Wolf, Inc. - Kathleen Summers

This is a story about murder, secrets, threats from foreign corners and trusting no one.

It will be the first of a series of detective stories.

The cold blackness swallowed her. There was no horizon other than a vague outline of trees off to the south. Aubrey didn't know where she was. It felt like a flat, open plain, with little grass and no end in sight. If Earth were flat, this is what it would feel like. Dangerous edges.

Her body filled with an ancient dread as old and cold as rock.

A long, low wolf howl rose with one tone, then widened to the second. Aubrey thought wolves travel in packs when they're hunting. Something was coming for her. It was silent but close. It smelled like deep earth, and she could almost hear panting. A branch snapped nearby. She wondered if it would hurt to be eaten alive.

Aubrey sat straight up in bed, shivering, heart racing, alert to a danger she couldn't describe. Her duvet had fallen off. She had goosebumps. The foot of her bed faced a tall window overlooking the street. Her old shepherd, Mable, sat on guard at the end of the bed, ears and hackles raised, softly growling. Mable had never growled in all her fourteen years.

The clock read 3:32 AM. Aubrey wondered, had a dog howled outside? There was no one outside. No cars, people, dogs or wolves. The nightmare replayed in her head. She went downstairs and made a hot chocolate. Mable followed her but seemed intent on snuffling under the front door. Aubrey asked her, "What is it, honey?" Mable wasn't talking. Aubrey looked out the main floor windows and checked her doorstep through the peephole. Still…no one there.