"Deputy Attorney General, I'm observing what appears to be a legitimate medical emergency response.Volunteer truckers delivering insulin to diabetic werewolf children who would probably be dead without it."
"That's consistent with our intelligence, Sheriff.We've been investigating reports of systematic medical supply interdiction in supernatural communities.Has Sheriff Cottonmouth briefed you on any operations involving the seizure of supernatural medical supplies?"
The bottom dropped out of Grizz's stomach like he'd just driven off a cliff in a Buick."He told me the convoy was smuggling contraband disguised as medical supplies.Said they were professional criminals using sick children as cover for drug running."
"Sheriff, we have reason to believe the opposite may be true.That legitimate medical supplies have been systematically intercepted and diverted from supernatural communities for black market resale.Would you be available to provide testimony about your interactions with Sheriff Cottonmouth regarding these operations?"
Grizz stared down at the werewolf community, at the children who were alive because a convoy of truckers had risked federal charges to deliver medication, at the volunteers who'd dropped everything to help people they'd never met.
And he thought about Cottonmouth's insistence on arrests without evidence, his panic when Grizz had suggested involving other agencies, his repeated claims about intelligence sources that never seemed to produce actual goddamn intelligence.
"Deputy Attorney General," Grizz said, his voice carrying the weight of a man who'd just realized he'd been played for a fool by someone he'd trusted, "I think Sheriff Cottonmouth has been feeding me more horseshit than a stable full of Clydesdales."
"Sheriff, that makes you a valuable witness, not a fool.Would you be willing to meet with federal investigators to discuss what you've observed?"
"Yes, ma'am.But first, I got a medical emergency to secure and some very brave truckers to apologize to for being a complete jackass."
As Grizz started his patrol car and headed down toward the werewolf community, Smokie held up Mr.Snuggles one more time.
"Mr.Snuggles says he's proud of you for choosing to protect children over politics, Daddy."
"Well, you tell that cotton-stuffed know-it-all that sometimes even old dogs like Sheriff Grizzley T.Lawman can learn new tricks.And that maybe it's time I started asking better questions about who the real criminals are in this goat rodeo."
But even as he said it, Grizz had the sinking feeling that by the time he figured out the whole truth, it might already be too late for the people who'd risked everything to do what was right while he'd been chasing his own tail like a damn fool.
Chapter 9
Tim
Tim sat in his idling truck at the edge of the werewolf community and tried to convince himself that letting Ali walk away had been the right decision.Every nerve ending in his body disagreed.
His hands trembled on the steering wheel, fingers going numb in waves that started at his fingertips and crawled up his arms like ice.The mate bond was tearing itself apart inside him, shredding his nervous system with surgical precision.Twenty years of careful control, twenty years of keeping his needs buried and his emotions locked down, and now his body was staging a full-scale rebellion.
The logical part of his mind kept insisting he'd made the smart choice.The protective choice.Ali could have a real career exposing supernatural medical discrimination, could make changes on a national level instead of hiding in a truck with a cryptid who turned every simple supply run into an international incident.But logic meant nothing when his enhanced senses were screaming that his mate was gone, missing, lost.
His vision kept blurring at the edges.Food tasted like sawdust.Even breathing felt wrong without her scent in the air around him.
