Vaughn eyed her warily. “Could you have? If your life depended on it?”
“You mean if I was out in the snow? No. I went with Allan a few times on runs through the forest, and I didn’t make it all the way back before I had to shift.”
“He might have waited through the week of the full moon, but he’s also been a lupus garou for longer than you have. So he may be able to force himself to remain longer as a wolf. At least until he could reach cabins where he broke in and stayed for a day or so. I found a pattern of breakins. I was always a day behind him, as if he knew someone was following and would leave sooner the next time or stay longer if he could. When he headed back here, I had to see you and warn you that he has returned to the area.”
“What were you doing at the lake if the other hunter killed Lloyd?” Allan asked.
“When Sarah talked to Devlyn and Bella about joining the pack, she stated right away that she was a pacifist. She didn’t believe in killing humans who learned about us.”
“Even if one was trying to kill werewolves?” Allan asked, surprised.
“Devlyn didn’t think to ask about a werewolf hunter, per se, since that’s mostly unheard of. He did ask what she’d do if a human saw her shift and tried to kill her. She said that turning the human would make him see we weren’t evil and change his mind about us. Devlyn disagreed. Since she left, that was the end of any further discussion on the subject. He thought she didn’t want to join us because we would kill men like those.”
“Otis doesn’t seem to have known who our pack members were. Thankfully. So why not come forth with this information earlier?” Paul asked.
“I’ve been playing chase with this bastard. I followed the two women who located Sarah’s body to ensure that Otis hadn’t followed them. If he had, I would have taken him down. Then I followed Debbie from one of the women’s houses—for the same reason. He knows I’m after him. He gave me the slip, but before that, he was headed back here. I thought he intended to target the rest of your pack, but he never knew who the members were. He got sloppy, killing genuine wolves exploring the blood left behind at the scene of Sarah’s murder. He thought they were werewolves.”
“Where were you when Otis shot Tara and Debbie?” Allan asked.
“Across the border in Idaho. I was trying to figure out how Sarah was connected with Otis and Lloyd. I discovered they’d all lived in Idaho and thought maybe he’d returned there.”
Paul told him about Franny and her involvement with Otis and Sarah. “She was from the same area.”
“Okay, so Otis might be after Franny to eliminate her, or maybe to discover who her pack mates are. Or he could be just planning to get his stash and leave for good now that he’s a wolf. I keep thinking his focus will change, now that he’s one of us. But he might be so angry he was changed, he’ll try to infiltrate werewolf packs and kill them. Just on principle. The problem is that he may believe Franny made a fool of him, not only by dumping him and finding someone else, but in knowing werewolves were real. He might think she was laughing behind his back all along. Both her and Sarah.”
“Agreed,” Paul said.
A thought suddenly occurred to Debbie and she turned to Allan. “So that was the reason we went down south to talk to Zeta? Because Sarah had wanted to join your pack?”
“Sorry, Debbie. I couldn’t tell you at the time why Rose knew about her.” Allan reached over, wrapped his hand around hers, and gave it a squeeze.
She couldn’t help going over all the stuff that had happened and realizing how much of what she had believed had only been half-truths.
“Do you want to help us on this?” Paul asked Vaughn.
“Hell yeah,” Vaughn said. “I’ll continue to try and locate his lair.”
“I’m game,” Debbie said. She told herself it wasn’t for vengeance, that they needed to take Otis down before he killed any more innocent people, but who was she trying to kid? She wanted him dead. It wasn’t her growly wolf side that wanted it. She’d come to realize that the members of Paul and Lori’s pack were hard-working, law-abiding citizens, just like any other decent folk raising families and earning livings.
Wolf pups like Meghan and Eliza were just like any other five-year-olds, only they had a wolf side too.
The werewolf killer was the monster, not the werewolves.
“If you’ll follow me, I’ll take you to Franny and Gary’s place so when you’re not tracking Otis, you can have some good home-cooked meals and watch out for him if he shows up there,” Paul said.
“Sounds good to me. I could use some good meals.”
“Gary’s a world-class chef,” Paul said, “but he’s not trained in protection like we are.”
“Then that works out well for all of us.”
They said their good-byes. Debbie just sat on the couch, pondering the case.