Not Flint. When his wolf asked to shift, he shifted. That was part of the reason it hadn’t surprised him when he found himself waking up outside of Emma’s townhouse. Now his wolf clawed at his insides, like when Penny wanted out and kicked the doormat until it accordioned up like a fan proper ladies used on a hot summer day.

Another slam of his hand on the steering wheel and Flint backed out of the spot, making a U-turn in the break of traffic and heading away from town to the old school.

There were two security guards at the school. Humans, barely rent-a-cops. Flint nodded to the one sitting in the sedan at the entrance to the property and pursed his lips. Why did the guy even bother? From behind the parked car, you could see a few windows but none of the six doors or the loading dock.

The only protection in the building had been from Carpenter Jack and his employees, the latter unfortunately not being around this week. Carter, while buff, was a human and wasn’t always at the building. His black luxury SUV from earlier was gone, leaving just Emma’s wreck of a car, a shiny pink micro car that screamed Mia, and Jack’s truck.

Flint parked next to Emma’s car, eyeing it. He reached out to open the door of her car, but little purple and blue strings hung around it. Huh. Wards. The more he was around Emma, the more of his own powers he was picking up on, intentionally but mostly not. Picking up on wards was something new for him.

He gave up the idea of hot-wiring her car and taking it up the hill to her and decided to make better use of his time than staring at his girlfriend’s . . . friend’s . . . Emma’s car. He made his way around to the front of the building, avoiding the piles of snow from the roof, and let the world of scent into his system. A rabbit had scampered through the eaves line not long ago. Four different humans he didn’t know, plus Carter, Chief Ledger, Hudson, Beck, and most of the guys on his crew. Seems they were all doing a lap around the building in both fur and human legs. The building’s foundation had more scents than the Pittsburgh Hounds stadium. Shit, Oak wasn’t going to be able to find anything out here.

Flint rounded the back of the building and ended up near the fire station. They had the number two engine out today, and Hudson stood on the side, wiping it down with a chamois.

Hudson waved at Flint, like him searching the perimeter of the old school wasn’t anything out of the ordinary.

Flint had to go back to work tomorrow. But last he checked, he had four weeks of vacation to use up. Maybe now was the time?

Oak’s rental car pulled into the lot, and Flint changed his direction from the fire station to Oak. By the time Flint stepped on to the concrete, Oak had the security guard pinned against his car.

“Whoa. What’s⁠—”

Oak cut Flint off. “I’ll tell you what’s happening here. This SOB is sitting on his ass, in his warm, piece of shit car, playing on his phone instead of actually doing his job. Like a real agent.”

“It’s an old . . . school building. What’s there to watch? It’s the most ridiculous assignment ever.”

Flint wasn’t used to looking up to many, but Oak’s six-foot-seven frame demanded it. They hadn’t seen each other in a few years, and Oak had filled out even more. But Flint would have taken a thousand dollar bet as to what would happen next.

Oak pushed the pale guard up against the car with one hand and opened the door to the sedan with the other. The guard’s ass deposited on the seat, Oak tapped the guy’s legs with his foot, and the loser quickly pulled them in. “You’re fired.”

“You can’t fire me.”

“I just did.”

“I work for Mr. Williams.”

“Not anymore, you don’t.”

“I don’t even know who you are,” the guy stammered through his open window.

“It doesn’t matter who I am. Just that you get the hell out of here. You’re wasting time.”

A radio cracked, and another man in a cheap suit jogged toward them.

With the possibility of a pack war, their alpha had every member of the clan take classes in defensive arts. Flint wasn’t anywhere near the level of Oak, but he knew a thing or two.

“What’s going on?” asked the other security guard.

“Get in the car. Your firm is fired.” Oak dialed a number on his phone.

“You can’t fire us.”

“Carter. Your guys on the ground here are useless and in the way. I’ve axed them.”

“Fine,” came from the phone.

The washed-up guard dog in the car tilted his head up. “That wasn’t Mr. Williams. It could⁠—”

The other one held up his phone, showing him a text that had just come through. “We’re off the case.”

Oak cocked his head at the two. He patted the second male on his back. Flint and Oak strolled away to the building without a wave to the car pulling out of the lot.

“How the hell have you been?” Oak slapped Flint on his back.

“Better.”

“I can imagine. I need the full story about what happened to you. Not the sanitized bullshit version I got from the billionaire.” Oak pulled a canvas bag with thick handles out of the back of his rental and put it on the hood. He pulled out a case and, with one hand, opened a vial. “Do me a favor. Put those gloves on and wipe the paper across my hand and then do it to the other one too.”

“Sure.”

“Scent profile of those two morons. I’ve been watching the cameras. There was a third. But I should be able to pick it out from other scents.”

Flint nodded. “I did a walk around before you got here.” He sniffed the two rivals’ samples before closing them. “There are two scents on the perimeter that I don’t recognize other than these two.”

“Yeah, I’ve been watching the surveillance feedback. There’s someone snooping around. Staying right out of the sights of the imbeciles.”

“Seriously?” Flint stopped a few feet away from the new front door. The scents he could pick up were from after the crew fixed the door. He couldn’t pick up on any of his cousins, and Eloise had said they were the ones who had fixed the door. That meant the scents around the building were from the last four days, after the rainstorm that followed the snowstorm. “I’ll take you inside.” He’d stop by and talk to Ledger after Oak finished up here. No way could he leave Emma alone if some crazy witch was on the loose. He’d been fighting his wolf to give her her own space. But no more.

“I’m picking up on a bunch of wolf shifters. I’m guessing those are the firefighters who keep checking the building out?”

“Yeah, I can vouch for the wolf scents. They’re all guys I work with.”

“And the bear?”

“I’ll introduce Jack to you. We have to go that way to get into the building.” They walked over the spongy lawn to the loading dock.

Flint pulled on the locked door and then knocked. A saw was going, so he banged harder. The metal door echoed under the overhang.

“Hold on.” Sawdust clung to Jack when he swung open the door. “Flint, come on in. I locked the door. Those mall guards kept poking their butts in here. And they wouldn’t stop talking to me. I’ve got work to do.” Jack’s eye twitched. “Sorry, I’m not saying . . .”

Flint laughed. “Jack, this is my friend Oak North. He’s taking over the investigation from the human assholes.”

“Please tell me they’re gone.” Jack pivoted to the Plexiglas window scratched to the point of opaqueness next to the door.

“Like they were never here.” Oak pulled another vial from his case.

29

Emma turned and waved goodbye to Mirabel, but instead of going inside the house, she sat on the stoop and called Daphne. She pulled Flint’s flannel tighter around her, and his orange citrus tones hovered in the air. It dawned on her finally . . . orange Creamsicle. Flint-Frustrating-Larsen smelled like a summer afternoon treat from the ice cream truck. Too bad he was more infuriating than tax day and assembling boxed furniture rolled together.