Dire Warning WC0.5 by Stephanie Tyler

Before all of us, actually. I think he was one of Bill’s original crew from last year but he took some time off. This is his first time back in a couple of months.”
    Rifter extended a hand and Sam shook it. “We’re security.”
    “You think there’s going to be trouble?”
    “Most definitely,” Rifter told him.
    Just then, Bill called. “Marley, you’re needed. Come on!”
    She broke away from the men and Rifter motioned for Sam to follow him to a quieter spot.
    “Want to tell me what’s going on before I kill you?” Rifter asked as the Were loaded the camera into the van.
    The Were shifted his glance toward Bill, took off his blue baseball cap before returning his eyes to Rifter’s. “It’s about him.”
    “He caught you shifting.”
    “Not me. And you don’t know the whole story.”
    “Enlighten me,” Rifter said. “Wait a minute—you’re the boyfriend?”
    “Not me. My friend. My best friend, Kyle. He’s been seeing Paula for the past year—Bill found out and went nuts. But the guy didn’t know my friend was a Were. Not until the other night,” Sam said.
    “Where’s the boyfriend now?”
    “I haven’t seen him since the night Paula was killed. I’m sure he’s out of his mind.”
    “Because he killed her accidentally?”
    “No way. He asked our alpha king to mate with Paula,” Sam said.
    “Paula knew what he was, then?”
    “For sure. She didn’t make that tape of him shifting. She never would’ve put him in danger of being exposed like that,” Sam insisted.
    “So Bill’s lying.”
    “Definitely. Bill had a thing for Paula since forever. Look, all I know is that Kyle and Paula had a date on Valentine’s Day. He ran with us after he took her home, sometime around dawn. He was happy.”
    “He wouldn’t have left her alone by Clyde’s then?”
    “Never. He was protective as anything, mainly because a lot of Weres aren’t into us dating humans,” Sam said. “He never thought . . .”
    “You think Bill murdered Paula?” Rifter asked and the Were nodded.
    “I’m sticking around so I can figure out what’s happening. Also to make sure that Kyle doesn’t do anything stupid.”
    “You really shouldn’t mess with humans,” Rifter muttered. “They don’t even understand their own motivation half the time. Why should we?”
    “You’re preaching to the choir,” Sam told him. “But Paula, she was cool. Respectful. Even the females liked her.”
    That in itself was rare as anything, but Rifter wouldn’t take his word for it.
    Obviously, Sam didn’t expect him to, instead handing Rifter a card. “Brice is our alpha—he’ll confirm my story.”
    “He’d better,” was all Rifter said, and he was pleased to see Sam pale a bit and bare his throat in a subtle show of submission to the Dire.
    He knew his place. Rifter had to hope Kyle did, as well.

Chapter Eight
    Vice found nothing but trouble—the good kind—at Howl.
    He’d stopped by Bite first, but Clyde was not happy, and his bar being shut down for the night, barring further investigation, wasn’t helping.
    Vice artfully avoided him by putting Cain in the blast line to ask questions. When Cain came outside, he told Vice what he’d found out, which was not much.
    It was then that Vice took Jinx’s protégé to Howl. For recon purposes, of course.
    Cain had disappeared into one of the tunnel-like halls toward the back, and Vice couldn’t let him get lucky alone.
    And luckily, he didn’t have to.
    “Hey Vice, haven’t seen you in a while,” Katya purred as she came up from behind him.
    “Been busy.”
    Katya was a lioness shifter. Normally, all the big cat shifters kept to themselves, because cats and wolves had never been the best of friends.
    But every once in a while . . .
    “I’ve been busy too. But I’ve got some free time now,” Katya said.
    The lion shifters hadn’t been around nearly as long as the Dires, surfacing sometime around the sixteen hundreds. Some said they’d been born of