Page 69 of Broken Wolf

I undressed out of view and got some good whiffs of the girl’s room before hopping into the back of the SUV as a wolf. They drove to the park a few blocks away where she was taken, and I caught her scent the second I hopped out. She was a kiddo after my own heart liking the swings.

I sniffed the bag just to get my wolf a better hit of what we needed.

“I’m trusting you to bring her home. I do trust you. We took a hit and we’ll heal but not today. Today, we find a little girl who needs us to save her. Got it?”

I had the mental image of my wolf nodding and sharpening her claws to handle whoever would hurt a child.

I couldn’t agree more.

It was definitely someone she knew because her scent ended at a bus stop, and there was no way she wouldn’t be screaming her head off with a normal kidnapping. I ran along the line of the bus, Sander catching on and looking up the route so he could tell me when to turn.

I picked up her scent—and the man’s I now caught with hers—ten stops later. I followed it, and there was a bit of circling back before it led me to a coffee shop. I gestured with my head that it was here and then caught a glimpse of the girl in the window. Hunkering down, I crawled towards the window.

It was her dad with her—I recognized him from the photos the mom had laid out—a man who looked like him and an older woman. So uncle and grandma if I had to guess.

I caught the girl’s gaze since she was sitting at the window playing… Which they were really stupid to have her visible like that. But it worked for me. She giggled when I went closer and licked the gross window.

I apologized to my wolf, and she knew it was for the greater good. It worked, and the girl giggled again about a puppy and moved away from the table to follow me. That was all we needed to be safe, and Sander zipped inside with a few of the ancients to arrest them. They dropped the cover-up for me that I kept in my SUV, and I threw it on after I shifted.

“Hey, honey, let’s go see your mommy,” I said gently as I collected the little girl, turning her away from where her dad was being arrested.

“You were the puppy,” she whispered, staring at me with awe.

“Yup, you saw your first wolf shifter change forms,” I told her. “You were very brave.”

“Pretty,” she giggled, touching my hair.

“Get your hands off my daughter!” the dad bellowed. “You have no right to—”

“We’re FBI. You’re caught, idiot,” I hissed at him. “Don’t make this worse for her.”

“He wouldn’t have had to do this if that bitch hadn’t stolen his child,” the older human said. “Telling lies that—”

I took her outside and ignored the rest. Our vehicles pulled up, and I got in one with the little girl who now seemed scared. I hurried to keep her focus on me and seeing her mom. I told her about the other “puppies” in my pack and even our rabbits. She was so excited then and wanted to meet them.

Whoops.

We were at her house in fifteen minutes, her mother already notified.

She was standing outside with tears streaming down her cheeks as we pulled up and Sander let me out.

But I didn’t hand over her daughter just yet which shocked everyone there. “For my own sanity—did you tell lies to get full custody? That’s their excuse of why.”

Pain filled her eyes, but she glanced at her daughter before meeting my gaze again. “No. Not one. She doesn’t need the details though.”

No, no she did not. Sander nodded that she was telling the truth, and I handed over her daughter.

“Mommy, she was a puppy and pretty,” she babbled, completely oblivious about what she’d really just been through. “She said she has pretty birds and bunnies in her family.”

I gave a half shrug when the mom looked at me. “I had to distract her a bit.”

“Thank you. Thank you so much, Chief Thomas.”

I nodded and made sure the team from the regular office was there to finish it all up and get what we needed for the reports. I told the SAiC I’d give my statement in the morning, but I needed to crash.

And crash I did… For a few hours at least.

Until the next issue.

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