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

“He doesn’t have to be. You can have a pack that doesn’t have Eli in at all. You’ve got Mel. You’ve got me.”

“And me,” Aria said. “I think humans count, even if Eli doesn’t.”

“You two don’t even know me,” Luke said.

“Yeah,” Colby said, “but we’ve got a good feeling about you.”

Mel put one arm around Luke. She was so small, she had to put it around his waist rather than his shoulders. She hugged him to her sideways.

“They’re right,” she said quietly. “Letting go of Eli doesn’t make you a bad person or a bad wolf. It’s the right thing to do. And I promise you won’t be alone at the end of it.”

Luke screwed his eyes shut.

Aria unexpectedly said, “She lives near the preserve, doesn’t she? In one of those cabins on the western side?”

Luke’s eyes shot open. “How did you know that?”

“There aren’t many places in town where you can find deer, but the preserve is one of them. And it would be pretty hard to lug a whole dead deer any distance, especially since it doesn’t seem like your cousin has a car. I live in the area. And I know somebody near there had been seeing wolves—when you were all mostly careful to stay hidden.” She shrugged. “It was a lucky guess.”

She was a genius. Colby could have kissed her.

To be fair, he could always kiss her.

“That means you barely have to tell us anything,” he said gently. “At this point, we could find her even without you. All you’re doing is making sure we find her fast enough to protect her.”

Luke took that in. Then he nodded.

“I don’t know her name,” he said. “But she’s in the cabin with the blue shutters. The one that faces the preserve.”

Aria groaned. “That’s Susan, all right. Dammit, she’s been the girl who cried wolf this whole time. I just thought that if she didn’t recognize his actual description... I screwed it all up. You only had my word to go on, and I got it wrong.”

“You didn’t get anything wrong,” Colby said. “You had two minutes to ask questions that couldn’t give away that you were looking for a werewolf. Even if I’d gotten to talk to her, I don’t know that I would have done any better. He always dated the other women. We couldn’t know he’d break his pattern this much.”

He could put together why, but only now that he knew everything. Eli had decided he wanted to found a dynasty, so he had tried to turn Amanda. When it had failed—and when her murder had brought more heat down on them—he’d had to get careful. He had looked for a woman who was already a werewolf, but Mel was too much for him to handle.

So he’d fixed his sights on another “weak” human woman, one who was exactly his type. But this time, he had decided he wouldn’t be seen anywhere near her. His name would never come up in her life. He would go slowly, and when the time was right, he’d make his move.

And if the transformation failed, well. Eli could live with that just fine.

Colby was going to take a lot of pleasure in slapping the cuffs on him.

Luke looked back and forth between them. “So I helped?”

“You did. Thanks, Luke. You’re a good ki—” Colby stopped. “Good man,” he corrected.

Against all odds, Luke grinned at him.

*

Mel Wondery hugged him as he was headed out the door.

“Don’t be a stranger,” she said, before turning and hugging Aria too. “Either of you.”

She fixed Colby with a steely look that reminded him yet again of how this tiny, Tinkerbell woman had become one of the most badass alphas the area had to offer.

“I miss your father too, Colby. We can all be your friends just like we were his. Don’t stay away so long again.”

It was a simple request, but it hit him hard.