SEAL Wolf In Too Deep(73)

Instead of growling and pacing like she often did until she got her annoyance under control, she jumped back on the chair as a wolf and began reading the comments again. Allan smiled at her. “Tell me when you want me to scroll down.”

And that’s how they did it. Her wolf half wasn’t going to stop her now, and he loved that they could deal with this in a more positive way.

Lloyd wrote: We’ve found a nest of werewolves near Bigfork and have caught one already. I’ve been pumping her for info on where the rest of the pack is. We’ll keep you posted.

And that was the last time he had been on Facebook.

Debbie nodded her wolf’s head, and Allan scrolled down a bit more.

Otis wrote: We’re working on infiltrating one of their packs, and we’ve learned some things we didn’t know. You can drown a werewolf. He’s not invincible. Of course, we all know silver bullets will kill them.

Debbie barked.

“Sarah must have told Lloyd our kind could drown, unless Otis had already killed someone that way,” Allan said. “Although he killed Lloyd with a blunt instrument and then submerged the car. In any event, Otis wrote this before he murdered his friend. Lloyd must not have seen it coming. On the Facebook page, there’s no indication that Lloyd had been turned. He acts as though he’s a hunter and nothing more. There’s no sign that he wanted Otis to kill him for what he had become either. But it appears he knew about our pack.”

Debbie suddenly shifted and began pulling on her clothes. “Because of Sarah. Did she then tell Lloyd her good friend Franny was one? And he told Otis?”

“Good bet if Lloyd was trying to stay on Otis’s good side. But we’ve had protection for Franny, so if Otis thought to locate her again to learn who was in the pack, he’s not going to be successful.”

*

In the three weeks before the phase of the new moon passed, Allan had taken Debbie on several runs as a wolf at dawn and dusk. She was learning the pack’s scent trails and how to get back to the cabin on her own from anywhere they ended up. She was still sometimes aggravated by the sudden urges to shift. At first, he carried a backpack with her clothes in it and remained in his human form in case she needed her clothes. For the first week of the full moon, that had been important. Three nights in a row, she’d shifted at dusk when they were out on a run.

If he had been her, he would have felt just as exasperated. He couldn’t blame her. Having little control over her life was frustrating. He tried to be patient and let her work it out on her own until she could deal with it. He had to because he wouldn’t be with her always. They’d planned so many activities for the week of the new moon, he assumed they’d be dead tired every night. If they could even get to everything she’d planned.

Today was the first day of the phase of the new moon and of her weeklong freedom from shifting. She was up at the crack of dawn, having prepared breakfast, and had already packed her diving gear in the car. He worried about her frame of mind when the full moon returned and she couldn’t do this for the other three weeks of the month. At least not for a while. As the days went on, she’d get better at it, except for the week of the full moon.

He smiled at her and wanted to say that she looked like she was ready for Christmas, but thought better of it. She’d be reminded that this wouldn’t last forever. He was glad she was so excited. It made him feel just as glad to see her so happy.

He sat down to eat his waffles and maple syrup. She had already scarfed hers down, taken her dish to the kitchen, and begun going over her list and checking it twice. He couldn’t stop thinking of the day as though it was Christmas.

This morning, they were going diving before it was even light out. Just a fun dive in the same spot where Lloyd’s body had been discovered in the stolen blue Impala. Allan didn’t think they’d find any other evidence, but since Debbie wanted to dive and do some out-of-doors investigative work, they decided to go to that location, just in case.

Sometime later today, they would pick up her car at his mother’s place so Debbie could use it anytime she wanted to. That was part of the deal. She could run off and do her own thing for the week too. With the caveat to be careful in case the shooter was looking to target her. They hadn’t had any breaks in the case and no further shootings or killings related to it, so they assumed the shooter had left the area.

Allan wanted Debbie to feel as normal as possible, like she had her old life back, except that she was living with him now and could only do police-contracted dive work this week.

“I don’t want you to feel bad about the way I feel, but I’m so excited,” she said, hurrying him out to the hatchback.

“I’m thrilled for you, Debbie. You always brighten my day.”

“Ha, not when I’m all snarly and growly because I have to shift when I don’t want to.”

“Always. It’s understandable. If I were you, I’d feel the same way, but it’ll get better. And I want you to know I love you even when you’re being a growly wolf. Hell, you should see me when I’m all growly.”

“Oh?”

“Well, not around you. But if I’d seen that damned shooter, believe me I would have been growling with extreme killing precision in mind.”

“I wish you could have. I wonder what Otis is driving now that the police impounded his Camaro.”