Chapter One

Time to get this place set up.

Raleigh hauled a box of equipment into the building. The modular building would serve as an office for Vander and his company until a more permanent building could be built. Except for a bathroom and a large storage area, the space was open. Yeah, Vander would hate this if it was permanent.

Vander sat on the floor near one corner. Pieces of a desk littered the surrounding floor. He picked up one of the larger pieces and connected it. His black hair hung around his shoulders as he focused on the panels and screws. Vander’s crew wouldn’t come in for days.

“Did you need anything else from the truck? This is the last box of equipment.” Raleigh glanced around as he put the box near the others. Bare gray walls surrounded them. Vander would change that soon enough. Probably after he started some deep scans to look for any threat to the pride. Either from within or those outside of it.

“No, everything should be in here now. Want to start unboxing the computer and monitors?” Vander raised a brow.

Raleigh’s phone rang. Who was that? He pulled it out of his pocket and swiped to answer Roman.

“Hey, Roman.” Raleigh leaned a shoulder against a wall.

“Raleigh, I need you to go to a crime scene.” Roman ordered.

“Crime scene? Where?” Raleigh straightened.

“It’s outside the city. A runner found a body. Looks like animal attack and the preliminary judgment is that it’s probably done by a big cat.” Roman’s voice hardened. “I want you to go check out the scene and body. You can tell more than a human.”

“Will do. Just send me the location,” Raleigh accepted. Fucking hell, a body mauled by a cat. They had no indication of rogues in the area.

“Are you with Vander?” Roman asked.

“Yes.” Raleigh glanced over at Vander. Until this, he hadn’t had much to do this morning.

“Put me on speaker for a moment. I have something for him to do as well,” Roman ordered.

Raleigh tapped the symbol and turned the phone to Vander.

“Vander?” Roman’s voice rolled out of the phone.

“Yeah, Roman, what do you need me to do?” Vander looked up from his work on the desk. He turned the assembled desk onto its legs and stood.

“I need you to search for attacks by big cats in the area. Maybe two or three hundred miles around the area. Are you set up to do that?” Roman asked.

“My workspace will be ready in about fifteen minutes. I have to move the desk into place and connect everything. It won’t take long, and I’ll start as soon as I can. I’ll find out if there’s someone in the area hunting or if this could be someone passing through.” Vander nodded.

“Good. Call me if you find anything,” Roman ordered.

“I will. Raleigh’s about to head out the door.” Vander smiled.

“Raleigh, call me as soon as you learn anything about the situation,” Roman said just before the call ended.

“I’ll be back as soon as I can. Then we can set up the rest of the office.” Raleigh glanced around the bare space. They’d have to bring in the rest of the desks from the equipment trailer.

“Don’t worry about that. You take care of yourself. If needed, I can call in the crew. They’ll help set up the office. Right now, I’ll finish setting up my computer and start searching and run the first scans.” Vander moved the desk to the wall and grabbed one of the boxes.

Raleigh nodded and left the new building. With the hostile attitude of the pride, Vander would run scans for chatter anyway. This would simply make the search more intensive. His phone buzzed with the location of the body. He keyed it into the navigation program on his phone before he got into his truck. Time to get to work. He drove out.

The area was impossible to miss. Police cruisers, an ambulance, and a couple vans sat alongside the road. He blew out a breath. This sucked as a first meeting with the local authorities. He stopped and got out of his car. An officer rushed toward him.

“This is a crime scene. You need to get back in your car.” The officer put a hand over the gun at his hip.

“One of the detectives here called the pride for someone to check if a Spe-cra shifter might have done this. A Detective Santori. Why don’t you check on that before you send me on my way?” Raleigh smiled and stood there. Diligent, but apparently not informed that they’d called to consult with the pride.

The officer talked into the radio at his shoulder. The answer came back in moments to send him the scene. Raleigh smiled. The officer stepped back.

“There’s a trail over there.” The officer pointed to trail into some trees. The officer waved and another uniformed officer arrived and escorted him beyond the tape and to the trail.

Well, damn. Roman hadn’t exaggerated. Near the city was an understatement. The overgrown portion of land sat right outside the city close to a stable and a riding school. No shifter would dump a body here if they wanted to hide it. But maybe they didn’t need to hide it. A lot of drifter rogues didn’t care if a body was found or not.

“This is the first time I’ve heard of someone from the pride coming when asked.” The officer glanced over.

“There have been some changes in the pride lately. New alphas and a new attitude for the pride. We live here, too. The new alphas will help where they can.” Raleigh lifted a shoulder in a shrug. The old ones seem to have been Grade A assholes.

“Hadn’t heard that there were new alphas.” The officer nodded.

Two men lifted a body in a bag onto the gurney. Detectives stood off to the side, inspecting the contents of a backpack.

“You’re the man from the pride?” One of the men near the body waved him over.

“Yes, I’m Raleigh Lindon. Can I see the body?” He glanced at the partially closed bag.

“If you intend to touch, I need you to wear gloves.” The man handed him a pair.

The scent of blood drifted on the wind. Among that strong scent was the distinctive smell of a half human, half wolf. Not from the pride then, but that didn’t narrow down whom this young man was or if he lived here.

Raleigh worked his hands into the sterile gloves and eased the edges of the bag back. Something punctured the side of the young man’s neck. Raleigh moved around the gurney. There were four other punctures on the other side. Son of a bitch. Claws or something like claws dug deep into the man’s neck.

“So, is it a shifter who did this?” The man raised a brow.

“Could be, but the young man, he was half wolf. On the other hand, it might be a human. Someone wearing claw gloves could make the punctures. I ran into it when I was investigating with the Division.” Raleigh lifted a shoulder. Only further investigation and information would tell.

“So, the lions here are taking this seriously?” The man straightened.

“There are new alphas at the pride. Everything’s changing. Yes, they take this type of thing seriously.” Raleigh narrowed his eyes. Fucking hell, the old alphas still caused trouble even though they were gone. The pride should work with the human authorities. It prevented a lot of problems between the two groups.

“Could this be some type of difference of opinion that got out of hand between a lion and him since he’s half wolf and there’s a pride here?” The man shifted from one foot to another.

“I doubt it. There is a wolf pack in a city not too far from here. Spe-cra shifters have been known to move from city to city and just live there if there’s not their group of their own type nearby. As long as they don’t cause trouble, it’s not a problem.” Raleigh sighed. Typical misunderstanding of a human who hadn’t been exposed to shifters. Or in this case, the Spe-cra around isolated themselves and assholes lead them. “It’s not like in the wild. We don’t attack each other because we’re not the same type of being. Not on the whole. Like humans, we have assholes too.”

He glanced at the gouges on the man’s stomach and thigh. The slashes cut deep into the flesh. Nothing definitively indicated a shifter kill. With the number of people in the area, he couldn’t catch any scent other than human and wolf.

He pulled the bag back near the young man’s lower leg. Two punctures marked one side of the man’s calf. Fucking hell. He moved around the gurney. A matching set damaged the other side. A bite mark. The distance of the holes looked about right for a lion’s upper and lower canines.

“Check for saliva there. I think we might be dealing with at least one shifter here.” Raleigh pointed to the leg. This wasn’t good. Someone had killed that young man and not quickly either. They’d maimed him and played with him.

“Thank you for your assistance with this.” The man nodded and zipped up the bag. “Nice to actually have some cooperation for once.

Raleigh turned and followed the officer back to the road. He strode back to the truck and climbed in. A heavy weight settled in his gut. He keyed in the code for his phone and dialed Roman. The Alphas needed to know.

“Hey, Raleigh, what have you found?” Roman asked.

“This is definitely done by a Spe-cra. The neck wound could have been done by any jack-off with a claw glove.” Raleigh sighed and put the phone in the holder, so he could drive safely. He started the car and headed back to the pride.

“But… I know there’s more.” Roman’s voice hardened.

“Yeah, there is. The young male had a bite wound on his calf. Possibly a lion, maybe a big bear. No scent on it, but then again, there were a lot of people around and I couldn’t exactly put my nose near it without drawing a hell of a lot of attention.” Raleigh sighed. Humans just didn’t get how intense a shifter’s senses were.

“Any other wounds?” Roman demanded.

“Yeah, claw marks, and they pretty much ripped out his stomach, but from what I could see, whoever did this took their time and played with him.” Raleigh exhaled. And that was the scary part. This person wouldn’t stop. This was something they enjoyed.

“Fuck. I’d hoped they were mistaken about that.” Roman growled. “You on your way back?”

“Yeah, has Vander found anything yet?” Raleigh raised a brow. It usually didn’t take Vander long to get at least some surface information.

“He’s started and found a couple incidences, but they aren’t close to Cold Spring. He’s looking for others.” Roman said. “I’ll talk to you again soon.”

Shit. Raleigh drove on. Were those attacks Vander found related to this death? In most prides and packs, any death caused by a rogue Spe-cra was handled quickly. A rogue rampaging in an area could result in the humans in nearby cities believing that Spe-cra were out of control animals and result in hate crimes against the shifters in the area.

Raleigh drove straight to the office. Vander wouldn’t leave until he finished searching. Raleigh hopped out of the SUV and walked into the office.

Vander sat in front of his monitors. Articles and reports flicked onto the screen. Raleigh strode over and grabbed a chair.

“Roman told me you’d found something. Have you found anything else since you talked to him?” Raleigh sat at the end of the black desk. Out of Vander’s way.

“Unfortunately, yes, there are incidences almost everywhere around us. I’m not sure if there are multiple rogues in this area or if we’re dealing with something worse.” Vander grimaced. “Even if it’s rogues, this isn’t good.”