Tied With a Bow

was busy, and this is more my sort of job, anyway. I’m with Havoc because she offered to host me, and it’s devilishly hard to affect anything in your world without a body.
    You had a body when you were in the barn scaring the stallion.
    Do you have any idea how much power it takes to manifest physically? Especially when a bungling neophyte does the calling. Only a small part of me was able to slip through, not enough to maintain a body. Fortunately, little Havoc here was happy to share.
    The terrier wiggled again as if she’d been stroked.
    Maybe she had. Who knew what Coyote—even a small part of him—could do? You didn’t tell me why you want me along.
    I didn’t, did I? Some things I like to make up as I go along. It’s time we were going.
    Going where?
    I found him again.
    Temper rolled in like a thunderhead. And you’re just now mentioning this?
    I just now found him. I believe he must have gone into a town. So many other presences so close together could have masked his.
    You could have told me that earlier.
    I didn’t know it would work that way. His dethru—
    Dethru? Benedict asked.
    Like a spirit guide, only more intrusive. That one hasn’t been in this world for a very long time, so I had no experience of looking for him in a town. Now, I don’t know about you, but I’m able to think and move at the same time. The little Jack Russell started trotting, tail up, head high, eager for adventure. Give it a try. I’m sure you’ll get the hang of it with a little practice.
    Benedict growled . . . and followed.

Chapter Ten
     
    Everyone was very sympathetic to Arjenie about Benedict. It set her teeth on edge. “He did not just run off,” she said again—this time to Uncle Clay. “He ran after the bear.”
    “I know, sugar.” He patted her hand. “I don’t think he was hurt too badly.”
    She was sitting between her aunt and uncle in Robin’s pickup, headed back to the house. The twins were being dropped off by one of the deputies. Arjenie had arranged things this way because she had things to tell them that Seri and Sammy didn’t need to hear.
    “He’ll come back to himself and find his way to us,” Robin added in a reassuring voice.
    “He hasn’t lost himself. Being wolf doesn’t make him not himself.”
    “But he thinks differently as a wolf. He told us that.”
    “Thinking differently is still thinking. He didn’t just mindlessly chase the bear. He had a reason.” Something about the way Clay looked at Robin and she looked back made her exclaim, “You are being so soothing! What is it you aren’t saying?”
    “Well—just that lupi sometimes go wolf, don’t they?”
    “Go . . . are you talking about that stupid Howl movie? They most certainly don’t, not that way!”
    “But they can lose themselves in the wolf.”
    “That’s called being beast-lost, and it’s rare, and only happens if a lupus spends way too much time as a wolf, or in other highly unusual circumstances. It has not happened to Benedict.”
    “You’re sure of that.”
    “I’m positive.”
    Another glance exchanged around her. “The sheriff’s had some training about this sort of thing, and he thinks Benedict has gone wolf.”
    “And you think Sheriff Porter, who never even met a lupus before tonight, knows more about them than I do? When I’ve been living with them for two months and am now part of Nokolai clan?”
    Uncle Clay winced. “That’s something I’d like explained.”
    “Later.” She waved it away. “If Sheriff Porter has decided Benedict’s beast-lost, does he think he’s dangerous? Is he going to have people hunting the bear, or hunting Benedict?”
    Uncle Clay’s frown kept digging deeper into his face. “The bear will be his first priority, but . . . maybe we should call Porter.” That seemed to be directed at Robin.
    “I’ll call him,” Arjenie said, and bent to dig out her phone.
    “No, let me.” Robin had her phone out already. She gave Arjenie an apologetic smile. “He’ll listen to me better. He still thinks of you as the young girl he met so tragically all those years ago.”
    He wasn’t the only one who didn’t seem to notice that Arjenie had grown up. It was distressing. She was thirty-two. Her aunt and uncle had treated her like a responsible adult for years. What was it about her falling in love that made them think she was thirteen?
    Maybe because it happened so suddenly. And with someone they’d never met. Someone who turned into a wolf at times,