“Stop.” A familiar female voice rang outside the door. It couldn’t be.

“Ma’am, step back,” the cop barked. “You’re interfering with a police matter.”

“I’m a knight of the Order. My name is Andrea Nash; here is my ID.”

Andrea was my best friend. I hadn’t seen her for two months, ever since my aunt trashed half of Atlanta. After the final fight with Erra, Andrea had disappeared. About two weeks later I got a letter that said, “Kate, I’m sorry about everything. I have to go away for a while, please don’t look for me. Don’t worry about Grendel, I’ll take good care of him. Thank you for being my friend.” Five minutes later I was on my way to the city to look for her, His Grumpiness the Beast Lord in tow. We found nothing. No sign of Andrea or my attack poodle, who had ended up in her care after the chaos of my aunt’s demolition derby. Then I’d pestered Jim, the Pack Security Chief and my Mercenary Guild buddy, until he put one of his units on combing the city for her. They came back empty-handed. Andrea Nash had vanished into thin air.

Apparently she was still alive. If I got out of this siege, I’d punch her in the face.

The cop’s voice gained a new edge. Knights of the Order didn’t screw around. “That’s nice, Miss Nash. Step back or we’ll place you under arrest and you can call the Order from the station and have them bail you out.”

“Look up above the door. You see a metal paw bolted to the wood?”

“And?”

“This business is the property of the Pack. If you break the door down, you’ll have to appear before a judge and explain why you invaded these premises without a warrant, arrested guests of the Pack, and caused damage to Pack property.”

“We can do that,” the cop said.

“No, you can’t—because I’ll testify that you had no reasonable cause to enter said building. Unless you’re planning on killing me, in which case, start praying now, because I’ll put a bullet through the head of every man in your squad before you get off a single shot.”