Page 66 of Widow

"Lia taken by spiders. Northeast." I wrote it as big as possible and placed all of our bags by it so he'd see.

Ric was squatting next to his bag with his hands on his head. I approached him and put my hand on his shoulder.

"He's fine. She's fine."

He turned his head, and his eyes were swimming with tears. "Do you know what I think?" He stood and balled his fists. "I think that little fucker knew this would happen. That's why he's been hiding out in bags since we got here."

I took a step back because he looked like he was ready to punch me if I made one wrong comment. "He's an intelligent creature, isn't he?"

"What the fuck does that matter, Kai?" He kicked his bag and then stalked towards the front of the cave. He was inhaling deeply as we walked back towards the trees. "He went after her."

My frown deepened as I followed him. Picard would be no match for those spiders. What had he been thinking?

We increased our pace to a jog. I let Ric lead since he had superior senses. We stopped at a stream, and he let out a growl. It was unnerving to hear such a wolfish sound come from a man.

"What is it?" My heart was nearly in my throat as his entire head shifted to wolf. I backed away and held up my hands as his head swiveled towards me. I was going to piss myself.

He sniffed the air and then waded through the stream. I stood on the edge, waiting for direction. He came back, and his head returned to normal.

I let out the breath I'd been holding. "Next time, warn me before you do something like that. Jesus, man. What's wrong?"

"The scent stops at the water. Picard was in the trees. I can't smell him anymore." He took off upstream. "My wolf thinks they went this way."

My heart sank. Things weren't looking good for us finding Lia.

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