The Wild Hunt

Part 19 The Writing on the Wall

I looked from Bonnie, to Laynie, then to the Sheriff.

"Didn't you hear me? I said hands up!" he said again moving his gun between us.

Deputy Patrick Putnam, was a class A suck up, he would have licked Mitchel's boots if told, and he was stood with his weapon levelled at us.

"Damn it Putnam, put that thing away." Laynie said Dismissively.

He turned it on her and Snarled.

"I don't know what you're up to, but there is some weird shit going on. You want to stand with this scum then fine, you can be arrested with them too!"

Bonnie sighed then took a step forward, before she took another step Putnam shot a bullet into the floor just ahead of her. She stumbled backwards and I could hear a growl building in her chest. I put my hand on her wrist and she calmed. Deputy Putnam's eyes shifted to the dead wolf and the two goons, then to Liz and Scout. I found myself relieved that Scout had shifted back before the deputy had caught us by surprise. Putnam took a deep breath.

"Last warning, hands up." he said in a slow yet somehow forceful tone.

We did as he said though Scout and Liz didn't move, clearly unsure where they stood from the sheriff's perspective, given they were on the floor and Scout was bleeding, they could have been the victims of what ever he thought was going on.

He reached to his waist and retrieved a single pair of handcuffs, he looked to Laynie then made a decision, throwing them to her he said,

"Cuff them together, if you try anything you get a bullet, I'm not kidding Laynie, don't test me."

She caught the cuffs and rolled her eyes as she would have if she was being bossed around by a child.

She cuffed bonnie and myself together. Then asked,

"What now?"

His eyes flicked back towards the body of the wolf on the floor.

"What the fuck is that thing?" he said finally, his question clearly directed at me.

"Not sure, you should ask one of them." I said nodding to the unconscious thugs on the floor, who I realised suddenly reminded me of Harry and Marv from the Home alone movie's. (The first two, not the collection of crappy sequels that followed.)

"They brought that thing in here?" he said looking confused.

I nodded, Bonnie and Laynie followed.

"What happened to him?" he asked gesturing towards Scout and Liz who were still unsure what to do.

"That thing went straight for Liz, he tried to stop it, while it was distracted Liz managed to get a weapon and shot it, then you walked in." Laynie explained, trying to shift any blame away from us.

Putnam looked more confused than ever, he had walked in on something he knew that for sure. But what he saw didn't make any sense. Then he seemed to make a decision, he holstered his weapon, then threw his handcuff keys to Laynie, waved his hands around suggesting that she should take the cuffs off of us, and put them on the thugs, then he grabbed his radio that was attached to his upper shirt pocket, and called for backup.

Within a half an hour, Mary's had Become a crime scene. There were multiple sheriff's buzzing around. A paramedic was seeing to Scout's wounds. Laynie was talking to Mitchel, who was listening to her, but hadn't taken his eyes off of the body of the wolf. He had been first to respond to the call, and covered it up with a table cloth Liz had fished out from the store room at his request. The other deputies were ordered to keep away from it. news in a small town travels fast and a crowd had begun to gather outside, including Michael, Kelly and a few other pack members. Michael had tried to cross the yellow tape that had been put up when he had first arrived, and had a shouting match with Mitchel as a result. Our eyes had met, then he backed down, there was trust between us, it seemed like there always had been but after everything that had happened recently it seemed stronger, like our bond had grown, we weren't just pack members, brothers in arms, we were family.