"Ma’am, have you got anyone you can stay with for a while? A friend or relative?"

"Um…" Cassie Grey exclaimed as she sat outside on the step leading to her townhouse.

The police officer continued to stand over her. He wrote something down on his notepad as he waited for her to answer. The portable radio hooked to his belt buzzed to life, requesting responses and giving out locations to other incidents.

She couldn't believe this was happening…

Even though it was in the middle of the night, some of her neighbors began to come outside to investigate. For the past two years, Cassie had been renting this townhouse unit. Nothing like this had ever happened. But she was no stranger to the world of crimes and various scandals in Aspen Valley and other surrounding areas. Just yesterday she was helping a lead news anchor with the live reporting of a story just outside of a food mart that had been robbed. And today… she had just become the main victim of a similar crime. Cassie couldn't believe her luck.

"Do you at least have somewhere you can stay for the night?" the police asked, raising his voice a little louder this time.

"I think so," she replied.

The police officer looked at her with his eyebrows drawn tightly together and his lips set in a frown. "It's not safe for you to stay here alone right now, so is that a yes or no?"

"Yes. I have a relative here in town. My brother."

"His name?"

"Neil Grey," she said. "Look, I just need to collect some of my things before I leave."

The police officer nodded. "No problem. Get what you need, but please be careful. Our team is still collecting evidence. We should have the police report ready in a few days for you and your landlord. And for the threat you received, we'll likely need more time to gather and process leads. We'll find this guy. Don't worry."

She hoped so. Her life wasn't the only life at risk. And whoever had written the threatening note, affixed it to an eight-pound rock, and hurled it through her living room window had made it clear that he was serious.

Cassie walked over the threshold into her home where the detectives worked side by side as they looked for clues and took pictures. Maybe she was lucky to even be alive. The perpetrator could've done more than break through a window in the middle of the night.

She hurried down the hall and grabbed a large suitcase from her closet where she began picking out clothes and shoving them inside. As she packed what she needed, she pulled out her phone and dialed her brother's cell.

"What the hell, Cassie? Do you know what time it is?" he answered groggily.

Cassie also heard the voice of a woman in the background asking, "Who is that?" Probably his girlfriend. Every month he had a different one, but that was beside the point.

"Neil, I need a favor," she said. "Someone left a threatening note in my house. I'm wondering if I can crash at your place just for the night." She was under-reacting, but she didn't want to rile up her brother.

"I'm up now! What happened?"

Now that she had his full attention, she knew he'd never let her live this one down. There was a time when her one and only brother monitored her every move.

When their parents got on board a plane nearly nine years ago to vacation overseas only to meet an untimely demise in a crash, Neil had turned into the strict older brother who thought everyone—and everything—would strip his only living family member from him. It had taken him a while to realize that she was moving into adulthood and to loosen up a bit. Now that she was twenty-one and had her own place now, she'd just experienced what real freedom from an overbearing brother felt like. But after what just happened, she had no doubt that his overprotective ways would return.

After the call, Cassie's thoughts trailed back to the moment when she lifted and read the note from the rock.

-Your article about how these animals pretending to be humans shouldn't be treated "inhumanely" was rather interesting. But really? THEY'RE ANIMALS! If you don't like how we protest, GET OUT OF OUR TOWN! Or I have an even better idea. Meet me at the county zoo where I can gut you and then throw you in a cage of lions. I hope you've got life insurance-.

It took her almost no time to come to the conclusion that her stalker was mad that she was connecting telling clues on a case involving the shifter murders. Someone didn't want to be ousted or caught. The note had been very telling. Her stalker was the real animal here and he deserved to be locked up in prison.

Cassie was committed to this case. One threat wasn't going to stop her from finding the real truth. But now she had another goal: staying alive.