“Scout?”

Are the boys through Changing?

“Jase is close. Scout, what’s wrong?”

I ducked through a clearing in the brush, never slowing my pace. As soon as they Change tell them to make their way back to you. Fast. There was no way I was letting them take her. Ever.

The bad thing about being an animal is you have no concept of time. The good thing is you can run fast and for long periods of time. By the time I made it to Talley she was locked in her car, her handgun sitting in her lap with one hand tapping on the handle.

Jase and Charlie?

“On their way,” she said aloud since she’d opened the door the moment she saw me. “I can feel Jase getting close.”

Sure enough, the first of the coyotes burst through the underbrush not much later. Once Charlie arrived we took turns going out to gather food. I managed to catch a raccoon and devoured most of it before Human Scout realized what was going on.

Jase happily took my leftovers.

After we all ate, and therefore had a bit more level head, we worked up a defense strategy. Talley was stationed at the old iron furnace. It was an ideal place for a Seer to be during a full moon - It was in the middle of nowhere, had a nice little road that led down to it, and even sported a placard explaining it’s very long and boring history, which gave Talley an excuse to be there should park ranger happen by, providing the park ranger wandered by just after dark and not at three in the morning. As for a stronghold against another Pack of Shifters? We could have done better.

Remind me why we didn’t find you one of the million places in Lake County where you would have a massive body of water on three sides? I asked as I prowled in front of where she sat on the hood of her car while Jase and Charlie ran a sweep around the perimeter.

“Water has tourists. No one ever comes out here.”

Only because it’s totally lame.

“I like it back here. It’s peaceful and the trees—” She cut off, her head cocked to the side. When her eyebrows knitted together and hand tightened on the gun, I got nervous.

“Nervous” on a wolf looks a lot like “about to eat someone”.

“I’m not going to tell you what he said until you stop growling.” I turned it down a notch. “Jase confirms that we’re dealing with wolves. He’s got three, and Charlie thinks there is another to the north of us.”

Movement?

“They seem to be circling, maybe three-quarters of a mile out.”

Central location?

Talley pointed at the ground in front of her.

It was a tense night. Jase, Charlie, and I alternated guarding Talley and running the perimeter. No one made a sound, and we kept our Talley to Shifter communication to reporting on what we found. Never did the wolves get any closer. Never did they alternate their pattern. Then, just as I was starting to feel the siren’s call of the sun, they left. Still, we all Changed within fifty feet of Talley’s car, which she sat in with the doors locked, gun loaded, and cell phone with 9-1-1 at the ready.

We forewent our planned breakfast at The Farmhouse and even decided to ditch our stashed clothes as a precautionary measure. Thankfully, Talley always kept an outfit for each of us in her car since we didn’t always Change back near our original location. We hit every fast food drive-through in Lake County, ordering enough food for ten people at each stop. As we stuffed our faces, we began comparing theories.

“Would it be too much to hope some Shifters were lost, picked up on another Pack, and got curious?” I asked, squirting some ketchup on a hashbrown patty.

Jase leaned over the seat to swipe a sausage and egg biscuit. “I’m sure that’s what happened. Some wolves in Michigan got bored last night and hoofed it down to Kentucky in a matter of minutes.”

I turned and snatched the breakfast sandwich back out of his hand just moments before he put it in his mouth. “That’s for being rude,” I said, taking a deliberately slow bite. “How am I supposed to know what Packs are where? I’m Always in the Dark Girl, remember? I’ve got a cape and everything.”

“Packs live in territories where they can blend. Since there are no local natural wolves, there are no local Shifters who are wolves,” Talley said. “The closest Pack of any sort, other than the Hagans, is the Beechers over near Mammoth Cave.”

“Definitely coyotes. Definitely too small and timid to be sniffing around Hagan Territory,” Charlie added.

“We’re sure those were wolves, right?”

“Smelled like wolves to me.” Charlie answered my question with a shrug. “But maybe not. Like Talley said, Shifters try not to stick out. Four wolves would eventually get noticed around here. Even if they’re nomads, this really isn’t a stopping point between two wolf friendly habitats.”

“So, we’re left with the most logical explanation, right? That they’re here because of us?”

No one said anything.

“What does that mean then?” Their lack of assistance was annoying. “What wolves would come looking for us? Is the Matthews Pack tight with another Pack? Maybe distant relatives or something?”

The silence in the car stretched on for what felt like an eternity. Just when I was about to scream, Talley answered. “It’s the Alpha Pack.”

Chapter 21

They were waiting for us at the house. The others seemed to have been expecting it, if the expressions on their faces were anything to go by, but I felt ambushed.

“What do we do?” I asked, eyeing the pair of matching luxury SUVs as if they were going to go all Decepticon on me.

Charlie snatched Talley’s keys from her hand and jumped in front of me. “You leave. Now. Just get in the car and go. Don’t stop until you have to.” All the color was wiped from his face, his eyes a pair of glowing pieces of jade.

“What? No.” I stepped closer to Talley. “I’m not leaving her at their mercy.”

“It’ll never work,” Jase said, laying a hand on Charlie’s arm. “It’s the Alpha Pack.” Charlie didn’t move. “Come on, man. Whatever is going to happen is going to happen.” The two did that deep stare thing guys do for several seconds, then Charlie nodded his head and stepped to the side.

We made our way up the driveway in silence, Talley and I clinging to one another’s hands, sending “It’ll be okay” vibes back and forth through our link. The men weren’t sitting in their vehicles as I suspected, their scent obviously strong there because of the time they’d spent inside, so we continued on up to the house. As we got closer, I began to hear snippets of a conversation.