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“And if it turns out your pack is responsible?”
The small hairs on the back of my neck stood on end, bristling from the subtle accusation. Perry had a funny way of switching from charming and likeable to ruthless and shitty in the span of a second.
“If my boys did this, they will be held responsible.”
“Yeah, but by you or by us?”
Ah, there it was. He didn’t want punishment to be meted out by the pack. Chances were he was the kind of person who thought we wolves went soft on each other, and if Callum or I were the ones to punish Emmett and Mason, they’d basically be walking away with a slap on the wrist while we said bad dog.
I almost laughed at how preposterous that notion was.
If it were up to me, they’d be met with the hunt. An ancient tradition in which werewolves were chased by members of their own pack and brought down. It was violent and bloody, and depending on the crime it quite often resulted in severe mutilation or even death.
It was certainly a more fearsome punishment than prison.
Callum…well, if my uncle was the one deciding punishments, we’d probably be accused of crimes against humanity.
Murder was no small sin to wolves. A werewolf murdering a human was worse because of the risk it put on every single one of us. Before we’d been forced into the spotlight, a werewolf murder could have exposed us all. And a failed killing brought with it the added concern of possibly making a new wolf who would have no clue about our customs and traditions. Lone wolves were super dangerous, especially those who had no idea how to control themselves.
Luckily, unlike with vampires, once someone was dead from a werewolf attack, there was no coming back. The man outside the bar wasn’t going to be creating any new and exciting problems for us.
Just the collection we already had.
But Perry wanted me to let the human justice system handle Emmett and Mason if they were guilty. I wanted to remind him no human prison could contain a werewolf, and they’d be a risk to themselves and others in containment, but I held off. I didn’t think they were guilty, and right now we were still two weeks shy of the full moon. Nothing to worry about, provided I could solve a murder in fourteen days.
Sure, why not? Not like I had anything else going on.
“If they are guilty, I will leave their punishment up to your legal system.” And publicly renounce them from my pack, which I hoped this wouldn’t come to.
Detective Perry stuck out his hand. “Welcome to the New Orleans Police Department, Special Officer McQueen.”
Chapter Eleven
I stared up at the ceiling of my living room and wondered how long that water stain had been there.
It was shaped like a heart, light yellow in the center and faded brown around the edges.
Had it been there when I moved in? It certainly didn’t look fresh. If something had leaked, surely I’d have noticed it. Who did one call for something like that? A plumber? A painter? Someone who did roofing?
The longer I looked at it, the more it started to look like a face. As if it were taking form and would soon become an evil monster sent from the bowels of hell to eat me in my sleep.
Maybe I was more shaken up than I let on.
Magnolia set a glass of water on the floor next to my head and slipped my cell phone into my hand. “You’ll want to take this one.”
I highly doubted that, but raised the cell to my ear anyway.
“Genie McQueen,” I announced.
“Do you actually answer the phone like that?” a familiar female voice asked. “Sounds like you’re an insurance broker. So formal and boring.”
My heart skipped a beat and I sat up. “Secret.”
“I’d go with something like What do you want?”
“You usually go with, This better be good.”
She chuckled. “It’s a classic for a reason.”
