Hunted (Pack of Dawn and Destiny, #1)(23)

I straightened, wishing I’d sent Shania and Aeric off on their lunch date. “Yes.”

“I’m Amos Fletching. I’m the leader of the investigation team sent here to look into the death of the wild wolf. I’m accompanied by several members of my hunter family.” He briefly held up his phone, showing the Curia Cloisters crest over what looked like a basic profile of my information, then offered his hand.

Reluctantly I shook his hand. “Welcome to Timber Ridge.”

Amos kept shaking my hand with a grip so firm it was starting to become painful. “You don’t seem that surprised to see me.”

“Alpha Greyson told his Pack you’d be coming.” I yanked my hand, trying to free it from Amos’s grasp.

Aeric must have caught on; he narrowed his eyes at the hunter, but he knew better than to start something in public like this.

Amos squeezed my hand one last time, but I’d almost wiggled free, so he only got my fingertips in his rock-cracking hold before I ripped my hand away entirely. “And that includes you?” he asked.

“Not really, but given that I’m the only other supernatural in Timber Ridge, he chose to inform me as well.”

“Ah.” Amos tilted his head back, so the brim of his hat cast a black shadow over his eyes. “The report said you and Alpha Greyson took down the wolf?”

“Yes.”

“Then you hang around with these wolves?”

Shania shifted uncomfortably as she looked back and forth between the two of us. She leaned into Aeric, who was managing to text on his cellphone with one hand as he held Shania secure with his other hand.

Probably notifying the rest of the Pack.

“I do,” I said. “I was adopted by two members of the Northern Lakes Pack.”

Amos rubbed his leathery chin, which was tanned from hours under the sun. “Adopted, huh. Seems unnatural.”

I tilted my head and tapped my cheek. “Really? I’m more interested in learning how this information plays into your investigation.”

“Just trying to get the lay of the land, Hunter Sabre.” His lopsided smile revealed yellowed teeth. “You sworn to a family?”

“I’m the last Sabre, and the last of my mother’s family, the Wards. I have fealty to both families, even though I’m the only one alive of either of them,” I said.

Hunters—active ones, anyway—didn’t have the greatest life expectancy given our line of work. It wasn’t shocking that my parents’ parents had died when I was little, though my lack of relatives was pretty depressing as it meant two hunter families would die out if something happened to me.

Which can’t happen. I need to pass on these puppy pheromones so my offspring can needle werewolves for generations! Don’t want to let me live the lazy life I want? Fine, I’ll just make sure my offspring are a blight on you for centuries!

Shania looked distinctly uncomfortable as she clutched her keys, learning more about my sob story childhood than she’d ever imagined, I’m sure. Aeric had heard it before—you couldn’t keep anything secret from the Pack—but I was pretty sure the only reason he hadn’t tugged Shania away was he was live texting the entire Pack whatever Amos was saying.

“Glad to hear you have some hunter loyalties,” Amos said. “I’ll be expecting your cooperation on this investigation.”

The oily way he said “cooperation” made my bones shiver, but I forced a smile. “Of course.”

I glanced at Shania and Aeric again, when I happened to see a very welcome force of nature barreling down the sidewalk: Mayor Pearl.

She marched with the pointy shoulder pads of her suitcoat stabbing the air as two hunters—who each had to be fifty years her junior—scrambled behind her.

“Amos Fletching?” she shouted in her raspy voice.

Amos swiveled to face her, a smile slapped on his hardened face. “Indeed I am. You are—”

“Mayor Pearl. Your cars are parked in metered parking spots, and you haven’t put quarters in the machines. If you don’t add money, I’ll notify the police to have your cars towed.”

“Very well. We’ll get right on that,” Amos smoothly said. He nodded at the two hunters that had trailed Mayor Pearl.

They turned on their heels and ran back to the cars.

“Also, I will require proof of your Concealed Weapons License—from you and all of your little minions,” Mayor Pearl continued. “Weapons of any kind—including daggers, arrows, swords, spears, and the like—are not allowed in any public building, including town hall, the library, and the post office.”

“Huh. I see.” Amos turned and started walking away, but Mayor Pearl kept after him.

“There is a law that strictly prohibits loud and unnecessary noises during the hours of midnight to seven in the morning,” she said. “As outlined by chapter 15 orderly conduct…”

I swear Amos slightly hunched his shoulders as Mayor Pearl droned on, keeping up with him despite her toothpick legs.

“Wow,” Shania said.

“It’s good to see that Mayor Pearl hates all people, not just those of us who live in Timber Ridge,” I said.

Aeric laughed. “That’s the truth.”

“Are you going to be okay in the welcome center?” Shania asked. “That guy seemed kind of…intense.”