The Bloodhound

It Just Gets better

Lunch had been fun. Chad had treated both the girls ,the gentlemanly thing to do, and they happily chatted, learning about each other.

Chad, as it turns out, was actually from Tampa, Florida. He lived a peaceful life there, with his parents and sister, but wanted more out of life. He chose Tennessee because of it’s awesome forensics program,and because he wanted to live near the mountains, so he left behind everything he had ever known to come here, all by his lonesome.

Lilli, on the other hand, was from upstate New York, where the beauty of the Adirondack Mountains were at her back door. Coming from a relatively wealthy family of Chinese-American doctors and lawyers, she was shunned by them when she told them she wanted to work for the FBI. She had arrived with just the clothes on her back and her intelligence, finding a job to help her pay for expenses. By the time she would be done, Lilli would have a mountain of student debt to pay off, but at least she was doing things her way.

Jensen smiled to herself as she listened to her new friends. How funny, to think all she wanted was to escape to the ocean, while Chad longed for the mountains. Such is life, she thought to herself, people were never satisfied. But Jensen had her reasons for wanting to escape the Appalachian mountains, and the people associated with her hometown, a secret only a few select people knew, and she intended to keep it that way. It felt good to have new friends, but in the back of her mind, her voice reminded her;people are never what they seem.

Lilli was spunky and full of sass. Although Jensen wasn’t tall, she practically towered over Lilli,and found it amusing that the tiny young woman wouldn’t take s**t off of anybody. She had already told two guys at the bar who were being rowdy to f**k off. When they tried to show off their muscles, she just flipped them a bird, then promptly ignored them.

Chad had the ability to make everyone laugh. It was easy to tell he wasn’t one for confrontation, he was much better at diffusing difficult situations, as he calmed down the two testosterone fueled men when they came after Lilli.

But where did this leave Jensen? The quiet one of the bunch, she sat back and studied everyone around her, observing their actions, and using her sixth sense and uncanny sense of smell to pick up on their moods.

Granted, when she was out tracking, instinct kicked in, and she acted with sharp precision, not caring what anyone else thought, because she knew her gifts would not fail her, but this was the only time her true self shined through the dull outer exterior.

Oh well, she was happy being the quiet one. Every group of friends needed the shy person, and she happily filled that position. 

The rest of the day had been a blur ,as she soon found out she, Chad and Lilli had Mr. Evans for three more classes, some on different days. How was she supposed to handle being near this cocky, arrogant and overbearing wolf man nearly every day?

Lilli, learning of her predicament, offered to help her ‘dress like a normal human female’. Jensen would meet up with her every morning before class, at her small apartment, where Lilli would transform her from a ‘homeless person’ as Dr. Evans had so eloquently described her, to a decent looking human being. She even thought of taking Lilli up on her offer, of staying with her during the week while they had classes.

There was just one little problem; she worked for the sheriff’s office in her hometown. In fact, Jensen was headed there now, thinking of asking to work weekends so she could stay in K Town during the week. 

Gunner wouldn’t be happy, nor her dad, but she needed a respite. Jensen had managed to avoid the cause of her problems for five years, but things were starting to change. There had been a shift in the usual behavior, and now just hiding wasn’t enough. Apparently, the person he had threatened her with had come home, and she was scared. Scared for her family, especially her brother. Maybe if she left, she thought to herself, things would change, and her family would be safe for once, even her asshole sister. She could only hope, but no matter what, Jensen’s intuition was telling her it was time to leave, to move on. Through her ordeal Jensen discovered women were vicious, and not to be trusted as well.

Her mother never believed her when Jenson tried to tell her about what happened to her, her sister hated her, and there was no way she could tell her brother and father what she endured. The threats were real, she knew, so she did the only thing she could, recessed into a shell of the person she once was. 

It had taken her a whole year to get up the courage to go back to school, and stop trying to harm herself. The only reason she still had her long hair was her mother begged her not to shave it off. Even though she never believed her own daughter, her baby girl, she still didn’t want to see her behaving this way, and Jensen, craving the closeness they once had, promised her mother this one thing.

Owen, who had only been a deputy at the time, but was a good friend of her dad, noticed the change in her. Her change in attitude was so noticeable that the wolf who was like a big brother to her, couldn’t stand it. One day at her house, he had cornered her, demanding  to know what was wrong and who had hurt her so badly, but she refused. No matter how hard he tried or threatened her, Jensen firmly denied anyone had hurt her, so he finally gave up. He had hoped when he became sheriff and hired her that he could bring her out of her shell, but nothing he tried swayed the obviously frightened young woman, who was still a girl to him, so he, like everyone else, enabled her, when they finally figured out this was her only coping mechanism.

The only things Jensen cared about were her brother and dad ,and her bloodhound, Roxy, thus 

her position of unofficial tracker on the police force. Along with serving as a dispatcher, she was the first person they called when a person went missing, and “Jensy’ always found them, dead or alive, thus her nickname, “Bloodhound” named after her dog.