“Nuh-uh.” Chay shook his head. “Those are your everyday garden-variety forest animals.”
“Then how?” Dom didn’t understand.
“Uh, well, I might be able to answer that,” Keeland mumbled.
Dom turned to look at his mate.
“I kind of called them.”
Dom’s eyebrows shot up. “You called them?”
Keeland’s cheeks flushed. “It’s one of the reasons I became a veterinarian. I have an affinity for animals. I know what they’re feeling and can sometimes understand them. It’s all just images really, not words, but…yeah.” Keeland gave Dom a strange look. “Seems I have an affinity for shifters too.”
Dom chuckled as he drew Keeland to him. “I always knew there was something special about you, mate.”
Gabe bolted out of the house, then stumbled to a stop at the top of the porch steps. “You guys aren’t going to believe what I found inside.”
“What?” Chay asked as he stood and then helped Dom to his feet.
“There’s an entire room dedicated to shifters. Jarrod had books and maps and profiles on people I don’t even know.” Gabe shook his head. “I don’t think he’s doing this on his own.”
“He said his father had friends,” Keeland said. “They were hoping to some sort of virus to wipe out shifters in mass quantities.”
Gabe started back for the house. “We need to gather up all this stuff and get it back to our place so we can go through it.”
“What about him?” Dom pointed to Jarrod’s body. “We can’t just leave him out here for the authorities to find.” The guards either.
“While you guys get all the bodies inside,” Chay said, “I’ll go back for the car. We can load everything up and then set the place on fire. Hopefully, the fire will erase any sign that they were killed by wild animals.”
Keeland shook his head. “That won’t work. If there’s no smoke in their lungs, the coroner will know they didn’t die in the fire. Best to leave them where they lay and let someone discover them. On the upside, they’ll most likely call me to confirm that they were attacked and killed by wild animals.”
Dom chuckled. “That’s convenient.”
“The sheriff will probably put out a bounty on large predators. None of you will be able to shift for a little while.”
“We’ll just have to be careful,” Dom said.
Keeland’s snort of disbelief was not amusing.
