The rest of the week was hectic. Even though Tony behaved, as usual, Greg began to notice that the guy clearly avoided him. New attempts to start a conversation with him were useless. Anthony either laughs it off or found excuses to run away. Asking directly was also not a good option. What if it's not him and Tony doesn't know anything about the werewolves? This would be like throwing the whole truth on the guy and showing that Greg did not trust him at all at the same time. And if he is somehow involved in this, but pretends to not know anything? Then Greg will just expose everything. It's not like Tony will admit to his wrongdoings if you ask nicely. He is not one of those simpletons who lay out their plans just like this.
Frank also was nowhere to be found. As soon as a friend heard about what had happened, he immediately volunteered to help. All in all, Franky was the head of the safety department of their corporation and at the same time owned his own security company, so he was the best choice as a detective. Besides, he already had experience in doing business with Kiki.
And to boot it all, Greg himself was completely buried under in his work. There were quite a few joint projects with the general, and it was urgently necessary to find a new contact in the army. He already had a couple of people in mind, but it was worthwhile to proceed with caution.
Lana was also very busy. Miss Bright took her under the wing quiet vigorously, and now when Lana was not baking, she helped her boss with plans for a new restaurant. And in the evenings she often disappeared and returned only at midnight.
Greg first insisted on accompanying Lana in her nightly adventures. She may be a fearless werewolf, but who knows? After much persuasion, Lana only agreed to take Nikki with her. Moreover, with each passing day all three of them, Nikki, Vicky and Lana became more and more silent and irritable.
So came the Saturday morning. Greg woke up and tried to leave the bed as stealthily as he could, so to not wake Lana up. The degree of her lousy mood yesterday evening reached the point when she could very well bite Greg's ass off if waken up too early.
So like a real ninja Greg managed to exit the room and headed straight to the kitchen. It was only about eight in the morning, but Nikki was already standing in front of the coffee maker, staring at a slowly filling mug with the eyes full of hatred.
At a cautious greeting from Greg, he only glanced at the disgustingly cheerful man with displeasure and turned back to the coffee maker.
Greg decided to make some pancakes today to somehow please the moody family. Seeing him at the stove, Nikki tensed slightly. Indeed, Greg never cooked. Pancakes were the only dish that he could make and that only in extraordinary situations. But today seems to be just such a day.
Vicki and Lana came down a bit later when a pile of smoking pancakes was already standing in the middle of the table. Nikki added to it a giant dish of bacon, sausages. There was even a steak at first, but it disappeared very quickly, and Nikki began to look a bit more relaxed.
When the silent breakfast was finished, the doorbell rang, and Risa dragged in equally radiant Brian.
"I see you also having an excellent morning!" - Said Greg to her softly. Risa just grinned crookedly, pushing Bryan in the direction of the kitchen.
It seems to be a bad idea since as soon as the man appeared on the threshold, he was greeted by an angry growl from Nikki.
Greg rolled his eyes and went to chill them somehow.
"Why does it feel like they are having PMS today and not a full moon," - he muttered, barely audible. But Lana's roar showed that apparently not quite so.
As a result, the process of getting ready took another two hours, and that's only because Risa and Greg had to constantly pull the snarling werewolf in the corners away from each other. The biggest help was surprisingly Vicky. As soon as she hugged Brian again, he became docile as a lamb and looked afraid to even take another breath.
And in such a wonderful mood they were greeted by one more person at the exit.
"Hey!" - Franky waived, smiling widely. But as soon as he caught the hostile glances of the four shifters, the man's face immediately became serious.
" What is it with them? Did I said something wrong?" - He asked Greg cautiously coming closer. His friend just shrugged wearily.
" Full moon!" - Risa explained instead. - "they will be so sweet up until the evening. "
Frank shivered intently watching a supernatural company, sitting in cars.
"And they, like .. well, are they ok? Or rather, will WE be ok with them like this?" - Whispered Frank picking the words to express his concern. Risa chuckled.
"Don't worry, they are not monsters, as in the movies. They fully control their other half. But we better hurry. On such days, closed spaces irritate them especially strongly. Our cars are in more danger than us. I just restored everything from the last time. And I don't want to see this look on my reaper worker face again."
Frank nodded in agreement and immediately turned to Greg.
"Then we need to talk very quickly."
He sputtered and pointed his eyes to the side, hinting that they needed to move away.
Greg went to the house without delay, away from the sharp ears of his family.
"In short, Kiki and I checked everything we could. But everything looks very strange. In spite of their security in the Park, and there are both security cameras and sensors. There were no signs of forced entry on the day of the second murder. The corpse belonged to an ordinary loner, nothing special. He has been living in the city for a long time with his family. His Mate is a human. And she does not even know who he really is. Because of this, he left his original pack. Also, he had three kids. He worked as an ordinary office clerk. On this day, just decided to have a run because of the stress at work."
"So the victim was an accident," - Greg thought aloud. - "How about the time of death? Maybe Tony and I have an alibi for this moment?"
"I checked, and at the time of the murder, you were on the way from work. But you still could stop on your way at the Park to do all the work and go back home. About Tony. It's all quiet shady here. I don't know where he was at that time. I asked who I could. But the result is zero. I can't directly ask, so as not to arouse suspicion."
Greg scratched his head, wondering what that might mean.
"What about the body and the bullets?"
" It's even worse. An autopsy was performed in the same veterinarian. But literally the next morning, the body was taken away by the Council's people along with the bullets. Kiki couldn't get any proper access to the information after that. But we managed to talk with the pathologist, and he claims that the bullets were indeed identical, to the ones which she took out of the first corpse. Kiki wanted to hush up this thing, but ... Now it's useless."
"Okay, we have two more days to ponder about it. Let's stop at this now" - Greg quickly changed the course of the talk hearing someone enter the house. - "As I see you are going with us, right?"
Frank immediately nodded, spreading his lips into a slightly embarrassed smile.
"How can I miss spending the weekend in the house in the middle of nowhere with the four werewolves in the full moon ?!" - Franky answered, and his eyes sparkled with curiosity. Greg sighed and silently waved his friend to get ready.
Within half an hour they were on the way.
The road took about three hours and then only because they constantly had to stop and rearrange the radiant four in the different cars.
First, Vicki didn't agree on something with Nikki and had to be transferred to Rise's car. That Lana demanded that Greg need to stop the car and let her out because he too actively sprays his pheromones around. Greg was so tempted to answer something, but after receiving a kick from Frank, had to bite his tongue.
As a result, all three drivers, Frank, Greg, and Rise arrived at the place completely exhausted. But the four werewolves jumped out of the car, much more invigorated and immediately went to explore the neighborhood.
"Are they marking territory?" - Could not resist and asked Frank. Risa immediately burst out laughing.
"No, they just need to relieve some of the stress."
"I think, it's us who need to relieve the stress after such a trip," - Frank grumbled in response. - "I had to be alert the entire last hour so that Lana did not chew on my favorite pillow in the back seat."
"SYou should be happy that we didn't put Nicky in your car," - Greg smirked, flexing his sore shoulders. - "He stared at me all the way through the rear-view mirror. My back hurts just from having so many goosebumps."
"Well, it was quite fun for me though," - Risa shared giggling. - "Vicky fell asleep with her head in Brian's lap. And he was so nervose that he began to hiccup. It was an unforgettable show, as he tried to keep it in without making a sound."
Thus exchanging jokes, a trio of humans managed to get all the things from the cars and bring them into the house, or more like a huge wooden two-story villa. It was very spacious, and the living room even boasted a giant fireplace. Greg bought it when his younger sister once again decided to change the profession and started selling real estate. Of course, he acted through fake people so that Maddy would not know anything.
All the girls from Wells family were very proud and had a strong personality, so every help was taken only with the scandal. Well, except for Marina, she was always ready to throw the dirtiest work at her brother at any given day. The concept of shame did not exist in her vocabulary at all. And because of this, it was so much easier to deal with her than with others.
When everything was ready, and the rooms were assigned, Greg noticed how four figures came out of the forest and went to meet them. All four looked much better, and Vicky and Lana even smiled.
"It's just wonderful here," - Vicky shouted seeing Greg.
"We even saw several rabbits and one roe." - Nikki said in a colorless tone, but his eyes had already begun to glitter with hunting excitement.
Brian nodded in confirmation of the guy's words.
"The place is really good. We are far enough away from the nearest pack, so here we are unlikely to stumble upon anyone. But I have a bad feeling." - finished, he frowned, looking around.
"Oh. Stop it, Bri! If you are like this because of that raccoon, then your acting stupid! Would a raccoon really stalk you up to here?"
Hearing Lana's words, Bryan shuddered.
"He can, it's a demon's spawns, did you forget? But that's not the point. Just saying that I am somehow feeling restless."
"Let's just try to forget about all the problems at least for this weekend. We will gain some strength, and from Monday again plunge into all our troubles." - Not allowing Brian to continue to be outraged, Lana pushed him and the children to the house. - "Go find Risa and help her. Soon we will need to cook dinner."
When the trio disappeared around the corner of the house, Lana turned to the silently standing Greg. He seemed to be thinking and did not immediately notice the attention paid to him, although he was looking at Lana.
"What?" - He asked as if emerging from his thoughts.
Lana hesitated a bit, picking up the words. She even began to feel her blood running to her cheeks.
"I wanted to say thank you," - she finally squeezed out, forcing herself, despite the embarrassment, to look into his eyes. Greg eyes immediately darkened, and a slow, pleased smile appeared on his face.
"You know, while you were walking back, I watched." - He said softly in a bit rough voices, coming closer and studying Lana from head to toe. - "It is so strange. In the city I never noticed, but here it is immediately clear that you are in your element. Your walk, the way you move - you are like a part of nature, and it instantly accepted you when you entered the forest."
Lana grinned, her eyes suddenly turning cunning. A smile appeared on his face.
"Greg, do you trust me?" - She asked, looking into his eyes. Greg frowned, not knowing her meaning. But then immediately nodded.
Lana grabbed his hand and without giving him the opportunity to ask new questions, pulled him toward the forest.
The rest of the week was hectic. Even though Tony behaved, as usual, Greg began to notice that the guy clearly avoided him. New attempts to start a conversation with him were useless. Anthony either laughs it off or found excuses to run away. Asking directly was also not a good option. What if it's not him and Tony doesn't know anything about the werewolves? This would be like throwing the whole truth on the guy and showing that Greg did not trust him at all at the same time. And if he is somehow involved in this, but pretends to not know anything? Then Greg will just expose everything. It's not like Tony will admit to his wrongdoings if you ask nicely. He is not one of those simpletons who lay out their plans just like this.
Frank also was nowhere to be found. As soon as a friend heard about what had happened, he immediately volunteered to help. All in all, Franky was the head of the safety department of their corporation and at the same time owned his own security company, so he was the best choice as a detective. Besides, he already had experience in doing business with Kiki.
And to boot it all, Greg himself was completely buried under in his work. There were quite a few joint projects with the general, and it was urgently necessary to find a new contact in the army. He already had a couple of people in mind, but it was worthwhile to proceed with caution.
Lana was also very busy. Miss Bright took her under the wing quiet vigorously, and now when Lana was not baking, she helped her boss with plans for a new restaurant. And in the evenings she often disappeared and returned only at midnight.
Greg first insisted on accompanying Lana in her nightly adventures. She may be a fearless werewolf, but who knows? After much persuasion, Lana only agreed to take Nikki with her. Moreover, with each passing day all three of them, Nikki, Vicky and Lana became more and more silent and irritable.
So came the Saturday morning. Greg woke up and tried to leave the bed as stealthily as he could, so to not wake Lana up. The degree of her lousy mood yesterday evening reached the point when she could very well bite Greg's ass off if waken up too early.
So like a real ninja Greg managed to exit the room and headed straight to the kitchen. It was only about eight in the morning, but Nikki was already standing in front of the coffee maker, staring at a slowly filling mug with the eyes full of hatred.
At a cautious greeting from Greg, he only glanced at the disgustingly cheerful man with displeasure and turned back to the coffee maker.
Greg decided to make some pancakes today to somehow please the moody family. Seeing him at the stove, Nikki tensed slightly. Indeed, Greg never cooked. Pancakes were the only dish that he could make and that only in extraordinary situations. But today seems to be just such a day.
Vicki and Lana came down a bit later when a pile of smoking pancakes was already standing in the middle of the table. Nikki added to it a giant dish of bacon, sausages. There was even a steak at first, but it disappeared very quickly, and Nikki began to look a bit more relaxed.
When the silent breakfast was finished, the doorbell rang, and Risa dragged in equally radiant Brian.
"I see you also having an excellent morning!" - Said Greg to her softly. Risa just grinned crookedly, pushing Bryan in the direction of the kitchen.
It seems to be a bad idea since as soon as the man appeared on the threshold, he was greeted by an angry growl from Nikki.
Greg rolled his eyes and went to chill them somehow.
"Why does it feel like they are having PMS today and not a full moon," - he muttered, barely audible. But Lana's roar showed that apparently not quite so.
As a result, the process of getting ready took another two hours, and that's only because Risa and Greg had to constantly pull the snarling werewolf in the corners away from each other. The biggest help was surprisingly Vicky. As soon as she hugged Brian again, he became docile as a lamb and looked afraid to even take another breath.
And in such a wonderful mood they were greeted by one more person at the exit.
"Hey!" - Franky waived, smiling widely. But as soon as he caught the hostile glances of the four shifters, the man's face immediately became serious.
" What is it with them? Did I said something wrong?" - He asked Greg cautiously coming closer. His friend just shrugged wearily.
" Full moon!" - Risa explained instead. - "they will be so sweet up until the evening. "
Frank shivered intently watching a supernatural company, sitting in cars.
"And they, like .. well, are they ok? Or rather, will WE be ok with them like this?" - Whispered Frank picking the words to express his concern. Risa chuckled.
"Don't worry, they are not monsters, as in the movies. They fully control their other half. But we better hurry. On such days, closed spaces irritate them especially strongly. Our cars are in more danger than us. I just restored everything from the last time. And I don't want to see this look on my reaper worker face again."
Frank nodded in agreement and immediately turned to Greg.
"Then we need to talk very quickly."
He sputtered and pointed his eyes to the side, hinting that they needed to move away.
Greg went to the house without delay, away from the sharp ears of his family.
"In short, Kiki and I checked everything we could. But everything looks very strange. In spite of their security in the Park, and there are both security cameras and sensors. There were no signs of forced entry on the day of the second murder. The corpse belonged to an ordinary loner, nothing special. He has been living in the city for a long time with his family. His Mate is a human. And she does not even know who he really is. Because of this, he left his original pack. Also, he had three kids. He worked as an ordinary office clerk. On this day, just decided to have a run because of the stress at work."
"So the victim was an accident," - Greg thought aloud. - "How about the time of death? Maybe Tony and I have an alibi for this moment?"
"I checked, and at the time of the murder, you were on the way from work. But you still could stop on your way at the Park to do all the work and go back home. About Tony. It's all quiet shady here. I don't know where he was at that time. I asked who I could. But the result is zero. I can't directly ask, so as not to arouse suspicion."
Greg scratched his head, wondering what that might mean.
"What about the body and the bullets?"
" It's even worse. An autopsy was performed in the same veterinarian. But literally the next morning, the body was taken away by the Council's people along with the bullets. Kiki couldn't get any proper access to the information after that. But we managed to talk with the pathologist, and he claims that the bullets were indeed identical, to the ones which she took out of the first corpse. Kiki wanted to hush up this thing, but ... Now it's useless."
"Okay, we have two more days to ponder about it. Let's stop at this now" - Greg quickly changed the course of the talk hearing someone enter the house. - "As I see you are going with us, right?"
Frank immediately nodded, spreading his lips into a slightly embarrassed smile.
"How can I miss spending the weekend in the house in the middle of nowhere with the four werewolves in the full moon ?!" - Franky answered, and his eyes sparkled with curiosity. Greg sighed and silently waved his friend to get ready.
Within half an hour they were on the way.
The road took about three hours and then only because they constantly had to stop and rearrange the radiant four in the different cars.
First, Vicki didn't agree on something with Nikki and had to be transferred to Rise's car. That Lana demanded that Greg need to stop the car and let her out because he too actively sprays his pheromones around. Greg was so tempted to answer something, but after receiving a kick from Frank, had to bite his tongue.
As a result, all three drivers, Frank, Greg, and Rise arrived at the place completely exhausted. But the four werewolves jumped out of the car, much more invigorated and immediately went to explore the neighborhood.
"Are they marking territory?" - Could not resist and asked Frank. Risa immediately burst out laughing.
"No, they just need to relieve some of the stress."
"I think, it's us who need to relieve the stress after such a trip," - Frank grumbled in response. - "I had to be alert the entire last hour so that Lana did not chew on my favorite pillow in the back seat."
"SYou should be happy that we didn't put Nicky in your car," - Greg smirked, flexing his sore shoulders. - "He stared at me all the way through the rear-view mirror. My back hurts just from having so many goosebumps."
"Well, it was quite fun for me though," - Risa shared giggling. - "Vicky fell asleep with her head in Brian's lap. And he was so nervose that he began to hiccup. It was an unforgettable show, as he tried to keep it in without making a sound."
Thus exchanging jokes, a trio of humans managed to get all the things from the cars and bring them into the house, or more like a huge wooden two-story villa. It was very spacious, and the living room even boasted a giant fireplace. Greg bought it when his younger sister once again decided to change the profession and started selling real estate. Of course, he acted through fake people so that Maddy would not know anything.
All the girls from Wells family were very proud and had a strong personality, so every help was taken only with the scandal. Well, except for Marina, she was always ready to throw the dirtiest work at her brother at any given day. The concept of shame did not exist in her vocabulary at all. And because of this, it was so much easier to deal with her than with others.
When everything was ready, and the rooms were assigned, Greg noticed how four figures came out of the forest and went to meet them. All four looked much better, and Vicky and Lana even smiled.
"It's just wonderful here," - Vicky shouted seeing Greg.
"We even saw several rabbits and one roe." - Nikki said in a colorless tone, but his eyes had already begun to glitter with hunting excitement.
Brian nodded in confirmation of the guy's words.
"The place is really good. We are far enough away from the nearest pack, so here we are unlikely to stumble upon anyone. But I have a bad feeling." - finished, he frowned, looking around.
"Oh. Stop it, Bri! If you are like this because of that raccoon, then your acting stupid! Would a raccoon really stalk you up to here?"
Hearing Lana's words, Bryan shuddered.
"He can, it's a demon's spawns, did you forget? But that's not the point. Just saying that I am somehow feeling restless."
"Let's just try to forget about all the problems at least for this weekend. We will gain some strength, and from Monday again plunge into all our troubles." - Not allowing Brian to continue to be outraged, Lana pushed him and the children to the house. - "Go find Risa and help her. Soon we will need to cook dinner."
When the trio disappeared around the corner of the house, Lana turned to the silently standing Greg. He seemed to be thinking and did not immediately notice the attention paid to him, although he was looking at Lana.
"What?" - He asked as if emerging from his thoughts.
Lana hesitated a bit, picking up the words. She even began to feel her blood running to her cheeks.
"I wanted to say thank you," - she finally squeezed out, forcing herself, despite the embarrassment, to look into his eyes. Greg eyes immediately darkened, and a slow, pleased smile appeared on his face.
"You know, while you were walking back, I watched." - He said softly in a bit rough voices, coming closer and studying Lana from head to toe. - "It is so strange. In the city I never noticed, but here it is immediately clear that you are in your element. Your walk, the way you move - you are like a part of nature, and it instantly accepted you when you entered the forest."
Lana grinned, her eyes suddenly turning cunning. A smile appeared on his face.
"Greg, do you trust me?" - She asked, looking into his eyes. Greg frowned, not knowing her meaning. But then immediately nodded.
Lana grabbed his hand and without giving him the opportunity to ask new questions, pulled him toward the forest.
