Page 3 of A Wolf's Heart

The sun continued to slowly rise higher, the fog settling as warmth returned to the forest. Max and I made our way back home, stopping at my robe and slippers, so I could shift back into human form.

Changing from human to wolf was like cracking my knuckles or my back. It felt good, a release of tension, but changing back from wolf to human hurt. As my limbs rearranged, the bones fusing back into position, it was unnatural; my skin didn’t sit right on my body. It always took me at least an hour to get used to human form.

In my youth, there’d been times when I’d spent the whole weekend as a wolf. My parents weren’t particularly fond of it, mainly because they worried someone would find me and harm me. After I had explained to them it was the only time I felt close to my biological family, they let it go, as long as I took precautions and never got caught. Like any teen, I’d often wondered about my bio family, but as years passed and no one came forward, I let it go. They knew where they left me.

I had only ever run into three individual wolves in the past. They’d carried on after sniffing out my territory. I was pretty proud of the marking and claiming I had done over the years.

So, yeah…my family knew where I was. They just never cared enough to come back.

I pulledout a container of food for Max from the fridge, some raw food that I had previously frozen, then set it down in front of him, giving him time to eat while I showered and got ready for work.

When I’d first started at the academy, working towards becoming a police officer, I’d thought it was exactly what I wanted to do. All my life, I’d been told to hold back, not to show my abilities. I’d watched kids get picked on by bullies, I’d seen people get hurt, and I could’ve stopped it. I could’ve given those bullies a taste of their own medicine, but I didn’t. I played it safe.

To me, becoming a police officer was a way to atone for my lack of honor in my youth. I hadn’t been able to fight my own moral compass any longer.

I’d just started K9 training when my parents died. Mom succumbed to a stroke in her sleep, and it was a painful shock for both Dad and me. She’d been the love of his life, his first and only true love. He died exactly two weeks later, due to a heart attack. I knew he wouldn’t have lived long without her.

I carried on with my training, even with the loss of the only two people in my pack. They may have not been wolves, but they’d been my pack. That’s when I met Max. Seven years later, we were still inseparable. Max retired from the K9 unit last year when I took a promotion to detective and the department had offered me full ownership of him. Maybe, on paper, I was his owner, but he was my pack in more ways that anyone could imagine.

Stepping out of my room fully dressed and freshly showered, I headed right for the coffee machine and brewed myself anotherpod before taking a few waffles from the freezer and popping them into the toaster.

I didn’t even have the cup to my lips before my phone went off. I set it down with a frown and picked up the phone. “Hello?”

“Lila.” Jenny, the dispatcher, seemed out of breath. “I was told to call you in. There’s been another body found at Cartway Park.”

I closed my eyes. When I’d decided to become a detective, I had envisioned scenes from Sherlock Holmes—unlocking secrets, finding missing people, discovering a piece of thread and knowing all the answers.

While some of that was true, my detective role should be calledhomicide investigator. I wasn’t one to boast, but I was a good homicide investigator, even asked to travel now and then. No one knew it was my wolf that made me as successful as I was.

This, though… This would make the third body found in my small town in less than a month, and I was still no closer to a lead. All dropped in Cartway Park.

My heart sank and I nodded to the phone. “I’ll be right there.”

Before leaving, I gave Max a little pat on the head, where he was curled up on his bed, ready to sleep off his morning run. I kept the doggy door open for him, so he was able to go in and out as he pleased. He never left the property when I was gone, intent to guard our home.

Though Jenny sent me the directions to where exactly in the park I was being called out to, it wasn’t hard to find. The fact that five police cruisers and a mile-long caution tape lined the side of the road, where the forest met the ditch, hadn’t caused a large crowd ofconcernedneighbors was shocking. However, it was still early.

My chief was the first to greet me. Chief Rodney Nix was the least intimidating head of staff I had ever met. He was new tothe job here, however, the guy seemed like he was better suited to a position where he handed out balloon animals and farted rainbows. The townspeople loved him, but it always boggled my mind how someone so happy-go-lucky ended up in such a position.

“Morning, Evans,” he greeted with a smile.

“Morning. What's going on?” I asked, getting right to it.

“Gosh, Lila. It's the darndest thing. Becky was out jogging—well, you know, she's training for that there marathon next summer. Anyhoo, she was coming down from South Gate Trail and nearly tripped over the body of a young male. Still unidentified.”

I frowned. “Is the body still here?”

“Oh, yeah, it is. I remember what ya said last time, ’bout keeping the scene as is. I only went in there to check for a pulse, but there's no darn use, as you know his heart is—”

“Missing.” I cut him off, turning to the forest and examining the scene that was taped off. This one followed the same pattern as the last two bodies found. All young men, all with their hearts ripped from their chest in a savage, animalistic way. “Is forensics on the way?”

“Yes, they will be a while yet.”

“Do we have an ID on the body?”

“Nope, John Doe.”

Figured.

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