta go.”

Gabe nodded at the window of the Brunch Palace. His eyebrows rose. “I see you’ve got better things to do today than work.”

Rico turned, spotted Natalie. “Orooo! That’s one hot lady, Weylyn. Watch you don’t get burned.”

The two partners laughed and walked away, laughing and shaking their heads at him. Luca headed for the door of the restaurant.

He walked inside and headed for the booth where she was sitting. “Hey Natalie.” He might get singed, but the sight of Natalie’s welcoming smile had him thinking it would be one hell of a fire.

“Hey yourself.”

When he looked closely, her eyes were shadowed, like she’d had just as little sleep as he had. But the disheveled woman he’d dropped off at the hotel the night before was gone, and in her place was this hot young thing, with bright eyes and a lipsticked smile.

Luca sat down. “You look different this morning.”

“It’s amazing what a shower will do for you.” She handed him a menu. “You’re late and I’m starved.”

He took the menu and scanned it. The waitress came by and poured them coffee and said she’d be back in a minute.

“Who were those two dudes?”

“Just some guys I know.” He blew on the hot liquid before taking a sip.

Natalie poured several creams into her coffee and dumped in a bunch of sugar packets. “Do they live at the commune with you?”

He almost spit out his coffee all over the menus. “What the hell?”

“I asked around last night. You didn’t tell me there was a whole town’s worth of people living there, and more in the surrounding community. Word is that ranch is some kind of commune where you have weird religious practices and that’s why you’re so secretive. Is that why that guy threatened me? Is he afraid I’ll bring in the law and shut down your naked rituals?”

Luca stared at her. “What naked rituals?”

“Didn’t you know? That’s what the noobs around here think. That you’re all dancing around some fire circle without clothes on and howling at the moon?”

Luca started to laugh. And laugh. And laugh some more. He laughed so hard that once he’d stopped he realized everyone in the restaurant was staring at him from their waitress to a baby with round blue eyes and baby food smeared all over her face. He sobered up slowly, taking his time to sip a little coffee before answering, “No, I didn’t know that.”

A commune. Of course, it wasn’t far from the truth. They all ran around naked at the ranch and there were lots of pack who chose to live on site. It was one of the reasons no one but pack was allowed on site without lots of preparation. You never knew when someone would shift and not have anything around to wear. Shifters didn’t care about clothes, but the rest of rural Colorado did.

“Well, that’s the gossip.” She picked up her mug and eyed him over the rim. “So, if you aren’t holding weird naked religious ceremonies, what the hell is so secretive about a ranch?”

“I...” He didn’t know what to say. She’d blindsided him.

She was looking back at him with triumph sparkling in her eyes. “Cat got your tongue?”

That look on her face, as if she’d just hooked the prize at the county fair, got to him. He forgot he was supposed to be convincing her to go away and leave town. All he wanted was to take her out of this restaurant and back to his place and finish what they’d started the day before. “Man, oh man, Natalie, you are one beautiful woman.”

“What?”

“You’re amazing. You’re smart and pretty and obviously, something very special. So tell me, why do you need to know any of this? What’s got you so determined to find out what goes on at the ranch that you’d trespass onto private land, scale a rock-face by yourself, and take the time to find out what the locals think?”

“I...”

“Now that cat’s got your tongue.” He grinned at her.

He really liked her. Too much. There was something special about her that had his blood singing and all he could think as he sat across from her was that he wished she were pack and he could share everything with her.

But he couldn’t.

So instead, he needed to find out why it was so important and maybe then he could get her to let it go. “I’m not going to say anything to you, Natalie. No information. Unless you share with me first.”

She pursed her lips and the slight motion sent images of that mouth hot on his, kissing him senseless.

Grateful for the table between them that kept him from grabbing and kissing her he asked again, “Well, are you going to tell me why you have to know all this? Or do I walk away?” He moved to get up.

“It’s Yvette.” She sighed. “My best friend.” The sparkle in her big brown eyes faded, leaving them sad and full of memories. “Yvette came up here a month ago and met some guy and no one’s seen her since.”

His gut tightened.

“Why do you think she was on the ranch?” Not that she was wrong. All that blood had to belong to someone, or something, about the size of an adult person. And with a missing woman in the area and the amount of clean-up, it looked suspiciously like murder.

“We were supposed to come up here together, but I couldn’t go. She met some dude and he talked her into going geocaching. She texted me the coordinates. It was the last thing I ever got from her.” She handed him her phone. “See.”

Hey cutie pie! I met someone. I’m calling him, Mr. Mysterious. Gotta keep you guessing! It’s your punishment for letting me come up here by myself. He’s way too old for me, but he’s totally hot!

And guess what? MM is into treasure too. :) We’re heading out tomorrow and I’ll let you know what we dig up. Oh, and just in case your mean old boss let’s you go, here’s the loco.

Luca stared at the text. “These are GPS coordinates.”

“Yes, and they lead to the place you found me. Right where that big bloodstain is. And right where I found this.” She pulled out a rectangular white case studded with sparkles. “Yvette’s phone.”

The tightness in his gut turned over. This was solid evidence. Someone had killed a girl on ranch property. And covered it up.

The TV overhead was babbling something about a virus, and the CDC. Then the words the announcer was saying stood out and caught him.

“The CDC denies any knowledge of this, werewolf disease, but we interviewed a man who says he saw a victim.”

Werewolf disease. The Bite.

His heart pounding, coffee cup forgotten in his hand, Luca sat up and stared at the blond woman on TV. She held a mike out to a dirty man with long hair, who looked like Charlie Manson in a beige trench coat, minus the tattoo.

“Sir, tell us what you saw.”

“It was crazy, man. The dude totally thought he was a wolf, baying and howling and scratching. He bit the ambulance driver. There was a lot of blood. I mean, like, gushing all over the place.” He shook his head. “You should have seen it. He was bat-shit crazy.”

Natalie was saying something, but Luca wasn’t listening. All he could hear were the next words of the announcer as they switched to the CDC interview with a second announcer chasing down a stressed-out bald man in a black suit.

“Sir, sir! Can you tell us anything about the new werewolf disease?”

“No comment.”

“But the people are scared. Rabid victims running around attacking people? Men acting like beasts? It sounds like a horror movie.”

“No comment.”

“Can’t you tell us anything? Or should we assume from your statement that it’s out there and you know nothing about it. That your agency is totally unable to cope with this disease.”

At that the CDC official straightened up and stared directly into the camera. “The government has everything under control. There is no need to panic. Contagion from someone carrying Lycanthroism is exceedingly rare.”

Everything in the restaurant fuzzed out. Lycanthroism. The CDC knew the name the pack used for the virus. Their secret was getting out and all hell was about to break loose.

“Luca. Luca!” Natalie reached across and touched his hand. “What’s wrong?”

His phone buzzed. He picked it up and saw the picture of the enforcer building he used for dispatch. The text read:

Emergency meeting. Everyone must attend. DO from the chief.

“I’ve got to go.” He stood up and threw some money on the table. “Breakfast is on me.”

Natalie stared up at him like a lost puppy. “What’s wrong? Did they find something? Did they find Yvette’s body?”

He wanted to scoop her up and tell her it had nothing to do with Yvette, reassure her and take care of her, like she’d never been taken care of before. But he didn’t have the time. The pack was under threat and suddenly his wolf was charging up his throat.

And he didn’t know. He couldn’t be sure that what was happening on TV wasn’t directly related to Yvette’s possible murder.

He had to go, but the idea of leaving and never seeing her again, hurt. “I’m sorry. I’ll catch up to you later. Here, take my number.” He grabbed a pen from the waitress and scrawled his phone number on a napkin.

“Luca.”

“I have to go.” His head spinning with what was happening on the TV, he went out to his truck and got inside, resting his head on the back of the seat and making sure his wolf was under control before he started the car and began to drive.

Someone had seen something. Exactly what, he wasn’t sure. But combined with Yvette’s disappearance, and Natalie’s insistence that she wasn’t going to let it go, it was time to head to enforcer headquarters and get some answers.