“Okay. I can’t think of any other scenario offhand. The notion the killer saw the lupus garou shift and then eliminated her has my vote.”

Paul finished his bottle of water and set the empty container on the coffee table. “After viewing the wounds inflicted on the woman, I really think something deeper was going on. The murderer attacked her in a rage. It wasn’t just a case of killing a random person—passion was involved—anger.”

“Maybe he was a former lover and discovered what she was?”

“Now that could be.”

“Why would he leave her like that? Why not hide the body?”

“Lori and Rose’s arrival might have stopped him.”

“Why would he call the police to warn them about the killing, if he was the one who called in anonymously?” Allan asked.

“Because he’s proud of the kill? Maybe he thought the coroner could prove she’s a werewolf through DNA. Then he could brag about killing a werewolf.”

“Then he had to know or believe the woman was a werewolf. She had to know him, probably trusted him.” Thinking of an even worst-case scenario, Allan ran his hands through his hair. “What if he was watching when Rose and Lori arrived? And when they left, followed them?”

“That’s what I’m worried about. The police were at the crime scene while you were at work this morning. And I’ve told the homicide detective in charge of this that you’ll be looking into it also since it was so close to our cabin and we might have more trouble because the two ladies found the victim.”

“Good. What was said about how Lori and Rose located her?”

“They were taking a hike through the woods. There’s a trail near there. They were headed up to the lookout over the lake. Anyway, that’s the story. In truth, they smelled blood and lots of it. So they headed that way to locate the wounded wolf and help it, if they could. When they discovered the woman, smelled she was one of us, they hated to have to leave her body behind, but they didn’t have any choice. They went to the cabin, shifted, dressed, called me, and then headed back to the killing site to ‘find’ her as humans.”

“They didn’t wait for you though?”

“No. It would have taken me too long to get there. I was at Lori’s dojo, working out some of the stiffness in my leg. Lori called me to make sure she and Rose were doing the right thing. Of course, I didn’t want them returning to the scene in case the bastard was still in the area. But understandably, they wanted to call it in before the body happened to vanish, if the murderer decided to dispose of it.”

“Hell. Which means if the killer was watching the women arrive as wolves and then return as humans, he could have put two and two together, tracked them back to your cabin, learned you’re Lori’s mate, and well, hell, just everyone related to them: Lori’s grandmother, Mom, Rose’s mate, and his mother and sister. And that’s just the few of us from the original pack.”

“You and me. Yes, very possibly. Which means we have to catch this bastard pronto. Rose contacted everyone on the roster to let them know they need to avoid seeing any of us for the time being. We don’t know if this guy has any way to track the rest of the pack members, but if we cut off seeing them in person, that might help.” Paul pointed to a map on the wall showing the whole area: lakes, parks, trails, even elevations. “Here’s where the woman was found.”

“I’ll let you know if I discover anything further.”

His blood cold with anger, Allan left the cabin and drove to the logging road closest to the location of the crime scene.

On the way to the site, Allan made a call to Debbie, wanting to know how she was doing and how Franny and her baby were faring. He had already called ahead to let the staff know that Debbie would be arriving to check on them on her own, but he learned from them that she had already called ahead. He felt bad that he hadn’t been able to go with Debbie to see to Franny and the baby, that he’d had to break his lunch engagement with Debbie, and that he hadn’t been able to discuss this other business with her. “How’s the baby and Franny doing?”

“I’m still at the clinic and the doc is keeping them overnight. They’re going to be just fine. Thanks to you.”

“And you. Hell, you saw the vehicle first.”

He mentioned that only because she’d commented on his keen vision too many times to count, and he didn’t want her to find that odd. “I’m sorry about lunch. I’ll make it up to you later.”

“No problem at all, Allan, but I’ll certainly take you up on it. Is everything all right?”

He couldn’t lie to her and say everything was fine. Everything wouldn’t be all right until they caught this maniac. “It’s a small family crisis.” Which was the truth. Anything that affected lupus garous in their territory affected them. So it was a family crisis. “I’ll be back tomorrow to help investigate the Van Lake accident scene.” It was located fifty-three miles from where Allan lived, so not too far.

“Can I help in any way?”

“No, thanks. I’ll…I’ll call you later tonight.” He hated this part of their relationship, where he couldn’t be completely honest with her. He could imagine just how well telling her the truth would go over. That he even considered such a notion bothered him. Normally, he never gave it any thought when he was around strictly humans. He and his kind were what they were and it was their own business.

“All right. I’ll fill out the accident report on the mother and baby. I’ll…talk to you later.”

He knew she wasn’t happy with the way he always shut down about his family when there were issues. She’d told him about her alcoholic father, and he suspected it bothered her that he wouldn’t come clean with his family “issues.”

“Talk to you later, Debbie.” He hung up as he reached the area where the killing had taken place.

He hated that tens of thousands of leghold traps and snares were legally set up on Montana’s public lands and along waterways. Reportedly, fifty thousand wild animals were trapped a year, but trappers weren’t required to check traps regularly or report numbers. People and pets could be the victims, as well as any other animal the hunter wasn’t interested in capturing. One of the former vice presidents of the Montana Trappers Association had agreed that trappers cause pain and suffering to animals, but would apologize to no one. Really a sad state of affairs.

Allan found the victim’s blood splattered all over the fresh snow. Tracks were everywhere, from the wolves who found the victim and humans who had come to retrieve her body. He looked around at the thick pine forest and where the trap had been set near a tree, buried by the snow. He tried to sense if the murderer was in the area. The trappers were a danger to them all. But this guy, even more so.

So many people had been in the area, it was hard to say who might have done this. Allan followed boot tracks in the snow for over a mile, then went back and followed another set of tracks. None of them led him to anything suspicious. Tons of tire tracks were on an old logging trail nearby too—the ambulance and police vehicles for sure. So again, nothing that could help him there.

Once he climbed back into his vehicle and shut the door, he called Paul. “I didn’t find anything that stood out to me.”

“I just got the preliminary report on the autopsy. She was shot five times and all the rounds were silver.”

“He has to be a werewolf hunter then.”

“You know, we’ve been thinking it’s a he, but it might have been a she. Some of her wolf fur was stuck to the blood on the jaws of the trap, though the coroner believes that a wolf had been caught earlier. Rose and Lori smelled it was the woman’s fur. So the victim couldn’t have been a new wolf or she couldn’t have been in her wolf form.”

“We need to put this guy down.”

“I’d like to also, but as long as the killer might be human and the police are involved, we have to let the homicide detectives working the case deal with it. We’ve got to catch the guy before they do to determine if he’s one of our kind now. If we catch him and he’s still human, we turn him over to the police. I’ve let everyone know to be extra vigilant if they think they’re being followed. I don’t want anyone to see our families except for you and me. I don’t want him to identify anyone else as a pack member so no one else will be put in harm’s way.”