I gave her a big hug. “We’ll both be fine,” I whispered and hoped it was true.
We were able to make better time without all the supplies we’d been lugging and because we weren’t herding more than a dozen rambunctious girls. We began to make our camp as sunset approached, and I realized that with any luck, we’d be back at the forest entrance by tomorrow night.
Lucas and Connor went off to capture a rabbit. Kayla was building a fire. I was restless.
“I’m going to go pick some blackberries,” I said to Kayla as I grabbed a small container.
She twisted around to look at me. “Are you sure you should go off by yourself?”
“I saw brambles in some of the thickets we passed. They aren’t far. I won’t be long.”
“Just be careful.”
“Always.”
I headed back in the direction from which we’d come. Funny thing was, the blackberries were farther away than I remembered, and they weren’t quite on the trail. I slid into the gulley and clambered up the other side where I could see berries peeking out through the thicket. Carefully avoiding the thorns, I plucked one and popped it into my mouth. Wild berries were always tastier than anything found in a store.
The container was half full—I am an optimist—when I became acutely aware of a presence and the hairs on my arms lifted. As slowly as possible, I peered around and that’s when I spotted it.
A mountain cougar.
“Nice kitty,” I whispered beneath my breath, knowing I was in trouble. If my scent was that of a human, maybe he’d move on. But we Shifters smell like wild animals.
He gave a deep, throaty purrrr and bared incisors that could tear flesh from bone. Cautiously I shifted my weight, prepared to leap into the brambles and hoping the thorns would serve as a deterrent. My mouth was so dry that I couldn’t have spit if my life depended on it. My heart was pounding so hard that I was surprised the others couldn’t hear my blood whoosh-whooshing between my ears.
I saw the cat’s muscles tense.
I leaped up and screamed just as he lunged.
A blur of movement knocked into the cat right before it slammed into me. I felt the heat of the bodies, the air rushing past with the force of the collision. I fell down and scrambled back, my gaze locked on the battle. I could see now that a wolf had attacked the cat. Not just any wolf. One I knew.
Rafe.
What was he doing here? And what if he lost this fight?
I got to my feet and took a step forward, a step back. I wanted to stop it. I didn’t want Rafe getting hurt. My heart was racing. I wanted to scream for help, but I couldn’t risk distracting him. My fists were closed so tightly that my nails were digging into my palms.
The cat’s shrieks rent the air, quickly followed by the wolf’s growls. They were locked in combat. Swiping at each other, snarling, burying their teeth into each other. I could see that Rafe was bleeding. I wanted to rush over to him, to help him. I wanted him safe. I wanted the cat gone.
The cougar finally broke free and raced into the thickness of the forest. The wolf took a step toward me and collapsed.
I raced over, sat on the ground, and put his head on my lap. He was bleeding near his shoulder and his hind-quarters. As he tried to lift his head, I pushed it back down, gently stroking his fur. “Shh, shh, just relax. You need to heal. You’ll be all right.”
Holding his gaze, I thought I’d never been so grateful for anyone’s arrival, but it was more than the fact that he’d saved me from a cougar attack. I was just so glad to see him. I wanted to know what he’d been doing, how he was doing. I had a hundred questions for him, but mostly I just wanted to hold him. He licked my bare knee, as though he wanted to communicate that he was feeling the same. I didn’t scold him for sneaking in a kiss.
I heard a twig snap and jerked my head up to see the guy who’d played pool with Brittany—Dallas—standing there.
“So what are you—the wolf whisperer?” he asked.
“I’m really trying not to freak out here,” Dallas said. “But this is just…it’s wild, man, it’s totally unbelievable. Werewolves. They exist.”
I hadn’t seen any point in trying to lie my way out of a situation that couldn’t get much worse. Rafe’s clothes had been in a heap on the forest floor—explain that. His gaping, bleeding wounds had healed right before Dallas’s eyes—again, explain that. I was holding a wolf in my lap and talking tenderly to him—yeah, normal people do that all the time.
So I’d led Dallas back to our camp. We’d been only a few minutes into the journey when Rafe had silently joined us in human form, fully clothed. Seeing him again like that was like a kick to the gut that almost made me giddy. I hadn’t realized that I’d actually missed him, probably a lot more than I should have. I had the sense that he’d missed me too when he silently handed me my container of blackberries. It was full, which meant he’d taken the time to pick some before catching up with us.
Now we were sitting beside the fire, where two rabbits were cooking. I wasn’t certain I’d be able to eat. Disaster seemed a heartbeat away.
“We prefer the term ‘shapeshifters,’” Lucas said. “Werewolf is so…Hollywood.”
“Didn’t mean to offend, but God. Mason kept talking about werewolves, and I just thought he was insane, that his brain power was too much for him. I mean, his IQ is off the charts.”
“You know Mason Keane?” I blurted.
“Hard not to when I work—worked—for Bio-Chrome.”
“‘Worked’?” Lucas repeated, suspicion in his voice.
“Yeah. I quit about ten days ago. Decided to take a long-overdue vacation. And—okay, I was curious. I wanted to discover for myself if you really existed.”
“And you decided to do that by following us?” Connor asked.
“Don’t sound so offended, man. He was following me.” He jerked his thumb toward Rafe. “Not that I ever spotted him or anything. It was just a sixth-sense kind of thing, you know?”
Yeah, I knew. So the odds were that when I had felt that sensation of being watched, it had been Dallas doing the watching. Or maybe it had been Rafe, slipping in to keep an eye on us.
“So why follow us?” Kayla asked.
“I’m a scientist. I need proof. So are all of you…” Dallas’s voice trailed off as he glanced around.