Page 83 of Silver Claw

I smelled him in the city, and that was all it was.

I hung up on Anika and called Rick.

“Kait? Everything okay?”

“I’m getting a bad feeling, Rick. Just…”

“I’ll be careful,” he said. “Don’t worry about me.”

I snorted and ended the call.

As if I would ever not worry about the detective.

By the time I arrived at Louis’s property, Rick was already there, standing outside his car, waiting for me.

The gates were electronic, and when Rick pushed a button and announced our arrival, someone buzzed us in.

Gates and fences were good, but they wouldn’t keep a wolf out. Not even a little bit.

Louis and Amy, his wife, were in the courtyard, their arms around each other’s waists, smiling as they watched us walking toward them.

“I wish they wouldn’t do that,” I muttered. Ordinarily, the mayor standing outside with Amy on a nice, sunny day wouldn’t have worried me. But right now, they weren’t safe.

Rick lightly touched my lower back as we walked and gave me a smile when I glanced at him. He must’ve seen something in my eyes, though, because his body tensed and he dropped the smile. “What’s wrong?”

I shook my head. “I’m not sure.” But Louis and Amy were vulnerable, and I realized how much I’d come to care about both of them.

And something just wasn’t right.

It took me much longer than it should have to understand that Gavin Voss had decided he’d been quiet long enough. He was about to cause some trouble. He’d somehow discovered my dinner with the Hedricks, and he was there.

He wasthere.

I could smell him.

“Mayor,” I called. “Louis.”

I rarely called him Louis, and there must have been something in my voice, because all three men frowned as they looked at me.

Rick drew his gun and jogged to the mayor, and Zach was at my back immediately, his blades in his hands.

“Go inside, Mayor,” I said. Not loudly, but even I could hear the panic in my voice. “Go inside with Amy. Right now.”

Two of the mayor’s security team, probably the only two at the house—even though Louis had promised me he’d keep a team with him at all times—rushed from the shadows and ushered Louis and Amy in through the large courtyard doors.

Rick was yards away from me, and I knew that against the werewolf’s magic, the gun wouldn’t help him at all. But there wasno time to beg him to go inside. He wouldn’t have listened to me anyway.

How quickly things could change.

I snatched my phone from my pocket so quickly that I nearly dropped it, then turned in a circle, watching for the wolves who were clogging the air with their invasive scents. I brought up Anika’s name and sent a short text.

Need you at the mayor’s house.

Then I dropped my phone back into my pocket just as the first of the wolves converged. Not Voss, though. Not yet. That wasn’t his style. He’d want to draw things out. He’d want to cause pain, chaos, and death.

He’d want to play, chase, hunt.

And I didn’t so much as let my stare flicker to Rick. He would find a safe place when the wolves were occupied with fighting.