Page 11 of Wolf Sacrificed
The sheriff reeled back so fast that he ran into his car. He would’ve toppled to the ground if Sloane hadn’t grabbed his arm.
But he didn’t look at her. He only watched me.
I sat on my haunches, not wanting to give him any reason to shoot me. I was finally starting to feel myself again after my injuries, and there was no need to jeopardize that now.
Sloane shook the sheriff, still gripping him by the elbow. “Sheriff Adam, look at me.”
The sheriff stared at me a moment longer before sliding his gaze back to her. “Sloane, what is happening? How is that possible?”
Sloane drew in a deep breath and let it out. “Lincoln is a wolf shifter. He’s like me. Like my entire family.”
The sheriff ducked his head to look at me again. “I’ve never seen any of you do that before. You’re telling me that your whole family does that? Your mom, dad, everyone?”
She patted his bicep. “That’s exactly what I’m telling you. My whole family, everyone who lives here… We are all wolf shifters.”
She tucked her chin to her chest, and her shoulders drooped. “We aren’t supposed to tell humans about ourselves. But I thought you needed to know because I don’t want anyone else involved. You can’t tell the FBI. You can’t let anyone else come here.”
Sheriff Adam shook his head. “What does this have to do with what happened to Darrin? Or the house?”
She sniffled, and emotion clogged her throat as she spoke. “It has everything to do with Darrin and the house.”
She picked up a loose strand of hair, twirling it around her finger. “We are in the middle of a pack war with another pack. Their alpha is a tyrant, and he’s the one who killed Darrin and burned down the house.”
The sheriff pulled away from Sloane. His back hit the car, making it jolt as his hands shot up in front of him. “This all sounds crazy.”
He rubbed his eyes, then gawked at me like he expected me not to be a wolf.
He shook his head again and inched along the side of the car. “I don’t understand.”
Sloane fisted her hands at her sides. “I don’t need you to understand, Sheriff. I just need you not to call in the FBI or anyone else. This is a pack problem, and I don’t want to see anyone else get caught up in it.”
The sheriff slid farther along the side of the car. “This is insane.”
Sloane reached out for him, but he jerked back like she’d struck him. She dropped her hands to her sides and wiggled her fingers. “I’m sorry to have to tell you like this. I wish we didn’t have to.”
Sheriff made it to the front of his car and stepped around to the other side. “I just… I can’t just ignore this.”
Sloane put her hands on the car hood as she leaned forward. “Please, Sheriff, I need you to understand why you can’t involve anyone else in this. It’s too dangerous. We have everything under control. We don’t need outside interference.”
The sheriff yanked his car door open so hard that he almost tripped and fell. “I don’t know what you’ve got going on here, Sloane. I don’t know what you’re into, but it’s not right.”
I pushed back up to all fours as Sloane and the sheriff went back and forth. Their voices faded out for a moment as I started my shift.
My bones crackled, snapping and realigning as I took my human form. I grabbed my drenched jeans. Not only were they soaked through, but now they had mud all down the front of them, too. I hopped into them as best I could.
The car door slammed, and the sheriff’s car reversed down the driveway at high speed. He got about twenty feet away from us before turning around altogether.
Sloane stayed put, her chin tucked to her chest and one hand covering her face.
The mushy ground made it hard for me to get traction, and I kept slipping in my bare feet on my way toward her. I enveloped Sloane in my arms and pulled her to me so her back pressed against my chest.
“Do you think your plan worked?” I asked.
Sloane sighed. “I don’t know. He’s scared. I just know it’ll be worse if the FBI or any other law-enforcement agency shows up here. We don’t need to be dealing with them at the same time we’re dealing with Alpha Dane.”
She was right about that. Telling the sheriff about us was dangerous and could have repercussions. He could go bat-shit crazy and try to convince everyone there was a pack of wolves living here. But that would be a hard sell for most people. Shifters did a good job of keeping our kind a secret.
Sloane rested the back of her head on my shoulder. “I just hope we did enough to keep him from telling everybody that some horrible thing is going on here.”
