“Oh, yeah,” Elizabeth said. “Filing papers and answering the phone is important, but actually handling cases? I’m in.”

  Sheri was eager to do them too.

  David had a high-priority mission of his own this morning. Make the ladies legitimate U.S. citizens. That would mean making sure they had all the papers they needed, including birth records, social security numbers, all that. Every pack had to play around with that because the pack members aged so slowly. He could imagine someone whose passport said they were born forty years earlier than they looked in human years. Or driver’s licenses, any ID like that.

  It was just something they had to do from time to time—not as much for David and the other newly turned wolves, since they hadn’t lived that long as wolves, but royals who had lived a long time already definitely had to hide their true age.

  Elizabeth and Sheri worked on cross-verifying information on the applicants, and then after David looked them over, he had them share the information with the businesses.

  “We can do these from now on,” Sheri said, the pleasure at having done a good job evident in her joyful expression.

  “What’s next?” Elizabeth asked.

  “I’ll see what else we have that you can work on. Anything that takes some research in our databases should work. We’ll need to work out salaries too.”

  “Looking forward to earning our keep,” Elizabeth said.

  He smiled and kissed her. “Believe me, you’ll earn it. We’ve needed some administrative help, but when we have shifting issues, we’ll need you for investigations too. Thanks for being here for us.”

  “Yeah,” Gavin said, coming to join them after his client and Owen’s had left. “You managed to get us a couple of cases we would no doubt have lost because all of us were having shifting issues this morning. It’s the worst at the peak of the full moon. So now the worst of it will be over.”

  “Oh, that’s good. Ms. Moore seemed…eager to meet with you,” Sheri said.

  “She was happy we’re getting right on it. Speaking of which, Sheri, I need to take a trip to start the investigation. If you don’t mind, you can go with me, and if I have trouble with shifting again, though usually we’re good for several hours, you can help me out,” Gavin said.

  Sheri handed Elizabeth the papers she had in hand to file and smiled at her. “I’ll help you with this when I return, if you’re not done by then.”

  The phone rang and Elizabeth hurried to answer it. “This is Elizabeth Alpine at White Wolf Investigative Services, how may I help you?” She glanced at David. “Just a moment, I’ll see if one of our investigators is free to take your call.” She put the call on hold. “She’s looking for her birth mother. Is that something we do?”

  He nodded. “I’ll take the call.” Once Elizabeth had transferred the call to his office, David said, “This is David Davis, how may I help you?”

  “My name is Lisa Lamont. I have a medical condition that means I need to locate my birth mother as soon as I can. Is there any way that I can solicit your services to locate her?”

  “Yes, we’ll take the case. I need to get some more information from you.”

  “My mother gave me up for adoption when I was a baby. I never knew the reason. My parents only just told me that they weren’t my birth parents. I’m still shocked over the news. I never suspected they weren’t my biological parents. According to them, my mother said my dad had died in a car accident and she couldn’t take care of me any longer.” She gave David the names of her adoptive parents. “They said they were eager to talk to you, but that I had to initiate the request. They’ll pay for your services, whatever they entail.”

  ***

  A few minutes later, Cameron walked into the office and said, “Hey, Elizabeth.” He frowned. “Where’s Sheri?”

  “She’s gone with Gavin to help him on a case, and David’s on a call.”

  “Oh, good.”

  The phone rang and she answered it. “Yes, let me check and see if one of the investigators is free to talk with you.” Elizabeth put the call on hold. “A case of a missing champion-sired standard poodle?”

  “I’ll take it,” Cameron said. “Good work.”

  She smiled. Then the phone rang again, and she answered it.

  ***

  David worked on the details of the contract with Ms. Lamont, then refocused on the Mel Warner case.

  Elizabeth stood in his doorway. “I have a call for you,” she said. “Jimmy, the teen looking for his father.”

  “Okay, perfect. I was just about to dig back into that. Could you check with the hospitals in the area for me again? I checked twice, but he wasn’t there. But you can confirm it for me again. While you’re at it, you can check with the hospital about Ms. Lamont’s birth records.” He slid his notes on the case across the desk. “Here’s her information.”

  “I can do that.” Elizabeth grabbed the paper off the desk, then nodded to his phone. “Jimmy’s on hold for you.”

  David picked it up. “David Davis, how may I help you?”

  “It’s me, Jimmy. I…uh, I need to come in and talk to you.”

  The tone of voice, the slight undercurrent of guilt… Every one of David’s police instincts—not to mention canine instincts—told him Jimmy knew more about the situation with his father than he had first let on. “Yeah, come on in. My schedule is open right now.”

  “Thanks, I’ll be right there.”

  “Jimmy’s coming in to see me,” David called out to Elizabeth. “Send him in as soon as he gets here.” And David hoped he would still be fine, no shifting difficulties.

  Elizabeth came back to his doorway. “Will do. I checked the local hospital. No one by the name of Mel Warner has been admitted.”

  “That was fast. Thanks.”

  A few minutes later, Jimmy showed up. He either lived in the woods on the property or had already been on the way there, as quickly as he had arrived. And the pack would have known if he lived in the woods.

  Elizabeth directed him to David’s office.

  Jimmy shook his hand, his palm damp with sweat. David surreptitiously wiped his against his jeans.

  “Hi, I, uh, guess I need to tell you something else.”

  Jimmy sounded like he knew he was in trouble. Smelled like it too—worry and anxiety coming off him in waves, his hands clutched together and then shoved in his pockets, his brow furrowed, and he just stood there like he wasn’t even supposed to take a seat. But worse, he smelled of wolf.

  Not that him being a wolf was a bad thing, it just meant David had to handle the case in a different way. As a wolf, the dad wouldn’t have willingly abandoned the family. At least, David didn’t think so.

  David had the teen take a seat and closed the door. “Yeah, what else is going on?”

  Jimmy breathed in deep, his nostrils flaring, then let the breath out. “You’re one too.” He finally took a seat. “But you’re not a gray like me.”

  “We’re Arctic wolves.”

  “Right. The sign. I knew that’s why you used that for the name of your PI office. At least I hoped so.”

  “So what’s the problem?” David was worried the teen had done something to his dad, and maybe he had come to confess to him.

  “Okay, the deal is, uh…” Jimmy looked down at his lap, then up at David, appearing a little panicked.

  “Just spit it out. If whatever you tell me will help us to find your dad”—and David damn well hoped it meant that they would find him alive and well—“then we need all the help you can give us.”

  “Okay.” Jimmy took another deep breath. “The thing is, my dad…” Tears filled the boy’s eyes, and he looked out the window. “He’s not a wolf.”

  David just stared at him in disbelief for a moment. “He’s not a wolf?” That changed everything. Lupus garou mated for life, unless one died, and even then some never looked for another mate. But if Jimmy’s father wasn’t even a wolf, that meant Mel and his wife would not have the same commitment to each other they would have had as wolves.

  It was also extremely hard for a wolf to impregnate a human. It happened, but most times they couldn’t conceive that way.

  David frowned. “Is he really your biological father?”

  Jimmy let out his breath in a huff. “Okay, look, he’s my dad. I love him. He doesn’t have to be a wolf for me to care about him. Mom would never turn him because she didn’t want him having issues with shifting. My biological dad died a long time ago in a boating accident. I don’t even remember him. My mom married Mel soon after. He has really been the only dad I’ve ever known.”

  Which David totally understood.

  “But I think in the back of her mind, she always felt she could divorce him if she wanted to—because he’s human—and I think that’s where this is headed, but—”

  Tears filled Jimmy’s eyes again.

  “Mom was still working her shift at the hospital as an RN. I’d made up my mind that I didn’t want to lose my dad, so I shifted into my wolf and went to meet him when he came home from work. I mean, I hesitated because I really didn’t want to scare him or…or hurt him, but at that point I knew I’d gone too far anyway. He’d seen me as a wolf, even if he hadn’t known it was me. Some part of me reasoned he did know, and I had to turn him now because it was dangerous for us, for him, if I didn’t. He had to be one of us.” His eyes pleaded with David to understand. “He was just standing there looking horrified, like he was a statue and couldn’t move. And I couldn’t either, realizing I just couldn’t attack him. I couldn’t.” He wiped away tears with his arm, looking every inch the kid he was.

  “I finally got my courage up and I raced up to him. He tried to run, to get away, but I bit his arm. He cried out, then shouted to my sister and me to stay in our rooms and lock our bedroom doors—”

  As if a wolf, or even a dog, if that’s what Mel assumed it was, could open a door, David thought.

  “My sister was at a friend’s house, which was why I did it then. I heard him running to his bedroom, and I knew he was getting his gun that he keeps in the top drawer of his bedside table. I ran back to my bedroom, shifted, and pulled on my shorts.”

  David felt his pain. He’d never been close to his father growing up, but Jimmy seemed really close to his—except for the rather big secret he’d had to keep from him.

  “Anyway, he ran down the hall to my bedroom and tried the doorknob, but I’d locked it. He asked if I was okay…”

  Jimmy clenched his teeth and appeared to be fighting tears again. “I–I didn’t really think through all the consequences. That he wouldn’t be able to work his day job. That he would have trouble with the shifting during the full moon. My mom and sister and I are all royals. I just didn’t think about all that. Not until after I had bitten him, and he left and disappeared. I kept thinking he would return, and I would explain what I was. What Mom and my sister were. That he was one of us now. But he didn’t come back.”

  David leaned back, thoughtful. “This puts the situation in a whole different light. We need to locate him and tell him what’s going on.” David never told clients he was a wolf—not that he usually had to with other shifters—or how he became one, but in this case, he thought it might help.

  “I was turned a few years back against my will. I didn’t know lupus garous existed. So I know what your dad’s going through. Several of us were turned, and none of us had a clue what we were doing or how to deal with it. We need to teach your dad that he’s not going crazy, that you and your mother and sister are also wolves. He’s going to want to stay away from you to protect you, thinking somehow the wild dog or wolf in the house had turned him and it had nothing to do with you.”

  “I hadn’t thought of that. I kept thinking he would come home and I could explain everything to him. Shift and prove I was the wolf and he was just like me now.” His expression was remorseful. He’d created this nightmare and had to find a way to make things right. “My mom’s going to kill me.”

  “Okay, look, as lupus garous we mate for life. But since your mom didn’t turn your dad, she’s not responsible for him, so that’s another issue.”

  “I’m responsible for him. I know that. I’ll take care of him and teach him how cool it is to be a wolf.” Then Jimmy frowned. “Wait, you mean she could still divorce him?” Jimmy sounded disheartened that his plans could blow up in his face.

  “Yeah, she could, and no one would fault her for it. But maybe she will see something different in him now that he’s a wolf. Your dad has been there for you from the beginning, right?”

  “He has.”

  “Then maybe that will help her see that he’s the right wolf for her. But we can’t plan on it. We just need to find him before he causes havoc as a wolf someplace.” David didn’t want to mention that someone could shoot him. The boy was devastated enough as it was.

  “He loves Mom. I had hoped that if he were one of us, she would change her mind about him. But now… I really screwed up, didn’t I?”

  “We’ll just have to find him first and see where it all goes. But you need to let your mom know, too, and your sister, if she doesn’t already know. Your mother might even know where he might have gone.”

  “Oh, I never thought of that. She’s on duty right now, but I’ll text her.”

  David knew the boy had done this because he loved his dad, but man. What a mess.

  “Call your mom and then put it on speakerphone so I can speak with her too.”

  Jimmy sighed heavily. “All right.” He touched his screen a couple of times, then said, “Hey, Mom? I’m putting this on speakerphone so that a private investigator can talk to you.”

  “You’re not supposed to call me at work unless it’s an emergency, Jimmy, and I told you not to see a PI,” his mother said, sounding highly irritated.

  “I turned Dad. At least I think I did.”

  His mother was dead silent.

  “I’m a wolf shifter,” David said right up front. He wanted to be clear with her right way before she had a heart attack, thinking her son was talking to a PI about being a wolf shifter. “David Davis. Everyone at my agency also is a lupus garou. Your son bit your husband, and no doubt he’s probably confused. He might be shifting out of control during the full moon, who knows where. We need to find him right away. Whether you keep him for your mate or not is up to you, but your son wants to continue to see him, and we might have to find a pack he can belong to that will help him out.”

  “Jimmy!” his mother said, irate.

  “I didn’t want you to divorce Dad. He loves you and we love him. You shouldn’t have married him if you didn’t want to mate him for life like we’re supposed to, like you’ve drummed into Cass and me.”

  “Maybe he has gone to his grandfather’s old hunting cabin,” Jimmy’s mom said. “We’ll talk about this later. If I think of any other place he could be, I’ll call you.” Then she hung up on them.

  “Do you know where his grandfather’s hunting cabin is?” David asked, annoyed with the woman for not telling him directly. Time was of the essence. What if the dad was out running as a wolf and was shot by a hunter? If he was killed, he would turn into his human form. That would be devastating for his family and could be disastrous for their wolf kind if anyone saw him shift from wolf to human.

  “I know where it is. It’s out in the woods so I don’t know the actual address, but I can take you there,” Jimmy said.

  Elizabeth popped into the office. “I can come with you.”

  “You lead the way, Jimmy, and we’ll follow behind.”

  David told Cameron what they were doing and then he and Jimmy and Elizabeth headed out to the parking lot. “Wait here for us, Jimmy. I have to get my Jeep and I’ll meet you over here.”

  “Yeah, listen, I’m really sorry about all this.”

  “It’ll work out somehow.” It might not work out the way Jimmy wanted, but David would do everything he could to help, even if that meant moving Mel to a wolf pack in another location.

  Should he still be alive, that was.

  “Would you take him in your pack?” Elizabeth asked as they climbed into his Jeep at his house.

  “If his wife keeps the family intact and they all pull together to help him out, it could work. You and Leidolf were there for us when we needed the help, so I would like to think we would be there for him too.”

  “Okay, that’s understandable. But if the wife doesn’t want to be there for him, where could he go?”

  “There’s a pack in Montana and three in Colorado, and Leidolf’s pack is in Oregon. They’re not really close, but if Jimmy feels strongly enough about being with his dad, he could join him there and help his dad acclimate to the changes in his life.”

  David honked as he pulled into the agency parking lot to let Jimmy know they were ready to go. David followed the teen’s car, hoping they would find his dad before it was too late.

  Chapter 15

  “What do you think the mom will want to do?” Elizabeth asked. They’d turned off onto a dirt road a ways back; the Jeep bumped along behind Jimmy’s car.

  “You know it had to have been a shock to her to hear that her son had turned her husband. She needs to process the information. Maybe they’ll work it out as a family, maybe not. The thing I worry about is that she might have met a wolf and wants to be with him, and she has been pushing her human husband into wanting a divorce so that she can mate the wolf.”

  “Why not just divorce him first?” Elizabeth asked.

  “Because whatever made her care about him in the first place, and the fact he had helped her raise her kids all these years, probably influenced her not to just divorce him.”

  “It’s so sad.”

  “Yeah. I guess she wasn’t interested enough in him to turn him. Or maybe she felt it would be too much of a disservice to him and she truly does love him.” David glanced at Elizabeth. “You and Sheri are just what we needed in our lives, by the way.”