Page 23 of Wolf Duty

The wolf sent Bay smells, sounds, and images. But none of them translated into driving directions. Instructions like right and left had never made sense to him, anyway. He navigated by compass.

The wolf told him they’d chased a rabbit close to where Sonya was. Bay frowned. That had been in the middle of the woods. “Do you have a map?” he asked Nora.

She shook her head. “No, but I have a phone with a map application. Will that work?”

He had his own map application. Why hadn’t he thought of that? “Pull over for a moment,” Bay said.

She did and he unlocked his phone. Bay pulled up a map on the screen. It took him a few seconds to get oriented, but then he found where the bunny had distracted the wolf while they were searching for Karim. He zoomed out.

Nora leaned over and studied the screen. She pointed at a spot. “Looks like that’s the closest access road right there.”

Bay recentered the map on that road. “And there’s a building of some sort at the end,” he said.

“Let’s go.” Nora hit the gas pedal so hard the tires squealed. She made a U-turn, crossing over the solid double line, and raced down the road.

“You’ve been gaming with Ulf too much,” Bay said, clinging to the handle above the door.

Thanks to Nora setting a new land speed record, they drove down the access road ten minutes later. Bay tapped into his wolf again, and this time, the beast sent him emotions.

Sonya’s emotions.

She was furious. And she was close by.

“She’s here,” he told Nora, who stopped the car on the edge of the road.

“Let’s do the rest on foot to avoid alerting Dale, in case this is a trap.” Bay looked at her. She sighed. “I know, of course it’s a trap. Should we shift?”

In wolf shape, they’d be faster and deadlier, but they wouldn’t be able to communicate. “We don’t know what’s in there. Let’s stay human until we know if we need the wolf shape.”

Approaching from downwind, they crept closer to the warehouse. So far, neither he nor his wolf detected any threat. But the wolf was hyper-focused on Sonya.Faster, it growled.

They reached the door of the building, and Bay dragged it open.

Nora produced a hunting knife from behind her back.

Bay stared at her. Did she just happen to have that on her today? Or was she constantly armed? And how did she fly with knives?

“Wolf scout, always prepared,” she whispered and flashed him a peace sign.

He shook his head and stepped into the building.

CHAPTER 13

Sonya had just picked the lock and swung the cage door open when Bay stepped into the warehouse, closely followed by Nora.

He rushed to her, arms out as if he wanted to grab or hug her. But he stopped right in front of her and dropped his hands. “Are you injured?” His gaze roamed over her.

“No, I’m fine. Just fuzzy from whatever Dale injected me with.” Why wouldn’t he touch her? A growl emanated from deep inside him. “That’s your wolf,” she said. He nodded.

Dale stepped out from behind a pile of twisted metal. “I thought you’d come alone.” He sounded sad. “Now I have to killthreepeople.” He shook his head.

“Keep his attention on you as much as you can,” Nora mumbled out of the side of her mouth without looking at Bay or Sonya. She sidled over to a large crate and out of Dale’s view.

Sonya brushed her hair behind her ears and dipped her chin in answer.

Dale pulled a gun and walked toward them. “Tell the woman shifter to stay put, or I’ll shoot you both.”

Nora stepped out again, her arms up, palms facing Dale.

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