Page 6 of What a Wolf Wants

“Hey, Renault,” Ethan said, hoping the agent knew the she-wolf and it wasn’t just his imagination that Renault recognized her.

“Yeah?”

“You looked like you recognized the woman whose house we raided.”

Renault ran his hands through his hair and looked a little sheepish. “Uh, she was dating a friend of mine.”

“Her name?” Now Ethan would finally know who she was.

Renault smiled, appearing amused that the she-wolf hadn’t given her name to Ethan. “Charlene Cheswick.”

Ethan wanted to know if her boyfriend was a wolf. Though sometimes wolves dated humans if there were no other wolves around to date. “What was your friend’s name?”

“Noah Westmoreland.”

“I don’t know him.” Ethan was thinking out loud that he didn’t know a wolf in the area by that name, though he hadn’t known Charlene either.

“He isn’t from around here.”

“Destin, Florida.” Ethan snapped his fingers. “That’s where you transferred in from.”

“Right. I was surprised to see her here. It’s sure a small world.”

“Yeah.” But if Noah wasn’t here, because Ethan sure hadn’t smelled a male wolf’s scent at the house, then maybe she had left him behind. Ethan walked over to the waiting ambulance.

One of the EMTs cut Ethan’s long-sleeved shirt to bandage his arm. “You’ll need to have this taken care of at the hospital.”

“I’ll drive myself, thanks.”

“Did they have a dog in the house?” the EMT asked, looking over the bite wound.

Ethan glanced at the bloodied wolf teeth marks on his arm. “That happened another time.”

The EMT bandaged that wound up too. “You need tomake sure the dog had all his shots, and you’ll need to get some too.”

“Right. That’s just what I’ll do.”

The department was throwing Ethan a retirement party tomorrow afternoon. Though he hadn’t told any of his fellow agents about his next mission, his red-wolf pack leaders and his closest law-enforcement wolf friends knew what he was doing next. For now, he was done with work, so he would just run in tomorrow and enjoy the celebration.

He had to get his arm looked at tonight, though. He didn’t want to tell the doctor, or anyone else, that a she-wolf had bitten him because he’d raided her house by accident.

His boss, Barney Grainger, called Ethan as he was driving down to Leidolf’s ranch to have his arm looked at.

“Are you going to be able to do the mission from Oyster Bay?” Grainger asked.

“Yes, sir.” Ethan still wondered why his boss wanted him to do this solo, instead of having someone else handling it who was still on the force and not retiring. Sure, he could use that as his cover, but he suspected there was more to it than that. Like someone in their department was on the take. Maybe that was even the reason why they hit the wrong house tonight.

“I figure you’ll be out a week or longer after having been shot, depending on how bad it is. Renault informed me you didn’t go to the hospital.”

“No, sir. I’m seeing my family doctor and she’ll fill out the necessary paperwork on me.”

“All right. Well, you take it easy, and when she approves you returning to work, let me know.”

“I will.”

“Great job on catching two of the men.”

“Yeah. I can’t wait to take down the rest.”