Page 51 of Wolf Reborn

Dammit.

Miles broke into an immediate sprint headed for the back of the house. What had Gavin said the missing boy’s name was? It had been a tree of some kind, he thought.

“Wait!” he called, for lack of something better. “I’m not here to hurt you. Or to arrest you.”

The rushing footsteps never slowed.

He wasn’t sure why he thought that would work. As a deputy, he should be arresting whoever had broken in, and if they’d been an adult, that was precisely what he’d have done.

His presumptions were confirmed, though, when he threw himself out the backdoor, and the first thing he saw was a pile of clothes. The second was a very small wolf rushing through the snow, farther up the mountain.

Damn it all.

Miles didn’t have time to strip, so he rushed forward on foot. Neither of them was going to get very far quickly, with the buildup of snow that had happened over the last month, but he had to hope that very young wolf didn’t trump his much longer legs.

He was fairly certain it would, but he had to try.

If only he could remember the kid’s name. What had it been?

26

Rain King

“I guess you were right about them being here,” Gwen said as she pulled into the drive next to a police cruiser.

Something about it was hitting all Gavin’s red flags, alarm bells going off all over the place in his brain. The door was hanging open, knob and the wood that held it clearly lying on the doormat.

Gavin didn’t know which cruiser was whose based on the numbers of them—heck, he wasn’t even sure he knew all of Kismet’s deputies—but he didn’t have to. The only deputy whose scent was on the air when he opened the car door was Miles.

The scent was all Miles and distress.

Gavin’s own feelings about the house and the people who owned it weren’t important in the circumstances. He could think about how damn ugly the place was later.

How it had seemed cool and sleek when he was a child, and now it seemed... well, precisely the same. Cold and sleek, the opposite of a home.

He would have to invite Gwen to stay with the pack. He didn’t want his sister in this place.

For now, he rushed inside, sniffing for Miles, for danger, for whomever or whatever had broken into this awful place.

A cold wind blew through the hall, and there was only one way for that to happen: the front and back door had to be open at the same time.

Gavin rushed through without stopping. How long ago had Miles arrived? How long ago had he left? Was he hurt? Stabbed? Dying out there alone in the snow again?

Dez had been right. He needed to snatch Miles up and hold him close for as long as Miles would allow it. He couldn’t keep playing this half-in, half-out game he’d been playing. Both Miles and he deserved better.

“Miles?” he yelled from the back door, his voice echoing off the barren house behind him as much as the surrounding landscape to his front. If only he were a proper werewolf, he could howl for Miles, let him know he wasn’t alone and help was coming. And then Miles could howl back, so Gavin would know where the hell to go.

That was when he remembered his sister was there too, rushing in right behind him. “Gavin? What is it?”

“He’s not here.”

She looked around confusedly. “He must be here. Where else would he be?” She stopped, staring at something for a long moment. Gavin almost walked away, headed out the back door, and off in the direction Miles must have gone in, but she grabbed his shoulder. “Gavin.”

He knew that tone. That was Gwen being horrified. He turned to look at her, standing in the kitchen, looking at the step stool, pulled up to the counter.

Right in front of what looked like an attempt to make food. Why would anyone use a step stool for—

A child.

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