Page 74 of Raised By Wolves

“There,” Reginald says. Stopping suddenly. Sucking on his teeth like they taste good.

“Where?” Chester asks. “What?”

“See that?”

Chester swallows the last bite of his bar and looks where Hardy’s pointing. He doesn’t see anything but early morning, sun-dappled forest. “No.”

Hardy grabs onto a broken branch. Beneath it are a few snapped twigs. “They went this way,” he says, and then he starts walking again.

Chester follows him, and everyone else follows Chester. They’re no longer walking along an established track. Instead they’re trying to find traces of footfalls in vast forests and grassy meadows.

How is this possibly going to work?Chester wonders as they trudge through a stand of old-growth lodgepole pine.Why am I trusting a man who’d run Kai and Holo out of town on a rail if he could?

Because he has no other options, that’s why.

A mile or two later, Reginald stops at the top of a rise and surveys the land around them. A rocky meadow spreads out below, bending east. A hawk circles high overhead. There’s barely a cloud in the sky.

It’s a beautiful morning, not that Chester cares.

Then he sees something moving on the far side of the meadow. A dark shape going out of the trees.Could it be—?His heart leaps.

Then stops.

It’s not Kai. It’s abear.

“Freeze,” he whispers urgently.

The men come to an instant halt.

All except Sam Dean, who sees the animal and turns to run. Chester reaches out and grabs his arm. Holds him in place with a grip like a vise.

“I saidfreeze,” Chester says through clenched teeth. “Running’ll trigger a chase response, and you can’t outrun a bear.”

The bear lifts its great brown head, sniffing the air. No one breathes. Chester’s hand’s on the pistol at his hip. Hardy brings his rifle into position.

“Well, you know what they say,” Hardy says quietly out of the side of his mouth. “You don’t gotta outrun the bear. You just gotta outrun whatever assholes you’re with.”

Chester hears the click of Hardy popping the safety on his Remington.

“Don’t shoot, Hardy,” Chester says. Grizzlies are a protected species—not animals to be shot on sight.

Unlike wolves.

The bear’s heavy head swings in their direction.

“Come and get me,” Hardy dares.

The bear makes a huffing sound, almost like a man’s cough. It rears up on its hind legs, sensitive nose still sniffing.

“Holy Jesus, he’s big,” Sam Dean whispers.

The bear drops down to all fours and gives its whole giant body a shake. It stomps the ground with a big front paw. Chester could swear he feels the impact. Sam Dean gives a whimper.

Then the bear makes another coughing sound, turns, and ambles off into the trees. Heading north. Away from them. Away from the track they’re following.

Chester feels the breath he’s been holding explode out of his lungs.

That was close.

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