JAYCE

“Was this your pack’s doing or not, Draven?” Jeremy Lincoln pounded his desk causing dust to blast out from under his fist in every direction.

I turned to my alpha, Draven, who looked as impatient as I felt. Neither of us really trusted Lincoln all that much, but with all of the other Arrow Lake town officials up in arms about the recent happenings, he’d been the only one willing to talk. Most of them were scared. Of whom or what? We had yet to figure that out.

On the other side of the desk, I sat with Draven and Eddie. Now that Eddie’s affiliation with the shifters was out, it seemed he didn’t give a flying flip about openly advocating for us. The meeting wasn’t going so well, but we knew this much. All we needed the town officials to understand was how the packs worked and that not every shifter they encountered was a rogue trying to cause issues. Things had settled down recently at which point we thought the humans would understand that, but now the rogues seemed to have ruined any chance of redemption with the townspeople.

I watched as Draven shifted anxiously in his chair. “If this was our doing, do you think we’d be here talking to you right now.”

“Well, why are you here? What can you do for us to keep our town safe and our borders secure? Whoever is attacking us must be coming through the mountains, and we can’t get up in them mountains the way you wolves can,” Lincoln stated.

“We can talk about safety, but first I need your word and notice from the Mayor and all the other rifle-happy cronies going around declaring that they will shoot any shifter in their paths that you all will stand down.”

“Are you saying you know who’s attacking us?”

Draven looked at me and I nodded.

“Jayce and I have a pretty good idea,” Draven told Lincoln.

“And you, Eddie? You can vouch for all this?”

Eddie placed his hands on his hips. “Well, what do you think I’m standing here for? I’m about sick and tired of hearing gunshots behind my house. These people don’t deserve to be shot at. Catch the bad guys--the rapists, the murders and whatnots--, but you can’t lump them all in the same category. There are at least three different packs in the Arrow Lake region. Different packs governed by different leadership.”

“Looks like you’ve got intimate knowledge about these packs,” Lincoln noted, settling back in his chair.

“Eddie’s one of several that actually took time to understand us when knowledge of our existence first came out. Ironically, they ran him out of the force once Lakely’s Law was passed.”

“So, are you suggesting he was removed without reason?” Lincoln asked.

“We all know the truth. When the law was passed, town officials and councilmen were replaced left and right,” Draven said. “This isn’t what this is about. The rogues are back and I don’t think it’s for nothing. They want something. I’m going to find out what that is and then I’m going to run them back out of here and they’re going to stay out. We hate the civil unrest just as much as you do.”

“Indeed. We’re trying to contain the problem and keep it out of the news as much as possible. We’re a tourist town. Most of our tax revenues come from tourism. We can’t afford the bad press. Have you got a better way to contain this?”

“We’ll have to draw them out and find out exactly what it is they want and whose pushing them to violence,” Draven said.

“How will you do that?”

“We have ways...” Draven stated.

“And once you drive the rogue wolves back out of town, then what? I doubt you’re doing this without expecting anything in return?” Lincoln narrowed his gaze suspiciously.

“And you’re right, but for that, I’ll need to meet with the man who calls all the shots. We’ve been shunned from the main town for far too long,” Draven said.

Lincoln frowned. “Hmmm, what you’re suggesting will require a lot of arm twisting, law changes, and whatnot.”

Draven settled back in his chair. “Do we have a deal or not? You get me the Mayor and I’ll fix this little rogue problem.”

“I’ll send word to him. Now that we know you’re not on some one-sided bullshit plans, I’m sure he’ll want to listen,” Lincoln offered.

“And you’ll call back the wannabe vigilantes currently running around the mountainside looking for wolves to shoot down,” Draven added.

Lincoln nodded.

“You’ll also release any of our innocent people from your jails,” I said. I couldn’t forget about Roy and all the innocents they probably had held up in jail cells.

“Citizen’s arrest is in effect. Sheriff’s order as of early yesterday,” Lincoln said.

Draven and I exchanged a wary glance.

“So, if you can’t shoot ‘em down, you round ‘em up and lock ‘em up?” Draven asked.

Lincoln nodded. “And interrogate ‘em. The alleged shifters we rounded up claimed they don’t know shit and they haven’t said shit either. They shouldn’t have even been out on this side of town. That’s blatant violation of Lakely’s Law. It was only a matter of time before they were caught anyway. I have some clout with the jailer. I’ll need one of you to point out the innocents and I’ll let ‘em loose.”

“I’ll go,” I offered.

“I’m coming to the jail with you just in case anybody gives you problems,” Eddie said.

“Guys, looks like we’ve made a plan,” Draven stated, rising from his chair. “Let’s make our home safe again. For everyone. Residents. Tourists. Casual visitors.”