Page 4 of Hellhounds Never Lie

"Waning gibbous. The last quarter is tomorrow night. The new moon will be here at the end of next week," the werewolf answered without having to think about it. It always surprised me how in sync shifters were to nature, when I had enough trouble remembering the day of the week.

"Houston, we have a problem," Paws said. Then he ripped the drawing from the roll of paper with his teeth and picked it up in his mouth. He leapt off the counter, then carried the message to the far side of the pub, away from where the other supes had inconspicuously herded the humans. He placed the long narrow drawing on one of the small round pub tables.

As much as everyone was curious to see what had been drawn, no one moved except to get out of Hayden's way as he crossed to the table. The wolf may not like it when people called him their alpha, but that's what he was. And the fact he was the first to assess what Paws called a problem just showed he was our de facto leader regardless of what title he went by.

He looked like he’d come straight from his mechanic shop. A smudge of black grease still marred his cheek. His jeans, filthy with who knew what, strained over his ass as he bent over to look at what was scribbled on that bit of paper. I looked. Of course, I did. I think the whole bar did. The man had a great ass.

Whatever he saw made him growl.

"It might not happen right away…" Paws said.

"But we can't take the risk it won’t," Hayden finished for him.

The next person to elbow their way to the table was Van. The hellhound was the Chief of Police on the local police force. I liked knowing Van had been chosen for his job based on his skills and experience—both supernatural and otherwise—by the Supernatural Council. The SC always stepped in when more than fifty percent of a population was supernatural and took measures to ensure the special police division was comprised of predominantly supernatural beings. Van had been promoted to Chief right around the time I moved to town. I suspected there was magic involved to keep the humans from questioning things, but I didn’t care enough about the logistics to confirm my guess. I was just happy to have Van there when we needed him.

And, well, it probably didn’t hurt he was hot as fuck with his dark skin and dark expressive eyes—I was pretty sure he could simply look at someone and they’d fall into bed with him. Then again, it seemed like most supes in town were good looking. Or maybe everyone appeared sexy to me because it’d been so long since I’d been with anyone, even a human.

Okay. I could admit it, I might fantasize aboutallthese guys, but I would never do anything other than look at my fellow Lakers. I might drool over all the supes, but on the very rare occasions I actually had sex, I preferred my partners to be regular old humans. It was safer that way.

But how Van managed to deal with any of the humans in the community was anyone's best guess. They were a strange group. But we supes were happy to have one of our own as the guy in charge. After all, there were some things that couldn't be dealt with through the human justice system.

Van's lips flattened into an unimpressed scowl, then he nodded sharply.

"I'll deal with it," Hayden said. "It's my problem."

Hmm… That must mean the oracle’s message was about wolves.

"We don't know the location," Van said. “Or even when it’ll happen.”

"It'll be by the new pack lands." Hayden shrugged like it was obvious. Then he pointed at the top of the scrap of paper. “And that says it’ll be next week.”

It was weird how the pack in the hills had been there for over a decade and people still called it new.

"There are too many roads for you to hit them all. We'll need more of us out there looking." Van crossed his arms. "Besides, you shouldn't be out there alone."

"Fine," Hayden snapped. Anger made his eyes flash gold, showing his wolf.

Hayden's history with the so-called new pack was a sore spot. After all, the new pack used to be Hayden's old pack before a bunch of them decided to follow his brother and leave town. It all happened before I moved to Willow Lake, but people talked about what happened like it was just last week. That, at least, wasn’t a secret. Younger than Hayden and rumored to have been spoiled his whole life, Robbie was one messed up wolf—a purist who believed any supernatural who wasn't a wolf should be kicked out of Willow Lake. And humans? They shouldn’t exist. Period.

The very idea of that kind of bigotry made energy surge in me until I wanted to sneeze. Or burp. Or—ahem—something else. Which, again, I really, really hoped wasn't me being gassy.

But seriously, anyone who believed bullshit like that didn't belong in our community. Hayden and the town as a whole were better off without them. It was too bad our alpha wolf still believed he'd failed those same assholes who’d renounced him as their leader.

Stupid prejudiced jerks.

From what I heard, no one—not his brother Robbie or anyone else—had even tried to challenge Hayden to become alpha here. They’d obviously known none of them, not even their new leader, would be able to take him. But that didn't mean they hadn't damaged Hayden.

Some hurts were just hidden. I knew all about that.

"We have a few days to sort this out. I’ll come up with a schedule. We’ll divvy up the roads, so we don't miss any," Van was saying, but I wasn't paying much attention now.

I was more curious about seeing what had the others so worried. I edged closer until I could make out the details. Considering the drawing was created with a plain ballpoint pen, it was clearer and more refined than I’d expected.

Under a dark sky with only a sliver of a crescent moon visible was a group of fierce looking werewolves chasing down another creature. The wolves looked feral. With their elongated teeth bared, their hackles raised, and their claws ripping into the dirt, they raced over the land in their pursuit. But the creature in the front clenching a bag in their long intimidating teeth, that was who caught my eye. My chest tightened at the look in their eyes. Determination and resignation, maybe? I wasn't quite sure. But it was intense. Their fur looked like fire and it seemed to glow in the dark forest.

It had to be a hellhound. I was sure of it. I’d never seen Van shift, but I knew this wasn't him. It was someone new, someone who obviously needed help.

The image sent a chill down my spine.