The Wolf’s Whisper: The Complete Series

6. Caleb

I t was impossible that the new shifter was Kaia.

Completely and totally impossible.

But as I stood there, the feeling of her still tingling across my fingertips, everything in my body cried out that it was her , that there was no one else it could be. It was why I was drawn to her, why my body and my wolf screamed for me to run towards her, to envelop her in my embrace and draw her close.

But she was dead.

Was I going crazy? That seemed to be the only reality. What other explanation was there? Although us shifters were hearty, we didn’t come back from the dead. No, that was another thing entirely.

Confusion flooded me, and I knew I needed answers. I had no idea what they could actually be; I just knew I needed them.

Well, I wasn’t going to get them standing in the middle of a college hallway, students still looking at me warily. In fact, I was drawing far too much attention to myself. I shook my head and started walking.

I supposed subconsciously, I was following her scent, but I wasn’t really paying attention to where my body was going as my mind tried to race through a thousand different theories on why the young woman had the exact same scent as the pack member I’d lost years ago.

“Good job putting your foot in it,” I grumbled to myself as I stalked along. I’d scared the living daylights out of the girl when I put my hands on her. I shouldn’t have grabbed her like that, but I’d been so surprised by her scent when it was that close. It wasn’t just similar to Kaia’s; it was identical. Surely I wasn’t so far off the deep end that I was imagining that, right?

Regardless, I’d gone about everything all wrong. It’d be hard to get her to trust me if she thought I was dangerous.

However, it did give me hope about her overall well-being. It was clear that she wasn’t so far gone with her transformation that she was completely suggestible to any input. No, she could stand up for herself.

Good. One last thing to worry about. If she was indeed Kaia, then I wouldn’t mess up being her guardian again.

But if she was, that led me right back to the question of: how ???

I was so deep in thought, I didn’t realize where I was until the new shifter’s scent grew especially pungent. Had I instinctually followed her to her next class? I needed to get a grip.

A point only emphasized to me when I smelled notes of stress and outright fear amongst all the sweeter notes.

Well, shit.

If I wanted to protect the new shifter, Kaia or not, then scaring her out of her mind wasn’t the way to do it. Without thinking, I’d made a clusterfuck that I needed to quickly uncluster and unfuck with a lot more tact than before.

Maybe I just wasn’t the right wolf for the job. After all, subtlety wasn’t exactly my thing. I was the guy they called in when punches needed to be thrown and lines drawn in the sand. Perhaps I should call in the calvary…

My mind felt like it was pulling in about three different directions. That was how my phone ended up in my hand, scrolling through my contacts for someone at the very bottom. Zach. He’d be more comfortable and have the resources to soothe over the damage I’d done with the new shifter, then get her away to somewhere safe if she didn’t have a community to protect her.

Then again, if I did call Zach, there was a good chance he’d whisk the girl away to somewhere completely isolated. I knew it was selfish of me, but I didn’t want her to disappear without figuring out why she had my nose thoroughly convinced that she was a long-dead girl.

So I put my phone away and didn’t end up calling anyone, at least not until I was off campus. Once I was on my bike and away from the throngs of people, I decided to cash in a favor with someone outside the pack influence. A certain detective I’d ended up entangled with several times over the years.

“Henry,” the man said after answering on the first ring. As busy as the man was, he somehow always managed to be incredibly punctual with everything , including answering his messages and phone.

“Hey, it’s Mason,” I said. “I wanna call in a favor.”

There was no response for a moment, and I was sharply reminded of why I hated phones. In normal, face-to-face conversations, I could see someone’s body language, smell the changes in their scent, hear the rise or fall in their heartbeat. With the phone, I only received the tones the electronic device chose to deliver. It seriously hampered a lot of my insights as a wolf, and sometimes it made me feel entirely too human.

Not that there was anything wrong with being a human. It’s just that I wasn’t. I was a shifter, through and through, and fiercely proud of that.

“Of course you do,” Henry finally said. “Is there any other reason you ever call me?”

“Hey, I resent that. I used to invite you out all the time.”

“If by all the time, you mean less than three occasions, then yes. I will not apologize for wanting to stay home rather than ride around on those death machines of yours and drink far too much of that hop piss you enjoy.”

Heh. Hop piss. The detective had noticed early on that I loved a nice dark lager more than any fancy bourbons or whiskeys. There was something comforting and homey about an ice-cold beer after a long day of driving. It wasn’t like I could get drunk, anyway. A gift of our faster shifter metabolism was that we processed alcohol and all other possible toxicants incredibly fast, too quick to be inebriated or encumbered for long.

“Right, I get it,” I said. “You’ve been eighty years old for three decades. Sue me for getting a little fun into you.”

“I think the best thing for a working relationship would be if you didn’t worry about putting anything into me and let me handle that.”

“You mean let your husband handle that.”

“You think you’re funny, don’t you?”

I grinned to myself. Yeah, I did. I also had to admit that the exasperated but somewhat fond sigh from the other side of the line gave me some satisfaction. We hadn’t always gotten on so well, but over the years, we’d reached a mutual understanding.

“So what exactly is this favor?”

“I need you to do a quick background check on someone.”

“What’s going on? A possible fencer? Someone who crossed you and your friends?”

“No, no. Nothing like that. I just think I might have found a possible family member, but I’m really not sure. I don’t exactly wanna charge in and interrupt their life if I’m wrong.”

“Huh.”

Even without being in his presence, I could detect a weird tone in that single syllable. “Why do you say it like that?”

“Say what like that?”

“Come on, don’t be obtuse. You said it with a tone. ”

“If I wanted to be policed about my tone, I would have kept living with my sister or married a woman. Send me whatever info you have on this possible family member, and I’ll run a background check for you. If you need more after that, let me know, but I’m working a case right now so there will be a delay. The only reason I can do this simple background check for you is because it’s, well, background work.”

“Now you’re the one who thinks he’s clever.”

“Oh no. I know I’m clever. Always a pleasure.”

Without any more fanfare, he hung up. Not that I was surprised. The detective had always been abrupt, especially during most of our time together from when I was dealing. Not the proudest point in my life, but I’d done what I had to do. I was glad I was mostly out of it, but I wouldn’t live in shame for the journey that had allowed me to reach my thirties. Us shifters often got pushed into the fringes of society, where morals were much more gray and spaces so much more difficult to navigate.

Honestly, I was glad I didn’t have to threaten the detective with the fact that he’d been on the take for so long. I hadn’t ever had to use that ace in my pocket, and I really didn’t want to. I felt like it put me too close to the version of me I’d tried so hard to grow past.

Always forward, never backward, like Henry told me long ago. We couldn’t help the pitfalls we fell into sometimes, but we could control how we got out of them. And take steps to make sure we never tumbled back into the same hole.

“Alright, I guess that’s handled.” My gut was still twisting with uncertainty, confusion, and curiosity, but for the moment, I needed to be patient. I certainly didn’t need to terrorize the mystery shifter anymore.

So instead, I got on my bike and rode off, willing myself to find a distraction so I didn’t make more of an ass of myself than I had already.