“Can you keep him from shooting anybody til I get there?”

“I’ll handcuff him to a rail if I have to.”

“All right, then,” Garrett said. “I’m on my way.”

* * *

Noble, Argus, and Harlan were all sitting in silence as the ranger hung up the phone. They’d been listening to his side of the conversation and had been able to figure out what Sergeant Martin had been saying. Something had gotten into Ernie Ilson’s rabbit pens, stealing two of the rabbits and killing his dog. Mr. Ilson and the sergeant were blaming it on wolves, but the pack wasn’t so sure.

“Are you thinking what I’m thinking?” Noble asked his brothers.

“I didn’t think the change would come over the wolf so quickly,” Argus said. “It’s barely had enough time to heal from its wounds.”

Harlan spun around in his chair, putting his back to the computer screen. “Maybe it isn’t the new werewolf.”

“No?” Argus said. “What else could it be?”

Harlan shrugged. “It could be the other wolves. They were ready to eat a little girl. If they were that hungry, what would stop them from getting at a couple of rabbits—certainly not a dog.”

The brothers seemed unconvinced.

“Or…how about a bear?” Harlan continued. “A bear would be strong enough to do it.”

Noble shook his head. “Except just about every bear on the mountain is hibernating now.”

“Oh, yeah.” Harlan’s eyes dropped to the floor a moment, then rose up again, as eager as ever. “Or maybe it was a big cat. You know, a lynx or a bobcat, maybe even a mountain lion.”

That was a possibility, but a cat, even a big one, would have had trouble pushing in a door and ripping open a cage. That required size and strength, and a pair of hands that could grip and pull against each other. The only thing that could do all that was…

“Why don’t we go see for ourselves.” The three brothers turned to find their sister, Tora, standing in the bedroom doorway. “I know where Ernie Ilson lives,” she said. “It wouldn’t take us long to get there through the forest.”

“Great idea,” said Harlan. “Let’s go!”

“Yeah,” said Argus, rising to his feet. “We could probably get there even before the ranger does.”

But Noble was hesitant. “I don’t know if that’s such a good idea.”

“Why not?” Tora said, stepping into their bedroom and closing the door behind her.

“Mr. Ilson says he’s lost three animals to wolves; he’s got his shotgun out and he’s shooting to kill. Maybe it’s not the best time to be running through the forest in our wolfen form,” Noble said.

“That’s if they even were wolves,” Harlan reminded his brother.