The Wolf Marshal's Pack (U.S. Marshal Shifters 3)

“Not the most flattering metaphor for us poor humans,” Aria said, grimacing, “but sure, I get it.”

He made a note to show her more of the inherent werewolf strength later. Preferably by picking her up again.

Aria moved back on topic. “Do you think he’d really do that?”

He felt torn on that. “I don’t know that he’d want to do a human the honor of turning them into a werewolf, and I think that would be how he’d think about it. Most of the time, anyway.”

“See? You understand him just fine.”

“I’ve met his type before. They’re nothing but assholes and petty criminals with delusions of grandeur. I’ll admit Eli Hebbert becoming some kind of super-wolf is a new and incredibly unwelcome development, but I’m guessing that even with that, the rest holds true.”

He drummed his fingers against the table, trying to think.

“I don’t know that he would want to turn someone,” he repeated, “but he’s low on options. He might risk it. And in addition to worrying me because someone might die, it worries me because he’d be able to have an even stronger alpha sway over someone he turned. I’m worried that was what happened with Amanda Briar, the girlfriend of his who died. Maybe he’s decided he wants to bump up the numbers on his pack, especially with a woman, a lover. But Amanda didn’t survive the transformation.”

“That poor woman.” She bit her lip. “And if he’s done it before, he’ll be more likely to do it again.”

“Exactly. But I don’t know who he’d want to target. Your neighbor, maybe? She’s seen him.”

“But only in wolf form. It doesn’t fit with his old habits.”

“You’re sure she hasn’t been dating him?”

Aria nodded. “I described him to her, and she didn’t even blink. Besides, she’s chatty in general. I think if she did have a boyfriend, she would have mentioned being glad he was around to make her feel safer with all this craziness going on. Something like that, anyway.”

“Then I don’t have a clue.”

“I don’t want to scare the life out of the kid,” Aria said, “but we might have to go back to Luke with some more questions. If we can even find him.”

“You’re right. He said Eli put down roots here. If we could find out why, they might tell us something.”

He didn’t know if Luke would be able to answer many of their questions—or any of their questions—but it was worth a second try. Especially now that he could tell Luke that Eli had given up Weston like that. That was the kind of betrayal that could snap a pack-bond in two, especially if the connection was already fraught.

And no matter what kind of wolf superpowers Eli had, that snapped bond would affect him too. Letting his brother die for him might even have made Eli’s own wolfish nature backfire against him. There was no doubt in Colby’s mind that Eli would spend the whole night—and maybe even all of tomorrow—licking his wounds.

I agree, his wolf confirmed. Our mate is safe for right now.

He stretched and yawned, wincing as every sore muscle in his back twinged.

“Okay. Tomorrow we tackle the kid again. But for tonight, we’re good. You can get a good night’s sleep. Anything else can wait until the morning.”

She kissed him softly, more tenderly than he’d ever been kissed in his life.

“We can get a good night’s sleep,” she said.

14

Yesterday morning, Aria’s life had been completely different.

She had woken up feeling one of Mattie’s stray Legos digging into her calf. No more building Lego castles on the bed had been her first thought of the day. She had staggered up, bleary-eyed, and almost sleepwalked to the bathroom to start getting ready. Her first smile of the day had been thinking about taking her family to the nature preserve.

She hadn’t woken up with any real problems then, obviously. She hadn’t even had a big deadline weighing on her.

Yesterday, she’d been perfectly happy with her life.

Today, she was something more than that.

Today, she found her mouth curved into a smile before she was even fully awake.