20. Chapter 20
Adrian
My wolf hunts with a singular purpose: catching the thief who threatened our mate.
I tear through the underbrush, my massive paws digging into the soft earth with each powerful stride. The world around me sharpens, narrows, transforms through my wolf’s eyes in a way that cannot be explained in words.
Through the eyes of my beast, colors are muted while scents explode into vibrant tapestries of information. My ears twitch, catching every snapping twig, every rasping breath, every heartbeat.
And through the thick forest and the underbrush, I follow one scent in particular. The thief’s scent trail reeks of the acrid stench of fear and adrenaline, making her almost too easy to follow.
Courtney.
Julia's trusted assistant. The thief who almost pushed my mate into the icy waters. The traitor who's been sabotaging everything from the inside.
My wolf snarls, lips pulling back from razor-sharp teeth as I push harder through the forest. Fallen branches snap beneath my weight. Low-hanging pine boughs whip against my fur. I barely notice. My focus narrows to the hunt, to the chase, to justice for my mate.
Then I see it.
A flash of blond between the trees. The sharp tang of female sweat laced with panic. The labored rasp of desperate breathing.
I've never felt my wolf so driven, so focused. This isn't just about upholding the law. This is about protecting what's mine. My mate. Her reputation. Her happiness.
Julia's terrified face flashes in my mind. The shock. The hurt. The betrayal that hollowed her eyes.
She won’t get away with this. I won’t let her.
My wolf roars inside my skull, demanding retribution. I surge forward with renewed speed, muscles burning deliciously with the effort. My claws dig deep, propelling me over a fallen log. I duck under branches, weave between trunks, gaining ground with every stride.
I catch another glimpse of her blond ponytail flying, jacket flapping as she stumbles through the trees. She's heading toward the service road that winds through the eastern part of the property. Not running blindly, then. She has somewhere to go .
I push my body to its limits, fully embracing the power that comes with my werewolf nature. My legs stretch longer, my heart pumps harder, my breathing becomes a controlled rhythm of power and purpose.
She's just ahead now. I can smell her shampoo, her perfume, the sour bite of her fear. The trees thin abruptly as we approach the service road. Moonlight spills across the open space like liquid silver, illuminating a sleek black car parked on the gravel.
A getaway car.
Courtney breaks from the tree line, sprinting toward the vehicle, holding the tiara tight against her chest. She reaches the car and yanks desperately at the passenger door handle.
This is my moment.
I launch from the shadows, a blur of muscle and fur, covering the ground between us in three powerful bounds. My jaws close on the back of her jacket, fabric shredding between my teeth as I drag her to the ground and pull her away from the car.
Courtney screams, high and piercing, as she crashes onto the gravel road.
I circle Courtney, keeping my body between her and the vehicle.
My lips curl back in a snarl that vibrates from deep in my chest. I raise my tail high, hackles bristling along my spine.
I'm every inch the apex predator, and I make sure she knows it.
"Please," she whimpers, backpedaling on the gravel, the tiara forgotten. "I’m sorry. You can keep the tiara."
I need answers. Need to know who else is involved. Need my voice.
I need to shift.
The shift is always painful, but I barely notice it. I embrace the burn as bones crack and reform, as fur retracts into skin, as my muzzle shortens and my spine straightens. My wolf’s mind recedes reluctantly, giving way to human thought patterns, human speech.
I rise before her, naked and furious, my skin steaming slightly in the cool night air. Courtney gapes at me, terror and disbelief warring in her expression.
“Sheriff Wolfsbane,” she whispers, her eyes wide with terror.
"It's over," I tell her, my voice rough from the shift. "You've lost."
She scrambles backward on the gravel again, palms scraping, eyes wide with fear.
"Sheriff, I didn't— This isn’t— I was just—"
"Save it," I cut her off, taking a step closer. "My deputies are on their way right now. There's nowhere left for you to run."
Something shifts in Courtney's expression. The fear remains, but now it’s mixed with something darker. Her innocent facade crumples like the fake mask it always was.
"None of this would have happened if it wasn’t for you," she spits, voice suddenly bitter. "I had everything figured out, but Julia had to go out there and mate with a werewolf!"
Her voice breaks, tears spilling down her cheeks. "This is all her fault!"
I study her, noting the mascara running down her face, the way her hands tremble with a cocktail of fear and rage. She’s a defeated, bitter woman and she may just tell me everything I need to send her to jail for a long, long time. I press the advantage while she's emotionally vulnerable.
"Why not just leave right after you stole the tiara?" I ask. "Why stay behind?"
“Because the tiara was never the mark! Julia was! ”
Then I understand. Stealing the tiara was just a by-product of something bigger. Something much, much more personal.
“Sabotaging Julia was the goal, not the tiara?” I ask, even though I already know the answer.
“For months, I tried to sabotage this wedding. I lost vendor contracts, created miscommunications with the caterer, mixed up RSVP cards. I even bribed those orchid suppliers to destroy their own shipment.”
Courtney laughs, a brittle, broken sound, full of bitterness.
“Nothing worked! Julia just kept fixing everything, making it all better.” Courtney shakes her head, ponytail swinging wildly. "The tiara was supposed to be the final blow. The one thing she couldn't replace."
"Who is your client?" I growl, allowing my wolf to come right up to the surface. "Who hired you to destroy Julia’s career?"
Courtney remains silent, her eyes flashing and her mouth pinched to a fine line. It’s clear she has no intention of giving up her client.
I catch another scent floating through the thick, humid air. Another human, another woman. It seems like I’m going to have the answer to my question.
Something moves in my peripheral vision. The car door opens slowly, silently. I tense, acutely aware of my nakedness, my lack of weapon. Courtney sees my attention shift and smiles.
"You're not as good as I thought you were," she whispers. “So much for the big, bad wolf.”
From the car emerges a woman I've never seen before. Tall, immaculately dressed in a tailored pantsuit, silver-streaked dark hair swept into a chignon. Cold eyes assess me over the barrel of a sleek black handgun pointed steadily at my chest.
“Where is the tiara?” the woman asks, never taking her eyes off me.
“Here, Vera,” Courtney says, holding up the glittering jewel in the moonlight. She must have crawled toward me and taken it while I was focused on Vera. “I couldn’t get the money, though.”
My eyes narrow as I look at the woman once more. Vera Castell. Julia's former mentor. The woman who destroyed her career in New York.
My wolf growls, wanting to be let loose again. I restrain it, but barely.
"Well, Sheriff Wolfsbane," she says, voice cultured and calm as if we're meeting at a cocktail party. "This is an unexpected complication."
I hold perfectly still, calculating distances, angles, chances. I could shift again, but the transformation takes precious seconds. Seconds during which she could put a bullet in me.
That’s not an opportunity I’m willing to give her.
"Ms. Castell, I presume," I say, keeping my voice level.
She smiles thinly. "My reputation precedes me."
"Something like that."
Vera keeps the gun trained on me as she steps around the car. Her movements are precise, controlled. By the way she’s holding that weapon, I know this isn't her first time holding someone at gunpoint.
"You know, I had hoped to avoid this sort of messy confrontation," she says, voice almost conversational. "My plan was elegant and simple. Take the tiara, ruin the Draak wedding, leave young Julia's career in tatters. Then orchestrate a return of said tiara and swoop in to save the day."
"Why are you dead set on destroying Julia’s career? First in New York, now here."
I can't keep the growl from my voice. Vera's eyebrows lift slightly and a fleeting cloud of fear passes over her features. She’s soon enough back to her stony expression, though.
“She told you about that? How charming.” Vera looks down at Courtney before returning her gaze to me. “Julia was starting to forget her place, taking the spotlight where she didn’t belong. My clients were beginning to request her specifically instead of me.”
Her face hardens. "I couldn't allow that."
"So you leaked your own client's information to the press and framed Julia," I say, putting together the pieces.
Vera shrugs elegantly.
"It wasn’t as planned out as you make it to be.
My contact was supposed to be more discreet about his sources.
When it all blew up, someone had to take the fall.
" Her smile turns predatory. "It certainly wasn't going to be me.
So I got rid of two problems in one. Julia was disgraced and my reputation was saved. Win-win. Well, a double win for me."
Courtney stands up slowly, brushing gravel from her palms. From the corner of my eye, I see a shadow move in the underbrush and the distinct scent of wolf comes to me through the forest smells.
My pack. They’re here. Of course, they are. Wolves are loyal. Something people like Vera Castell and Courtney Lambrell would never understand .
"The Draak contract should have been mine," Vera says, continuing on her tirade, voice sharp with resentment. "The Draak and Ashbane clans have been clients in the past. Julia had no business stealing them from me."