Moon Shifter 02 - Primal Possession

might have been trying to see how much we knew.”
    “Hell of a way to ask.” Liam’s shoulders were tense as he pulled back onto the highway. His truck was magically working again. Not that he cared much about his vehicle. All he wanted to do was see December again. The need to claim her was growing stronger. Almostoverwhelming. He wasn’t sure if it was because she was actively resisting him or because he’d finally tasted her last night. Now he knew what he’d been missing and he wanted more of it.
    Parker slipped on a pair of latex gloves as he entered the morgue. It was one of the last places he wanted to be, but after the morning he’d had, it was unfortunately necessary.
    Bonnie lifted her gaze from the dead body on the metal table. “Hey, Sheriff. I was just going to call you.”
    Under the harsh lights the body looked somehow worse than it had when they’d found it at the gas station. He knew the victim was male, but there hadn’t been any identification on him, so he’d run his prints through AFIS. He’d struck gold with a name.
    Tony Mayfield.
    The guy had a short rap sheet but he was a violent criminal. Assault with a deadly weapon, aggravated sexual assault, as well as a few petty crimes. This guy was a Grade A loser, but Parker still had to investigate his death. “You know the time of death?”
    She shrugged. “About twelve hours ago. Give or take.”
    “Find anything interesting?”
    The petite blond medical examiner nodded. “I know what you were worried about earlier, but this wasn’t a shifter attack.”
    He let out a breath he hadn’t realized he’d been holding on to. He might not trust most shifters, but he didn’t want to deal with the fallout from having a shifter attack a human. Humans had been living in harmony with the Cordona pack for decades, and after the Cordonas had assimilated into the Armstrong-Cordona pack about a month ago, he knew a lot of people in town were worriedabout newcomers. Especially
male
newcomers. “So what happened to him?”
    “All these wounds happened after death. Since I’m sure you don’t want all the details, I’ll just tell you that this”—she lifted his head and turned it to the side—“was what killed him.”
    Parker could see the indentation and bruising pattern on the skull. “Someone hit him.”
    “That’s right. One blow with a flat, hard object. To kill a man like that would take considerable strength. Given the trajectory of the blow, the assailant is a couple inches shorter.”
    “What about…?” He motioned to the rest of the body. Strips of skin were missing, making him look like a human chew toy.
    “This was all postmortem. I’m taking saliva samples and dental impressions, but my guess is this was two dogs at the most. If it had been any more, I don’t think we’d have even this much of the body left. The teeth marks are from regular dogs. Much too small to be from a shifter. Besides, I doubt a shifter would…” She trailed off and shrugged.
    She didn’t have to finish. He knew what she meant. Shifters were hunters by nature, but they weren’t stupid. From what Parker understood, unless they were feral and out of their mind with rage, they wouldn’t leave a body in plain sight. And this body had definitely been moved. Parker was sure of that much. There was no blood spatter in the back of the truck where they’d found the guy. The fact that he’d been left in plain sight for anyone to discover told him it was a calculated move. Someone had not only wanted them to find this body but made sure it was very public. Which left a whole mess of other questions. Someone killed this guy, then had letdogs maul the body before moving it. It didn’t make a lot of sense. “Find anything else on the body?”
    Bonnie nodded. “A blond hair. Long enough that I’m guessing it’s female. Also some fibers which are probably part of his clothes. I won’t know more until I’ve had more time with the body. I’ll send everything to the lab once I’ve finished.”
    “Good work.” He stripped off his gloves and tossed them in the trash before exiting the room.
    His shoes squeaked against the floor as he headed down the hallway. Once he made it outside, he sucked in the crisp, cold air. Anything was better than the sterile atmosphere of the morgue. He didn’t know how Bonnie handled being in there all the time.
    As he reached his truck, his cell buzzed in his pocket. He inwardly groaned when he saw the number.