Chapter 51: Inseparable

Daphne

By the time I got to class, news of the attack was all over campus. People had already started piling flowers, teddy bears and votive candles around the fountain in memory of Francine Richter, the pretty blond art student who had met her end on the hiking trail near the creek.

Rumors were flying wildly, debating why she had been out on that trail at night. She had a steady boyfriend, but some said they had a fight, and she just needed to get out to clear her head. Some said she was meeting a lover in secret in the woods. Some said she’d gone out there on a dare. It didn’t seem like anyone, including the police, had the answer.

I wondered how Nate had known about it first thing this morning. Perhaps, since he worked in security, they had access to a police scanner. Or maybe he just knew someone who was on the force. Had he been to the scene? Was that why he looked so sad and tired this morning?

The man worked the third shift, and attended classes. Of course he was going to look tired. Maybe he was sad because he had known Francine, maybe they had been friends. She was gorgeous, maybe they had even dated.

Why did that idea sting so much? I wasn’t sure I even wanted to dig into that question. I’d just met the man. He was my roommate for one day. I didn’t even know him! And clearly, a man that good-looking would have had an endless string of girlfriends. He probably went through women more often than I changed my underwear! And that was fine, because it was none of my business.

I couldn’t explain why even my wolf was getting riled up. Maybe it wasn’t about Nate at all, maybe it was the attack. The police were still claiming that it was a wild animal, but what if it wasn’t, what if there was a rogue shifter on campus?

If that was the case, everyone was in danger, and the police were way out of their league.

I sat through my lecture on advanced neuropsychology, but my mind was not on the mysteries of the human brain. My eyes kept straying out the window. I had a view of the sports fields behind the main building, but beyond that the woods beckoned me.

My wolf was restless. A run would be amazing right now, but one of my brothers’ rules was that I was not allowed to shift while I was at school, unless it was a life-or-death emergency. I had to protect my identity and the pack’s identity at all costs. I could let my wolf out to run to her heart's delight on my next visit home.

Still, maybe I could take a walk along the creek. I was sure the police had probably examined the scene, but as a shifter, even in my human form, I might be able to detect things that they had missed.

Like the scent of a rogue werewolf.

Once class was dismissed, I gathered my laptop and my textbooks and stuffed them in my backpack. But instead of heading to my car in the parking lot, I headed for the hiking trails behind the school. The school had announced that the trails were closed, but the announcement had the opposite effect, as more people than ever had flocked to the trails, probably out of morbid fascination.

Everyone wanted to see where and how the young woman had died. Myself included. And since the college didn’t have enough security to keep people off the trails, it was a simple thing to duck under the yellow tape and meander on, like at least a dozen other students were doing.

It was actually a beautiful day for a walk. The air was cool and crisp, the sun bright in a cloudless sky. I adjusted my backpack so it rested evenly across my shoulders and followed the easy trail. There were occasionally roots that grew up in the path as tripping hazards, but it was flat and wound lazily through the woods.

I came to an abrupt stop at the place where poor Francine had lost her life. The clearing had been cordoned off with tape, strung from tree to tree, with some stakes in between. Half a dozen mourning students milled around the clearing and there was already a white cross adorned with her photo planted next to one of the trees.

Slipping in amongst them, I surveyed the area. There hadn’t been much of a struggle. All the disturbance was confined to just five yards of scuffed up trail. It seemed that Francine hadn’t had much time to fight or struggle.

I walked a slow circle around, focusing on the clues that I could pick up with my olfactory senses. Human scents were everywhere, as dozens of people had been there since the attack took place. Francine’s blood was still potent and rank, even though it had been soaked into the earth hours ago.

I didn’t smell any other werewolf, and I did pick up the faintest odor of bear from inside the circle of tape. Wild bears don’t have a strong scent anyway, being generally fresh and clean. Unless it’s mating season, and then male bears have a musky odor. And, for some unknown, awful reason, they sometimes liked to roll in their kill, which would give them an odor like rotten meat for days. And then, of course, if they had taken a liking to raiding human garbage cans and dumpsters, that added a whole new scent profile…

I squatted down just outside the tape to contemplate. It seemed that the police were right, it was just a crazy black bear on a rampage. But it still seemed odd that I couldn’t find the entry or exit point of the animal.

Crouching that low to the ground, another scent tickled my nose. Cinnamon, nutmeg… apple pie without the apple part. I knew that smell.

Nate was here earlier.

Perhaps that is why he had been so grim this morning, why he had been so concerned about my safety. Maybe he even saw the body before they got the area cleaned up. I stood slowly, my eyes still on the ground in the center of the circle of tape, the place where the earth was disturbed, and tried to picture it myself. A woman's body, ripped open and mutilated.

What would cause a wild animal to go on a killing spree?

Just as I was about to turn to go, a hand descended on my shoulder, startling me from my inner thoughts. I turned quickly and found myself staring up at Nate’s dark, somber eyes, with the long, sexy lashes.

“Oh,” I said stupidly. Maybe Nate wasn’t at the scene this morning. Maybe I smelled him because he was here now, at the present moment.

“I thought I told you to stay out of the woods,” he said tersely.

His tone grated on me, while the hand on my shoulder was having an even stranger effect. A warm, comfortable feeling seemed to be spreading down my arm.

My brothers have told me that the mating bond feels tingly, like electricity lightly buzzing through your skin. Bella said the first time she felt the bond with my brothers, it was like a charge of static electricity jumping between them. So, based on that second-hand information, the feeling I got when my skin came into contact with Nate’s was not a mating bond. But damn, it had an effect. Like warm maple syrup spreading across my skin.

Did Nate feel it too? His eyes seemed to have traveled to his own hand, and his fingers moved slightly, like he was caressing my shoulder.

“It’s not safe out here,” Nate reiterated.

Which reminded me that I did not like his bossy tone. I shrugged off his hand. “It’s broad daylight,” I pointed out, “And look at all these people.” Several more rubberneckers had arrived on the scene in the last few minutes to prove my point. Besides the fact that I was a well-trained werewolf - but I couldn’t exactly tell him that part.

Nate scowled at the small crowd. “They shouldn’t be out here either. There is a reason the police closed down these trails.”

I crossed my arms over my chest. “But you are also out here.”

A muscle ticked in his square, handsome jaw. “That’s different.”

“Oh, really?” I challenged him. “How is that different?”

“Because I didn’t come here to see the crime scene. I came here because I was following you.”