Free Clay's Instinct (BBW Paranormal Romance) (Wolf Call) by Abbey Polidori Page B

and he had been naked. Waking up from her sensuous dreamworld, she sighed and reached for the phone. The screen said 'Killingsworth'. Lucinda suddenly felt much more awake as she pressed the button to answer the call. 
    'Hello?'
    'Miss Everett, it's Nigel Killingsworth here.' His clipped British accent reminded her of when she first spoke to him in his New York office over ten years ago.
    'Yes, what is it? Do you have a lead?'
    'Possibly, possibly. We're sending out a team to your neck of the woods, so to speak. One of our members has made a positive identification of a shifter.'
    'Here in Montana?' Her heart hammered in her chest.
    'Yes, in a small town called Faith.'
    'I know that town. It's twenty miles from here.' She had driven through Faith a couple of times and even visited the woods in the area after a reported wolfman sighting. If she had known for sure that a shifter lived there among the decent people, she would have taken her gun.
    'Would you like to be on the team, Miss Everett?'
    'You know I would.'
    'Yes, I do. I also know why you are desperate to come face to face with this shifter and I must warn you that we are taking it alive. No harm is to come to it. You may attend in your capacity as a reporter but you may not harm the target. Is that clear?'
    She nodded, then realized he couldn't see her, and said, 'Yes, that's clear. Do I get the story?'
    'You get the story. Our media department will contact you with the details you must include and the details you must not.'
    'If I can't write my own story and I can't kill the monster, what the hell is the point of my being there?'
    'The point, Miss Everett, is that you will know you are not crazy. After a decade of telling people what killed your parents and what you saw in the woods when you were young, you will get peace of mind. You will know they are real.'
    'But I need to tell the world. This is huge.'
    'You will tell the world what we instruct you to tell the world. Otherwise you will not be part of this team and you will never know for sure if the monster you have been chasing for ten years actually exists. All those news stories you've written over a decade, all those investigations of wolfman sightings across America will be just that...stories.'
    'Okay, okay, I want in.'
    'Very well. The rest of the team will be there to pick you up at seven. Be ready.'
    Before he hung up, she said, 'Killingsworth?'
    'Yes?'
    'Do you think it's the one that killed my parents?'
    'I have no idea. Does it matter? They're all killers of someone's parents.' He hung up.
    Lucinda checked the clock. Half an hour to go before they got here. She had to take a shower and call work and tell them she was working on a story and wouldn't be in the office today. She wouldn't mention werewolves or wolfmen because every time she tried to get a reported sighting into the Montana Bugle, her editor rolled his eyes and shook his head as if Lucinda was crazy.
    She padded across the bedroom and opened her closet. What did one wear to a werewolf hunt? Black was usually the best option for her, as ninety per cent of the clothes on the hangers attested to. All black. Slimming black. Hide those curves from the world.
    She chose a pair of black jeans and a turtle neck sweater and fished a bra and panties from her underwear drawer before heading to the bathroom to turn on the shower. She avoided looking at herself in the mirror as she slipped out of her nightie and into the shower.
    By the time she was showered and dressed, her long auburn hair tied up in a sensible pony tail, she heard a vehicle outside and saw the glare of headlights on the curtains. She grabbed her notebook and handheld video camera and stuffed them into a small duffel bag before leaving the house and heading down the driveway. 
    The vehicle was a black Range Rover with dark windows. The rear door opened and she saw men inside. They all wore black the same as her but their choice of color was more to do with stealth than hiding