Joe had brought enough copies of The Post for everyone. They stood around reading the story, surrounding Sierra and Joe.

"He made you write this?" one of them asked her.

"She did it on her own," Joe assured them. "She knew a bear sighting in the middle of the city would raise suspicion, so she made up a convincing lie. I just helped with some of the little details."

The man who had formerly went by the name Gerald Gregory spoke up from the front.

"Is that all my good name is to you, Joe?" he joked. "Little details?"

There was some general laughter. Joe smiled and waited for the crowd to quiet down again, clearly in his element.

"She risked her job to tell that lie, and she did it to keep me, and all of you, safe from prying eyes. So I ask you, do you really think she would deliberately do anything to jeopardize this place?"

The crowd muttered in response. Some cast her dubious looks, but many more seemed to be in agreement with Joe, nodding their heads. Sierra allowed herself to be hopeful.

A woman with a baby on her hip and another child clutching her hand addressed Sierra.

"So why did you do it?" she asked.

Sierra took Joe's hand.

"Because I love him," she said simply.

Joe smiled at her in surprise. She hadn't said it back to him yet. For a moment they forgot the crowd and he had eyes only for her. He leaned down and kissed her. A few of the children made gagging noises. Somebody wolf whistled.

He turned back to them again, holding her hand.

"Eric went against the decision of his Alpha. He attacked Sierra in public. Shifting in an alley between two buildings in the middle of downtown Olympia. He could have exposed all of us. He claims he did all of this to keep you safe. Does his behavior make you feel safe? Would you feel better with him in charge?"

He let the words hang for a moment before continuing.

"And just what kind of man is he that he would attack a woman in the street like this?" he gestured at Sierra. "He wasn't just trying to turn her. He meant to kill her. Worse still, he also attacked her friend, a woman who knows nothing about us. Her only crime was that she was home when he broke into their apartment."

"It's true," Zeke interjected. "I saw it. Dude messed up her face pretty bad. Tore up their place too. And we're talking about a five-foot tall human woman who's half drunk most of the time. Really threatening."

"There's a picture on page twelve," Sierra added.

Several people flipped through their papers to the article on Molly's art show. It was accompanied by a great shot of Molly standing in between two of the paintings, her bruises somehow magnified by the strips of blue and green canvas hanging next to her.

It was Brenda who spoke up this time from where she sat cross-legged on the grass in the front row.

"He ripped up her paintings?" she asked.

Sierra nodded.

"He did."

"That bastard," Brenda said.

"Brenda!" her mother scolded her.

Everyone laughed.

There was a flash of headlights as an old blue pickup truck roared into the clearing. The truck pulled to a stop right next to Joe and Sierra. Eric climbed out, looking furious.

"What's she doing here?" he demanded. "What were you thinking bringing her back here again? You're putting the whole town in danger for that piece of ass!"

Joe didn't say anything. He calmly placed himself between Eric and Sierra, and let Sleuth speak for him.

"You're the one putting us in danger!" someone shouted.

"You shifted in public!"

"You could have gotten picked up by animal control!"

Eric backed up a few paces, sensing the shift in the tide.

"I did what was necessary!" he countered. "I was trying to keep this place safe from outsiders! He was just going to take her word she wouldn't tell anyone. Just her word! The word of a reporter! That's not good enough!"

"So you attack a couple human women? That's your tough guy solution?" Zeke asked him.

Eric backed up towards the truck.

"Everything I did I did for all of you!" Eric shouted, but clearly no one was accepting that.

There was real panic in his eyes now as he realized he didn't have any friends in this crowd. He looked back at the truck, clearly trying to decide if there was even the slightest chance he could make a break for it. But the crowd had circled him now, cutting off any chance of an exit.

"Is this your idea of keeping us safe?" a man spat at him, and threw the paper in his face.

The paper landed face up in the mud. It had started to rain lightly. Eric stared down at the picture of him looming over Sierra as the raindrops pattered across it.

He chanced one more plea. "I was trying-"

"Enough!" Joe boomed out in a deep voice. He slammed his hand into the truck just to one side of Eric's face. The metal screeched and stretched from the blow, leaving behind a dent about the same size as Eric's head. Eric flinched.

"Eric Gunther," Joe began, "You disobeyed a direct order from your Alpha, shifted in a public place, used your strength against a human who was not threatening you, and generally put this town in danger. Do you have any miserable excuse to say in your defense?"

Eric looked around wildly, frantically searching the crowd for a friendly face or an ally. There were none to be found.

Joe grabbed Eric by the shoulders and threw him to the ground, mud splashing around him.

The children were leaving now, their parents escorting them or shooing them away. Brenda protested loudly.

Joe began to take his clothes off, readying himself to shift. He cast the clothes uncaring into the mud and stood naked in the rain.

Eric, truly desperate now, turned to Sierra.

"Please don't let him kill me," he begged her. "I'm sorry. I won't bother you ever again. I'll leave forever, but I don't want to die yet. Please!"

With a human sound of disgust mixed with an animal's roar Joe swiped at Eric with a still half formed paw. The blow raked his face. Rivulets of bright red blood mixed with rainwater and ran down to the ground, turning the water in the puddle a faint shade of pink.

Joe had shifted completely now. He approached Eric with a low growl.

"Wait," Sierra said.

Joe stopped, looking up at her.

"Is there any other way?" she asked. "Does he have to die?"

"Thank you," Eric said piteously.

"Shut up," Sierra responded. "Don't fucking talk to me."

She wasn't doing this for him. Never for him. She just didn't think anyone should die here today. There'd been enough violence already.

Joe just stared at her. Sierra supposed she hadn't logically been expecting him to answer.

"We could banish him," someone offered.

"Forever?" she asked.

"Forever," they concurred. "He wouldn't be allowed in Sleuth ever again, or anywhere in the state of Washington. He'd get three days to get out, and after that we kill him on sight."

Sierra approached Joe. She tentatively reached one hand up to his muzzle and ran her fingers through his thick, black fur. It was softer than she had expected it to be.

"Joe?" she asked. "I don't want you to kill him."

Joe looked at her for a moment and then, in an oddly human gesture, nodded at Eric. Eric did not wait around for another sign. Without saying a word, he scrambled to his feet and jumped back into the truck. After one, brief, backwards glance at Sierra he sped away into the night.

Joe shifted back into human form.

"Are you sure that's what you wanted?" he asked her.

Sierra shook her head.

"No," she said. "But I think it was the right thing to do."

He kissed her forehead lightly.

"Come on," he said. "Let's get you out of those wet clothes."