His wolf paced swiftly through the woods, even faster than the car had been going, but Pauline kept pace easily. And soon enough, her keen owl eyes spotted another wolf, a huge gray, keeping watch.
When that wolf saw Drew, he trotted up, growled, and turned to lead the way. Pauline hung back to avoid giving herself away.
She followed the flashes of movement until she saw the leader. Ryan stood in his human form, tall and arrogant, waiting for Drew to come to him. Pauline settled on a branch, high enough up and far enough away that no one would notice her—but her owl ears could hear mice dashing through the underbrush below. She’d be able to hear whatever they said to each other.
Drew came up to the clearing where Ryan was standing, stopped at the far end, and shifted back. Too far away for Ryan to get at him before he could run, Pauline noted approvingly—but then the guard dropped to his haunches right at Drew’s side, still in his enormous wolf form.
“You made it,” said Ryan. “We had a bet on whether you were gonna pussy out.”
“What would’ve happened if I did?” Drew asked. His voice was steady, and his head was high, looking right at the man’s face.
“We would’ve come to find you,” Ryan said mildly. “And I don’t know what woulda happened, but those kids wouldn’t have wanted to see it. Or be in the way.”
Drew twitched. Pauline bit back her own fear and tried to think logically. Could the man be serious? Would he really risk his pack by attacking a minor? Surely that would get them into more legal trouble than they could handle.
Unless they were sure they could get away with it. After all, Pauline and Carlos were the only ones who knew that Drew had had any contact with the pack at all. And if they were shifted...well, the law enforcement in this town knew that a “wild animal attack” often wasn’t what it seemed, but proving that in court would be impossible.
And, Pauline remembered, they hadn’t hesitated to break into Stella’s home just a few weeks ago. Who knew what they would’ve done, if Nate and Carlos hadn’t been there to fight them off? She didn’t even want to think about it.
But it looked like she was going to have to. Drew, after all, was clearly thinking about it.
“I get the message,” Drew was saying. “Where is it?”
Ryan came forward and handed Drew a big plastic package. There was dirt clinging to it, as though it had been buried out here. Drew held it gingerly, staring at it.
Pauline desperately, furiously wanted to swoop down out of the trees and land, claws-first, on Ryan’s face.
But that wouldn’t help anything.
Prey, her owl thought, staring at Ryan.
Prey, Pauline agreed. Watch and wait.
Watch and wait, her owl trilled hungrily.
“What do I do?” Drew asked. He still had that defiant edge to his voice, but Pauline could hear the fear underneath.
“You’re going to drive north until you’re right at the border, and you’re going to meet your contact there,” said Ryan. “He’ll be driving a red pickup, and he’ll tell you he’s here for hunting season. He’ll give you the money, you give him the package—in that order—and you bring the money back to me. If you skip town with it, your little kid brother and sister will be the ones who suffer, get it?”
Drew nodded. “Got it.” His voice was quieter now.
“And you wait until you’re sure the sheriff and her deputies are nowhere around, you got it? The only reason you’re doing this is they’re on my ass twenty-four-seven. If they get a whiff of you, you’re no use to me anymore, and you don’t want to find out what happens then.”
Drew nodded again. “No sheriff.”
“We’re gonna teach her how things get run around here soon enough,” Ryan observed. “Back in my town, the law knows what’s what. She’s new. She’ll learn.”
Pauline’s talons clenched on the branch where she was perched.
“Is that it?” Drew asked.
“Yeah, kid, that’s it,” said Ryan. “Do your job, and I’ll see you back here with the money tomorrow night. Go on.”
Drew turned around and started back to his car. In human form, this time, and Pauline suddenly realized why this drop-off was difficult. The p
ackage couldn’t be carried along when someone shifted—usually, only clothes could come with a shifter, and even small items would be left behind. There was no chance of bringing that big packet along.
Pauline’s mind went to the possibility of creating a harness of some kind, to allow a wolf to carry it on its back—and then she shook herself out of it. This wasn’t a problem to solve. And clearly Ryan’s solution was just to find an innocent kid to do his dirty work for him, since he was having a hard time evading the sheriff in human form.