Page 98 of Red's Beast

I take another breath, but the scent is too fresh. Then I look out at the pack, who have started going about their business again as if I didn’t just claim them. Odd people. This could be because of the curse, though.

"No, he has to be here,” I say as I turn my attention to the animals in the barn.

We search the barn, flipping over haystacks and going through every animal pen there is. It feels hopeless, but I continue looking for a trapped door or somewhere he might hide, but no luck.

"Where could he be? His scent is so strong, I know he has to be here."

One of the pigs comes over and bumps me in the legs. I have an odd thought to lean closer and sniff. Corbin's scent is all over the pig and I gasp. "Grandmother, the pig smells like him."

"All the animals do, my child. It's not just that pig."

"Would the witch turn him into a farm animal?" I'm horrified but amused at the same time.

It’s definitely an interesting thought.

"Well, it's possible she did, but which one? They all smell like him."

I pass each animal, leaning close to sniff before moving on to the next animal. Each smells faintly of Corbin, but they don't act differently than they normally do. The only one who even comes near me is the pig, which is odd. Maybe Grandmother has it wrong, and that pig is him.

I circle back toward the pig and squat down in front of him. "Okay, Mr. Pig. I need to know if you are Corbin."

His little eyes sparkle at me before another pig squeals, and he turns his head in excitement. He goes running off to jump in the mud with the other pigs. "Well, if that's Corbin, he's enjoying the mud now. I don't get it. His scent is all over the place, all the animals smell like him, and yet he's not here."

Sighing, I sit back on the ground on the wooden flooring.

Grandmother steps over closer, sticking close by my side. "I bet he's here and we're just overlooking him."

"I wish he would give me a sign." A bucket clangs from up in the rafters and I glance up, but don't see anything. "Maybe he's a ghost. That is the only other reasonable answer."

"A ghost can't leave scents, dear," Grandmother chides.

"True, but it would be like something he'd do." I rise from the wooden boards and stand, looking around at the animals one last time. His scent is so saturated here, so it doesn’t make sense that he’d be anywhere but here. "Maybe it's just a dream, and it's an old scent. He's probably moved far away from here if she didn’t send him somewhere. I know he wouldn’t want to be here if he wasn’t going to be alpha.”

As I go to leave the barn, the bucket in the rafter clangs again. It falls as if it's pushed and now hangs on one of the rafters by a rope.

"Odd, what pushed that bucket?"

Suddenly, a goat comes out of the rafters and lands on a cow. It jumps down and causes all the animals to run away. The next thing it does is go to aggravate the pigs as it runs them out of their mud.

"What is wrong with the goat? Did we spook it?"

Grandmother shakes her head in disbelief. "I've never seen a goat act like that."

The pig that I had been certain was Corbin, makes its way toward me to hide behind my legs, which just makes me think it’s definitely him. Until I look up at the goat coming my way.

It approaches slowly, almost as if it is calculating how to terrorize the poor pig further.

Two seconds is all it takes for me to recognize that look all too well.

Then its scent hits me, and I choke back a laugh as it confirms my thoughts. "I found Corbin. He's a blasted goat.”

Lillian

I stand there for a moment, completely baffled as to why he was turned into a goat. Of all the creatures out there that she could have turned him into, why a goat?

It’s too good for him.

The pig behind me oinks lightly and pushes its snout into the back of my legs, as if to ask for help in getting rid of the peskygoat. I turn to look over my shoulder, then down toward its beady black eyes.

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