Chapter 4
Gray
I growled, frustration ripping through me.
“There’s no scent here,” I said, my words coming out as more of a growl.
“I know.” Susie helplessly shrugged her shoulders, pointing at the empty shelf. “That’s why I called you. I don’t understand how it’s possible that there’s no scent at all while someone was obviously here. I mean, the protein bars didn’t eat themselves, packaging and all, you know?”
I snorted but didn’t feel like laughing.
I just felt rage.
My wolf was agitated, pushing at me, trying to take over. To follow the absence of scent wherever. Not that it was possible. If it were, I’d let him take the driver’s seat in a heartbeat.
“You’re not the first one,” I explained, turning my head back to the wooden shelf where Susie’s selection of protein bars had been before someone had come in and stolen them without leaving a trace.
“Hal is missing camping gear. And someone managed to steal produce for the restaurant within the two minutes the delivery driver was inside to take in the first box.”
It was a damn fucking riddle how.
How did someone manage to hide their fucking scent?
Oh, there were all kinds of plants and herbs that could disguise one’s scent, to overpower it. But that wasn’t the case. There was literally no scent to be found at all. Neither human nor paranormal. It appeared as if the stolen items had simply vanished into thin air.
My wolf growled, pushing at me from within.
How could everything go to shit within a couple of months?
I’d thought I was doing well.
Oh, I certainly wasn’t the best Alpha there was. I never said that. But I’d thought I was a decent one. Someone who could be trusted. Someone who kept his pack members safe.
And as of a couple of months ago, that’d been true.
Yeah, our barrier wasn’t what it used to be, but it’d been good enough.
Now our barrier was acting crazy.
Strange wolves were intruding into our territory almost weekly.
And now someone was stealing from my pack members, as well as the human residents.
“Should I call Paul?” Susie asked. “I wanted to talk to you first. See, I don’t know who would steal food, you know? I figure they must be desperate, and if they are, I don’t want to add to that, but… why don’t they talk to you? Why steal?”
My wolf didn’t know whether to preen or growl.
On the one hand, I was touched that Susie saw me as someone to talk to if people fell on hard times. That was exactly what this pack was about. We were a community, a family. At least I liked to think we were.
On the other hand, the fact that someone was stealing supplies from right under our noses—and getting away with it—was doing me in.
“Call Paul,” I said, taking a deep, steadying breath. “We don’t know if the thief is even a pack member.”
It might be a member of the human population.
Or—and I really didn’t want to think about this option—an outsider.
“You think? And he’ll believe me? Even though there’s no scent at all trailing back here? If the thief was human, we should be able to scent him.”
I nodded, placing my hand on Susie’s shoulder, pushing calming energy through the pack bond.
I might be agitated and nervous and fucking pissed, but she didn’t need to be. She shouldn’t have to worry about stolen items or whether our deputy would believe that someone had stolen from her when there was no proof.
It shouldn’t have happened in the first place.
“Paul will definitely believe you. As I said, you’re not the first one.”
There’d been Hal and the restaurant. Clothes stolen from the general store.
It was something new every day, and I just wanted to have my quiet, peaceful pack back. I wanted to go back to fretting about whether my newest members were settling in okay, whether they were getting used to the way we did things here.
I wanted to go back to roughhousing with the teens, to story times with the younger pups.
Instead, I had to worry about some fucking thief possibly hiding out right under our noses.
“So, you’re coming back?” I asked, running a hand through my hair, following the strands until the tips ran through my fingers at my waist. “When?”
“Tomorrow,” Rhett said. I didn’t need to see him to know he’d furrowed his brow and was looking at the phone quizzically, trying to figure out what was going on for me to sound like I was about to rip someone’s head off.
Well, if I finally found that fucker who kept stealing from us, I might.
Maim, my wolf agreed. He was fed up with the thief too.
We’d combed through our pack lands as best as possible. If there was someone hiding in the woods, we should’ve found hints. Footprints in the snow. Smoke coming from a fire. Hell, we should’ve found a fucking tent.
But there was nothing.
Not a single thing.
“Gray?”
I growled in annoyance.
Just an hour ago, someone had stolen a human’s thermos bottle out of their fucking car.
“There’s a thief running rampant,” I explained.
“A thief? In Balwood?”
I nodded grimly, even though Rhett couldn’t see it.
“A thief. Stole food. Camping gear. Protein bars. A thermos bottle. Stuff like that.”
There was a tense pause.
“Do you want us to come back today?” Rhett asked, voice tight.
“No.”
I hadn’t filled him in before because I knew he’d try coming back early. His sense of duty was strong, always had been.
“We could…”
“Rhett,” I interrupted, voice loud and booming. “You’re coming back tomorrow. Do you really think a single day will make a difference?” I certainly didn’t.
Rhett sighed. “No. I guess I’m just ready to come home.” He paused for a moment and took a deep breath. “I hate big cities.”
I laughed. “Who doesn’t?”
Most shifters disliked cities. Too loud, too crowded, too grey.
No safe spaces to shift aside from one’s apartment, where one couldn’t really run free.
There was a reason most shifters lived in small towns, off-grid communities, or even all alone, isolated from everyone else, surrounded by nature. It was in our blood.
City life wasn’t.
“I can’t wait to go on a run.”
I let out a laugh. “There’ll be plenty of running for you to do once you’re back. We’re currently going through our territory with a fine-tooth comb to find the thief.”
We’d already checked the abandoned buildings in town.
Not that there were many. Four, to be exact, and all had still been as blissfully empty as they’d been for years. “What about the intruders?”
I shrugged, but my wolf let out a fierce snarl. “They’re intruding.”
There’d been three attempts to get deeper into our territory since Rhett had left for Vancouver. Another failure of mine. I should have put a stop to it.
Catch, my wolf snarled. He fucking hated that I never chased after them once they’d crossed the border. You hate it too.
Yeah, I did.
“Okay. Anyway. I’ll be back tomorrow.”
I nodded again, placing my feet on top of my cedarwood desk and leaning back in my leather office chair. “I can’t wait.”
Rhett chuckled, then hung up, leaving me all alone with too many thoughts and emotions.
I put my feet back on the ground and leaned in, scanning the list of missing items.
They drew a pretty clear picture, a daunting one. A story about someone desperate, trying to survive in freezing temperatures. Food, cooking supplies, clothes. Everything that’d been stolen were bare necessities, not luxury items. Whoever was out there had to be starving. Freezing.
Which made me think it couldn’t be a pack member. None of my pack members were homeless. And even if they were, they could always move into our packhouse.
But even if it wasn’t a member of this pack, it had to be a paranormal. No human would know to hide their scent. So… why didn’t they come to me as was customary? Why hide out there? Why not ask for help?
It’s not like I’d ever let anyone starve or freeze to death—and it was more than obvious that someone was desperately trying to survive on their own.
My wolf scoffed, not impressed by my burst of compassion. He was seeing things in black and white, angered by the utter disrespect, while I was seeing shades of grey.
There was a knock on the door, and I was grateful for the distraction, though my gratefulness quickly turned sour upon seeing who was poking their head in.
Paul, his bright red hair sticking up in every direction as if he’d been raking his hands through it as much as I was doing over this damn case.
“Alpha Grayson,” he greeted, slightly tilting his head to the side, baring his throat in the process.
“Hey, Paul,” I said, trying to give him a smile, though I didn’t feel like smiling at all. I felt like screaming. Ranting. Running out into the woods to turn over every fucking fallen tree until I’d found whoever was hiding. And someone was. The longer I looked at the list, the more certain I grew.
“Can I sit?” he asked, nodding to the empty chair across from me.
“Sure.”
He was nervous. His eyes all big, body tense.
“There’s been a new development regarding the thief,” he said, giving me a tight smile. “It appears the thefts might have been going on for far longer than we initially thought.”
Fuck.
I let out a growl.
“What do you mean?” There, I sounded outwardly calm and collected. Internally, though, my wolf was raging.
“I urged everyone who’s been affected by the thefts to check their supplies, and there are a couple of discrepancies.
Going as far back as three months. Especially at the grocery store.
Never a whole box of something like last week, but single cans and stuff.
Susie says she figured she’d forgotten to scan the items. These things happen, but after putting together a list, she said the discrepancies are bigger than last year. ”
I sighed.
“So, you want to tell me you think that someone’s as been stealing food for months?”
Paul nodded, folding his hands in his lap. “Yes, I’m afraid so.”
Fuck.
I snarled.
“And it’s just the food?”
He nodded again. “Appears like it, Alpha.” He cleared his throat, signalling that he had more to say. “I have to admit… I’m worried about whoever it is.”
“Worried?”
Paul nodded again. “We saw what happened to Levi, how rapidly his health declined when he was out in the woods. And he was only out there for a couple of days. This thief, whoever they are, I can’t imagine they’re a local.
Even if they are human, someone would’ve heard something about financial problems. We’re a small community; something that has to be this grave a situation surely would’ve been noticed by someone.
With them stealing camping supplies, it feels like an escalation.
I know for a fact that every house in Balwood has power.
Why would they steal a camping cooker? And a sleeping bag?
Gray, I’m really worried that someone is roughing it out in the woods. ”
So, he was thinking the same thing I was.
“I already implemented a new patrol schedule with increased focus on our woods. But we haven’t found anything suspicious.”
Paul nodded, resting his elbows on my desk, levelling me with a hard look that made him appear older than he was. “Have you considered this might have something to do with the intruders?”
I blinked, then slowly shook my head.
“I can’t say I have. What do you think?”
Paul shrugged, a blush rising to his cheeks.
“It was just a spur-of-the-moment thought. I mean, it’s weird that for years nothing happens, then suddenly there’s a human abandoned in the woods, the barrier starts acting up, strange wolves start intruding on our pack lands, and now there’s some kind of thief possibly hiding out in the woods.
It’s just… coincidences exist. But at this point, this would be one hell of a coincidence, wouldn’t it? ”
I laughed.
“You’re right. But if you’re looking for connections between the events, leave Levi out of it. His case is already solved, and I don’t think it ties to the other events.”
Paul nodded, then shook his head. “Of course. I just meant that his being dropped on us was a true coincidence—or maybe fate at work. One coincidence is realistic. But everything else…”
I sighed. “I know what you mean. And we’re gonna find out what’s going on.” Neither I nor my wolf would rest until we’d figured it out. Even if I wanted to, my wolf wouldn’t let me.
“I know, Alpha. I believe in you. Everyone here does.”
I smiled, though at that moment, I didn’t feel their trust in me was justified.