Otherworldly Bad Boys: Three Complete Novels by V.J. Chambers Read Free Book Online

trail ended at a modest looking rancher. There was a basketball net in the driveway, a two-car garage, and a pool in the back yard.
    Dana pulled into the driveway.
    “Want to bet it’s a teenager?” asked Avery. “Probably sleeping around without protection, caught the virus that way.”
    “Do teenagers go to the supermarket?” said Dana. She got out of the car.
    Avery did too. “Everyone goes to the supermarket.”
    They got out their SF badges and walked to the front door. There was a nice little landscaped stone walkway. The door itself had a fancy glass inlay.
    Dana knocked.
    She and Avery waited.
    “They’re still asleep,” she said. “It’s early.”
    “Knock again,” said Avery. “Or ring the doorbell. Is there a doorbell?”
    There wasn’t a doorbell. She knocked on the door again.
    There was the sound of movement inside, and then the door opened. A woman wearing a robe peered out. “Yes?
    “Hi there, ma’am,” said Dana, sniffing her. Geez. The woman who’d answered the door was the wolf. She glanced at Avery, saw the surprise in his eyes. He’d picked up the scent too. “I’m Dana Gray. This is my partner Avery Brooks. We’re with the Sullivan Foundation.” She held up her badge. Avery did too.
    The woman laughed, a low throaty sound. “Took you long enough to get here.”
    “Are you aware of what happened last night at the Kroger twenty minutes away?” said Avery.
    “Of course I’m aware,” said the woman. “I was there, wasn’t I?” She folded her arms over her chest.
    “Then you know that you’re a werewolf,” said Dana.
    “Honey, I’ve been a werewolf since I was seventeen years old,” said the woman.
    Dana shook her head. This was unbelievable. “So, what you’re saying is that you purposefully wolfed out last night and killed all those people?”
    The woman laughed. “I don’t have anything else to say about it. If you want to take me away, you’re going to have to wait. I got to get dressed and kiss the kids goodbye.” She shut the door in their faces.
    * * *
    Dana was on her third cup of coffee, and the caffeine wasn’t working anymore. She’d been up all night, had driven all the way back from New York to headquarters with the rogue werewolf in tow, and then come directly to Ursula to discuss what had happened.
    “There’s nothing to say they’re connected,” said Ursula. She was sitting at her desk. Avery and Dana sat in front of it.
    “I’m only saying it’s weird,” said Dana. “Two rogues who both know how to keep their wolves in check, and within one weekend, they both decide to go on a killing spree.”
    “Yeah, what’s up with that?” said Avery. “If it’s a coincidence, it’s a weird one.”
    “It’s not unheard of for people to lose control of their wolf,” said Ursula. “I say we shuffle her into maximum security and try not to dig too much deeper. We don’t need this right now. With the funding legislation coming up, it’s really bad timing.”
    “What drives me craziest about it is that neither of them have anything to say about it,” said Dana.
    “You go poking around in their lives, asking more questions, it will only draw more attention to the cases,” said Ursula. “And reporters are going to jump on the implications that we’re not doing our job properly. If the SF can’t keep wolves from going rogue, why give us any money?”
    Kayla Johnson appeared in the doorway the tracker office. “Excuse me.”
    Kayla worked as a counselor. She counseled rogues and helped them learn to control their wolves.
    “Kayla?” said Ursula. “What can we do for you?”
    Kayla strode into the office. “Well, I’m not sure if I should have come to you at all. You know that I work with Cole Randall, trying to convince him to reign in his wolf?”
    Dana hadn’t known that. “That’s not going to work. He can control himself. He chooses not to.”
    “I know,” said Kayla. “But here at the SF, we don’t give up on people. So I