Free Hounded (Shifter Town Enforcement) by Sadie Hart Page A

believe it; Lennox really didn’t give a lion’s ass.
    “No.” She slammed the full weight of her attention down on the wolfhound, expecting another stare down, but the Hound’s gaze flicked automatically away. Dade’s jaw tensed, realizing it a split second too late and she tried to jerk her gaze back up. To force a stare, but Lennox had already turned away.
    Lennox let them in. The sunny paint seemed dreary under the weight of the scent of death. She led them into the kitchen, straight for Caro. They scented the whole way, but Lennox knew they’d find nothing that she hadn’t wanted them too. And there’d been nothing that would lead them to the real killer. The thought twisted in her gut.
    She let them walk past her, standing clear of Caro’s body. While she’d cleaned up magickally, she’d checked the woman over for any clues. Nothing. Carolyn Hale had been disemboweled while alive, her throat slashed open by a huge paw while she’d lain bleeding on the floor. If she’d put up a fight, the only sign of it was a knocked over kitchen chair.
    And that was hardly evidence.
    With Tristan, he’d been ripped open the whole way as he’d ran down the alley. But he hadn’t fought. In the corner where he’d died and had finally turned to face his attacker, it looked as if invisible arms had bound him tight. There were no skin scrapings under their nails, nothing in their teeth, no shifting...
    They’d never had the chance to fight back.
    Lennox waited, careful not to touch anything while they finished inspecting the scene. Walker’s shoulders slumped and he turned to her. “Anything?”
    Pretending to go over the body, Lennox double checked everything, knowing what she’d find. “No.”
    “Damn.”
    Lines etched around his eyes, Hennessy looked beaten. Defeated. As if this were the only scene here. Bracing her hands on her knees, Lennox pushed up from her crouch. “Perimeter check?”
    “Shit. Didn’t even...”
    Yeah. She’d gathered that. With a wave of her hand she gestured them out, following. She shut the front door softly behind them. Lennox tilted her head towards Tegan and Kanon—the pair of them still leaning against her car—in a silent order to stay. Then with a shimmer of magick down her skin she shifted.
    The dog poured out easily. One blink she’d stood on two feet, the next on four paws. Her clothes vanished beneath the rich, red fur of her Rhodesian ridgeback. Droopy hound ears pricked forward, Lennox headed for the woods, head low. She circled through the pines at a trot.
    Nothing.
    Except, Lennox paused, head tilted towards the road, one paw lifted. Oil. She padded towards the edge of the road and stumbled on a small clearing in the trees, just off the dirt shoulder. Fresh tracks and oil.
    Masculine, her nose told her, but anything else was gone. With a frustrated whine she tilted her head back and yipped twice for the Hounds still up by the house. Walker came striding through the trees, hands in his pockets, a large brindle wolfhound at his heels.
    Dade curled back her lips, revealing fangs. A growl split from her throat. Walker reached for her a split second too late. The brown and gold burnished dog leapt at her, jaws opened wide. Instinct took over. Lennox dodged, darting underneath the larger dog and jumping up. Her teeth snared over wiry fur and nipped flesh. Not hard enough to draw blood. Yet.
    Where Dade’s inhibitions were gone, her dog driving, Lennox kept hers firmly in the passenger seat. She needed the form, the body, the senses... Not the wanting to go roll in dead squirrels and eat cat poop. She needed her human-half’s reasoning abilities, something Dade was now running amuck without. Dogs didn’t think like cops any more than they thought like fighters in a boxing ring.
    It was a lesson Dade would have to learn the hard way.
    Walker reached for her again but Dade dodged him, lunging. Lennox dipped her shoulder and twisted cleanly away. She jerked her head back and