Thirteen
"Someone's been here," Wolf Man said, dropping into a crouch.
Arwen nodded. She could smell the bitch, and if she came back, she was going to rip her throat out.
"Stay close," Wolf Man said, as he made his way around the cottage, before cracking open the back door.
He should just shift back into a wolf. Then he'd know the woman had left, but she was probably still nearby, watching them. Arwen might be able to sniff her out, but she was so new to this wolf thing, she couldn't be sure. Whereas Wolf Man could probably beat a bloodhound.
"Come inside. No one's here," he said, and Arwen did.
Huh. Her scent ringed the cottage, but she hadn't stepped inside. Odd, seeing as Wolf Man hadn't bothered locking the doors.
"I'll make us some lunch, okay? Then we can plan our next steps on a full stomach," Wolf Man said.
He'd run out of Scotch eggs, but the cupboards were filled with cans, so he poured some sort of chunky soup in a pot and started heating it up.
There was meat in it, at least, so Arwen figured if it wasn't enough, she could always fill in the gaps with a squirrel or three.
Or one of those tricksy waterbirds she'd missed out on this morning in the pond.
Next time, she'd get more than a mouthful of feathers.
She'd eaten a couple of mushrooms to get the taste out of her mouth.
They hadn't been that bad, which was why she'd given one to Wolf Man.
Maybe they could go back and pick some more later.
Wolf Man set two bowls on the table, then pulled out a chair for her. She might not be herself right now, but at least he still acted like a gentleman. He wasn't just a nice arse.
Someone rapped on the front door. Arwen darted forward and sniffed the gap. The bitch was back! She let out a low growl, warning the woman away.
Wolf Man was too trusting. He opened the door and greeted her.
"Hi, I'm Phene. I don't know if you've heard, but a girl went missing around here a few days ago, and I was wondering if you'd seen her." She held up one of the posters from in town.
"I had heard that, and no, I haven't seen her." The lie tripped smoothly off his tongue. At least he wasn't that stupid.
"Are you sure? Maybe if you take a closer look..." She shoved the poster right in front of his face, her spare hand reaching into her jacket.
Arwen leaped, knocking Wolf Man out of the way as she tackled the bitch to the ground. The bitch blocked her teeth with a metal stick that ticked and sparked, but Arwen closed her jaws around it until the metal cracked and the sparks stopped.
"No! Down, girl!" Wolf Man cried, wrapping his arms around Arwen as he tried to wrestle her inside.
With her jaws still firmly clamped around the taser or cattle prod or whatever it was, she found it hard to fight Wolf Man's greater weight, as he pushed her back into the house.
As this brought him further away from the bitch, Arwen stopped fighting so hard and let him half drag her all the way to the bathroom.
It wasn't until she heard the metallic clink as something closed around her neck that she realised her mistake. He'd chained her up with a fucking collar? Like a dog?
"Stay there. I'll be back soon," he said. "I'm sorry, okay?"
Then he went back to the bitch.
Growling, Arwen broke the bitch's weapon into crumbs.
"Sorry about that," Wolf Man said. "She gets defensive around strangers."
"Is that what happened to Arwen Snow? Tell me where you buried the body, and I'll forget I ever saw you."
Arwen growled.
"We only came up here yesterday, and I only saw the missing posters when I went into town today. She went missing a week ago, I heard from the Police Inspector in town. He asked me to come up here and look for her. I figured I'd have lunch before I went out searching."
"But her scent is outside. I tracked it here from the road," the bitch protested.
"Maybe she came here while I was out, and when there was no one home, she left.
You're barking up the wrong tree, lady. This cottage is where we bring kids from the local youth group for camping trips and woodcraft.
Sometimes a bit of hunting and trapping.
Talk to Police Inspector Hartwin Scott in town.
He and I came up here as kids ourselves.
Which is why he asked me to track down the missing girl. We go way back."
"I didn't catch your name. Mr...?"
"Mortimer. Tate Mortimer. I live over at Wuffingas Estate, just outside of town. Who sent you?"
"The police..."
"Not the police. Scott wouldn't send a girl into the woods on her own. Not when he can call me."
Silence.
Then... "Fine. The girl's family. Her mother. She didn't think the police were looking hard enough, so she hired me."
"What are you?"
"I'm an expert tracker. A private investigator. I..."
"No, what are you? As the Wuffingas Pack Enforcer, on Wuffingas Pack territory, I'm asking you what you're doing trespassing on our land without permission.
If you caught a girl's scent outside this cottage, you know you were entering property claimed by a wolf pack, so you're either stupid or something you think is a match for the most powerful pack in Scotland.
So for the last time, what are you or will I have to fight you to find out? "
A sigh. "Fine. I can't smell the difference between a woman and a wolf.
I had no idea this land belonged to a wolf pack.
My client told me another investigator had tracked the scent to here, but no further.
I'm a turkey vulture shifter. I specialise in aerial surveillance, scenting cadavers.
I've flown over this forest twice, and I can't find a trace of anything bigger than a badger.
The only cadaver I did find was the previous investigator, and his heart is just gone, so I know what's waiting for me if I screw this up.
So either you've buried her deep or...I don't know.
And the client won't pay me until I bring back the corpse's heart to prove I found her, and if I don't..."
And if that wasn't proof Ravenna had tried to murder Arwen, she didn't know what was. Her poisoned heart would be hidden away where the police would never find it. Good thing her heart was still beating, and Arwen intended to keep it that way.
The door shut, and the bitch's scent faded.
Wolf Man...no, he had a name, didn't he? Tate Mortimer, he'd said it was. Tate slumped onto a chair, and put his head in his hands.
Arwen whined to remind him she was still chained up. She gave him a minute before she swapped to growling, and then she'd graduate to ripping the chains out of the fucking wall.
"Sorry. I'll let you go, as long as you let her go, and she is going.
She left me her card. I said I'd call her if I found your corpse.
But I also told her if she wanted a heart she could take to her client so she could get paid, she should speak to Narine, the current pack housekeeper.
She has a rather large number of frozen wild boar hearts, after some culling the pack did a few weeks ago.
If she mentions I sent her for one of the hearts, Narine will give her one to give her client, and she'll give up the hunt and leave you alone. "
Good.
"Want me to warm your lunch up again? It's gone cold."
Arwen slurped up the last of her soup and eyed Tate's bowl.
He shoved it in front of her. "Fine, have it. I'm not hungry any more."
Arwen finished Tate's meal and lay down on the floor. Her stomach might be full for now, but deep inside, another hunger ignited. And this one would not be so easily satisfied.