"Son," Winkler stood in the doorway to Ashe's room that doubled as an office and bedroom, "as soon as you get that stuff carried out to the van, we'll go on. I've got movers coming for the rest."
"All right, Mr. Winkler. It'll only take a few more minutes." Ashe knew Winkler was feeling the approaching full moon, just like the other wolves. Andy had growled at somebody earlier, and that wasn't like Winkler's trusted assistant. Ashe placed the computer and monitor in a box, the power cords, battery backup and surge protectors in another.
The files he was working went into a third box. Andy wanted those to go with them on the first trip. Ashe knew now he was working on investigations Matt Michaels had turned over to Winkler. Ashe misted the first box out, followed quickly by the second and third while Winkler watched from the doorway, a cup of coffee in his hand.
"Does this mean you're done now?" Winkler asked dryly when Ashe showed up again after the last box.
"Yeah. Let's get the hell out of Dodge," Ashe quipped, walking toward the door this time. Winkler grinned and tousled Ashe's hair before following him out.
"The Grand Master and Thomas Williams will be here tomorrow afternoon," Winkler said as they walked to the van parked in the driveway. "Kids will fly down from Dallas tonight," he added.
"The Grand Master wants to talk to the prisoners?" Ashe asked.
"Yep. Thomas will likely come with him. He's a good friend of Weldon's, as was his dad. Thomas, Sr. gave his life to protect the Grand Master around thirty years ago. Weldon won't ever forget that."
* * *
"Mr. Winkler, how much control do you have right now?" Ashe asked. They stood inside Winkler's suite of rooms, watching while new furniture was delivered and placed. Winkler's new cook and house staff had arrived already to supervise.
"As good as can be expected," Winkler said softly.
"How good would you be around, let's say, a shapeshifter who becomes a deer?" Winkler, who'd been watching while a massive bed frame was put together, jerked around to face Ashe.
"Kid, is this gonna give me a headache?" Winkler asked.
"Probably." Ashe hunched his shoulders uncomfortably. "He says his name is Lewis Sharpe, from Russellville, Arkansas. Chad and Jeremy kidnapped him to throw a wrench into the works come Sunday night. He's down in the hidden room in the basement."
"Things can't help but happen around you, can they?" Winkler pulled out his cell and called Alvin "Bear" Wright.
"Principal Wright here," Bear answered.
"Bear, we have one of yours over here; perhaps you should intercede on his behalf since he was kidnapped by a werewolf and a shapeshifter."
"I'll come get you, Mr. Wright," Ashe offered, knowing the shapeshifting Principal would hear.
"Good," Bear said and hung up.
"I'll go out in the hall," Ashe said. "Meet me downstairs?"
"I'll bring Trajan," Winkler nodded.
"No more than that—I'm not sure a deer feels that comfortable around wolves," Ashe muttered.
"Not sure I would, either," Winkler acknowledged dryly. "We'll be there waiting." Ashe made sure nobody was there to see before he relocated to Bear Wright's front door and rang the doorbell.
"What have you been up to, young one?" Bear asked when he answered the door, hauling a freshly laundered knit shirt over his head. Ashe found himself liking the bear shapeshifter more and more as time went by. There wasn't anything formal or stiff about Bear Wright.
"Mr. Wright, Chad and Jeremy kidnapped a shapeshifter from Russellville, Arkansas," Ashe explained when Bear's head popped into the neck of the shirt and the fabric settled over his muscled torso. "And I may need your help come Sunday night."
"Kid, I'll do what I can," Bear nodded. "Let's go talk to this shifter."
"Ready?" Ashe asked the moment he landed Bear in Winkler's basement.
"Waitin' on you—what took so long?" Trajan teased.
"I'll remember you said that the next time you want to go somewhere," Ashe said. "We'll try not to freak out Mr. Sharpe."
Mr. Sharpe did freak anyway, jumping when Ashe reappeared with three others. Lewis had a bath towel wrapped around himself while the dryer hummed in the background. He was sipping a soda and watching television when he was startled by visitors.
"Son, these are friends," Bear Wright said immediately, nodding toward Winkler and Trajan. "We've got those two miscreants who took you locked up; we just didn't think to ask them if there was any other criminal activity committed beyond the murder of a young werewolf here in Texas."
"They killed somebody? I'm not surprised," Lewis reached out a hand to shake with Bear. He could tell by scent that the Star Cove Principal was a shapeshifter, just as he knew that Winkler and Trajan were werewolves.
"This is William Winkler and his Second, Trajan Gibson," Bear finished the introductions.
"As in Winkler Security William Winkler?" Lewis held out his hand. "Damn. Never figured you were a wolf. I'm a deputy for the Russellville Sheriff's department. At least I was, till those two shot me with a tranquilizer gun and locked me in a cage, somewhere."
"About six miles from here, in Shirley Walker's cotton fields," Ashe nodded in the proper direction. "I figure they hauled him here on one of their trips and left him in that bomb shelter. He was about to starve when I found him."
"What were they planning to do with you?" Bear asked.
"They said a distraction on the full moon. That's all I know," Lewis replied with a shrug. "Is there any chance I can borrow a phone? I have people to call."
"Hold on a little," Winkler raised a hand while he pulled his cell out of a pocket with the other. In seconds, he had Matt Michaels on the line. "Matt, we need to run a little interference for a missing deputy from Russellville, Arkansas," Winkler said when Matt answered.
"I heard about that," Matt said, tapping on his laptop. "You have him?"
"We do, now. The kid found him in an old bunker not far from here. Tranquilized and kidnapped by those two we have locked up."
"I'll call the Arkansas Bureau. We'll take care of it," Matt said. "He'll have his job back and no questions asked."
"Tell them he'll be in touch come Monday," Winkler said. "Trajan, get Trace on the phone and have him pick up some clothes for Deputy Sharpe."
"Dude, isn't Arkansas one of the worst places to be a deer shapeshifter?" Ashe asked softly. Lewis Sharpe barked a laugh.