Page 52 of 3 Shifters to Break a Curse

“Why are you so quiet?” Rin asked after so long.

I shrugged. “No reason. Just lost in thought.”

“Now is the perfect time for that,” Rin said. I knew him well enough to pick up on the sarcasm in his statement. And, sadly, I agreed with him.

I sniffed the air. Jared’s awful odor still clung to each breath. Still faint, but still around. He must have been following us. And besides, until this whole deal with Jared was done and over with, I thought it was best to keep my feelings to myself.

“You’re right,” I said. “I’ll stay focused.”

“Seriously, what were you thinking about?” he asked again.

“Nothing important,” I said. “And since when do you care?”

“Liar,” he said, calling me out. “That was not nothing.”

I scoffed and then glared at him. “Hi, Pot.”

He glanced at me and did a double-take. “What the hell is that supposed to mean?”

“You know,” I said, “the saying about the pot calling the kettle black because you’re pointing out the same flaw you yourself have.”

He arched an eyebrow as he stared coldly at me. After a few seconds, he huffed and shook his head. “I wasn’t lost in thought about absolutely nothing.”

“Never mind,” I grumbled. “Clearly what I said went over your head.”

“Whatever, Man,” he muttered. “We need to keep an eye out for you know who.”

“I am,” I said.

We made it to the river at the perfect spot where we normally collected all of the fish we could eat and then some. We had a small camp there and even kept a basket, and a chain for any extra to hang on. I checked our equipment to make sure everything was in working order.

Rin and I kept things quiet between us, which was necessary. We kept our attention divided between the fish and our surroundings. Always keeping a look out for unwanted intruders. I also kept a nose out for an increase in Jared’s rotten stench. For the longest time, things were clear. For the most part. He was still out there. My nose never lied.

And after about an hour, Rin held up a long chain of fish. Probably close to twenty of them. “Think this is enough?”

I nodded. “For the next few days, at least.”

“Good. Then we should get going,” he said. “We’ve been away long enough.”

I raked my gaze around us, searching for any clues for Jared. I could still smell him in the air. But he was too far away to figure out where he was hiding. It was like he knew exactly how far out to go to keep us on guard, but never on him.

That wasn’t a good sign. That meant we could be facing some trouble on the way back, and I really didn’t want to get into a fight, but I would if I needed to. Especially if that meant Toni would be safe.

I nodded at Rin. “I agree.”

We made our way back toward the cabin. All the while, Jared’s stench remained in each breath I took. He was watching us from somewhere. Always staying far out of sight. And I was sure he was waiting for the perfect time to attack.

23

TONI

The following morning, a strange buzzing sound kept happening, eventually waking me. I peeled my eyes open, groggily searching for the source of the sound. I wondered what time it was. Judging by how tired I still was, my guess was it was pretty early, and I wanted to ignore the strange sound and go back to sleep. But the second I tried to fall back to sleep was the moment I realized the noise was coming from my phone, and it was the first time it had made a noise since arriving at the cabin.

I sat up and searched through my bags to figure out how my phone was working. I couldn’t recall just yet which one I had put the damn thing in.

“I thought there wasn’t enough signal to use your phone?” Ezra asked.

I turned my attention to him. He was standing behind the couch.

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