“I know. If I hadn’t heard her talking to the humans, I wouldn’t have believed it myself.”
“Maybe she’s working as some kind of double agent?”
Dash sighed. “It would be great if that were the case. But for who? All of the shifter species work together when it comes to things like this. We’d know if she was working undercover for any of them, and she isn’t.”
“She came into the tunnels with us to rescue those kidnapped shifters. If she was working with those men, wouldn’t she have warned them that we were coming? We managed to get right on top of them and wipe them out,” Steele said. “She had plenty of opportunity to tip them off before we got there.”
“It doesn’t make sense to me either, but when we went to take her in to custody, she didn’t even try to explain herself to us. Then she escaped from her jail cell and went on the run. That’s why I called you. We monitored Karen’s email, and Isadora had sent her an email from on the road, telling her to be careful and keep an eye out for her family. We traced the ISP of the computer she’d sent it from; the email came from a location that’s fairly close to you. I’m here with a bunch of Wardens, meeting up with the local Pride Patrol. We’re maybe two hours’ drive from you, looking for her. You and all of your people need to be on guard. If Isadora’s helping humans kidnap another shifter, they could be targeting your community.”
“All right,” Steele said. “But listen to me, Dash. You’re a smart guy, when you think for yourself.” Ouch. That was a jab, and probably a well-deserved one. “What I’m saying is, trust your instincts. And thanks for the warning. Call me if you need me.”
“Likewise,” Dash said. “I’ll let you know how it turns out. Just watch your back.” And he hung up and tucked his phone in his pocket, and went to rejoin the others.
“Dash, these are Officers Leonides and Magnusson,” Warden Kerrigan said, nodding at two mountain lion shifters. “They’ve heard reports of a blonde female lynx in the general area, who may be Isadora in disguise. The lynx shifter fit the general description, if Isadora wore a wig and dressed to hide her tattoos. She was seen with two children who appear to be Hobos.”
“Children!” Dash was shocked and angry in spite of himself. Isadora couldn’t possibly be intending to kidnap shifter children…could she? He’d seen her around kids. She used to babysit Karen’s kids. She was great with children, even though she didn’t see herself that way. She’d probably be a great mother some day…if she survived this treason charge, that was.
“Yep. She bought them a bunch of stuff, new clothing, shoes, new backpacks, and she paid for it in cash,” Magnusson said.
“This information may help us narrow down where she is,” Kerrigan pointed out. “There are a couple of Hobo camps in the area. Apparently it’s pretty Hobo friendly around here, so they tend to use this as a way station from all over the country.”
“Okay,” Dash said. “So we split up and check out the two camps? I’ll go west.”
“You know where the camps are?” Officer Leonides asked, looking surprised.
“Ah, no, I was just guessing.” It was more than that. He thought he’d caught the faintest whiff of Isadora’s scent. Once he was in wolf form he’d know for sure.
What he really needed to do was get her alone so he could talk to her. He needed to make her see what would happen to her if she didn’t cooperate. Even if she was guilty of something, maybe a deal could be negotiated – if she gave up the information that they needed. If not, he hated to think about what was going to happen to her.
“All right. Check in is in two hours,” Warden Redthorne said. Dash nodded.
“Let’s take my car,” Officer Leonides said. “We can drive a couple of miles, then we’ll need to shift and go a few miles into the woods.”
Dash climbed in the car and they headed west.
“I understand she used to give you quite the runaround, back on your territory,” Leonides said as they drove towards the area of the Hobo camp.
“Yes, she did,” Dash said. He smiled ruefully. “She did pose quite the challenge.”
Then he found himself wondering why he wanted to help her now, when in the past, all that he’d wanted to do was shove her in a jail cell and leave her there to fume.
Maybe it was because now, he felt, in some odd way, she really needed his help.
Leonides turned down a dirt road and drove about a mile. Then he parked. “We shift and run from here,” he said. He and Dash climbed out of the car and stripped off their clothing. The air had a bite to it, but the sun overhead warmed them.
Dash partially shifted, scenting the air. He caught a faint whiff that told him that she’d been here recently, and left a trail.
Steele’s voice echoed in his head. Trust your instincts.
Steele had never steered him wrong yet.
Dash looked up.
He sniffed the air again. “Lynx!” he announced, pointing southeast.
Leonides tipped his head back and also sniffed the air. “I’m not smelling it,” he said.
Feline shifters had a better sense of smell than humans, but not as good as a canine. The bobcat looked at him for guidance. Dash pointed. “About a quarter mile away,” he said. “Unfortunately, the scent is coming from up on high. She’s in a pine tree, I can scent it.”
“I’ll get her. Stay here and wait for me,” the bobcat said, and he quickly shifted, and turned and ran southeast.
Dash waited until he was gone, then seized his clothes in his mouth, turned and ran northwest.
He had not actually lied. He’d smelled a lynx shifter in the direction that he’d sent Leonides, all right – but it wasn’t Isadora.
He dashed through the woods, following Isadora’s scent.
The scent trail got stronger and stronger. In about twenty minutes, he reached a riverbank where he scented many shifters. This had to be near where the Hobos congregated; he could smell a lot of unwashed body odor, and the scent of cooked meat and a recent campfire. He suspected he was within a quarter mile of their camp. They probably got their drinking water at this river, which smelled sweet and pure.
He shifted and pulled his pants on, and then his shirt and jacket, and then he stepped into his slip-on shoes.
“Isadora!” he yelled. “Damn it, get out here! I need to talk to you! If someone else arrests you, there’s no telling what they’ll do to you! I can scent you, so don’t pretend you’re not here! I’m alone, it’s just me, get the hell out here and talk to me!”
The forest was silent except for the screech of birds and the rustle of the wind through the leaves. She was nearby. Her scent hung in the air, strong and sweet. Why hadn’t she run off yet?
There was a blur of motion, and a female mountain lion shifter cub came running out and swiped at him with her paw.
“Whoa!” he yelled at her. In one swift motion, he reached down and grabbed her by the scruff of her neck.
A jackal shifter, a teenaged boy, ran out of the woods in human form and yelled at him. “Let her go!”
Isadora came running out from behind a thick stand of underbrush and trotted over, looking annoyed. She had a bag slung over her shoulder. Her makeup was scrubbed clean and she’d taken off her nose ring, but she wasn’t wearing a wig at the moment. Her hair was pulled back in a ponytail.
He felt an odd thump in his chest at the sight of her. Ever since she’d moved to Timber Valley, he’d gotten used to seeing her around all of the time, and he suddenly realized how much of a hole her absence had left. All that energy and humor and teasing…damn it, he didn’t like where those thoughts were going.
There was no way that he could like Isadora. Not in that way.
The mountain lion shifter cub hissed and swiped at him.
“Put her down,” she snapped.
“Are you going to run off?” Dash said, with a hard edge to his tone.
She flicked a glance at the kids, and he knew she wouldn’t leave them.
“No,” she said st
onily. He set the girl down.
The girl shifted back in to human form. Isadora fished around in her bag, and pulled out a dress and a jacket, which she tossed to the girl.
“Get dressed,” she said to the girl, who angrily yanked the clothing on, and then turned around and shifted one paw, swiping at him and hissing. “Stop that,” Isadora said severely. “And I told you to stay hidden.”
“He made me mad. He wants to arrest you!”
“All the more reason to stay hidden.”
The girl started to cry. “He’s going to arrest you now, isn’t he? It’s my fault. I’m sorry.” The boy glared at Dash, and put his arm around the girl. Dash felt like a monster. Great. He was making little kids cry.
“I just need to talk to her,” he said.
“Guys, it’s fine. He’s a good person. I promise you that he won’t hurt me,” Isadora said. “Just stand there a minute while I go talk to him. He’s not taking me away.”
“I’ve got my eye on you. And I’ve killed before!” Sally yelled after them as they walked away.
“She’s not actually kidding. I wouldn’t want to piss her off. She’s the kind of kid who’d gut you in your sleep,” Isadora said. Dash detected a decidedly admiring tone to Isadora’s voice.
“We’re watching you, buddy! Nowhere you can run out here!” Thomas shouted.
Dash suppressed a smile. “I like them. They’ve got moxie.”
Then he shook his head at her reprovingly. “What were you doing with these kids?”
“We were going hunting for lunch. Caught us some rabbits.” Isadora patted her stomach with satisfaction. “A wild meal’s actually kind of nice, now and then.”
“No, I mean what are you doing hanging out with kids at all, under these circumstances?”
She actually looked guilty at that. “It’s a long story. I didn’t mean to end up hanging out with them. The hyena kid’s uncle just got in town, and he’s going to take them north to some construction job that he’s got with a pack near Canada. I’ve just been hanging out here, keeping an eye on him and making sure that he’s an okay person.”
“And is he?”
“So far, he seems good. I mean, he’s their best option.” Isadora didn’t look completely convinced. “Finding them an adoptive family wouldn’t work. I don’t see them fitting in too well with a traditional family. They’re basically decent, but kind of semi-feral.”
“What else are you doing out here?” Dash looked her in the eye. “I’m well aware that we’re not too far from the lab that we raided. That can’t be a coincidence. Why did you end up here of all places?”
“Dash, I really can’t tell you right now,” she said wearily. “I wish that I could. I tell you what, I need to get these kids back to camp and then we can talk, all right?”
“Fine.” He suspected that she thought that she was going to run off as soon as she’d gotten the kids safely back to the camp, but he had a little surprise for her. He’d come prepared.
They walked back to where Sally and Thomas were standing.
“Let’s go,” Isadora said, and they headed back towards the Hobo camp.
“Why do you want to arrest her?” Thomas demanded, glaring at Dash through narrowed eyes.
“I don’t want to arrest her at all. She and I just need to go have a chat. I don’t mean her any harm. We’re pals,” he said, and put his arm around her slender waist. He felt a surprising jolt when he touched her, and a strange warmth spreading through his body.
Down, boy, he told himself.
The camp was in a cleared area, with some makeshift tents slung on ropes, and clothing hanging off a clothing line. Thomas and Sally trotted towards a campfire where a dozen shifters were sitting.
While they weren’t looking, and before Isadora could say a word, Dash quickly slapped a pair of handcuffs on Isadora’s wrist and then cuffed her to his wrist. He managed to do it so quickly that nobody at the campfire saw, and then he moved Isadora’s bag to cover the cuffs.
“We’ve got to get going!” he called out to everyone. “Bye, guys, I’ll bring her back later!”
“What do you think you’re doing, idiot?” Isadora said, while maintaining a smile for the campers. She waved at the shifters with her free hand, smiling brightly, as she let Dash lead her away. Dash could see the looks of disappointment on Thomas and Sally’s faces.
“They needed more of a goodbye than that,” Isadora said through gritted teeth. “They’re already too used to being abandoned.”
“This is better than me swarming down on this camp with dozens of cops, isn’t it?” he snapped.
“Yes. Why didn’t you?”
“Because I genuinely want to get a chance to talk to you, and I am really hoping that you’ll finally come to your senses. Just tell me what the hell you’ve done, and why. Why were you meeting with humans? Why did you give them samples that you stole from the clinic? Come on Isadora, I’m begging you.”
“I must say I like the sound of that,” Isadora said as they slogged through the woods.
He couldn’t help but smile, and he tried not to inhale her feminine scent, with a hint of cinnamon mixed in with her female musk.
“Really. This is me, Dash Battle, asking nicely. When does that ever happen?”
“Under other circumstances, I’d love the fact that you’re begging me. And I might even give you what you were begging for – if it were anything but this,” she said. “But I can’t. I’ve got to go now.” She made a sudden gesture with the handcuffs – and then looked surprised and angry when they didn’t fall off.
He permitted himself a smug smile. “Oh, did I forget to tell you? I have specially designed handcuffs made just for you. Pick-proof. Come on, Isadora, I’m not an idiot. You would have shook those handcuffs off just now, shifted, and shot straight up that tree.”
“Fuck you.” She scowled for a minute as he hurried her along, but finally a tiny smile tugged at the corner of her mouth. “All right, I’ll give you props for thinking outside of the box, for once.”
“Ouch.” He pretended to clutch at his heart. “That really hurt, Isadora. Come on, I had handcuffs specially designed for you. That’s got to count for something.”
She actually laughed out loud. “Are you flirting with me, Dash? This is a whole new side to you.”
He sighed. It was, wasn’t it? Under other circumstances, this could be the hottest thing he’d ever experienced.
But it was time to get serious.
He stopped and fished his phone out of his pocket with his free hand. “Last chance. Isadora, please tell me what’s up or you give me no choice. I came here with a group of Wardens. I’ll have to call Warden Kerrigan. Cody’s here with us, he’ll compel you to talk.”
She shrugged. “Call, already.”
He sighed, and dialed the number. “It’s Dash,” he said. He described where he was. “I’ve got Isadora.”
“We’ll meet up back by the cars, then,” Kerrigan said. “It’s going to take a little while; we’d headed off in the opposite direction.”
“No hurry. She’s not going anywhere,” Dash said.
Isadora stuck her tongue out at him.
Really? Even now, she couldn’t be serious for one minute?
“Warden Redthorne wants you to call him,” Kerrigan said.
He hung up and called Warden Redthorne as he and Isadora walked.
“I’ve got Isadora. I’m heading back to meet up with the other Wardens, so we’ll have answers soon,” he said.
“Good job! I knew I did the right thing by sending you after her. I’ve got to tell you, I was a little concerned that you might be sweet on her, but you came through for us,” Warden Redthorne said.
“She can hear everything you’re saying,” Dash said. Isadora was quietly snickering. “I’m not against a little police brutality when it’s called for,” he told her, shoving her with his shoulder.
“Ooh, baby. Don’t stop,” she said loudly.
“That lynx
won’t be laughing when I get my claws on her,” Warden Redthorne said. “And by the way, the Timber Valley Medical clinic just informed us that one of their nurses has disappeared.”
“Kidnapped?” Dash said, alarmed.
“No. The day after Isadora broke in, the nurse apparently said that she was going on vacation. The clinic owner happened to mention it to me in passing. As soon as he told me that, we started doing some checking. We went to her house; she’d cleared out. Turns out she goes on vacation a couple of times a year, and when we checked with shifter authorities on the Caribbean island she’s been visiting, it’s clear that those vacations were way too expensive for the salary that she earns.”
“She’s in the wind then,” Dash said.
“Yes. We have an APB out on her the same as we did on Isadora. We’re working on trying to find any secret bank accounts she might have. We’re also trying to figure out what she was up to.”
Isadora was pretending not to listen, but she was clearly eavesdropping.
Dash shot her a reproving look. “Thanks for the update. I’ll call you to discuss it in more depth after I turn over the prisoner.”
“Hey, can we start with the police brutality now?” Isadora asked hopefully, as he hung up the phone.
Chapter Seven
Colonel Bradwell looked out the window of the cabin, twitching with impatience. He couldn’t wait to get out of the country so he could stop looking over his shoulder. He hadn’t had a good night’s sleep in a month. Every sound he heard outside the remote cabin made him jump out of his skin, sure that the shifters had finally found him.
He’d hoped that if he laid low and kept his head down long enough, the shifters would start to lose interest and the hunt for him would die down. However, his source had kept him informed on what was happening, and that was not the case.
He wasn’t giving in to despair. He’d come too far, and the prize was too tempting.
Once he’d succeeded in developing a formula that would change humans to animals, he’d have the world in the palm of his hand. Everybody would come to him. He’d be the only source. He could turn humans into ultimate weapons.
Timber Valley Pack: Lynx On The Loose( A Paranormal Romance With Shifters) Page 5