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Chapter 7
Barrett
I don’t know why it was so hard to tear myself away from her, but it was. I can still feel a part of me aching to go back, even now.
She could be in trouble. I can’t protect her if I’m not there.
What will happen if...
I can’t think about that now. I have to trust that she’ll do as I told her. Right now, there’s work to be done. Reaching into my back pocket, I extract my phone, scowling as I look at the dead screen that greets me. Fucking battery’s flat – again. And it had been fully charged when Edirn and I got here; how long was I out for? More than a day? That seems impossible.
I move silently through the underbrush, every sense finetuned as I approach the facility at Whispering Pines. I’ve made my way down these trails so many times now it’s become second nature to me. Today, it’s different, though. The familiar scent of pine needles and damp earth fills my nostrils, but there’s an undercurrent of something else…fear.
My hackles rise instinctively.
Voices drift through the trees, and I freeze, ears straining to catch the words. Two men in uniform are standing together up ahead – a detective, by the looks of it, and some rookie cop. I edge closer, using the thick foliage as cover.
“…definite break-out,” the detective is saying, a grim set to his jaw. “Cages were opened by someone inside. Whoever did it let out one hell of a dangerous pack.”
The rookie’s eyes are wide, hand straying toward his holstered weapon. “Killer wolves, sir? You can’t be serious.”
There’s a harsh bark of laughter. “I wouldn’t figure it myself if we didn’t have video evidence. Saw it with my own eyes – a woman opening the cages, then these…these giant, rabid beasts just tearing into the men on duty. Couldn’t tell if they were normal wolves or what, but they were vicious as hell.” He shakes his head slowly. “Never seen anything like it. What they did to those men…it was a bloodbath. And those rangers were tough-looking types – not what you’d expect to be working at a place like this. But considering what they were dealing with…”
“Jesus,” the kid bites out. “It sounds unbelievable.”
The detective replies, “Believe it. The footage is undoctored. No faking that.”
“And they’re out here…now? Those animals?” The rookie looks around. I’m pretty sure his trigger finger is starting to twitch.
“Don’t sweat it, kid.” The detective sounds confident. “We’re gonna ramp up the search, call in professional hunters, tracker dogs. Maybe even the military if this threat is as bad as we think it might be.”
“Military? That could be authorized?”
“Captain’s got some contacts. After what we saw in that footage, everyone’s running scared. Can’t risk those things getting out into the population. They gotta be put down, end of story.”
A low growl rumbles from me before I can stop it. Put down? Over my dead body. Although pitting my wolf against an arsenal might be a stretch. A couple of bullets, sure. But military weapons? I don’t think so.
I back away slowly, my mind racing.
What the fuck happened here?
And how did I miss it?
The answer to that isn’t hard to pin down. It must have been while I was flat out on my back. After she attacked… I stop that thought. For some reason, I don’t want to call what Cedara did an attack. Sure, she laid into me, but I can’t blame her. It was just…an accident.
I find myself trailing my fingertips over the wound on my neck, and I pull my hand away, focusing on what the detective had said.
The wolves who were locked up here are gone. But where? Did they make it out of these woods? And this woman releasing the shifters… Who? Someone who knew what they were, no doubt. I can’t imagine it was some sort of do-gooder on a mission to save natural wolves.
Could it have been one of us…from Steel Lakes? I can only imagine it would be – as far as I know, we are the only ones who’ve shown any interest in this place recently.
And what about Edirn? Did he leave with them? He must have been involved somehow. Even if he wasn’t directly involved, there’s no way he could have missed it.
I slip away from the cops, moving deeper into the forest, determined to pick up the trail of the escaped wolves.
My senses are sharper than ever as I catch the first whiff of their scent – it’s fresh but already starting to cool. They have a good head start on me.
I move swiftly yet silently, following the spoor as it weaves through the dense underbrush. There are so many individual scents mingled together that it’s impossible to pick out any one wolf. But the overall impression is clear – several of them, moving with purpose away from the sanctuary.
