Free Bear This Heat (A BBW Shifter Romance) (Last of the Shapeshifters) by A.E. Grace Page A

any crime scene at all.
    “Gotcha,” she whispered to herself as he started to duck under the yellow tape. But then he didn’t. He stopped, and instead looked at either house flanking old man Charlie’s.
    “What are you doing?” Sasha murmured to herself. Dylan began to approach the house on the left, Sally Clark’s, the drunk’s.
    She saw him knock on the door, and it seemed like a good a time as any to get a little closer. Easing herself out of the car, and shutting the door as quietly as she could, she actually felt cooler outside in the sun, which was something to think about. Sasha crouched down low and crept toward the crime scene, keeping herself as hidden as possible behind fences and other parked cars. She knew she must look a little ridiculous, but this was police work. Looking cool wasn’t always part of the package.
    Crouched low behind a car parked on the street, she peeked around the edge of the boot, and saw Dylan walking toward old man Charlie’s house. He dipped beneath the yellow tape, wrapped his hand in his t-shirt, and went inside the unlocked house.
    “I’ve got you now,” Sasha said to herself. But first, she’d pay Sally Clark a visit.
     
    *
     
    Dylan crept through the house, taking great care to touch nothing. Everything looked in order and undisturbed, and he was starting to wonder what the actual crime was. That wondering ceased when he entered the bedroom, and saw a pillow stained in blood. Shifting to the side of the bed, it was quite clear that whoever was hurt or died here was in bed at the time it happened. The pillow was still depressed, like a head had just been lying there, and that was no doubt due to the dried, clotted blood sticking the feathers together.
    A spray of muddy red shot up the wall above the bed, and Dylan took in the grim sight with teeth clenched. This was horrible. Judging from the amount of blood, it was unlikely that anybody could have survived what happened.
    What had happened? Who had lived here? He began to look around the room, searching for a photo frame that would hold some clue as to who all the blood belonged to, but he saw none. The man or woman who lived in this house was evidently not a fan of photographs.
    Dylan stalked through all the rooms of the low-ceilinged bungalow, having to duck through doorways. There wasn’t much around, and the person who had lived here seemed to have no sentimental collections, bits and bobs that accumulated over time. The furniture was equally spare, with only a few dusty, cushioned seats, a single coffee table, a single dining table, and a single pot hanging above the stove.
    Whoever lived here, and had possibly died here, led a frugal existence.
    With his suspicions aroused, Dylan began to remove his clothing. First he pulled off his t-shirt, his muscular body beneath it taut and ever-ready for action. This was all too much to be coincidence. A wolf sighting, and then a gruesome murder scene? Even if it wasn’t murder, even if the poor sap hadn’t died, it was still gruesome enough, so seemingly out-of-place, that Dylan was already circling the probable answer in his mind, unwilling, yet, to make a definitive judgment.
    Because that would mean his travels had all been for naught.
    He unbuckled his jeans, and pulled them down his thick thighs. It was disappointing, to say the least. That the shapeshifter he’d been following, the only other one of his kind that he had ever caught the trail of, was responsible for this. Why had the wolf done this? What had this person been to the wolf?
    Dylan quieted his mind, told himself that it wasn’t certain this was the wolf’s doing, yet. But that was just him not wanting to believe it. He knew that. His instincts told him this was the wolf. Instincts told him that the shapeshifter he had been chasing all this time might not be the companion he sought. This would be no friend.
    And he was fairly certain, that should he ever find and meet the wolf, that it would offer