As she looked around at the shabby furnishings, Mel realized that there wasn’t much here that she would want to keep. A few personal papers, some photographs, a teddy bear from her childhood...but that was all. She forced herself to think dispassionately, making calm, logical plans. Call the phone company, contact the landlord... It wouldn’t take much time to box up her things and have them shipped to Stump River.
While Ryne talked to the officer, she walked around the rooms, trailing her fingers over the back of a chair, adjusting a crooked picture on the wall. This place represented her past; a person she no longer was. It hadn’t been much of a life, but it had been hers. She’d been free to come and go as she wished. There’d been no need to hide, no secrets to keep from friends. Sure, things had been tight but it had all been so normal. A part of her mourned the loss.
Eventually, she made her way back to the spot where Lucy had been struck down. A wave of grief and guilt washed over her. If she hadn’t offered to take Lucy to Chicago, the woman would still be here, possibly planning a future with Armand. For that matter, if she hadn’t taken the job interviewing Ryne, then Greyson would still be alive and that young girl wouldn’t be completely alone in the world. Even Aldrich—slime ball that he was—would still be around. Whoever would have thought that trying to interview a photographer could have led to such an end?
She said as much to Ryne after they left the apartment. He shushed her, claiming that if you wanted to lay blame, it was his fault.
“If I hadn’t taken that picture of Kane in his wolf form, Greyson wouldn’t have gone looking for me. Sometimes the simplest of things can cause a landslide. The main thing is that everything you did was done in all innocence. You had good intentions, that’s all that matters.”
“I suppose so... Ryne?”
“Yeah?”
“Can you give me a hug?”
“Sure.” He slipped his arm around her shoulder and gave her a gentle squeeze as they exited the building.
“We’ll need to contact Lucy’s family...”
“That would be me.”
“You? You’re her family? But you two—”
“No. I mean she didn’t really have any family. I’ll take care of things.”
“Oh.” Something Lucy had said on the flight to Chicago came to mind. “You might want to talk to Armand. Apparently, just before she left, he indicated he was interested in her.”
“Damn!” Ryne shook his head. “I always wondered about that, but the man was afraid to make his move.”
“Why?”
“Well... Lucy and I were casual so it didn’t matter that she wasn’t aware of my true self—that I was a werewolf, I mean. But Armand, he was always afraid to get close in case it did come to mean something.”
“I don’t understand.”
“I suppose I can tell you. Remember, now that you’re one of us, you’re bound by the Keeping. You can’t tell anyone.” Ryne waited until she nodded and even made a ‘cross your heart’ gesture.
“Armand is a bear.”
“A bear?”
“Uh-huh.”
“You mean...? I know he’s big and has all that fuzzy hair, but...”
“He’s a bear. A shifter or were-bear, though he hates the fact that it rhymes.”
Mel leaned back and stared at Ryne in disbelief. “A were-bear? Exactly how many other shifter creatures are out there?”
“Almost any creature you can think of, though it’s mostly larger predatory animals. Tigers, panthers, lions... I think the non-predators died out pretty early, not being able to defend themselves.” Ryne reached over and ruffled her hair. “So you won’t have to worry about were-rats in the sewers.”
She cast a dirty look his way before climbing into the car. “Hey, what are we going to do about Aldrich’s car? We can’t keep driving around in it.”
“Don’t worry. I’ll take care of it. I’ve had experience with this type of situation.”
“Oh, really? Exactly what type of experience? Grand theft auto?”
Ryne merely smirked and started the car, leaving Mel to wonder exactly what else might be hidden in his background.
Chapter 41
A week later, in Stump River...
It had taken a week before the police wrapped up the investigation into what had transpired at the apartment. It was deemed a random act of violence, the perpetrator likely looking for something to steal and Lucy had unfortunately surprised him. It grated, that Aldrich would never be blamed for the crime, but involving him would result in too many questions and it wouldn’t change the end fact.