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She knew his ploy Pretend to understand the perp’s situation, then throw the book at him or her Just as she’d often done Only in the case of the ?" she asked, her voice barely audible

"Yes Well, in truth, a wolf"

Jake’s hand tightened fractionally on Alicia’s Her teeth were clenched together, and she didn’t knohat to say She was innocent, but if these men pushed her too hard, Jake and his family would be forced to turn them She didn’t think the pack could kill them That scenario would be too difficult to explain But if they turned them, they’d have to take them into the pack, and Darien had already said he didn’t want two more newly turned pack members--male types, who probably had fareater ripple effect of trouble

The detective flipped through his notebook as if he needed to refresh his ation She was certain this time it was a ploy to ht-headed and was afraid her face had drained of all color She was barely breathing, and Jake looked anxiously at her She scolded herself for not hiding her feelings better, but she couldn’t help it They knew souilty How could she not? She’d bitten one of the twosaid she could bite a perp into subuys, but still…

The detective tapped his pen at the open page "Says here tworun out of your roon of a wo One of the men had fired into the air, scared by the size of the wolf"

Wolf Twice he’d referred to it as a wolf But if the eyewitnesses thought it was a dog, why did the detective think it was a wolf?

The detective flipped through soes of his notebook, while the other one continued to watch her expression Her blood ran cold She didn’t want to say the wrong thing and force Darien’s hand But she didn’t knohat to say that wouldn’t cause trouble for their kind

"Blood was found on the rug near the door A man’s blood But not the same as the blood from the one who died Wolf saliva was mixed in with the second man’s blood" The detective looked up from his notes "So what about the wolf?"

Her stohtly into a knot, Alicia licked her suddenly very dry lips Yet, she thought the detective was feeding her a story No one would look to see if saliva was a wolf’s or a dog’s, would they?

"Wolf saliva?" she asked "You ht? Is there a difference between a dog’s and a wolf’s?"

"Believeexpression, "The saliva sampled from the bite marks olf DNA They can determine that to rule out that it wasn’t some other animal’s bites"

She took a shallow breath and said, "I--"

"It’s not illegal to oolf," Jake interjected, his voice quietly firhts when it came to pet wolf ownership

She supposed that to protect themselves, Jake and the rest of the pack would know about such a thing for self-preservation

The detective switched his attention to Jake She thought Detective Si a smile Jake to the rescue But it was ht the dead yet

"No, you’re right, Mr Silver," the detective said with emphasis, "not unless the wolf owner takes the ithin the city lial Crestview is not one of those cities But the wolves have to be fenced in with at least eight-foot-tall fencing Every access has to be locked to prevent the wolves froal, nor a safe thing to do If Miss Greiston was afraid for her life and was using the wolf for protection, it wasn’t really a sal The wolf could have injured anyone Since it has bitten someone noe’ll have to hunt it down and make sure it wasn’t rabid" He sat taller and turned to Alicia "So what about this wolf, Miss Greiston?"

"He wasn’t h, voice confident

The detective raised his brows

She shrugged "I don’t own any pets Never have I don’t knohere the animal came froer I’ve never had any pets at the place They’re not allowed"

At least the part about not owning any pets was true But what if they checked out the hotel rooms where she’d stayed over the past month? What if they found wolf hairs on the carpet where she’d restlessly paced, trying to shift back into her human body?