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“Sorry, boss,” Nathon apologized.

“It’s okay,” Tom replied. “Did you find anything? I tried to track the bear myself but couldn’t get past that patch of wood.”

Bears … Tom internally cursed. Bear shifters were nasty business. If they decided to stay camped out in Fairville, their small town would become a bloodbath.

“Sorry, boss, but he’s gone,” Sam thought. “We cased the entire woods where you scented it, and we had the same issue.”

“What about Emmanuel?” Tom asked.

Emmanuel was Nathon’s younger brother and the pack’s best tracker. If anyone could find them, it would be him.

“Nada,” Nathon thought.

“We’ve been patrolling in the area just in case,” Sara added, “but found nothing. These bears must know we would have been on their trail after what happened. Hunting in our territory like that. They’re bound to be extra cautious and covering their scent somehow so they don’t lead us back to their den.”

“After we determined the trail in the woods was cold and found nothing in the area, we went back to The Barrel,” Sam thought. “And, well, it’s not good, boss. The one who hunted wasn’t alone. We caught fresh scent of five distinct bears at that diner next to the bar. They spent a good amount of time there recently.”

Tom snarled, his hackles rising. “When?”

“Few hours ago,” Sara thought. “We tried to track them but ran into the same issue.”

“Was his scent there, the one that hunted?” Tom demanded.

“No,” Sam clarified. “We think his pack split up to try and pick up our scents.”

“That doesn’t make sense. We’re the only pack in this region, and our numbers are formidable,” Tom thought. A small sense of pride bubbled up in him despite the situation. Yeah, his pack drove him nuts, but still, he had to allow himself some moments. “Our scent is all over the town. They can’t feign ignorance of our territory! We’ve never hidden from other shifters when they come near. If his pack leader doesn’t formally respond with an apology and a punishment for his insurrection …”

Getting to his feet, he paced, snarling a string of profanities. The pack had been searching for the bears ever since the incident.

While the others seemed to think the bears were tracking his wolf pack, Tom wasn’t so sure. To him, it seemed the bears had come back to scope out the diner, and he didn’t like that one bit. Catching the three of them giving each other sideways glances, he snarled at them until one of them felt like explaining themselves.

“Well, the thing is, boss,” Sam thought carefully. “We aren’t denying that they would have known this was our territory. And, well … thing is, your scent was the only one at the diner before we got there.”

“Get to the point, Sam,” Tom snapped.

He usually had more patience for his brother-in-law, but tonight he was driving him mad.

Samuel Hernandez had been in the running for Alpha of his pack up in Maine. He hated the idea of the role about as much as Tom did—something they’d bonded over. But while Tom ended up saddled with the role of Alpha, Sam had fallen in love and followed Maria to Fairville. Falling into a lesser role in the Sinclaire pack suited him just fine.

Sam was living his dreams here in Fairville, owning a bakery and having as many babies as he and Maria could. Albeit a touch bitter about his own situation, Tom was happy for them—although he tried not to think too hard about that last part and how those babies were going to come about.

Sam’s happy-go-lucky attitude was usually a breath of fresh air within the pack, but tonight, Tom just wanted him to get to the point. He snarled as much at him.

“You went out that night when news of another pack traveling through came out. You were the one who stopped their hunt. You were the one who beat the snot out of one of their pack. Wouldn’t it figure you’d be their next target?”

Tom stopped pacing.

“The pack’s scent is all over town and the lumberyard, but yours is isolated at the diner. If they were hunting you, that’s where they’d go,” Sam finished.

“You insulted them, boss,” Nathon added.

“They were on our lands! They hunted without permission!” Tom bellowed, incensed.

“Of course, we know that,” Sara thought. “But these are bears. They don’t follow the normal rules. They don’t care. They do what they want, consequences be damned.”

“Hard to care about consequences when you’ve already sold your soul to a demon for power,” Nathon thought.

“Or a witch,” Sam added.