“I have no idea.But if he dropped his phone, isn’t it more likely he just had to go full dog for some reason?”
“But where’s his clothes?”
“Good question.I really don’t know.Let’s spread out and hunt for them.”
They both walked in various directions, finally spotting the discarded clothes at the back of the apartment building.Picking them up, he went through the pockets.Yup, there was Dunham’s wallet.Ross looked around, a mental picture forming of what had happened.Dunham had likely cut it too close, not having enough time to make all his deliveries before the sun had risen.He’d been spotted lurking near a window, and when someone raised a call of alarm, he’d likely decided being caught as a dog was the safer option.So, dog he’d gone.
Chloe arrived with several others, beelining for the clothes in Ross’s hands.“Oh good, you found his clothes.Let me get the scent from these.”She bent at the waist and inhaled deeply.
Ross let her, as his theory on what happened with Dunham was just theory.He wanted to see what she came up with.If Dunham had gotten into a car, then odds were he’d been picked up by animal control.But if he were chased away, that was a different story.
After getting his scent, Chloe knelt and breathed in deeply again, her nose twitching as if she were in wolf form.She fanned out, moving in a circle.“I’m getting lots of fresh scents.Dunham went dog—not sure why—and he was surrounded by people?Several people.No sign of another wolf nearby, though.Or any other supernat I can detect.Shit, what happened here?”
“Pretty sure that—”
Auden trotted up to her.“I’m not catching his scent anywhere but here and near the road, for some reason.I think he was taken into a vehicle.”
Bingo.Ross’s theory was correct.
Alarmed, Chloe shot to her feet.“He was abducted?!”
“Chloe—” Ross tried again, wanting to slow the panic train down a bit before she went off half-cocked.
She rolled right over him.“Shit, call everyone, get them all here.Let’s see if we can still track him somehow.”
Whatever.Frankly, Ross was too tired for the argument.He wasn’t going to convince people a search party was useless.Ross could see that handwriting clearly on the wall.He’d nope right out of that argument.
Pulling his phone out, he texted with one hand as he headed back toward the jeep.He tapped into the group chat for the werewolves called Wolfingden.Hey, anyone got a picture of Dunham in full dog?
After more than a minute, someone sent a picture back.Scottish werewolves looked like a cross between a Scottish deerhound and a wolf, with wiry fur, large bodies, and whip-like tails.Dunham was more wolf in face than body.It was a decent shot, too—a profile picture with Dunham obviously laughing at something.His tongue was lolling out one side of his mouth.Perfect.
Ross tapped into Facebook, found a lost and found section for pets in the Salem area, and joined the group.The admins approved almost instantly, so he was able to post about a lost dog, uploading the picture he’d been given and attaching his phone number to it.
Various cars pulled up willy-nilly behind, in front of, and along either side of the street.Ah, the full werewolf den had arrived.Some of them had their dogs in tow, the better trackers of the pound dogs they’d adopted.People got out, heading toward Keane and asking the same questions over and over.Ross counted eighteen people in total, which meant most people had ditched work for this.
He eyed the coffee cup in his hand.The coffee might work better if Ross could throw it at people.He tried to waylay Gretta as she exited her truck.“Hey, Gretta—”
“In a sec,” she called back, striding quickly toward Keane.
That seemed to be the attitude of most of the clan.They ignored all but their own clanmates and Keane, looking for some clue of what had gone on, and then they were ready to hunt for their missing friend.Some half-shifted, their noses lifted into the air and sniffing before they went to all fours and sniffed the ground.Anyone who shifted fully relied on someone else to grab clothes and throw them into the car.Keane was busy throwing up deflection spells so they could shift without a human seeing them do it.Never mind the fact it was a brisk October morning and Ross’s nose was starting to freeze.
Watching all of this, Ross came to the conclusion that he’d whatever’d when he should have hell no’d.Oh well.Not his problem now.
Ross sat in the passenger seat of the car, legs dangling out the side, sipping his coffee.He was past exhaustion, past worry, well past anxiety, and had slipped into some kind of chill zone.Like he’d transcended into a state of calm nothing could touch.
Ross was perfectly willing to sit back and watch the show.
More and more people shifted, getting the scent, before loping off in various directions, circling back, and coming in.
“—hard to get his scent, it’s mixed in with so much else—” someone complained.
“—he’s got old trails of coming in here mixed with the new one—”
“—I’m smelling something that’s feline, anyone else getting that?Are we dealing with another clan coming in to take him?”
“But why did he go dog?”
Ross sipped more coffee.Wow, they were really bad at this.Should he try to stop them?Nah, that sounded like too much work.
