Free Moves Like Jagger (Wolf Mates Book 4) by Dakota Cassidy Page A

vows.
    Jagger snickered as he cupped the bunny to his chest, its small skull looking rather like the size of the head of a pin compared to his hand. “I get it. I have parents who’re still crazy about each other, too.”
    “Derrick and Martine were at the bar, but if anyone else heard anything, they haven’t come forward.”
    “Okay, so let’s look around. Maybe we can spot tracks or something. I know the snow is fresh, but with these thick trees, maybe whatever kind of animal this is wandered under one of them and left us some kind of hint.”
    As the men poked around the area, shaking their heads, Viv shivered.
    There was a slight rustling sound coming from her left, where a thatch of bare limbs on some bushes crackled. Her eyes were sharp in the dark, almost sharper than they were during the day, and she caught a glimpse of a rabbit, hobbling.
    Probably another victim of the monster who’d eaten them like they were weenies in a blanket.
    Without thought, she left the men to investigate and kept her eyes on the injured animal. “C’mere, little guy!” she whispered into the night. “I won’t hurt you.”
    She’d been told that, in her animal form, she could learn to communicate with other non-shifter animals, but she had a hard enough time getting her shifts right at this point. There was no sense in attempting a shift in the middle of this mess.
    The rabbit made a break for an area of large rocks, dark and clustered, and she did, too, running after it as fast as she could in the deep snow.
    “Dude! I’m trying to help you here! I’m your personal 911!”
    But the rabbit turned deaf ears on her plea, ducking into the thick of the rocks.
    Perfect.
    Stopping for a moment to catch her breath, she narrowed her eyes and got a good glimpse between the boulder-size rocks.
    Was that a cave? Kind of cool if not for the fact that it was twenty degrees and as cold as Antarctica. Maybe on one of her test runs out here in the woods, she’d check it out.
    But then it dawned on her—where did a rabbit go to hide?
    A cave was as close to a hole as you got, and considering the bushes were barren, it made sense. She began making her way over the rough terrain, her ankles turning inward awkwardly.
    The rustling noise met her ears again, soft and steady.
    “Listen, you ingrate, I’m trying to save you from a vicious serial bunny killer here. Do you want to end up like the rest of your family and friends? Did you see that pile of bodies? It wasn’t pretty, pal. Now stay put,” she ordered as though the rabbit understood her.
    There were a bunch of very large rocks surrounding the opening of the cave with very little space between them as though someone had tried to block it off. She’d have to either squeeze between or climb over them to get to the cave’s entrance. After the lunch she’d had with Jagger today, she was likely going to have to haul her ass up and over.
    Her sigh grated from her cold lips as she planted a foot on a craggy edge of the granite surface, hoping to get a foothold. “When I get my hands on you, we’re due a conversation about stranger danger and how it applies to someone who’s just trying to save you.”
    Grunting, she managed to haul herself over the rock, slipping on the way down and ripping her only pair of good jeans. “And you owe me some jeans,” she muttered before dropping down in front of the cave’s opening.
    Her eyes honed in on the dark interior of the cave…and what she saw made her cock her head.
    A nest of twigs sat in the middle of it, along with a few empty beer cans scattered about and a Moonpie wrapper. Maybe the kids in town came out here to drink and party?
    Also in the middle of the twigs was the rabbit, spots of dried blood visible on his back leg.
    Thrusting her boots into the snow, she lifted her legs high and dropped her feet downward as she made her way to the cave. “Do not move, mister!” she warned—just before she heard a low, deep growl.
    Okay, so,