As the growing, whispering crowd gasped and clicked, Jason licked Kage’s chin and nuzzled his face. Kage slowly wagged his raised tail, then looked past Jason.
Jason also looked and they stood motionless for a moment, seeing or hearing something we could not while their pictures were taken.
Then a howl, up in the forest hills, where we’d been hiking the evening before. Zar again, I thought. Saying, I hoped, Get away from those people.
Kage did not seem to find the message of much importance, only pricking his ears that way. Jason, however, lifted his head and answered in that beautiful, effortless voice of his. This, of course, was contagious. Kage threw his head back to join in while the camp fell otherwise silent with many tourists recording videos of the special moment.
Their voices harmonized as another called from the forest, answering, joining. At last, Jason again nudged at his face, wagging his tail, and trotted back the way he’d come. Kage followed, also in a long, gliding trot, away into the mist, behind the trees, and gone. The voices in the forest faded and died.
It was a minute before the campsite began to buzz.
Larry’s wife was wiping her eyes. “That was the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen.”
A teenage girl clutching a phone, replaying her video, kept saying, “Oh, my God. Oh, my God.” As if that was who she’d filmed.
A general murmur prevailed all morning as we finished dressing and getting up—amidst everyone sharing pictures and talking about wolves being shy and they couldn’t believe it.
“Please don’t tell the celebrity what a hit he was,” I said to Isaac as we set out to find the others.
“I suspect he knows.”
“That’s what I’m afraid of.”
The fog was mostly burnt off by the time we climbed the trail and picked our way through the forest to their rucksacks and other bags.
Only Andrew was there, having changed and dressed by the time we arrived.
Both males were lethargic, blinking, Andrew leaning against a tree with his eyes shut. It was the feast. They’d be all right by the afternoon. Now they just wanted to curl up for another six or eight hours and sleep it off.
I asked about the night. Isaac explained the network of trails to follow and sort out. Andrew started about the size of the half-grown elk they’d gorged on.
“Like a bloody pony, Belle. If that was only the elk—the pup elk—I want to know when we’re meeting the bison.”
“You’re not killing a bison, even if you meet one. So don’t even… Anyway, both of you, tell me about the shifters.”
“Oh…” Andrew gave a dazed little shrug.
Zar padded in among us. He wagged his tail at my greeting, but, like Isaac and Andrew, seemed much less taken with me than usual as he had a dog-sized meal to savor. He didn’t even bother to change but, stomach distended, stretched out at my feet, yawning.
“Well,” Isaac said slowly. “They’re here. A few different species. At least bears and coyotes.”
“But you couldn’t actually find any?” I asked.
“Hmm…”
“Could you be more specific?”
“Found some, we think,” Andrew said.
No one added anything.
“I feel like you’re all stoned. You weren’t like this after the sheep.”
“Wasn’t so big, was she?” Andrew asked. “And no one was as hungry. Jay was sick and had to go back for more.”
“That’s … beautiful. Isaac? What’s happening? Shifters? Are we staying here? Moving on?”
“I’d say stay.” Isaac rubbed his eyes. “There are shifters around, and now they know we’re around. Does this look like a place you saw in your visions? When you saw the shamans?”
“It does. And the meadowlark, and the trails. What’s concerning me now is that they don’t want to say hello.”
“Probably don’t like wolves.” Andrew yawned against the back of his hand.
That could be. The Sables did not like bears or foxes. If so, how long would it take to earn their trust? We’d already been in the country a week. People were in danger, the clock ticking.
“I’ll come out with you again. Maybe there’s something I can do. A go-between, I don’t know. First, I’m driving into town for food and laundry and a phone signal. Isaac? What about Diana?”
He’d only called in once that I was aware of, the night in Rowlins out of the Rockies.
Isaac nodded.
“Why don’t the rest of you get a nap?”
“Do you reckon they have PayDay bars in town?” Andrew asked.
“No.”
“You said they’re everywhere.” He squinted.
“This is different. Town in a national park—stripped down, only certain services.”
Andrew regarded me suspiciously as Kage and Jason came trotting from the forest to us.
Kage struck a pose, lifting his nose as if scenting the wind, then gazing into the distance, his noble head raised.
“Yes, Kage, we saw you. Everyone saw you.” I repeated the plan to him.
Kage started nosing around for his things.
I had to talk him out of accompanying me. “Curl up. All of you. We’ll be back soon and find you, but it would help if you’d all sleep until the afternoon. Then we’ll try again.”
Kage was agitated about my leaving but Andrew said he’d join us and curl up in the van so I had an escort. What was it they thought was going to happen to me?
So we had to find Jed before we left to tell him. He eventually showed up, tried to follow me, was talked into staying behind, and the three of us were underway.
It was an hour’s drive to the gateway village of Red Eagle—where I saw faces from my dreams.
Chapter 29
From dreams? From scries? I wasn’t exactly sure, but the two elderly men chatting at the pastry case in the local grocery store certainly looked familiar. Long hair, leathery skin, of Native American ancestry. Hadn’t I seen them sitting beside a fire while a coyote rested nearby?
I didn’t hesitate, approaching when I saw them, Isaac trailing. Andrew had dragged himself from the van to join us but was only hunting PayDays.
“Excuse me?”
They looked around, one offering a vague smile, one deadpan, neither spoke.
“My friends and I have been trying to find coyotes in this area. You wouldn’t happen to know … about that, would you?”
There was no flicker in their dark eyes, no change.
“Looking for coyotes?” The one with the slight smile repeated. “Is that so?”
“Yes. It’s rather important. Have you seen any lately?”
“Nope.”
“You haven’t?”
“Nope.” Still smiling.
I looked to the deadpan one instead. “Do you know about any coyotes around here?”
He was slowly shaking his head even as I turned to him.
Back to the first. “Can you tell me, is it usual for coyotes to hide from wolves? Do they … have an antagonistic relationship that maybe we’re not aware of? Not being from here?”
“Oh, you could ask a ranger. Anyone in the park service could help you. Not many wolves around, though.”
“Plenty of coyotes, right?”
A gentle shrug. He still smiled at me. “Legend says coyote has a way of being everywhere at once.”
“Is that so…?”
Isaac had his hand on my hip and I allowed him to ease me away.
The two old men went right back to talking. Didn’t even bother to watch us go. Somehow … I found this irritating.
I was still mad in the parking lot with the other two and my grocery bag in the car.
“What the hell? They’re shifters. I saw them in my visions.”
“You saw them changing?” Isaac asked.
“That’s not the point. I know they’re shifters. If they weren’t shifters they would have thought I was crazy. They just … smirked. You know what?” I looked around at him shar
ply in the passenger seat.
Isaac leaned slightly away, watching me.
I realized I was brandishing a finger and lowered it. “They like this. They like that we’re out looking for them and we haven’t a clue what we’re doing.”
I wondered if he was going to accuse me of conspiracy theories but it was Andrew in the back who said, “So?”
I looked around. He hadn’t found a PayDay but was making himself comfortable in his reclined seat, chewing green grass plucked from the landscaping.
“So…” I said, losing my train of thought. “So it’s…”
“Rude? It’s their den, Cassiopeia.”
“He’s right,” Isaac said softly. “They can do whatever they want. If they’re keeping an eye on us from afar for a laugh, that’s their prerogative. I agree they wouldn’t have responded how they had to you just now if they were mundanes, but we don’t even know that for sure. Perhaps it’s the local sense of humor. They may have thought you mad but they play along with whatever tourists say to them. We don’t know. It doesn’t matter.”
“Because there’s nothing we can do about it?”
“Yes, and—”
“Andrew?”
“Hmm?” Nibbling.
“I think you should change. We can check—”
“Cassia?” Isaac’s voice was very gentle.
I looked at him.
He didn’t say anything, only met my eyes with his calm emerald ones.
If Andrew picked up a shifter scent right here in skin … what? Call them out? In town? Make a scene? Demand they change? Show themselves? Say, Ah-hah! Now we’ve got you! We’ve come here to ask a favor! Out with it!
I leaned my head back and let out a long breath. “This is urgent. It’s hard … to…”
“The fact is, we need something from them. We need to find them. One more day, or three, is not going to change the course of history. Finding them or not finding them? That might change a great deal. We’ll keep looking in as respectful a manner as we can, until we find one who’s willing to talk. Not one we try to corner into talking. We’ll rest, go out again this evening. You come along, as you said. And we’ll go the next night and next. We’ll move and keep tracking until we have their attention and they will take us seriously enough to be the ones to ask what it is we want.”
I nodded and started the engine.
No laundromat it Red Eagle.
We charged our phones, checked maps, made some calls, and sent emails while I ate lunch with a latte.
Isaac learned there had been another death in the Aspen Pack and another in France. The Sable’s local investigation was getting nowhere: fights with the Greys, unable to find the Beeches, rifts in the whole South Coast Cooperative—and, now, bad blood with the Welsh wolves, the Traeth Pack.
Peter was apparently in Wales, making inquiries. The Traeths had not taken the visit well and run Peter and his packmates off their territory. Because they didn’t like being questioned by strangers? Or because they knew something?
I wrote to Melanie, my roommate, Preeda, in answer to a note from her about my ongoing absence, then to Rowan the druid, Gavin the vampire, and Gabriel the wolf—who wasn’t a wolf—to give them updates and ask the former two if they had anything new to share. How strange, the company I kept these days. Or not? Not for a witch.
I started an email to my boss as I finished eating. Isaac was off the phone, only killing time while my phone was still plugged in. I had a few days before I was supposed to be back and meeting with her. I had to tell her she had to find someone new. Could I tell her in person, as I longed to? More days out here? Another week? I was going to have to write. No way around it.
I worked on a draft, managed with some of the key points—how sorry I was, how grateful I was for this opportunity she’d offered me, how my life had completely transformed in a month’s time into something so unrelated to what it had been in the middle of July, I might as well have traded in my soul.
Too much information.
I saved the draft and closed email to work on it later.
“Okay… Let’s get back to the campsite and another hike. And…”
“Waiting until the arseholes fancy a chat?” Andrew asked.
“Yeah… Come on. People are counting on us. If we can communicate that to these coyotes—”
“It’ll give them something extra to laugh about?”
“Let’s hope they’re not that serious about avoiding us…”
Chapter 30
We didn’t start our next hike until a blistering 4:00 p.m. when everyone was refreshed, having come to terms with their stomachs.
I waited for Jed to change and walk with me, or at least to be hovering around, watching me.
It took me an hour on the trail with them—climbing into the mountains on mundane hiking trails or wandering to paths they led me down—to know Jed was avoiding me. Naturally.
The highlight of that sweltering climb came around 6:00 p.m., sweat trickling down my face and back, when we followed a mountain stream to a long, narrow lake in a breathtaking valley. I turned my phone on just to get a picture of the place before pulling off shoes and socks on my way to the shore.
Hot hikes and cold water for feet: perfect combination. Making me think of Isaac and Germany and What’s your favorite place?
I still didn’t know.
Right now, it felt like here as the wolves bounded past me to wade in and drink or race up the shore, snapping at dragonflies.
I didn’t even see Jed. Isaac was also out of sight, somewhere ahead on the trail.
Zar lay against me, head up, eyes shut in the dazzling evening sun reflecting off the water.
“Sorry. No brush.” I stroked him instead, feet in the cool water.
Jason waded up to his chest, searching for fish. Maybe just for sport.
Andrew brought me a dead vole, dangling by the tail from his teeth.
“Yes?” I looked from the sad little thing to his face. “I really don’t need that, but thanks for offering. I guess.”
He stepped closer, holding it out. Zar showed his teeth. Andrew ignored him.
“You want me to keep it for you for later? I’m not taking that, Andrew. I’m sorry. If you’re still too full to eat it, why don’t you give it a proper burial?”
Andrew looked a bit hurt, but took his catch away.
Zar rested his head across my lap and I massaged his neck, eyes shut in the glow.
I was still sitting like that, thinking of the Sable Pack, my pack, deaths and clues and scries and motives, getting spaced out, when a great crash of water made me jump.
Jason was tearing back to the bank. He raced past, splashing us both, bringing a shining, flapping fish with him. Long, speckled, with red around the gills, some sort of trout, almost a foot long.
Kage and Andrew ran to investigate. Zar also sat up and I turned to watch as Jason first shook himself, then tossed the fish in the air, caught its tail in his teeth, and bashed it into the ground. This blow either killed or stunned it because it quit thrashing.
Jason threw it again, caught it in the middle of the missile body, then bounded up to Kage, his tail spinning. I could almost hear him laughing. Kage also wagged his tail for him. Jason showed Andrew, who made a quick snatch for the trout, but Jason was already frisking away.
He ran back to me at the bank and again tossed his prize, making an expert catch.
“That’s gorgeous, Jason. I’m glad you got one.”
He dashed away. Zar clambered up to follow. Jason shook with another spray of water, dodged Andrew’s next snap, and ran. The rest chased him.
There didn’t seem to be any particular reason for this. Not as if they were hungry. But one had a fish and the rest did not.
They sped up and down through the forest and along the bank while I returned to contemplation. The sun was dropping and my own patch was cast into shadow. Time to dry and move on. I’d brought coat, water bottle, snacks, flashlight, and so on, but I wasn
’t prepared to spend a whole night out with them. I’d do all I could.
While I moved to follow the sun and dry my feet, Jason splashed past me into the lake for a drink. His ribs were heaving, all of them winded and panting. He dropped the trout into the water only for a moment to get a quick gulp. Before Andrew could get there, Jason had it back out on the rocky bank in the sunlight.
He laid down with it to nibble, mostly licking it, holding it in his forepaws. The others were losing interest and also dispersed for a drink.
Kage returned to lie beside him. Jason nosed the trout toward him, sniffed along the shining scales, then eased his head over to rub on the fish. This apparently felt so wonderful he needed more because he flopped all the way on his side, then onto his back as he rolled vigorously on the silver body, rubbing his neck into it with great relish, kicking all four feet in the air.
He sprang up, shook, and sniffed it again.
Kage also examined the trout with his nose. Yes, indeed, so much to love, he tipped his head into it and flopped over to roll. Jason had another go, dragging his side across it, right down to his hip bones as he thrashed. They swapped again and Jason even let Andrew have a roll on his fish when Andrew sniffed over.
Jason growled at Zar, then subsided and didn’t object to Zar’s getting a quick roll. The smell must have been intoxicating because a general air of fellowship was spreading around the lakeshore. Jason’s adored fish was simply too good a thing to keep to himself, turning him into a benevolent benefactor.
At least I knew which four wolves were not sleeping with me tonight.
By the time I had my socks and shoes back on, Jason had settled down with Kage to eat the head off the trout, holding it again in his forepaws.
I walked on.
Zar and Andrew followed.
Maybe they went on rolling. Or maybe it took special care to eat a trout when you’re already full. Whatever it was, Andrew had roamed away again, Kage and Jason were far behind, and I still hadn’t seen Isaac or Jed for an hour or more, when, some time after we left the lake, Zar and I found ourselves alone as the moose came at us.
Chapter 31
I’d worried about bears and mountain lions. I’d worried about rattlesnakes and, mostly, spiders. I’d never worried about moose out here. Nana had always said moose, which we didn’t have in New Mexico, could be a whole trainload of hell let loose from a clear sky. We were not, however, in Alaska. How many moose were even in Grand Teton National Park? What were the odds?
Moonlight Journey: A Reverse Harem Shifter Romance (The Witch and the Wolf Pack Book 6) Page 20
