"Here, now, let's go find your rings," I led her toward the kitchen. We found them in no time. Avery wasn't done, however. "How the hell do we know she won't," Weldon lifted a hand, stopping Avery in mid-bluster, before coming to the girl.
"Ask her to tell us what she saw," he ordered.
"What did you see when you drove back here, hon? Tell the truth." Compulsion dripped from my tongue.
"I drove through the gate and walked up to the house. Everybody was eating dessert and I asked you for my rings. We went to the kitchen to get them. See?" She held the rings up.
"Take her to her car," Weldon growled. I figured I was about to get a fast trip right back to Wlodek and the rest of the Council with a big F on my report card. There wasn't anything else I could have done, however. No way was I going to let Avery and his wolves tear this girl apart because she'd seen two of them who were fool enough to change out on the grounds.
We walked to the girl's car; it was a small import and she chatted on the way, thanked me for my help and then drove off. The wolf who'd dragged her in came out and warned away the other wolves guarding the property.
The four werewolves followed me inside the house where Weldon looked as if he were about to have a stroke. Winkler was up and leaning against one wall of the large dining room, Kelvin was doing the same on the opposite wall. "Now," Weldon said to the wolf who'd dragged the girl inside the house, "tell me what happened, and in the proper order. I warn you, I can smell a lie a mile away and if you want confirmation, then I'll have Lissa here place compulsion on you to tell the truth. What the hell happened with that girl? Start at the beginning. Don't stop until you reach the end. I'm waiting." Weldon crossed his arms angrily over his chest.
"She drove right through the gate and pulled up in front of the house," the wolf who'd brought her in said. "We told her she couldn't come in so she got belligerent with us. Ruben and Jasper had to change when she started fighting with us."
"Lie," Weldon said. "Try again and make it the truth, this time."
I wanted to snicker. That girl couldn't have weighed more than a hundred and twenty pounds, looked to be around five-four and definitely hadn't worked out. If four grown werewolves in their humanoid shape couldn't subdue somebody her size, then they needed to find another form to shift to. Skunk came to mind. I figured they'd seen this as an opportunity to tear someone apart just for the sport of it.
"She wanted to argue with us so Ruben and Jasper changed," the werewolf was whining a little.
"A little closer to the truth but still not the truth." Weldon's eyes were hard. "Lissa, come here for a minute." I went.
"Now, wait just a minute," Avery said but Weldon growled low, forcing Avery to back up. He didn't argue past that.
"Lissa, place compulsion on this one to tell the truth," Weldon said. I walked up to the werewolf, and not willing to take any chances, allowed my claws to slide out the entire way. There were a few gasps around the room.
"You will speak only the truth from this point forward," I said, looking the wolf straight in the eye and pointing a claw at him. He nodded. I stepped aside.
"Now," Weldon said. "Tell me exactly what happened."
"She drove up to the gate and Ruben was there, waiting," the werewolf began. "Jasper was on the other side. She asked Ruben if she could come in to get her rings. Ruben told her to park halfway up the drive and wait for him and Jasper to come and escort her to the house. They changed before they got there and started growling. I had to come along and bring her in."
"And why did they change?" Weldon asked almost casually.
"Because we thought it might be fun to hunt with the Grand Master," the wolf muttered.
"You thought I'd find sport in hunting that poor girl down and tearing her to pieces?"
"Yeah." When he said that, I wanted to kill him myself. I'd moved aside so Weldon could question him, pulling my claws back in. Too bad. I might have used the excuse that my hand just slipped. In the vicinity of his neck. Winkler, I noticed, was no longer leaning against the wall and neither was Kelvin. Both stepped forward a little and Winkler was prepared for anything, I could tell.
"You, sit." Weldon barked at the wolf, who sat down at the table. "Avery, Lissa, come with me." Weldon stalked into the kitchen with Avery and me close behind. Winkler and Kelvin stayed outside to watch the others. "Lissa, place compulsion to tell the truth on Avery, here," Weldon ordered. Avery started to protest but I just used compulsion to make him shut up and stand still. Then I placed the one to force him to tell the truth.
"Do you condone this kind of behavior?" Weldon asked. "Has this sort of thing happened before?"
"Simms does seem to have a knack for being around when this happens," Avery whined. "We've had to take care of things several times since I took over."
"And how many times when Corwin was in charge?"
"None that I remember." Avery was sweating.
"And you weren't suspicious?"
"Simms is one of my best guards."
"Really?" Weldon wasn't happy. It looked like I wasn't going to be sent back to the Council after all. "Well," Weldon went on, "I'll be interviewing the Pack one at a time, then. Lissa, send Avery back out and tell him not to go anywhere. Have Winkler send in the others, beginning with the owner of the property."
I nodded at Weldon, then laid compulsion for Avery to go back out, sit down and not cause any trouble. He went.
Winkler sent the Pack in one at a time after that. Most of them told the same story; that Simms or one of the other three assigned to guard duty would bring a human in on the pretext that they'd seen them change and then instigate a hunt. The rest of the Pack would hang back and allow Simms or one of the others to make the kill, which generally ended up quite bloody. The worst of the stories involved a sixteen-year-old boy whose car had broken down on the side of a road. It was all I could do not to march right out and do all four of them in over that one. Now, there were grieving parents in the area that had no idea what happened to their son.
The stories continued, one on top of another, until Weldon and I learned that Avery and his four pet guards had accounted for at least fourteen disappearances in the Des Moines area. The Pack as a whole found the whole thing reprehensible, but none were willing to challenge their new Packmaster. I got the idea that Simms and his cronies might have interfered with the challenge anyway. None of the Pack came out and said it, but they didn't like Avery's leadership at all. They all talked about Corwin and how good it had been before.