Page 42 of Wolf's Mark

And claws.

Long and sharp.

And fur. Lots of coarse fur. I had a sample. I should know. I had DNA. I could test. I had tested although I feared the samples had been contaminated.

For a woman who’d always been good at concentrating, my mind was all over the place. Maybe I’d had too much coffee.

I’d made the mistake of looking up the capabilities of wolves on the internet before jumping into bed. They were powerful creatures, but they didn’t return from the dead.

“So the police were here?” Todd asked. He was one of my two assistants in addition to Daphne, my computer and 3-D expert I’d hired. He was a smartass but brilliant.

I was still lost in thought. Was it possible I was witnessing a mutation of DNA, human and wolf?

“Doctor Willis. Hel-lo!”

“Todd. Sorry. Yes, they took a report and fingerprints.” Which wasn’t a lie. I wondered if they’d be able to track down a dead person. If they did, additional explaining would need to be done. Maybe through the FBI.

Even if the bitch hadn’t returned my call. Yet.

Damn her.

I was very cranky and three cups of coffee hadn’t done a thing for my demeanor, just my nerves.

“I wish I’d been here. I would have kicked his butt.” Todd thought he was a tough guy when in fact, he was a geek. But the kid was going places.

“I wish you had been too. I would love to see you in action.” I clapped him on the arm.

He threw a punch into the air and blushed. The kid was good to the core.

Daphne stood off to the side, leaning against the door jam of my actual shoebox-sized office. She had one of her own and fourpeople certainly couldn’t fit in either one. Without her, I’d need to contact outside experts for all the various computer issues.

Carrie was the only one who seemed frightened. “I can’t believe you were here. How horrifying.”

“Only in the level of destruction done. I’m fine.” No, I wasn’t. But I had good reason not to be and I certainly wasn’t going to scare them any more than they might be. “Anyway. I tried to clean up as much as possible yesterday, but let’s all pitch in and see what we can do. Okay?”

My mind was drifting between testing the DNA and the fact I was still tingling all over as if I’d stuck my wet finger into a light socket.

The man had awakened my dark core and I was still flushed.

Growl.

DNA. Think DNA.

The problem was that I didn’t have all the testing equipment I needed or wanted. I couldn’t just order up specialty equipment from Amazon and the budget was limited. In truth, a specialist was needed and that would draw red flags. I’d need to improvise.

“Of course,” Carrie said. “I’ll get some trash bags.”

I nodded. Todd was eager, but the kid was happy to handle just about any task. When the two of them left, I noticed Daphne remained.

“What’s wrong other than the obvious?” I asked her.

She was perhaps the brightest of all of us. Her skills with computers and videos, including creating medical 3-D imaging was incredible. Why she wasn’t working for some big think tankinstead of the medical examiner’s office I’d never know. But I was grateful to have her.

Maybe unfortunately she also shared the last name of Wolf. I wasn’t certain about the relation, but it was entirely possible she was pissed I’d had a drink with Jax. I couldn’t tell from her expression.

When she walked further in and closed the door, I sighed.

“What aren’t you telling us?” she asked.

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