Tuesday, June 25, 2019

Tuesday Teaser





“Thanks for coming.” Dolf sat at the table in his office, the betas sitting around him. “Before we start, I want to update everyone on the construction on the jail. Tal and his crew finished up, and it passed inspection. We’re officially open, and Marshell is in charge.”
“Will it be opened full time? Do we, I don’t know, have shifts there?” Remi asked.
“Yes, it will. I’ll be interviewing for positions to help him out so I don’t foresee a need for my betas to be there. There are only a few cells, but if there’s a crime committed that’s significant enough, I’ll send that person on to the Territory Leader to deal with. Think of it as a holding tank.”
“What’s he going to do when the place is empty?” Brier asked.
“Running applications for admittance into the clowder, coordinating with me for clowder related issues, and things like that,” Dolf said. “I’ll keep him busy.”
Heller grinned. “So, he’s an administrative assistant?”
“Don’t bust his balls. He’ll help me keep things running smoothly from behind a computer,” Dolf said. “Marshell won’t hold the title of beta, but I will depend on him.”
“He’s reduced his hours at the shop for this too.” Janelle wrinkled her nose. “When the elders find out what he’s doing, they won’t be happy.”
“Yes, well, they can add it to the list of things they’re unhappy with.” Dolf’s eyes flashed blue for a second. “Moving along. The reason I called this meeting is because Sam noticed an odd scent on a dumpster at his restaurant, Arches. I sent Brier to investigate. It appears we had an unknown werecat in the territory, which, by itself, isn’t worrisome. Intruders usually move on. The problem is this werecat had no personal scent marker.”
Remi whistled. “Whoa.”
“Indeed. Brier? Would you repeat what you told me?”
“Yes, Alpha. The first thing I noticed was the faded scent of a werecat, but it was generic. There were stronger chemical-based notes—oxygen, carbon, hydrogen, nitrogen, and water. As you all know, that’s the basic composition of humans, but this was no human,” Brier said. “This was a werecat, but it had no personal marker and—”
“Are you sure this werecat didn’t have a scent? Because, you know, we all do.”
“—and yes, I’m positive. I know we all have one, Heller. This one didn’t,” Brier continued. “Trust me, it’s not something you can miss.”
Janelle shook her head. “Sam found it first and said it confused his cat. Left him feeling territorial. Kinda pissed. It bothered him, which was why he brought it our Alpha’s attention.”
Dolf folded his hands on the table. “Which begs the question: How does a werecat not have a personal scent? I’ve never heard of such."