“Call me as soon as you can. We have a minor emergency.”
“Will do.” Allan was dying to know what the emergency was—if it was related to Franny or something else—but he didn’t want to ask in front of Debbie and then have to make up some story about it later.
They ended the call and he phoned the clinic. “How are Franny and Stacy doing?” he asked Dr. Christine Holt, glad Lori had found her to help establish a clinic for them. When Dr. Holt had delivered Franny’s baby, the whole pack had come out to see the new mother and cub. His sister, Rose, was pregnant with triplets, and they had thought she would be the first pack member to give birth. But then Franny and Gary had joined the pack. It was good to see new blood in the pack.
“They’re in stable condition. Your partner didn’t suspect anything?” Christine asked him.
“No.”
“Good. Are you all right? The EMTs said that you went back in the water after her purse.”
“Yeah, in case she had something important in there.”
“Well, she pulled a piece of paper out of her purse, sopping wet, the ink all gone, but she said it wasn’t important anyway. She was so out of it, she just knew she had to have her purse with her. Both Franny and her baby will be fine. Her husband is here with them now.”
“Good to hear. Debbie and I will be dropping by as soon as we can get dry and warm.”
“Give us a heads-up when you’re on your way. We don’t have any other patients at the moment, but you never know when we might, and we need to make sure that Franny remains human.”
“Will do.”
“Take care.”
Allan told Debbie about the condition of mom and baby, but not about the purse. He didn’t want her reminding him how he shouldn’t have gone after it.
He was tasked with ensuring that all the new wolf pack members worked well together, but he also helped with any trouble the pack was having. He should have been interested in one of the lovely single she-wolves, but he couldn’t get his thoughts off a certain sexy, kick-ass human. Some of it was because they worked together, but they also had a lot in common. They both loved to dive as a hobby, liked thrillers and Italian food, and read some of the same fantasy books.
They had been on a number of missions together already—rescue diving for underwater casualties and search-and-recovery diving for evidence and bodies. And they were still trying to find clues in the Van Lake case.
“I’m glad to hear Franny and her baby are doing well. Is there a problem at home?” Debbie asked.
“Not sure. Probably some minor family issue.” This was the part Allan hated. He’d told her about his family, as far as he could say. That his mother and sister had taken Paul in. That he was like a brother to them. But Allan hadn’t been able to say much more than that. Certainly nothing about their wolf pack and their increased longevity. That had changed though. They were aging nearly the same as humans now, but they hadn’t figured out why. He and his family had lived for many years, although they didn’t look it.
Trying to explain how eons ago he had run through a forest that once was on dry land and now was buried underwater in Lake MacDonald—and other such things—wasn’t an option. He had gone diving with her there just for fun and wished he could have told her about the time Paul and he had had a very close call with a bear, when the forest wasn’t underwater. She would never have believed him.
“Hope everything’s all right,” she said, sounding genuinely concerned.
The problem was that she had a cop’s way of thinking. She was curious and had good instincts. She could tell something was going on. He knew the longer they worked together, the dicier it would get. Paul had warned him, but what could Allan do? He didn’t want to ask for another partner when he really loved working with her, and how would he explain why he couldn’t work with her any longer?
Anything he said might hurt her career. And he wasn’t about to do that.
He sighed. Somehow he would just have to keep up the facade. That meant not letting on that he could smell things that humans couldn’t. She’d already commented on his remarkable eyesight when it was getting to be dusk and dawn.
Yeah, working with her was great…and dangerous. Not only because of what he was, but because he totally had the hots for her. And that was a no go in this business. He told himself it would be easy because partners didn’t normally date. If he just kept it on a professional basis, he should have no problem.
His focus turned to Paul’s phone call. He knew the situation wouldn’t be a minor issue. He was anxious to learn what the trouble was this time.
Chapter 3