“ God Damn it!” he swore doubling his fist to strike the dog and Piety with no thought cried out, “NO” and the two broke apart like magnets whose polarity had been reversed. She looked at her hands like she had never seen them before. How had she done that?

Finnegan rolled and sprang back his ears back, his ruff stiff and upraised. Jack again was on his feet and...growling? Piety said sternly, “Enough boys, I’m okay. Finnegan. Go lay down”

The dog went to her side still growling in a tone that said, “Touch her and you die” ignoring the lay down command.

“This is why I fucking hate spitz breeds, especially those who are hybrids, they are assholes.” Jack said through gritted teeth. His wolf livid snarled to teach the "not wolf" a lesson and Jack had to will the beast to settle down. “We are in his territory and you know they see a human as pack and mother. We will heal.” He thought at his wolf, “simmer down.”

What did you call my dog? She asked carefully her hand on Finnigan’s collar and when the rumble of growl would start she jerked the dog , “NO” she snapped. And then striding to the patio she pulled Finnegan out and told him stay out. She came back to the living room and still the man had not a stitch on and their eyes locked for a second he belated remembered her question. Piety felt her cheeks redden seeing his nudity and she looked quickly at the floor.

“ I called your dog an asshole” he replied curtly looking at his leg the bleeding stopped but there was still blood on the floor and his leg.

She went to get Clorox wipes from the kitchen, to clean the floor and paper towels to clean up officer Riley. “ No, you called him a hybrid ?”

Jack took the paper towels , some wet others dry and awkwardly started cleaning his leg, “You can see it plain as day and I can smell the wolf in him. "Wolves are not mean to be dogs, " he clarified " mixing the two makes them a bit nuts.” Then as if realizing he was naked he snatched the blanket to cover his lower half. He looked at Piety and finally noticed a rosy hue to her cheeks. He have a half smile in spite of himself. Her hair was sleep tossed and the pajamas were a little large but really didn’t disguise the curve of her hip or generous swell of her breasts. Jack liked his women curvy and soft. His heightened sense of smell told him she had not minded seeing his naked body on her floor.

“Sort of like men and wolves?” she said tartly  and resumed cleaning the floor. “Then again maybe you can add were-husky to your resume now.” She ignored his look of non-humor at her joke. “I though dogs came from wolves, what’s the big deal? Can’t you all get a long?”

“How much do you have in common with your hominid cousins? Want a gorilla to wander in eye your resources and maybe stay?” he countered?

“Speaking of which why where you in my yard last night? Don’t you have a better place to run around and howl at the moon?” Piety huffed going over to the trash can in the kitchen. Finnegan sat on the deck staring through the sliding glass at Jack daring him to make one wrong move.

“I was making sure you didn’t get killed, and you’re welcome by the way”. He replied tossing the end of the blanket up over his shoulder like Roman toga.

“Well who asked you too?” she snapped reaching for her tin of coffee.

“My pack leader for one” He replied leaning back on to the counter.

She couldn’t help it she made a motion like griping the handlebars of a motorcycle and sang mockingly a line from an old song from the 1950's, “Leader of the pack…varoom. Varoom”.

He rolled his eyes, “You’re hilariously not funny.” He stalked off, stopped and said, “bathroom is that way I assume?” she nodded, and he continued down the hall . Piety let her dog back in and she said to Finnegan, “He’s off marking his new territory, you will have to pee on his tires to get even.” She turned on the coffee maker and let it gurgle and perk.

“I heard that” he called from the bathroom.

Piety was not sure that she knew what was polite to offer the guest using her bathroom. Yesterday he had ate a normal breakfast and not demanding a raw deer leg or anything like that. Piety went to the kitchen and pulled out her frying pan and mixing bowl. Finnegan sat kitty-corner giving Piety a doggie smile of anticipation. She gave him a sidelong glance, “You think you’re getting a treat after biting that poor man?”

She jumped at the sound of Jack’s voice. “He was defending his territory, if you weren’t his pet I would have ripped his head off.”

“I think that is the other way around.” She quipped cracking eggs

“Not really, he considers himself the alpha and grudgingly listens to you.”

“I suppose you have some canine telepathy?” she said whisking the eggs in the bowl. She had set out cheese to put in the middle of the omelet.

“In a way. You should give him one. He has no idea what he did was wrong.”

“It seems to wrong to reward biting you.”

“Stop thinking like a human. He is a wolf dog he wanted me to understand this is his place and you are his human. If he makes an issue of it, I will bite him back. Besides his little bite is healing over already.” Jack showed his leg and the bite was now just red marks.

Piety took the bowl to the stove and cranked on the burner, it occurred to her that was the second morning Jack had eaten breakfast there. Granted he was in a blanket that he had slung about him, and yesterday he was in his officers’ uniform. How things had changed, see a ghost, summon a ghost, shoot a werewolf …make him breakfast. This had better not become the new normal. She found her eyes drawn to his flexing biceps as he reached for a coffee mug. “Piety quit staring!” she thought, “ He will freak out and think I’m a horny divorcee”.

There was a very weird silence as he hunted for the sugar and cream deftly stepping around her as she cooked at the stove. Finally Jack said, “How is it that you never learned to be a witch?” he had the slightest smile, his wolf chuffed mental, “She wants a mate.” The images where not long walks holding hands.

Jack shushed the wolf mentally “Humans don’t just mate barely knowing one another.”

“Liar” the wolf shot back filling Jacks head with images from his youth that Jack clamped down and told his wolf to knock it off.

Piety unaware of the silent conversation next to her replied “Up until a few days ago I did not believe in actual witchcraft. I thought that my aunt was an old crack pot hippie chick with an eclectic store.”

“You never saw her do magic?” he asked taking the plate of food from her. The omlette looked good with liberal amounts of cheese and sausage peeping out. She set coffee carafe down next to his large mug at the table. with creamer, The wolf in him said happily “ She can feed us well, This is a good thing.” Jack had a slight smile, his wolf liked the three “F”s of life Food, fighting and Fu….Okay that didn’t need to be gotten into.

“Not really, she did her rituals and such, but she never summoned the dead or got a vision from my dog.” Piety paused looking for the right words, “When Glenda did those things I honestly participated thinking I was humoring her. I figured there would be room for denial that anything happened.” The room was quiet, she was not sure what to say in following that. Jack waited patiently not rushing her.

Picking up the dropped conversation Piety finished, “Then again, she had just started getting sick when I moved in with her.” Piety sat with her plate and to Jack she said, “eat up and then we need to find you some pants.”

Emmet Carlson had driven the milk truck for twenty-five years and in the early hours of the morning as he went farm to farm collecting gallons and gallons of milk nothing exciting happened. Get up, go to work, drive the routs and back to the plant to unload the milk. His was a simple job that he enjoyed.

The dawn was his favorite time of day, no other cars to deal with, the countryside would be full of bird song and the air cool and clean. He loved the classic country station on his satellite radio station, it was worth every penny. Johnny Cash was belting out a murder ballad called “On the Banks of the Ohio”. Emmett tapped the steering wheel and wished he had stopped at Dunkin Doughnuts; some hot coffee would be good now. Then again his doctor had been up his backside about high cholesterol and fatty foods since he just turned forty.

It was at the bottom of Labobardiere Road that Emmet slammed on the brakes. He first saw the outline of an enormous downed tree limb and then as the truck shuttered to a stop, he noticed a detached arm tangled in the branches and ropy glistening cords festooned the branches like a sick Christmas decoration.

“This Halloween crap is starting earlier and earlier.” he thought. Looking at the tableau in front of him Emmet decided to get out of the cab of his truck and see about moving this macabre display. As soon as he opened the truck door, he smelled a stink beyond the normal cow shit and skunk scent of the country. This was the smell of blood, voided bowels and pungent rot that sat in the area with the heartiest of flies up in the cool morning to buzz about the gore. The truck driver took a few steps closer his hand over his nose, to decrease the smell.

Now with his mouth hanging slack Emmet stood finally acknowledged fully the horror what he saw, the intestines had been pulled from a torso propped on the top of the massive tree limb. Worse yet that body was missing a head. Emmet vomited and shaking he felt his jacket pockets for his cell and punched in the number 911 on his cell phone. He scrambled up into his rig and locked the doors.

Piety looked at the man seated next to her in the car, she found it disconcerting that Jack seemed to not care about being semi naked. He sat there wearing a blanket with his feet bare and unconcerned about the cool autumn temperature. She had Finnegan in the back seat as he refused to be left behind. “So why don’t you get fuzzy and go to where you left your clothes?”

“Normally I can, however, last night someone shot me. I can shift again while healing immediately pass out and sleep for 48 hours. It takes a lot out of us to change form.”

She looked back at Finnegan who was working furiously to get the bandage off his neck. Jack had told her that Finn would not wear a bandage and she gave him a withering look and had said, “ So tell me canine whisperer how do I keep it from getting infected? I’m sure you didn’t brush your teeth before biting him.”

“I dunno did your bullets come in sterile packs?” he snapped back

“I said I was sorry.”

“I have noted that.” He replied dryly and pointed to the pull off area “there is my truck.”

Piety sat there, She wondered how to say, “well wolf man, nice seeing you again.” She instead said, “So, you have to work today?”

“Nope, Im lucky I did since I had a weird occurrence happen, like someone shooting me.”

“Oh, for fuck sake, I apologized.” She was getting pissed, she didn’t ask for him.

Jack laughed and startled Piety “I am just messing with you; I have had worse happen to me. I need a minute to get dressed and then we can go to your job or whatever.”

“Umm I don’t recall inviting you to follow me to work.”

“Nope , but my job is to keep an eye on you . he replied enjoying that look of pique on he face. It gave her a bit of a glitter to her eye.

Piety put her hand on the bridge of her nose and rubbed, “I seriously don’t want…”

“Do you like Mexican food? I make real tacos not like that fast-food shit. I will make those.”

He hopped out of her car and she tried to not look at his muscular back and the large shield tattoo on his shoulder the fact that the towel he had wrapped around his hips really had not done more than conceal his butt. It drew the eye with its flutter and made a maddening desire to know just what laid under the fabric.

Jack gave a jaunty wave and tossed the blanket aside and Piety blushed as she backed the car out of the pull over spot she said to Finnegan, “Apparently werewolves eat tacos.” Jack was yelling at her to wait and Piety gave him a jaunty wave and left. She didn’t want a babysitter. In the rear view mirror she saw him jog a bit tripping and falling to get on pants. She grinned wickedly.

She flew down the road to work and saw that the turn off to Labobardiere Road was blocked by county police officers who made her go right instead of left. She didn’t know what it was about but didn’t care seeing the look on Jacks face as he was butt naked trying to dress and catch up with her as she sped away amused her. She was in no mood to have a tag along all day no matter how good looking.