Page 26 of The Enforcers: NOAH

Noah’s hands went still. Hopefully this was just part of Brock’s werewolf fantasies, but the casual, matter-of-fact tone gave him chills. Had the kid seen shifters when he was with his dad? Was that what they were trapping?

“What wolf does that?” he asked Brock.

“Different woofs.” Brock took the sheep from Noah and began turning it back into a wolf. “Like Mr. Gray Woof. The real one, not this one.”

Noah froze. He remembered Brock standing at the cage door, gazing in his eyes and petting him. Could he possibly have sensed that Noah was a shifter? How?

Then the little boy added, “And me. But I only do it when I’m all by myself in my bed.”

Noah’s heart almost stopped beating.

That scent. The hint of a scent Brock gave out, that he’d barely caught at the office.

He knew shifter cubs smelled human until they started their Changes, anywhere from age one to about five. Could this kid be a shifter just starting his first Changes? How would that be possible? Both his parents were human.

Maybe he just had a vivid imagination.

“Do you turn into a wolf a lot?” Noah asked, trying like hell to still sound casual. “It sounds fun.”

Brock shook his head. “No,” he said. “I’m a-scared to.”

“How come?” Noah asked. He watched as Brock sealed the Velcro down the wolf’s belly.

“’Cause.” Brock wouldn’t look at him. “Woof doesn’t like it when people try to make him come out.”

Oh, fuck. Please tell me this kid is imagining this whole thing.“Is someone trying to make your wolf come out?”

Brock shrugged.

Double fuck. Was that what this custody thing was really about? Did that prick Robbie know his son was a shifter on the verge of changing?

No. If Brock was a shifter, he wasn’t Robbie’s son. Brock’s father must have been someone else.

That would explain a lot, including Robbie’s attitude toward Brock.

Noah made the brown wolf pounce on the rabbit again. “Has anybody ever seen you turn into a wolf?” he asked Brock.

Brock shook his head. “I only did it when I was by myself. Two times.”

Noah reached out, wanting to touch Brock and look in his eyes and find out if what he said was really true. But just then Mina came in with a tray full of coffee and warm cinnamon rolls. “Not cake, exactly,” she said, “but it’s the closest I could come.”

Brock jumped up and ran to lean against the couch as Mina put the tray on the coffee table.

He said to his mother, “Mr. Noah Gray Woof says it’s okay for people to turn into woofs.”

Mina put the tray down and turned to him, eyebrows raised. “Noah Gray Wolf?”

Noah shrugged and held up the stuffed wolf as explanation.

“And people turning into wolves?” she continued.

He said carelessly, “It sounds like fun, to be able to turn into a wolf whenever you want.”

She shook her head. “Please,” she said. “I’m trying to raise a scientist here. Can we leave werewolves out of it?”

“Werewoofs are silly,” Brock said, turning the sheep-wolf inside out and then back to a wolf again. “They only turn into woofs when the moon is round, and plus they hurt people. That’s not how it really is.”

He looked up at Noah. “Woof people could be a woof or a person whenever they want, right? Like me.”