SEAL Wolf In Too Deep(82)
He couldn’t have been more proud of her. Suddenly, as if the wolf figured he wasn’t going to make it out of this alive and he would kill the easier prey, he swerved around to attack Debbie. She read the signs before he lunged. And so did Allan.
She yipped and bolted away from the wolf. Allan charged into him, his teeth sinking into the wolf’s neck, breaking it with one killing bite.
The wolf sank into the snow, tree branch shadows cutting across him and weaving a web of darkness.
Allan and Debbie stood panting and watching him. They saw that he was no longer breathing and heard his heart stop beating. The wolf shifted to human, and though a beard covered his jaw, it was him—Otis, the man they’d tried to locate forever. Allan joined Debbie, smelling her blood and checking her over. She licked his muzzle, then motioned to the cabin with her head. He nodded and ran off to get to the field pack and his clothes resting on top of the snow. He shifted, dressed, and slung the bag over his shoulders, then headed for the cabin. She paced in front of the screen door. The man had cleared the step recently, or the door wouldn’t have opened.
Allan opened the door for her, and she ran inside, smelling the scents like he was. She didn’t seem to be injured badly, if the way she was moving about was any indication.
They found Otis’s rifle, more silver rounds, camo, another Glock, hunter’s spray, and enough canned food to last a couple of weeks. The cot had been slept on, the sheets and blankets not having been washed, from the smell of it, for eons.
Debbie paced, her wolf nails clicking on the wooden floor. Allan pulled out his phone, saw a missed call from Paul, and quickly called him back.
“We got him.” Allan gave Paul the coordinates. “Cliffs are nearby. Should we take him there and drop him off them? He died, a wolf checked him out, bit into him, and left him?”
“Yeah. Sounds good. If we don’t report finding him, animals will feast off him. Vultures, what have you. How’s Debbie?”
She was curled up by the fire, licking her leg.
“She’s still a wolf, a few bites, but nothing serious. She’s one hell of a wolf partner.”
She lifted her head and howled.
Paul laughed. “Good. You?”
“Same here. He’s got more ammo, rifle, guns. Let’s report the find in the storage facility, then we’ll dump his body off the cliff. Maybe we can let someone find the rest of this stuff in another month when the owner comes for another hunting trip. Maybe at spring thaw someone will discover his remains down the mountainside. Or not.”
“Sounds like a plan to me.”
“Okay, well, I’m out of here with the body. I’ll call back in when that’s done and let you know when we’re on our way home.”
“Okay. I’ll let everyone know the killer has been caught and his killing spree has ended.”
“Thanks. Out here.”
Allan looked down at Debbie. “Did you want to stay here, and when I’m done, I’ll come back for you?”
She woofed and rose to her feet, then ran over to him. He took that as a no. They were in this together.
Chapter 23
Never in a million years would Debbie have believed she’d be running alongside Allan as a wolf while he was carrying a dead, naked body. She hated that they couldn’t tell Rowdy the case wasn’t cold. That they’d solved it for him. She couldn’t believe she had a mad-wolf self, but when the guy began shooting at her and Allan, and continued after Allan identified himself as with the police, she knew she had to help take him down in any way that she could. Since using a gun hadn’t been an option, she had to use her wolf teeth.
He was too big, too powerful for her, but she’d hoped Allan could shoot him and that would be the end of it. He returned fire in self-defense. There were enough rounds fired at Allan and her to support their case. But killing him as a wolf screwed everything up. At one point, she had thought real wolves wouldn’t matter to the lupus garous. But she could see they treasured them as much as they did their own wolf packs and would protect them at all costs by covering up a wolf killing.
She was glad she had turned into the wolf because she had managed to stop Otis in his flight from justice. She wouldn’t have if she’d been running as a human.
Even though the bad guy was a bad guy, she still hated knowing he would be left for the scavengers to feed off instead of being turned in to the police. She realized it was for the best though.
After leaving Otis in the wilderness, Allan and Debbie headed back to where they had left their vehicle. Allan was quiet, and she wished he’d talk to her—not that she could respond much as a wolf. She finally woofed at him.
He smiled down at her and ran his gloved hand over her head.
“Sorry, gathering wool again. I hope that what we did worked. That if anyone’s up here, either the snow will have fallen again and covered up the fight and our walk toward the cliff, or everything will have melted off and left no trails behind.”
She woofed in agreement.
“You did a hell of a job back there.”
She growled a little. She’d do it again in a heartbeat to protect her…mate. She’d mated with him, sure, but this was the first time she’d actually thought of him as her mate and not her lover, her friend, confidant, dive partner, and the one she dearly loved.
Her phone vibrated in the field pack. He pulled it off his shoulders as they continued to trudge through the snow, keeping to the same path they had used to get there. He found her phone in her pants pocket and said, “Hell, it’s Rowdy.”