Page 84 of Diners, Damsels & Wolves

After seeing the day patrol team off, Tom went up to his room. Showering and brushing his teeth, he then sat on the edge of his bed. He needed to get some sleep, if only for a few hours. First, he tried to call Clarissa again. She didn’t answer.

Setting his phone to charge, he ignored the pain stabbing him in the chest, rolled over and tried to rest.

Through the fog of his sluggish mind, Tom heard whispers. They were angry. Right outside his door from the sounds of it. No, they were standing next to him in his dream.

“You don’t understand,” Sara said.

“I still think you should let him rest,” Nathon said. “Boss man’s no good to us if he’s dead on his feet. What you need to tell him will still be there when he gets up.”

“No, Nate, this is too important, he needs to know now.”

Tom blinked. His room was entirely too bright for this to be a dream. Rubbing his eyes, he got up and started pulling on his clothes. The others would be done bickering soon.

“What’s going on?” Maria asked.

“Sara wants to wake Tom up,” Nathon said.

“It’s about her,” Sara said.

“Move,” Maria said.

Tom opened the door before Maria could. Sara, Nathon, Maria, and Sam were all crammed into the hallway. Maria had some of their grandpa’s old journals in her hands and Sara was in her tan police uniform. Wasn’t today her day off?

“I appreciate your concern for my sleep schedule,” he said, “but when something happens, tell me immediately. Especially when we’re under attack.” Tom turned to Sara. “Talk.”

“Sheriff Greg called me. Clarissa never made it home last night. Her car is at The Barrel, but it was wiped clean of prints. The blonde bear’s stench is all over it.”

His vision went red. He didn’t see his family standing in front of him; he didn’t feel his feet on the ground, or his hand on the door. Every sense he had was blocked as anger, indignation, and absolute horror rolled through him.

“Maria, get back!” Sam yelled.

Something knocked into him as the wolf started to tear out, his ass slamming into the floor forced it back in. Shaking his head, he looked up to see Sam blocking the doorway, Sara covering Maria.

Tom growled, “I wasn’t going to hurt her.”

“No offense, but Emmanuel told me what happened last time. Wasn’t about to take that chance with my wife and baby,” Sam said. “You good?”

“No!” Tom said, getting to his feet.

If anyone other than his brother-in-law had done that, he’d be dressing them down in a rather violent manner. Instead, he grumbled his disdain. “What about this situation makes you think I’d be okay? We have no idea where the fuck the den is! How am I supposed to find her?!”

He paced his room, kicking his dresser. The foot broke and it fell sideways.

“Are you going to listen to me now, Thomas?” Maria asked, her face hard.

He glared at her.

“Her aunt lived in Fairville, did you never bother to look her up?” she asked. He didn’t answer. “After seeing her necklace at the picnic, I did. Tom, that’s not a normal wolf carving. Back in the day, the humans who were under the Sinclaire pack’s protection wore amulets exactly like that to signify our claim over them.”

Tom froze. He stared at Maria. This was it, the thing he’d been missing this whole time, and it was right in front of him …

“I pulled public records and I went through our grandad’s journal; he kept meticulous notes on all the humans under his control. Her aunt’s name is Rachel Jhonson, here look. There was a family named Jhonson. They had two children, one daughter, Rachel, one son, Mason. During the last bear attack, their parents died in a fire. The kids survived, one a junior in high school, the other a sophomore. When the pack interrogated them, they said they snuck out to go drinking, that’s what saved them.

“The bears were wiping out entire bloodlines, Tom. When the bear attacks were over, the son, Mason, moved out of Fairville to a town outside of our control. According to public records, he took his wife’s last name, Roberts. And they had a daughter. Do you want to guess what her name was? Clarissa.

“There’s more. This—this is something even Mom and Dad didn’t know. I found it in Grandad’s personal journal. After the war, the town was in chaos. Grandad hired a witch. He wanted her to erase people’s memories of the bears so they’d continue to trust him. He had the witch test it on five humans: four of them died, but one lived. Only the spell was deemed unsatisfactory.”

“Rachel,” Tom said. “That’s why they think she has dementia.”