Mac’s eyes went wide. “Hurting where?”
“My side and my gut. I thought I might be reacting to the ink in my new tattoo. The piece appears fine.”
Mac motioned for the server, someone Slade recognized as pack. “I want you to get pictures of those three at table seven. Can you manage without them knowing?”
The woman, maybe nineteen, tops, popped a pink chewing gum bubble. “Sure thing.”
“Text them to me. Thanks.” Mac motioned to the empty plates on the table. “Put breakfast on my tab, okay? Add twenty percent tip.” He took another sip of coffee, so outwardly calm Slade nearly missed the clenching of his jaw.
“Need me to leave so you can go back to work?” Slade offered. No need to get in the way of sheriff business.
“You might become a part of a case. C’mon.” They strolled outside, Mac starting an inane conversation about duck hunting, ambling around the parking lot to a late model Ford Bronco. “I smell blood and guns. The tag’s from out of state.” He stiffened, dropping his voice. “They’re watching me.”
Sure enough, three pairs of eyes scrutinized Mac from the window.
“Take down the license number of that truck.”
Pretending to text, Slade took a picture of the truck’s license plate. “They also looked at you like you’d knocked up their sister.”
“Yeah. Even bacon can’t mask their hostility.” Mac casually strolled down the sidewalk, back toward the sheriff’s office, Slade beside him. Mac made a call. “Buddy? I think we got trouble.” He took Slade’s phone and recited the license plate number. “Three of ‘em, one young, mid-teens, two older, between forty-five and fifty. Blue jeans, T-shirts, Cubs ballcaps, which tells you right there they’re not from around here.”
Mac stayed quiet for a while. While Slade recognized Buddy’s voice coming through the phone, he couldn’t quite make out the words.
“Affirmative,” Mac said in his stern sheriff’s voice. “Get all adults back to the compound. If there are three, there might be more. Quietly watch the school. Be sure to alert the principal. I don’t want to start a panic, and I don’t think they’re bold enough to go after pups in broad daylight, but you never know with those crazy bastards.”
Mac listened again, a grim smile spreading across his face. “Our dear healer and his nephew have created something we’ve wanted for years: a hunter detector.”
Chills danced along Slade’s spine.
Hunters.
They didn’t say anything else until they entered Mac’s office and closed the door.
Slade stood with his arms folded over his chest. “What are you talking about, a hunter detector?” Hunters. The assholes who’d tried to kill Noah.
Mac flopped down into his chair, letting out one hell of a sigh. “For years, Sam’s been trying to cast spells like the wards to keep our people safe outside the compound. Give ‘em a heads up around hunters. Our heightened senses work to a point. While his efforts do offer some protection, you’re the only one who’s ever sensed predators.”
Slade plopped down into the chair. He’d have fewer worries with a detector spell and protection on Noah. “Why do you think it’s different on me?”
“I don’t know. You’ve got several distinctions. You’re already covered with ink, you’re not from around here, your bond with Noah, and you’re human. Take your pick.”
Wait! What? “Bond?”
“Damn. I meant to keep my mouth shut.” Mac ran a hand over his face. “I know the situation between you two, and I hate to tell you this if you didn’t already know. You’re every bit as bonded to Noah as Buddy is to his wife. We don’t see human-wolf bonds often. Still, they do happen.”
Bonded. Slade somehow bonded to Noah. “What do you mean?”
Mac blew out a breath, meeting Slade’s gaze, a world of sympathy in his eyes. “It’s going to be pure hell on you both when you have to leave.”
Fuck.
“Your bond, plus the wards, likely clued you in to those hunters. I noticed they were strangers, but we get tourists around these parts. I didn’t notice how they looked at me until you said something.” Mac shook his head. “I’m getting lax in my old age.”
Old age? Mac couldn’t yet be sixty.
“You figured them out. Seems they know about me too. Not a good thing if a hunter spots a wolf on sight. Then again, that might not’ve been all they were going on.”
“Shouldn’t you go back to the wards?” Out here in the open, anything could happen to Mac. Then where would the pack be? Where would Noah be?”
