JAYCE

Leaving Violet in my house by herself was the last thing I wanted to do, but time was crucial. If I wanted to find out what we were up against and, more importantly, the best way to bring down the wolves who had singled out and attacked an innocent woman, I had to act fast—especially if Violet’s account about the Black Ridge pack’s Alpha being involved in the attack was accurate.

As I ran through the forest as wolf, I couldn’t stop thinking about the last emotion I picked up on from Violet. The moment I stepped across that threshold to leave her alone, she had seemed scared. I had also picked up on another emotion. Arousal. I’d caught a whiff of her scent right after I took off my shirt to prepare for my shift. I tried to think nothing of the way I was affecting her. I couldn’t compare her to the she-wolves running around here in heat all the time. She was a human, not a woman for me to desire just because she smelled heavenly and looked exquisite. She needed my protection more than anything else. The last thing I wanted to do was take advantage of her.

I ran faster, my paws eating up the distance in front of me. When I finally reached Eddie’s cabin, I leaped up on the porch, peered through the darkness at my surroundings, and then shifted back into my human form.

Without hesitation, I knocked on the door. I heard a TV blaring inside, but the person must have lowered the volume because everything became quiet. Even the few crickets that had been on the porch when I arrived had ceased chirping.

No one answered, so I pounded against the door frame this time. “Eddie,” I called out. “I know you’re in there.”

My wolf ear’s perked up just in time to hear someone curse.

“Open up. My Alpha sent me. We think the Black Ridge wolves are at it again. We need your help.”

“Is that you, Jayce?”

“Yeah.”

“What the hell is it?” Eddie asked gruffly from the other side of the door.

“A woman was attacked out in the woods tonight. A human.”

The door was jerked open to reveal a big, burly muscular guy with a long salt and pepper colored beard.

“Is she still alive?” Eddie inquired, without so much as a greeting.

“Yeah. She’s safe now. She’s at my house.”

Eddie grabbed a drawstring bag off the porch and thrust it at my chest. “Put some clothes on, for Godsakes. I don’t want to see all that hanging out.”

He left the door open and walked into the house, while I slipped into a pair of trousers that were way too big for me. Like the majority of shifters in Arrow Lake, I preferred to shift in and out of my true form while naked. I didn’t see the need to rip up a good outfit in the process. Living in the woods provided me that luxury, but for humans like Eddie, who lived among us, it was a minor nuisance. We trusted humans like Eddie. Those who knew us and about us and expected our visits always kept a change of clothes or two nearby in plain sight.

I came inside the cabin and closed the door behind me.

Eddie was in the kitchen, chugging a beer. “Why’d Draven send you?”

“To see what you know. Have you heard anything about the Black Ridge rogues and what they might be up to?”

“No, but I haven’t been in town for some time. There was something in the news about a fight breaking out near the town square, but that’s not surprising at all. When I was Sheriff, the high school kids were always getting into it out there. I don’t think anything’s changed.”

Eddie used to be the Sheriff in Arrow Lake. He was voted out two years ago following suspicions from his colleagues that he was aiding the shifters of Arrow Lake in their fight to stay in this region. The citizens of Arrow Lake had voted to keep the wolf shifting population at bay following a string of grizzly attacks on tourists and citizens. What the humans didn’t understand was that not all the wolf packs in the Arrow Lake region were bad.

In Arrow Lake and the surrounding area of upper Minnesota, there were several distinct and prevalent packs: the Shifters of Timber Rock, the Shifters of Iron Ridge, the Shifters of Crystal Lake, and the Black Ridge rogues. The latter group had been the cause of most of the hatred against us. But in the human’s eyes, we couldn’t be distinguished, so they voted to banish us all. We didn’t exactly lose by a landslide, but when it was all said and done, fifty-nine percent of Arrow Lake citizens had agreed that it was best for the shifters to remain in the wilderness.

There was plenty of opposition after the votes were counted and the law was enacted. Many people lost their homes and businesses because of it. The wolf packs fled deep into the woods and mountains after so-called vigilantes took up arms and threatened to shoot any wolf within several meters of their home. Most of us took refuge in less populated areas, but there were still a minority of shifters that risked it, living in town but only shifting outside of the city limits where it was safe to roam in their true animal forms. Some of them even chose not to shift at all.

For many of us, we were grateful for those humans that had remained loyal to us from the very beginning, by providing safe havens and shelters when we were being hunted, and by being the voice of reason whenever we had problems with the humans.

“I picked up the woman near the county line. That means the Black Ridge rogues were in their true forms in an area prohibited from shifters according to Lakely’s Law.”

“I haven’t seen a rogue in these parts in over a year.”

“I haven’t either. We had a council meeting last month. None of our people have reported seeing any rogues since last Christmas.”

“Do you think the rogues are deliberately targeting humans in prohibited areas?” Eddie asked.

“Don’t know. Other than the incident in the town square, have there been any sightings or disturbances in town that you’ve heard about?” I asked.

“No, especially nothing like this. Not since y’all were chased out of town. You said they attacked this woman?”

I nodded. “Yes. I caught them in the act. I left three of them dead out in the field.”

“Dear God…” he grumbled.

“I had no choice. One of them bit into her. They looked like they were going to kill her,” I told him.

“Were they in their…?”

“I killed them in wolf form. I didn’t have time to drag their asses out of sight with a woman scared and bleeding. She says there were three more chasing her. The rogues who I left alive will find the bodies.”

“And when they do…?”

“Things are gonna get ugly,” Eddie replied.

“Well, they asked for it. You did what you had to do.”

“Think you can help us out?” I asked.

Eddie sighed. “Look, I can check on a couple of things for you, but my connections are limited. My buddy, Larry, left the force just last year and they just hired a bunch of youngins' from the city who follow the policies to the “T”. I can’t promise you anything.”

“We need to know if the rogues have been causing problems already and if folks in town have been alerted. We’ve got women and children out here in these mountains. They’re settled in their homes and they’re at peace. The last thing we need is another band of gun-toting idiots running around hunting us and driving us from our homes again. If the rogues are back in the region, I know that Draven is gonna want to know what they’re up to. We have treaties with the other packs too, and I’m sure they’ll want the rogues gone before they ruin it for the rest of us.”

“And this human you’ve got in your home…how are you sure she’s not going to report her run-in with the rogues to the police?” Eddie asked.

I ran my hand through my hair. “That’s the thing. I’m not sure. She’s calm for now. She was just driving through town when they caught her. She has no idea about the history either.”

“If you want, I can come talk to her.”

I swallowed and nodded. “That’s probably the best thing for right now. You’re human and ex-Sheriff. She’ll probably trust you more than she trusts me.”

“Well, she’s staying at your house, and you just risked your life six ways to Sunday to save her. She’s gotta trust you after that.”

“I hope so,” I said.

“I mean…what if one of the townsfolk had actually heard her and seen you out there with those rogues? They would’ve shot your ass to death to save that woman and not even think twice about it,” Eddie exclaimed.

“I know it, but I got there first. I got the hell out of that territory afterward, but the point is that her life is no longer in danger. I don’t know what those rogue wolves were up to when they chased her like that.”

“We’re going to find out one way or another. You said Draven would be back in town tomorrow?”

“I hope so. As a matter of fact, I’m going to give him a ring and tell him to steer clear of town right now.”

“Yes, you tell your people to do that until this is sorted out. If the rogues are back and causing problems, they’re not gonna wanna get mixed up in this.”