Wolf at the Door (16 page)

***

Brandt stopped the car at the edge of the
road. Dim sunlight drifted across the morning sky, lazily sending
out fingers of light until it had slipped through the shadows,
chasing them away one by one. Tate was already there, his car
parked to block Timber’s driveway, along with a few other STE
vehicles parked across her lawn. Yellow crime scene tape outlined
last night’s scene, but that wasn’t why Tate had called him out
here.

Sliding out of the car, he swung the door
shut and turned to face the Hound striding his way. Anger and
unease twisted in Brandt’s gut. They’d been smart to move her. As
much as he’d hated walking away last night, Brandt knew, just from
looking at her house, that they’d been lucky to move her when they
did. If she’d been there... His stomach gave a painful twist.
Not going there
.

Her front window was shattered, the front
door left wide open.

“Can you tell how long ago he left?” Brandt
asked, not taking his gaze off the house. He didn’t dare look Tate
in the eye. There’d be no way to hide the anger roaring through
him.

“Best guess, he left about three hours ago.
We had light patrols out here, but nothing major. We’d moved
Kearney, so there wasn’t a need.”

Brandt knew chances were Wolfe had discovered
they’d moved Timber and decided to lash out at her this way. He
didn’t think for one second that Wolfe had believed STE would stand
by her after the death of one of their own.

Fuck, he hadn’t thought the bastard would
come back twice in one night, or Brandt would have left his entire
pack here waiting for him. “Damn,” Brandt ground out. “We should
have had more men here.”

He glanced at Tate and saw the other Hound’s
jaw was tight, hard. Tate gave a rough nod of agreement. “He has no
cooling off time. He killed Martin, smelled like another wolf, and
yet waltzed back in here.”

Brandt drew up short, ignoring the rush
pounding through his head. Smelled like another wolf? “Do we have
anyone reported missing?”

“No. I’ve already invited Bannock out; he
should be here soon enough, so we’ll be able to tell if it’s one of
Delphi’s. Once we’re done cataloging the scene I plan to invite the
rest of the alphas. Figured we want to get whoever it was ID’d as
fast as possible.”

“Agreed.”

Brandt stalked closer to Timber’s house. He
was nearly at the front door before he picked up a scent, and the
moment he did, he recognized it. Charles Wolfe had a smell to him,
besides the dank, musky scent of wolf, which Brandt would never
forget. But there was another one here too, fainter. Leftover
traces of someone Wolfe had spent time with. Feminine, sweet—nearly
buried under the scent of Wolfe’s arousal.

Tate had been right about the timeline.
Brandt had scented Wolfe’s trail before he came here to kill Martin
last night. He hadn’t smelled like another woman. The scent left in
Timber’s house told a different story. So he’d killed one woman,
been with another, then came back to trash Timber’s house? What the
hell was he playing at?

Stepping through the front door, Brandt
froze. Her couch was shredded. Stuffing covered the floor. Huge
claw marks raked through the cushions. The scent of piss clouded
everything and Brandt grunted, drawing back a step.

“He definitely does
not
like you,”
Tate said from behind him.

“Good. Maybe we should put out a memo. Don’t
like me, come get me. I’d like a run at the asshole.” Brandt
glanced at the other Hound to see Tate grinning at him. “How much
of the house is trashed like this?”

Tate shrugged. “He went through every room.
The couch he took the longest destroying.” Tate cleared his throat.
Brandt caught the slight flush on the Hound’s face.

The couch made sense. After all, he’d held
Timber there. Kissed and stroked her. No doubt Wolfe had smelled
the twin arousals and knew how close they’d gotten last night. Tate
had, and that was proof enough for Brandt.

“Her bedroom...” A wince flashed across
Tate’s face. “He left his mark there too.”

Brandt headed for the stairs, ignoring the
way his hands shook. He fisted them at his side. “Tell me what I’m
walking into,” he said as he walked up the stairs. Not that it was
going to stop him. Wolfe had fixed it so they couldn’t bring Timber
home any time soon. The place was now a crime scene, and most
definitely not safe.

Hell, the bastard had made it so most likely
she’d never feel safe here again.

“He ejaculated all over the sheets.”

Brandt froze at the top of the stairs, but
even this far away he could smell the thick cloud of Wolfe’s
arousal.
Son of a
—

He broke the thought off and closed his eyes.
Anger wouldn’t do anything but screw up his judgment, and Brandt
needed a clear head. He needed to process this as a Hound, not as
someone who cared more about Timber than he probably should.

Bracing himself for what he knew he was going
to find, Brandt forced himself to continue down the hall and into
her room. It didn’t stop the breath from dropping out of his lungs
the moment he stepped through her bedroom door. The sheets were
rumpled, the comforter half on the floor, as if Wolfe had rolled
around in her bed. Her pillow was crumpled in the center of the
bed, wet stains saturating the beige pillowcase.

Brandt wanted nothing more than to toss a
match in the room and watch it burn. Timber should never have to
touch any of this. She should never have to see any of it. “Crime
scene already been up?”

“Waiting on you. Figured you’d want to see it
all first-hand before we processed it.”

God, no. He didn’t want to see any of
this.

“Good news is, whoever he was with, he didn’t
bring her here. And we haven’t found a body yet. Could mean whoever
he has is still alive.”

“And if we can find out who, maybe we can get
ahead of him,” Brandt murmured. “This is definitely personal for
him, though.”

Brandt looked in her closet. Wolfe had ripped
open her dresser. Bras littered the ground and each one had a
ragged slit through the left breast. Was he proud of what he’d done
to her?

“Have CSU process every inch.” Brandt turned
slowly, taking in the destruction. “He spent a lot of time
here.”

“He never turned on a light. He was quiet
until he broke the living room window. But even then, he was gone
before the patrol came to investigate.”

Of course he was. He always was.

“He’s comfortable here. He knows his way
around this town, and yet nobody has seen him.” Brandt shook his
head. He wanted Wolfe to feel like he had a noose closing in around
his neck, but instead the bastard was running circles around
them.

“Sir,” someone called from the stairs, and
both he and Tate went out to meet the Hound standing in the hall.
“I think we found something.”

Brandt held his breath while relief washed
over him.

“It’s not much, sir, but it might give us a
lead.”

“We don’t need much,” Brandt murmured.

They just needed something. Some little thing
that would rip this case wide open.

“Show me.”

Chapter Fifteen

Addison
Shay looked more like a pixie than a bodyguard. Her short blonde
hair was cropped tightly to her head, and spiked, so she looked
tomboyish from a distance, but the moment she opened the car door
to step out, there was no denying she was a woman. Timber glanced
at Nathan, but the Delphi alpha was already grinning at the woman
who slammed her car door and sauntered toward them.

Shay wore a ragged pair of blue jeans, the
knees ripped out, and a loose plaid blouse tucked in at the waist.
A shoulder holster was snugged against her right breast. “Nathan,”
Shay said, her voice warm, like the morning sunshine, and it warmed
further when her gaze landed on Timber. “You must be Timber.”

She held out a hand and Timber took it.

“I’m Shay. Nathan said you need a place to
stay for a little while.”

“I don’t want to be a bother...” And she most
definitely did not want to get this girl tangled up with Charles.
God, he’d eat her alive, gun or not.

Shay grinned, amusement sparkling in her
eyes. They were the most brilliant blue Timber had ever seen, a
brilliant seafoam teal. Nathan touched Timber’s shoulder. “Shay’s
my pack second. As a wolf and as a human she can beat every one of
my boys except me.”

“Ah, I give you a run for your money too.”
Her grin widened, teasing.

“She’s also a good shot. Brandt mentioned you
were learning.”

Timber glanced back at the woman in front of
her, eyeing the gun.

“And she’s licensed to carry,” the alpha
added.

“I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to make you guys
feel like you had to explain.”

Shay titled back her head and laughed. “Girl,
please. I look like walking rape bait, or so I’ve been told by a
particular horny male wolf who was rather pissed he couldn’t take
me home the other night.”

She winked. “And from what I’ve heard about
the sick psycho stalking you, I don’t blame you for being
skeptical. But I promise you, if he makes a try for you on my
watch, we’re going to kick his ass.”

Timber couldn’t help smiling then. She liked
Shay. The woman had an easy confidence about her, but more than
that, she recognized the look in Shay’s eyes when she’d mentioned
Charles. It was the same hard, cold implacability she’d seen in
Nathan’s. The look of someone who’d pulled the trigger before and
watched people die because of it.

“I was a Marine, just like Nathan,” Shay
said, no doubt reading the curiosity right off her face. Maybe
Timber had been alone for so long she had forgotten how to guard
her expressions. There was no need to do it when the only person
looking back at you was in your mirror. “Same platoon. Two tours in
Afghanistan can change a person.”

Timber didn’t doubt that.

Shay tilted her head at Nathan’s house.
“Shall we get your things? The sooner we load the car, the sooner
we can get moving. Nathan said the Hound took you shooting.” A
wicked grin flashed over Shay’s face. “Care for a lesson
today?”

Relief bloomed in Timber’s chest. “I’d love
that.”

She glanced at Nathan, but Shay was already
trotting toward the house, and the Delphi alpha didn’t seem to mind
at all. Trailing along behind, Timber found herself studying the
other woman. Shay moved through her alpha’s house like she owned
it, a whirlwind of activity that seemed to touch everything she
passed.

“He put you in the guest room upstairs? First
one on the left?”

Timber nodded.

Shay snorted. “Don’t give me that look.
You’re not the first wolf we’ve had take refuge in Delphi before.
And, hell, we had a bunch of yours transfer when the Hounds first
came crashing down on your place. Nathan’s set up to as their first
stop until he can pair them with an enforcer for a while, or get
them straight into a place of their own.”

“What happens if they already have their own
place?”

Shay glanced over her shoulder, one hand on
the banister leading up the stairs. “You talking about you or one
of your wolves?”

She’d had a few who had gotten their own
places in town, but, damn, Shay was incredibly intuitive. Sometimes
Timber wondered what it’d be like just to be a normal wolf in a
normal pack. No more hiding people, no more trying to track down
fake identities, no more fear. Of course, then those women would
have no place to go, and the dreams always ended up moot...but
sometimes it was nice to dream anyway.

“Both, maybe.”

“Depends on how hot their tail is. Yours is
burning up with this Wolfe guy gunning for you. He knows your
number, knows your house, and even with guards he’s brash. Bold.
You’d be paired with an enforcer—just like you are, now—and kept in
hiding until Nathan could determine a better plan of action or the
threat goes away.”

Shay raced up the stairs, taking them two at
a time.

“How many with like mine cases have you
helped?”

“None, sweetheart. At least, none that
includes a murderer with the body count of this bastard. But
Delphi’s housed its share of abused wolves. As for those that come
in with some mild heat on their tails, like two of the ones we got
from you, Nathan simply sends out an enforcer or two to get them
rigged up with our basic security package. Alarms, cameras,
motion-activated lights, that kind of thing. The stuff that makes
the average burglar go ‘hell, no’. If they need a new ID or
something, he handles that, too. If they let him, Nathan puts their
house under the pack name. Harder to trace that way.”

“I didn’t think your alpha was big on the
whole fake name thing.” Actually, Timber had been pretty sure of
it. Everything she’d learned about Nathan Bannock said he was a
by-the-book kind of guy.

“Shifter Town Enforcement backs him up. He’s
been working with Brandt for a long time now. Took them a while to
sort it out, but they’ve worked most of the kinks out of their
relationship. As for those who have to stay off even STE radar?”
Shay winked. “That’s need to know.”

Timber fetched her bags while she let that
bit of information sink in. She hadn’t realized Delphi would do
anything STE would consider iffy, but, if Shay was anyone to go by,
they did.

Shay squeezed her shoulder. “If you’re
worried about your wolves, don’t be. None of them had anything huge
chasing them. Nothing Nathan and the rest of us can’t handle. And
if you’re worried about you,” she leaned in and bumped shoulders.
“You have the full force of the local Shifter Town Enforcement
behind you, and now Delphi on top of that. We’re going to get this
guy. But we also could make you disappear and let you start over,
if you wanted it.”