“Let me see what I can find out,” Crush offered. “Some guys I know.”

“Some guys you know ... what?” Malone pushed.

“Some guys I know. Don’t harass me.”

“Harass—”

“All right then,” Van Holtz cut in. “I think that’s enough for tonight. I’m sure Desiree would like to go home and take some much needed migraine meds.”

“I appreciate that.” MacDermot stood. “Because the worst part? I feel like I have to blow my nose. I can’t express to you how that’s the last thing I ever want to do.”

“Come on, darlin’.” Smith put her arm around MacDermot. “Let me get you home.”

They all filed out into the hallway, Malone silently following Smith and MacDermot.

“I guess this is a little strange for you, isn’t it, Detective?” Van Holtz asked as they walked back to the front office.

“Just new. I don’t like change.”

“I understand that. It was strange for Dez in the beginning, too.”

He watched as MacDermot stopped in front of that big glass window Crush had looked through earlier, the one with all the kids behind it, and waved. After a few moments, a hybrid girl came out the door. She was a bear hybrid, probably mixed with canine. Nearly six-four, she had a very young face, but way more scars on her arms and neck than anyone that age should have.

Eyes wide, she gazed down at poor MacDermot’s face. “What happened?”

“Nothing I can’t handle,” MacDermot teased. “Apparently, I’m tough like that.” Laughing, the pair hugged, then the girl hugged Smith and finally Malone.

“How’s it been going?” MacDermot asked the girl.

“Eh.” Not exactly a ringing endorsement.

Finally, Crush knew he had to find out more about what was going on here. It was driving him nuts. “Who are these kids?” he asked Van Holtz, his voice low.

Crush thought there might be some backpedaling or bullshit. There wasn’t.

“Hybrids,” Van Holtz immediately replied. “They didn’t have homes and it’s hard for them to mainstream into full-human society, so we take them in. That’s Hannah,” he said, glancing at the bear hybrid. “She’s been with us for a bit now.” He leaned in, lowered his voice even more. “Dee-Ann and Blayne rescued her from a dogfighting ring.”

Horrified the girl had been used that way, Crush still had to ask, “Did you recruit her?”

Van Holtz shook his head. “After what she and some of these other kids have been through? No. Although, they have the option to join us when they’re twenty-one. But not before then. We’re just giving them a place to crash, an education, and some options. Everyone deserves options.”

“But shouldn’t you be helping them mainstream?”

“Well—”

A good-sized shaggy-haired dog ran out into the hallway, spun in circles for several seconds, and shot off.

“That was Abby.”

“Does she always run around as—”

“Yes. She also begs for food, scratches at the door to be let in or out, and snaps at flies, which is always entertaining. But we’re working on her.”

“Hey,” Smith reminded them. “We left them BPC bears sittin’ up front. Not sure we want little Abby around them.”

Hannah sighed. Deeply. “I better go get her.”

“If Abby gets on your nerves, Hannah, why do you watch out for her?” Van Holtz asked with a small smile.

“One word,” she replied. “Blayne.”

“Can’t handle the sobbing?”

“Can you?”

The girl had a point. Crush knew he couldn’t handle it.

Hannah started off, but Abby suddenly returned. Sliding into the middle of the hallway, she barked and barked, then ran back the way she’d come.

Knowing a panicked bark when he heard one, Crush didn’t think twice before going after the girl and everyone else. But the naked, blood-covered male lion in the middle of the reception area did take him by surprise, though.

Cella stopped when she saw the naked, blood-covered male stretched out on the floor. Her gaze went to Charlene. “What the hell?

“He’s been shot,” Charlene told them. “A couple of times.”

“Charlene,” Van Holtz ordered, “call Dr. Hayes. He’s probably on the medical floor.”

Crouching on one side of the lion’s body, with Smith on the other, Cella reached over and pushed his still-growing mane out of his face. “Oh, shit.”

“You know him?” Smith asked.

“Mikey Callahan. His ma’s gonna lose her mind.”

Gold eyes opened and looked into Cella’s face. “Cella.”

“Baby boy, what happened?”

“Bad day.”

“He’s with KZS?” Smith asked.

“No. I’ll explain later.”

“He’s been hunted,” one of the grizzlies said.

Cella glanced up. She’d forgotten all about the BPC grizzlies. “How do you know that?”

He crouched beside her, pointed at Mikey’s bicep. “Here you can see he was given a drug to keep him lion. Look at his neck. He was chained while human, then forced to shift.”

“Forced?”

“While KZS and the Group have been going after pissant hybrid dogfights, the bears have been focusing on the real hunters going after real shifters. Their methods have improved.”