Wolf Tracks - Bianca D'Arc Page 0,51

wolves. She was one herself, and she knew the human warning to be careful just made his inner wolf scoff. Though, he had to admit, if Helen had told him to be careful, he probably would have taken it as a sign that she cared for him. Funny how that worked.

Jim headed out the door, locking it behind him and pocketed the key. Miss Felicity had just given him a measure of trust. He wanted to make sure that any threat posed by those at the old feed mill was eliminated, by way of repayment of that gift of trust. That mission firmly in mind, he headed for the wooded patch on the edge of the downtown area. He’d eyed it before as they walked, as a likely place to stash his clothes while he let his furry side out to prowl.

Chapter Twelve

Jim scented all sorts of interesting things on his way to the old feed mill, including the unmistakable scent of adolescent wolves. It got stronger, the closer he got to the run-down property out beyond the border of the town, and he realized that old feed mill must be one of the places youngsters congregated away from adult supervision. There were a few spots like that in every territory. The shifter version of lovers’ lane. Someplace teens could go to bond and explore together.

Oh, the adults knew all about it. They’d probably used the same spots to gather when they were youngsters. Shifter kids didn’t go to such places to use illicit substances or get drunk. Most drugs didn’t have much of an effect on shifters since they had such high metabolisms, and for the same reason, drinking wasn’t that much of a thrill to shifter kids. Smoking wasn’t something any shifter with a strong olfactory sense would enjoy, either.

Shifter kids went to places like the abandoned mill to learn the limits of their shapeshifting abilities and run, usually in animal form, with kids their own age. The old mill offered a plethora of scents to learn and discern, and many obstacles to jump or navigate. It was a playground for a shifter teen where they could explore their own abilities and match wits and skills against their friends in a competitive, yet friendly way.

Jim dismissed the teen wolf scents and concentrated on anything else that might be in the area. He began his recon in a wide perimeter around the property he was interested in. He made several passes, closing in a little bit more on each pass. He didn’t smell anything, other than those teenage tracks which where a few days old, as he moved closer.

Jim prowled the area, finding the usual scents associated with the perimeter of a Pack territory. The stronger Alpha wolves in the group probably helped check the boundary line between Pack lands and the rest of the world. Joe no doubt had a group of lieutenants whose job descriptions included helping keep this very large territory free from trespass or interlopers. Anybody nosing around the invisible boundary line that marked where the town—and therefore the Pack-owned lands—ended would likely find themselves under surveillance, at the very least.

If they had evil intent, they would discover a very different response. Wolves weren’t known for their patience with transgressors. They were more likely to bite first and ask questions later. Periodically, that caused problems with the outside world, and that’s where the human positions of mayor and sheriff and the like came into play. Among the Pack, Joe was the Alpha. The leader. To the human world, he was the town’s mayor. Same concept, different titles, slightly different levels of discretion and authority.

Likewise, the town’s sheriff was also the Pack’s enforcer. An enforcer had broad discretion to mete out punishment as directed by the Alpha and Pack law. In a Pack this size, the enforcer was an extension of the Alpha. In fact, in a Pack as large as this one, many functions were delegated to other Pack members. The Alpha of a group this size had a lot on his plate. It only made sense that he would need help keeping everything running and everybody happy.

So it was that Jim scented several very distinct trails running in roughly the same paths, parallel to the town boundary line. He recognized Joe’s scent immediately. Likewise, the sheriff’s scent trail was very distinctive and strong in the area. There were others, too. Most likely, they belonged to strong members of the Pack who were likely employed