Clay finally learned better instinct control, but even now it was a battle against his nature.
For Clay, instinct ruled. He had learned tricks he could employ if he had advance notice, such as hearing hunters on the property in the distance.
But without such warning, his temper took over and he had exploded, sometimes endangering the Pack.
No matter how smart he was, his IQ was once measured at 160. He could not control his instincts.
Sometimes I believed this made it harder, having the brains to know he was blowing things up and being unable to stop himself.
Other times I concluded if he was so smart, he should be able to control it. Perhaps he just did not try hard enough. I liked that description better.
Jeremy and Edouard returned from their talk and we all moved to the study, where Jeremy clearly explained the situation.
There was a werewolf in Bear Valley. The wild dog story was a logical explanation devised by locals who are so desperate for an answer.
There had been canine tracks around the body. The kill itself was canine, the throat was ripped out and the body partly devoured. Of course, no one could explain how the young woman had come to be wandering around the forest at night in the first place, particularly in a skirt and high heels. It looked like a dog kill, so the locals had agreed it was, but we knew better.
The killer was a werewolf. All the signs were there. The surprise was that he was still in Bear Valley, even though he had arrived there at all.
How had one of the mutts gotten so close to Stonehaven and killed a local woman before Jeremy and Clay had even figured out he was there? The answer was simple: complacency.
After stone-haven have witnessed twenty years of not seeing a werewolf set foot north of New York City, Clay had relaxed his guard. Jeremy had continued to monitor the papers, but he had paid more attention to events in other parts of the Pack territory.
If he expected trouble, he expected it elsewhere, maybe in Toronto, or Albany where Harrison kept an apartment, or the Catskills, where the Sorrentinos' estate was, or across the border in Vermont where Connor lived. But near Stonehaven? Never.
When the dead woman vanished Jeremy knew about it but gave little attention to it because humans went missing all the time.
There had been no suggestion that the disappearance had anything to do with a werewolf. Three days ago the woman's body had been found, but by then it was too late.
The window of opportunity for quickly and safely dispatching the trespasser had passed. The townsfolk were up in arms over the killing. Within hours hunters were combing the woods looking for predators, humans, or canines.
As much as Jeremy was respected in the community, he was still an outsider, someone who lived there but held himself apart from the community.
For years people in and around Bear Valley had granted the Finn their privacy, prompted in part by the large checks that came from Stonehaven each Christmas earmarked for school improvements or a new library or whatever else the city council was struggling to pay for.
When danger came calling, though, it was human nature to look to the outsider. It would not be long before someone looked toward Stonehaven and its generous yet mysterious inhabitants and said, "You know, we do not know them, do we?"
"What we need to do first is find this mutt," Jeremy said. "Ariana has the best sense of smell, so she will be..."
"I am not staying," I quickly asserted.
The room went silent. Everyone turned to look at me, Jeremy's expression was inscrutable, Clay's jaw setting for a fight, Edouard and Connor looking shocked, and Nick was busy staring at me in confusion.
I cursed myself for having let things get this far. The middle of a meeting was not the time to assert my independence from the Pack.
I had tried to tell Jeremy the night before, but he had chosen to ignore it and hope it went away with a good night's sleep.
I should have taken him aside this morning and explained it, instead of sitting down for breakfast and letting the others think everything was back to normal. But that is the way Stonehaven worked.
I came back, got caught up in it, running with Clay, arguing with Jeremy, sleeping in my room, reuniting with the others and I forgot everything else. Now, as Jeremy began to make plans for me, my memory improved.
"I thought you came back," Nick said, breaking the silence. "You are here, so I do not understand."
"I'm here because Jeremy left me an urgent message to call him. I tried calling, but no one answered, so I came out to see what was wrong."
I realized this sounded lame even as the words left my mouth.
"I called," I said. "And called and called and called. I was worried, okay? So I came to find out what Jeremy wanted. I asked him last night, but he would not tell me still."
"So now that you know, you are leaving. Again?" Clay said, his voice low but hard.
I turned on him. "I told you last night"
"Jeremy called you for a reason, Ariana," Edouard said, stepping between Clay and me. "We need to find out who this mutt is. You know the dossiers better, so you keep them. That is your job."
"That was my job." Nick straightened up, confusion now mixed with alarm.
"What does that mean?" Clay started getting to his feet.
"It means Ariana and I have something to discuss in private," Jeremy said. "We will have to continue this meeting later."
Connor and Edouard cleared the room quickly. But Nick still lingered, trying to catch my eye. When I looked away, he hesitated, then followed his father.
Clay thumped back into his seat.
"Clayton," Jeremy said.
"I am staying Jeremy. This has as much to do with me as it does with you too. Probably more to me. If Ariana thinks she can show up, then walk right back out, after I have been waiting for over a year..."
"You will do what?" I said, stepping toward him. "Perhaps you have me abducted and lock me in a hotel room again?"
"That was six years ago Ariana. And I was only trying to convince you to talk to me before you left."
"Convince? Hah. I had probably still have been there if I had not managed to convince you to set me free by hanging you off the balcony by your ankles. If I'd had any sense, I'd have let go while I had the chance."
"It would not have still done any good, darling. I bounce. You can not get rid of me that easily."
"I am getting rid of you now," Jeremy said. "Out right now. That's an order."
Clay paused, then sighed, hauled himself to his feet, left the room, and closed the door.