Page 23 of Hunted

Idosee the light scratches marring the dark wood.

“What do you think caused it?” I ask instead.

Sara shrugs and an alarm goes off inside, from the kitchen, I think. Her attention bounces between us and the open doorway. “Not sure. I need to?—”

“Go,” Bennett interrupts. “I wouldn’t mind checking out this mystery animal.”

We wait until Sara’s footsteps have disappeared back inside and it’s just us.

“What do you think?” I ask, my voice low.

“Only one way to find out.”

We walk down the slope to the marked tree.

When Chris steps out from behind it, I raise my eyebrow. “Anything?”

He shakes his head. “Just the clawed tree. Definitely a wolf. A shifter.”

The scent has faded since the shifter left. It’s faint enough whoever it was must have come late last night or very early this morning. I don’t know this shifter and neither does my wolf.

We stand in front of the tree, studying the claws for several seconds. I’d hoped that this was nothing. That we’d turn up at the hotel, wander around for a bit, and when we found nothing, I’d be back at home to spend mid-morning gardening with Aerin.

That doesn’t look like it’s going to happen now.

I slide my phone out of my pocket and send Helena a quick text, letting her know that I’m going to be longer than I thought, and to let Aerin know so she doesn’t worry.

Helena responds instantly.

Helena: Will do. Stay safe.

Nodding, I return my phone to my pocket. Aerin has a phone… somewhere. I bought one for her months ago, but she puts it down, forgets where and never remembers to charge it.

Other than Moses, Ivy, or very rarely, her father, she tells me she doesn’t need a phone to speak to them. They call the home phone when they want to speak to her.

“What are you thinking?” Bennett asks.

“Probably the same thing you’re thinking,” I say.

It was obvious what the clawed marks were from the patio. I’d wanted to get closer and smell the wolf who is trying to claim my territory as his. And itisa he.

This property belongs to the hotel, but Winter Lake is mine. Nowhere in this town is available for claiming.

I don’t recognize the scent, and it wasn’t in the hotel, so whoever did this left soon after.

“Let’s go,” I say, stepping into the forest. “I’m not comfortable about any shifter being in Winter Lake right now, especially one quietly trying to claim it.”

I pull up outside the house, frustrated, exhausted, and starving, hours later than I’d intended, and with nothing to show for it.

An unknown shifter had hung around the back of the hotel, marked a tree, and slipped back into the forest. We followed his tracks, discovering they led to the main road. We’d stuck to the forest as much as we could and those tracks had led out of Winter Lake.

We’d returned to the hotel before we came home, asking Sara if she’d had any other guests who’d recently left. She saidthat she had three guests turn up in the last week. One man stayed for a couple of nights, wanting to enjoy the hotel’s quiet surroundings after the hustle and bustle of New York. He was a sixty-year-old retired banker. Not exactly the young shifter we imagined was trying to claim my territory as his own.

Two more guests were eating lunch. A middle-aged couple from Nebraska. We’d briefly checked them out, but nothing about them seemed the least bit suspicious. They looked like the same tourists we’d see around Winter Lake all the time.

I refuse to believe a shifter would come all this way, mark a tree, and just leave. They’d wanted us to think they had left, but there’s no reason to believe they won’t come back later today, tonight, or tomorrow.

I’m unbuckling my seatbelt when the front door swings open and Helena steps out. We dropped Chris off at home on the way, and he’d refused the offer of picking up Zoe and coming to the house for a late lunch, though, at now nearly 4, it’s probably closer to dinner than it is lunch.

---