Page 66 of Scarred Resolve

“Agreed. It’s better to assume every one of them can use magic.” Davor’s head was on a swivel, constantly looking around just like Niko’s, while I was keeping my nose to the ground and my ears open.

“Four others?” Niko said, but the question to it made me look up, seeing him staring at Davor for an answer.

“Six others. There’s a couple who are really down there, older than the others or just have softer scents,” Davor answered.

I sniffed around, trying to parse that information and find all the different individuals Davor could smell, but I could only properly count five.

“I’m going to leave the trail to see if I can relocate the werecat’s trail from here,” I said, knowing I was the only one who could safely do it. It had been some time since we caught any wind of it, but it had been coming from the same direction. While the witches were now at the top of our list to deal with, I felt uncomfortable not having any sign of the beast that would actually kill us.

“Go ahead. We’ll stop here for a moment and discuss a bit more of a game plan,” Niko said, nodding right as I was turning to run off the trail.

I took off, knowing the scent would stand out compared to anything else in the region. We’d been following it for some time, so I knew it well, but also, it distinctly didn’t belong. It wasn’t easy to miss. I wasn’t worried about losing my brothers, knowing I could backtrack my own scent to them.

I was looking for obvious areas of disturbed vegetation, but it wasn’t always clear to me. I could easily find those spots in my own territory, but it was vastly different from this forest. I checked everything, but as I moved farther, I found nothing. We had never smelled a point where the werecat had crossed paths with the humans we were tracking, so I knew it had to be on this particular side of the trail. I kept going, farther and farther, making sure to keep alert in case I caught a human scent, but I was greeted by only nature for a long time.

Until I wasn’t.

Screeching to a halt after passing a game trail, I thought I was going crazy. I knew the smell too well, used to blocking it from my senses when I ran in my territory because it was everywhere. Turning back to the game trail, I took a deep breath.

No. There can’t be werewolves right now. These must be werewolves who passed through the area before. We did have the Tribunal tell people to leave the area. They probably just passed through…

The rationalizing wasn’t working, though, as I flexed my paws, sinking claws into the earth.

The offness of their scents… There’s no reason he’s popping up in my mind. I’m just… I’m still paranoid. That really got to me. It has nothing to do with what’s going on right now…

I stepped back, nearly stumbling as I fought the reality of what my nose was telling me. We already had a werecat and witches. I couldn’t handle werewolves, especially ones that made me think of Fenris, of Rainer, of hisscent. Not his scent as I knew him. Day to day in Texas. I hadn’t noticed a difference at the moment, not that I could recall, but my instincts told me otherwise. Maybe it was because I now knew the difference between normal and decidedly not normal.

All I could see was Rainer, finally finishing the brutal transition into the Last Change, his mind about to be fully lost to him as he did his best to kill everyone. I had always thought the thick magic in the air was because of our location. While I hadn’t properly thought about it, my mind remembered details I never consciously considered, and now those details were haunting me.

Fuck. They have werewolves, too.

Finally, I registered just how recent those scents were. I had just missed them. They were fresh enough that I might have seen them if I had moved just a little faster.

And I wasn’t trying to be that quiet.

I had made a mistake.

I turned my head slowly, looking to my left, knowing that werewolves were group predators, good at sneaking up on a target and using their pack tactics to bring down a kill. Even under the control of something, I figured they would be used to doing what they were best at.

I started running as I caught the tiniest glimpse of a hulking shadow in the forest and heard the paws pounding the earth outof pace with my own. It was joined by two more, then the last. While I had been distracted by the scent, they had gotten into position. I had crossed their path, and now I was going to pay for it.

I barely dodged the one that had gotten around me to head me off. Claws raked across my shoulder, but the werewolf didn’t find the purchase to hold on and force me to stop or struggle.

They were fast. The one that missed me quickly recovered from the missed pounce it seemed, as it tried to knock my back legs and throw me off balance. I wasn’t going to beat all four of them, though, not if they caught me.

I just need to follow my scent back to Niko and Davor!

Wait… I can’t. Even the three of us, with no weapons… We’ll get slaughtered.

I made a hard turn, causing the werewolf on my tail to hit a tree since it couldn’t shift its balance in time to do the same turn. With a sickening crack on impact, I knew it would be shaken, but not down completely. As I ran, I heard the creak and crash of the entire tree, unable to survive the blow. It would certainly be loud enough for my brothers to hear as well, but I needed to get these werewolves away from them. I had to.

Insanely, I had an idea. My brothers and I could do this, but I wanted them safer in their werecat forms for it. So, I threw my thoughts to the world, not caring if the werewolves or anyone else heard them, in the hope it reached my brothers. I couldn’t use telepathy, or whatever it was, to speak to people on a different part of the planet. I had tested its range a little, but generally, I was looking at someone when I spoke to them from my werecat form, and I could talk to people individually. This was different. I was yelling.

“CHANGE! THERE ARE WEREWOLVES!”I roared in my mind, hoping they would hear me.

It made the werewolves pick up their pace, telling me they certainly heard it. Whether my brothers did or not, I had no idea, but I knew I would need to head toward them, one way or another. I couldn’t run from these werewolves forever. The witches would certainly want me dead now that we were coming for them, and these werewolves were going to make that happen. I just hoped they could Change in time for the moment I looped around and ran for them.

One lunged, trying to sink fangs into my tail, and missed with a snap of air. The strength of the bite would have broken my tail, and given the werewolf the control over me it needed to let the others come in for the kill if I couldn’t shake it off in time.

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