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Once I glanced up at his face from the still bleeding gunshot wound in his shoulder, not from anywhere else I might have briefly glanced at involuntarily, although I will say if he was over at the deputies because they were involved then she’s a lucky gall, I recognized him as the sheriff’s grandson, Dare.

He moved up pass them to the gun, and ended up putting his back to me so he could face them as he bent over to pick up the gun...oh come on!

Naked guy bending over while I had to keep looking that way to keep an eye on the three stooges there, tonight just keeps getting worst and worst.

The lighter furred wolf darted in to grab the end of the catch pole and dragged it off into the darkness.

The bland guy spoke up, “So we didn’t hurt anyone, not really, and we’re kind of hoping that something can be worked out so we don’t have to die.”

Didn’t hurt anyone...”You caught a child in a bear trap, she was screaming when I found her, as far as I’m concerned, I’m ready to track down a wood chipper and toss you in face first, and it wasn’t even my kid.”

The now unseen wolf began to growl again. “It was hers.”

The tattooed guy began to curse under his breath while bland boy went pale and began to shake.

Dare had backed up to point his new gun at the three with a two handed grip, he seemed familiar with holding a firearm, but was standing way too close so I wasn’t confident enough to leave him to guard them while I tracked down a set of sweat pants for him. At least he had moved to the side so he wasn’t in my line of fire.

“You doing okay there kid? You did get shot?”

The young naked man shrugged without turning to look at me as if it wasn’t a big deal but ruined the gesture with a wince as he lifted he wounded shoulder, “Already stopped bleeding, should be just a bruise by the morning, less then that if I change form between now and then.” He gave me a quick glance. “Changing shape fixes anything wrong with you, but it tires you out, the more you’re hurt, the more it takes out of you.”

He grinned, “Werewolf one o one, I understand you missed the class.’

I jerked my head at the bad guys, “Eyes on them son, not me, but thanks for the tip.’

He eye popped a little as he snapped his head back at the three guys, with spiky looking at him with interest, at first in the little tidbit about werewolves Dare was sharing, then a closer look at the wound on his shoulder.

“Sorry about shooting you, but I really...”

Dare cut him off. “No.” He shook his head. “You are not part of this conversation, you don’t speak, you don’t participate, you just stand there and keep your eye on the ground until my grandmother gets here, and then you get to answer only when spoken to.”

Good on him, but he was still standing too close. “Dare, could you take a few steps back, and then we should both shut up because we’re sharing information in front of them that they may have not had before.”

The kid looked a little started and took two steps back, putting him out of a lunging reach of the three guys as well as giving me a clear shot if they did try to rush him.

Fortunately it was only maybe a few minutes of standing around in a awkward silence with three intruders and a naked guy with a gun before we the sound of a siren began to drown out the chirping of what I assumed was crickets.

I think we all looked relieved.

I though about letting go of the shotgun with one hand to use the keypad next to the door to open the gate for the sheriff, but I remembered that the mighty werewolf hunters had blocked off the my whole front gate with their car. I wasn’t too sure of their reasoning on that, maybe to keep me from making a run for it?

It took a few minutes for the sheriff and the dozen or so other folk, most of them armed... and dressed, but a few down on all fours wearing their fur coats came trickling in on foot.

The sheriff held her gun on the three as she took in the situation while a older lady clutching a bath robe headed off in the direction of the lighter fur colored wolf.

No one had a robe or pants for the naked guy with a gun. Darn it.

The sheriff looked both concerned and pissed as she saw the blood on her grandson and for a moment changed her grip on his revolver like she was going start taking head shots, before she took a deep breath and began tossing around orders instead.

In a few moments the three were on their knees with their hands on their heads, being clamped in handcuff by a couple of burly men, one of which was human, and were then escorted off to separate cars off back on the road.

Then she rushed over and hugged her grandkid, on the unwounded side, and began fussing over him.

“It’s okay granny, it wasn’t even silver since I can feel it healing, look, see, the bullet is even starting to come out. Ow! You didn’t have to pull it out!”

She grinned at him. “Evidence Darius, now go home , wash off the blood and put some pants on.”

See, see! I wasn't the only one who didn’t want the free show, even if you just had to come here as a wolf you could have...i don’t know, carried some underwear in your mouth, at least if it was clean, or something anyways.

Their was yelp down the driveway as a younger, taller and plumper woman with light brown hair that matched her wolf form came marching out the darkness in a pink bathrobe to kick the guy with the tattoos in the shin before she headed our way with a teasing look up and down Dare’s naked bod.

“Thank for backing me up Dare, but could you head back, Melly should still be asleep but I don’t want her to be alone if she wakes up.”

The young man looked a little reluctant, started to walk away, looked at the gun in his hand and then held it up awkwardly before his grandmother reached out to take it from him.

“You did good boy, I’m proud of you and your grandfather would have been too.”

He gave us a cheeky grin before turning away as he fell forward onto all fours, once again in the shaped of a big black wolf, this time running off on all four limbs again.

The deputy muttered something like “Show off, but I’m the one who has to wake you up in the morning.”

The sheriff turned to me “I can kind of guess how this went, and we can figure out the official report in the morning, but can you give me a quick report.”

I nodded. “Well I felt someone on my property...”

For a moment I could see a guarded look of surprise on the Sheriff’s face and a rather more open one on her deputy as she walked up behind her boss. What now?

“...so I checked my camera’s and saw the three stooges at the front gate, so I called you and was planning on just staying holed up until I heard the gunshots, armed myself and saw these three outside my front door, since I saw a wolf, who I now know was Dare, had already got hurt, I decided to step up so no one else got hurt, then we just waited for you.”

She nodded with a thoughtful look on her face. “And you didn’t feel a need to turn…?’

Ok...what going on here, did the two from next door not have a choice in the matter, no, there is no way werewolves could have keep their real existence a secret if they had to change form everytime they got into a fight...so…

“Well, yeah.” She kept a blank look on her face while her employee seemed to curious to hear my answer. “Of course, but, you know I’m older guy, you learned self control with age, otherwise you don’t get to be this old.”

The Sheriff continued to give me nothing, but the deputy got a look of pleased realization. “Oh that makes sense. So are the kids okay, smells like there are two or three in there?”

I froze, the sheriff winced, the deputy looked back and forth between the two of us as she began to realized she said something wrong.

Before I could even think, the sheriff put a arm in front of her deputy and pushed her back as she herself took a step back, her eyes firmly looking down at my feet.

“I don’t think he wanted us to know about them, he didn’t say anything about them to me earlier, and he’s so new he’s probably very protective of them, so we are going to back off, get everyone off his property and let him decide when he’s going to tell us about what’s going on.’

The deputy looked like she was about to panic before snapping her jaw shut as she began shuffling back on her own.

I was breathing heavily, the sheriff had called it, people were here, and they know about the children, a danger, but before I felt any need to do anything about it, the sheriff had deescalated the situation.

I took a deep breath. “It’s my grandkids. They’re staying with me while their parents deal with a situation so it doesn't follow them home, I would appreciate if you kept their presence here a secret for now, and we can talk in the morning...on the phone.”

“I just don’t want to leave them here alone again, not after tonight”

The sheriff nodded, a look of understanding on her face, before she half turned to begin heading back to her car, half dragging a still curious looking deputy along with her.

“I wonder how she knew...oh dam, she probably smelled them on me the first time she was here, same as the deputy just now.”

Well it least it was one less secret to keep.