The sheriff got out of his car. “It’s over here,” Wyatt said, walking toward the far edge of the clearing.
Valene gestured for Axel to follow him. He did and his sister fell into step behind him.
Wyatt had stopped at the far side of the twenty-foot-wide open space at the edge of some bushes and scrub pines along a thickly forested area beyond it, and pointed to what looked like a big rock in the darkness.
“What is it?”
“You tell me.” Wyatt pushed the button on his flashlight, illuminating not a rock, but instead a shaggy, monstrous-sized bear-clawed beast. Axel knew the creature couldn’t be found in the wilds of Arkansas, let alone anywhere on Earth. It was all Alpha-Prime.
Space potatoes.
A few Alphas, especially super-rich Alphas, didn’t care to follow the rules regarding illegal pets on interstellar flights. They foolishly felt their wild pets made for perfect travelling companions during long journeys through space.
Diesel would blow a gasket. Cam would go Defender happy on the entire surrounding area just to be safe.
“Looks sort of like a misshapen bear.” Axel knew exactly what it was, and it wasn’t a bear. “Maybe it’s sick.”
“That’s what I thought, too. But look closer.” Wyatt handed him the flashlight and gestured for him to do just that. “If it’s a bear, it’s a mutant one. And you should have heard the sounds it made before I shot it with the tranq gun in my cruiser. I’ve never heard anything like it. Not even in horror movies. If they made a scary Halloween mask that looked like that, people everywhere would drop their bags of candy and run in fear.”
Axel didn’t disagree as he pondered the idea of a sand-claw beast Halloween mask. Scary. “You shot it? What happened?”
Wyatt cleared his throat and said, “I usually drive down lovers’ lane once a night to clear everyone out. You know how it is.”
“Sure. Okay.”
“So, I was driving near the clearing and saw this thing lope by my vehicle slowly like it was wounded. It headed for open ground as I grabbed my tranquilizer gun and chased it to the edge of the clearing. It made a frightful noise and lunged at me, so I had to take the shot. It kept coming. I took three more shots before it went down hard and didn’t move again.”
“You keep a tranquilizer gun in your cruiser?”
Wyatt nodded. “For exactly this reason. This isn’t the first time I’ve run across a wild animal. Like that rabid dog running around scaring everyone until Cam got him?”
Axel remembered that was also a wild beast from Alpha-Prime that Cam had used his experimental Alpha Submissive Sticker. But he certainly couldn’t bring that up now.
“Why call me?” Axel asked, staring right at his sister. She caught his gaze and suddenly found the forest floor vastly more interesting.
“Valene wanted me to call you before alerting Diesel or Cam. Thought it might be another rabid dog like last year and didn’t want to get everyone all up in arms if it was.”
“Right. Good thinking.”
“But this doesn’t look like a rabid dog.”
“No. You’re right. It doesn’t.” Axel handed the flashlight back to Wyatt. “I need to get something from my glove box.”
Wyatt and Valene followed him to his truck. He didn’t bother asking Wyatt why Valene was with him. He already had a big suspicion about what was going on by the looks his sister was sending the sheriff’s way when she thought Axel wasn’t paying attention.
He went to Lucy’s side of his vehicle, opened the door, pulled the glove box open, retrieved the megaphone-shaped Defender and shot Wyatt with it before he even noticed Axel had the device in his hand.
Wyatt slumped to the ground.
“Axel!” Valene screamed. “Why did you do that? I called you specifically instead of Cam or Diesel so he wouldn’t get shot with the Defender and lose time that will be hard to explain.”
“You want to tell me what you’re doing out here on lovers’ lane with the human sheriff, Valvoline?”
“None of your business! And stop using my real name. You know I hate it.”
Lucy slid out of the truck and walked to his sister, who had dropped to her knees to cradle Wyatt’s head in her lap.
“How long was your Defender set for?” Valene asked. It was hard to miss the forlorn tone in her quivery voice.
