Something to Curse About by Gayla Drummond

who this little girl belongs to.”
    Discord can shed all the light. Too bad you can’t understand me . I watched my boss’s expression, and knew that he had no clue I’d gone missing yet.
    “She should be in soon. How is your Queen-to-be settling in?”
    I’d been turned into a dog by a crazy man, and they were making chitchat. Maybe Mr. Whitehaven would sense something if I got closer? I stood and crossed the room to walk around his desk and sit beside him. He pushed his chair out, turning it enough to look at me.
    When he bent to pet me, I caught a nose full of oddness that included a hint of strange-smelling smoke and metal. I’d never noticed it before. It had to be his personal smell, but I didn’t recognize anything else in it. It wasn’t unpleasant, just…odd.
    Odd and sort of wild smelling.
    Busy concentrating on it, I heard the faint squeak of the front door opening and closing. Someone had arrived, probably Nick since I didn’t hear Percy, Kate’s parrot familiar, complaining. The boss gently ruffled the back of my neck. “She’s quite friendly.”
    “And smart,” Logan said as Nick appeared in the doorway. My first reaction was joy. Surely he’d figure out I was me.
    My second, as his scent wafted across the room, wasn’t intentional but something instinctive. I backed away from Mr. Whitehaven, so that I could see Nick clearly, the hairs down my spine bristling, and growled.
    Nick stank of something Doggy Me didn’t like at all. My growl climbed and fell when he focused on me. In spite of my deep warning sound, he dismissed me in favor of asking Logan, “Is it yours?”
    “Not exactly. She’s lost.” The tiger shifter patted his leg. I ignored him, fighting to stop the growl.
    “She’s going to be dead if she jumps me,” Nick said in a flat voice. His eyes flashed gold when he looked at me again, but his next words were for the boss. “Cordi’s missing.”
    Everyone forgot me, and their lack of attention allowed me to stifle my growl.
    Whitehaven turned his chair to face him. “Are you certain?”
    “I stopped by her place. Her car’s gone and Leglin’s there alone. He said she went out last night and didn’t come back. He can’t find her.”
    A thrill of warmth swept through me, hearing that my hound buddy had been trying to find me. Nick raked a hand through his hair. “She didn’t call me. Again. And now something’s happened to her.”
    Though I felt bad he was worried, my lips drew back in a silent snarl. Since no one was paying attention, I decided to return to Logan by way of the room’s perimeter. Going too close to Nick didn’t seem like a good idea, what with something internal loudly insisting the wolf shifter was “bad” and “wrong” and pushing me to attack him.
    Whitehaven’s full wall display case was on that side of the room, and as I neared it, my ears perked at the faint sound of voices. At least, I thought they were voices, but I couldn’t make out any actual words. I stopped and tilted my head, listening to the continuous murmur of sound.
    The next thing I knew, Logan had snapped the leash onto my collar. Startled, I looked up, but he’d already straightened. “I’ll take her home and come back to help search. I can bring a couple of others to help.”
    Nick blew off his offer of help with a rude snort. “I can have a dozen from the pack here in twenty minutes.”
    I felt like biting him until Mr. Whitehaven spoke. “There’s no sense gathering a search party until we know if Damian is able to lock onto her cell phone. If he is, we’ll be grateful for any assistance you can provide.”
    Logan nodded, but I felt the tension in him and saw the way his eyes narrowed at Nick. “We’ll be ready.”
    I moved when he gave the leash a gentle tug. Nick left the doorway, crossing the room to begin arguing with the boss. Once outside in the parking lot, Logan heaved a quick, hard breath. “Sometimes, I really want to kick the ever-loving shit out of