Page 12 of Wolf Bane
Mariska smirked.“Yeah, Dad.”
I left them to bicker while I made a quick dinner—not at all what I’d planned to do, but having voices in the house was kind of nice after weeks of quiet.The occasional visit from Tyler, often with Justin in tow, filled some of the evenings.Though, to be fair, spending an evening with Cullen wasn’t exactly high on my list of fun ideas and the fact I was feeling amenable to him staying for a bit longer really drove home just how lonely it’d been with Ethan gone for so long.Dinner didn’t last as long as I thought it’d might, not with Mariska starting to do a slow nod into her oven fries and Cullen checking the time frequently.
Finally, around eight, Mal scooped Mariska up and headed next door, Cullen gathering his things to follow.“I’m still a landlord,” he said with a slight nod in their direction.“I should check on my property before going.”
“We need to talk about?—”
He shook his head once, sharply.“I don’t know how much the girl overheard already, not if she’s already keen enough to have heard my voice from outside.Little pitchers have big ears, as my mother used to say.Especially when they’re not really human.”
It made my gut squeeze, the knowledge that Cullen—and therefore the ICW—had picked up on Mariska’s senses being just abitbetterthan other shifters and weres her age.Mal had noticed it back in Colorado but wrote it off to paternal favoritism, thinking his kid was the best at things because, well, she’s his kid and she’s pretty awesome.But it had slowly become more evident over the past several months that not only was Mariska’s hearing, sight, and smell sharper than a human kid her age, but keener than most supernaturals around her, too.Mal had whispered over the firepit not long ago, while she snoozed on the porch swing nearby, that he worried it was because of what Garrow had done to us.Maybe, he thought, it skipped him and passed on to her.And if we noticed it, who else would?
I met Cullen’s bland expression and knew that whatever worries Mal had, they weren’t entirely unfounded.But until Cullen or anyone else came calling with intent, I wasn’t going to draw attention to Mariska like that.
“You can’t just dump this on me and bail, Cullen.If I can’t even talk to Ethan about this, what the hell am I supposed to do?”
“Ethan’s not the end all, be all,” he reminded me tartly.“And this isn’t something I can just let slide through the system, Landry.It’s too much of an outlier, too strange to ignore.Whatever is causing this, it feels pointed.Why just these communities?Why aren’t we seeing it in the urban were communities?Why,” he said with a slight, pointed pause, “is it originating in the same place as you and your neighbor?”
“Texas,” I said flatly.“A huge state with millions of people and therefore hundreds of weres and shifters.It’s the law of averages.It’s?—”
“The first case was found in a former employee of Garrow’s,” he interrupted.
Words clotted in my throat at the sound of those two syllables.Cullen sniffed, smoothing his hand over his neatly pressed shirt, somehow still crisp after hours of travel and late autumn heat.“Roland Tripp,” he said.“You won’t know the name.He’s a… what do you call them down here?A dud?A were that’s full blooded but couldn’t shift, barely had any abilities.”
I shook my head, blood rushing so loudly in my ears I could barely hear Cullen.“I… I’d have to ask Ethan.Or Tyler.I don’t know what they call weres like that.”
“Well.Dear Mister Tripp worked in the accounting department for Bluebonnet Labs.He was patient zero, or near enough, for this little outbreak.”
“How?”I finally managed to rasp.“Bluebonnet’s gone.Garrow’s in jail.”
“He didn’t work alone,” Cullen chided.“I know you’ve had a head injury or two in the past year, but surely you haven’t forgotten Garrow wasn’t a, ha, lone wolf.”
The ice in my veins was melting in sharp, prickly bursts, fear decades old surging with my pulse.“Are we in danger?”
“Any more than usual?”Cullen clarified.“I’m not entirely sure.But I do know that the ICW isn’t going to pursue this in a meaningful way any time soon.And I have my inkling as to why.I suggest you start digging, Doctor Babin, before things get beyond our control.”
ChapterThree
Ethan didn’t answer when I called around eleven.
“Hey… it’s me.Landry.I mean.I think you know that.Ha.Um.Hey.Just… wanted to talk.”
I flipped the flash drive over in my hand, the dull sheen making the bedside lamp look like an orange ball in its reflection.A tiny little full moon, I thought with a twist of amusement.Perfect for talking to a werewolf.
“So.Call me, I guess?I’ll be up for a little bit longer.Um.Love you.Bye.”
I groaned, letting my head fall back against our padded headboard and closed my eyes.What was it about talking to Ethan that made me turn into a dorky seventeen-year-old again?Sometimes, it wasn’t so bad.Like when he was home.Or when he was at least talking to me about anything other than these new meetings and trainings and how Nelvin, the sheriff who’d replaced him, was a racist, phobic dillweed trying to make nice with some of Warriors for Purity or whatever they were calling themselves this week.There’d already been a huge to-do when he tried to force the library to stop holding drag story time, then another when he set deputies to harass the owner of the tiny used bookstore on the edge of town for having an LGBTQIA2S section.Between Nelvin being a raging douche canoe and the clan chaos, there were days I think that Ethan regretted leaving his post as sheriff, regretted taking the job with the ICW.
And sometimes I wondered if he regretted sticking with me—even I had to admit that things would be a lot smoother for him with me out of the picture, even if he stayed with the ICW and didn’t find some time machine to take him back to the moment before he quit at the sheriff’s department.
I groaned in frustration, setting the flash drive beside my phone on the nightstand.It was nearing midnight, but sleep was a distant idea, aggravation and loneliness and more than a little anxiety more effective than a cup of Reba’s coffee for keeping me awake.
I opened my eyes, rolled over and grabbed the flash drive again.Just look at it,I scolded myself.Just see what the fuck Cullen is being so dramatic about.It wouldn’t be the first time he was manipulative.
Waiting for my laptop to boot up, I dialed Ethan one more time.
This time, it didn’t even ring before bouncing straight to voicemail.
“Fucker,” I muttered.“We are so talking about this when you get home…”
