Page 86 of Cursed: Ride or Die
“Nope. If they want to storm the sheriff’s office, let ‘em. They’ll find a full-grown alpha wolf who’s taken out more of their kind than he can count. Maybe not five at once like Noah, but I’ve ended my share.” No mistaking the bitterness in Mac’s voice. “I take care of my own.”
Two sharp raps hit the door. Marlene charged in without waiting, teetering on her high-heeled shoes. “You’re sending the pack home?”
Mac nodded, a muscle jumping in his jaw. “I am. We’ve got a problem. Until the problem moves on or shows its hand, I want everybody safe, including you. Go on, get out of here.”
Marlene nodded, closing the door behind her when she left.
“What now?” Damned if Slade could sit around waiting. Not his style. He’d meet trouble on his own terms.
“Can you shoot? Are you willing to defend a bunch of werewolves?”
Slade nodded. “I can, and I will.” He gave a grim smile. “One of those werewolves is mine.” If he’d bonded with Noah, wasn’t the pack his family too? No time to think of anything beyond the here and now.
Mac nodded. “Buddy’s got the other deputies keeping a watch on our three hunters. He’s called Sam by now for a headcount out at the compound, and the school principal will check on our pups.”
“He’s a wolf?”
“She.” Mac gave a humorless laugh. “Man, half this damned town is wolves, in case you hadn’t noticed.”
“Can’t the hunters follow them?”
Mac grinned. “They won’t be going home in their cars. Wolves can cover a lot of ground pretty damned fast. Faster than a human.”
Not faster than a bullet. “Not the first time this has happened, then?” Would living with a pack, always on the lookout for danger, be better or worse for Noah?
“Nope. The pack knows the drill. So, once everyone is safe, me, you, some trusted members of the pack, and my deputies are going to do a little hunting of our own.”
“You plan to kill them?” No judgment, merely a question. Slade would be onboard with stopping anyone threatening innocent lives. Especially Noah’s.
“First, we’ll try to reason with them, which never works. Nope, they’re self-righteous until the end.” Mac’s phone rang. “McKinzie.” He paused a few moments. “Good, good.” After another few quiet moments, he jumped to his feet. “Find them. Fast!”
He shoved his phone into his pocket, focusing his intense gaze on Slade. “Look, there is no easy way to say this, so I’ll come straight out. Noah, Debra, and Ed are missing.”
Chapter Thirty-Four
AuntDebrachoseaplace a few miles from the compound for their run. “I love the park this time of year. One of my favorite places.”
Maybe on a relaxed outing, she’d offer more details about Noah’s former life.
With the weather turning from cool to cold, leaves were past their peak, now brown and mostly fallen., covered in places by snow. Noah powered down the car window, breathing in the sweetness of life. The scent of earth and snow brought back memories of home in Michigan with Paul.
Paul. If Paul could be here, would he like Slade? Probably, after he got over his initial mistrust of humans. Then again, he’d mainly dealt with drug dealers, so not exactly the cream of the crop from the human world.
Songbirds chirped in the trees. Somewhere nearby, a hawk screeched. The scents, the sounds. So welcoming. How much more so once they shifted into wolf form? Noah could almost feel the soft earth against his paws. Somewhere nearby, water flowed.
“Your dad and Ed used to go running all the time when they were pups,” Aunt Debra said. “They were the closest in age of all your grandparents’ pups. They got into so much trouble.” She released a girlish giggle. “We lived in North Carolina then, in a mountain pack. I grew up with Ed and your father.”
She parked the car at a turnoff. Now to walk the rest of the way. Not safe to shift this close to the highway. Humans his aunt and uncle’s ages probably would’ve had a harder time navigating the rough terrain. The two older wolves marched right through.
“Did you know my mother?” Funny, Aunt Debra hadn’t said much about his mother or her family.
She paused a few moments before answering, her words more measured than her usual prattle. “Met her a time or two. Pretty lady. You get your blond waves from her, and your blue eyes.” As agile as a mountain goat, Debra led the way deeper into the woods. “She was a few years younger than me, from a different… pack, so we didn’t attend school together or anything.”
“I didn’t go to school. Paul homeschooled me. What were your schools like?”
“Back then, packs were bigger. We thought safety in numbers, right? So packs could be spread out over two or three counties, broken up into smaller enclaves. We had pack schools. Here, our pups attend school with human children.”
Packs had their own schools? Pups now attending public school with the human kids. Noah had heard that the county’s high school football team was undefeated. Increased strength, speed, and endurance tended to make good athletes, though he didn’t seem quite as strong as some wolves he’d met.
