Page 72 of Wolf's Mark

“Sorry, buddy. He’s not coming. He called me after you two talked.”

“He still doesn’t buy anything he was told.”

“Not in the least. Plus, I think he was with some chick. You know how he is.”

Yeah, I did. Chase was nothing but a hard-edged playboy. When I pulled out my weapon, Riker snorted.

“You’re planning on shooting a gargantuan wolf with razor-sharp teeth?”

“If necessary.”

“I bet bullets won’t work.”

“They are human when not in wolf form.”

“Yeah, but we survive. We heal,” Riker reminded me. “It takes time, but unless you pop us right in middle of our cerebral cortex, we will survive. But hey, I brought one too. There are also some murderous humans in town.”

“Thanks for reminding me. I’ll sleep better tonight.”

“I doubt that since the sun will be coming up in about thirty minutes. I suggest if we’re going to actually hunt instead of talking, we get going. I like you but not that much.”

“You’re hilarious tonight.” I took off jogging into the woods. I’d opted for jeans, a sweatshirt, and hiking boots, which had delighted Sedona.

“Hold on. You’re the track star. Remember?”

He followed behind me, moving quickly through the woods. Thankfully, he’d dressed appropriately as well. While I had no intention of shifting, using our other attributes could prove beneficial in our search.

It had been a very long time since we’d hunted, the last time when we were teenagers. There’d been a point when keeping certain skills intact had been encouraged, including by our mother, but times had changed. Attitudes had changed.

Our lives had changed.

I hoped now we wouldn’t regret the choice of becoming more human instead of following our natural instincts.

Riker was a fast runner, more so than I was. He’d also kept up his physical shape, preferring using his home gym to any other sport. I preferred the outdoors, hiking and rock climbing. Unfortunately, with our business thriving, I hadn’t managed to get in a recreational session for well over a year.

It showed tonight in how fast I was sprinting through the trees. We had a lot of ground to cover in a short period of time. If any of the lore was correct, the beasts hunted only at night, daylight preventing them from enjoying the shift.

But I could be wrong.

The idea they shifted because of the full moon was bogus, but at least the bright light provided relief from the myriad shadows. As expected, my eyesight was much keener than it had been only days before.

The hunt was exhilarating, my blood racing and my heartbeat high.

“I missed this,” Riker said when we made it to a clearing.

“Yeah, so did I.” I took a deep inhale and turned my head. “We’re close.”

“I smell the bastards. Four of them. Maybe more.”

“We need to be careful.”

“Hey, dude. Careful is my middle name.”

Even here at this moment when we were facing a situation where we could be in over our heads, the man could joke. I did love that about him. “Uh-huh. I’ll remind you of that when you do something stupid.”

“Like what? By the way, I think we should bring the bastards out in the open.” He didn’t wait for my thought on his idea. He simply issued a wolf howl. The sound permeated the forest and almost immediately, all the night creatures became silent.

When it was all quiet again, I tipped my head in his direction. “Well, you just did something stupid.”

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