CHAPTER ONE
Caleb held his breath, his hand raised in a fist in a signal to the pack of teenagers behind him that they needed to be quiet. For once on this entire trip, they listened. They were wolf shifters after all and could most likely sense the bear rummaging through a berry bush ahead of them. He had almost spotted the wild animal too late, the brush was pretty thick where they were on the side of the mountain. Surrounded by tall trees, it felt like a different world from the urban neighborhood they'd left. If Caleb had been with the adults in his pack, this bear would have caused no concern. They would have quietly gone around, or at most, shifted into their wolf forms and defended themselves. One adult wolf shifter was bigger than most bears. But Caleb was stuck with a pack of pups.
Not stuck, you wanted this. He tried to recall that moment back at The Den. He'd had a pint of beer in front of him, he remembered that much. And Stella had made him a meatball sub with extra meatballs. Of course, he'd agreed to take four pups into the deep forest on a bonding, trail-making excursion. He'd been set up.
Caleb stepped silently backward and hoped the four kids behind him would do the same. This was the time for a silent retreat.
Saying he had been set up wasn't exactly true. When he'd agreed to this trip, he'd been excited. Not just because he was being given a position in the pack, but because he had wanted to reach out to the youth. At twenty-three, it wasn't so long ago that he was a youth as well. The pack had been a different entity back then and Caleb's life had been rough. His father had died early, in a failed attempt to take control of the pack the old wolf shifter way of fighting the current pack master to the death. His mother relied on her beauty and charms to keep them safe. The son of a failed challenger wasn't looked favorably upon by many.
Now though, the wolf pack at The Den was led by a kind, hybrid shifter, Felix and a reasonable alpha wolf, Conner. Both were mated with children and led the pack in a way that ensured their children would have a safe, healthy future. Not many in his pack now knew, remembered or cared about his family's history.
Caleb finally felt accepted by his pack and was eager to earn his place. A place he would never find if all the kids trusted into his care were mauled by a hungry mother bear in the middle of nowhere.
Caleb kept stepping back, reverse herding the pack of kids behind him. He'd wanted to reach a lake that was supposed to a be a few miles ahead and camp there for the night. Instead, they'd have to camp next to the creek he'd spotted on their way up. When they were very far away from the bear, he exhaled loudly and turned to the crew.
"I told you that wasn't the right way," Lena said as she dramatically dropped her hiking pack. "The map said we were supposed to go east, you took us northeast."
Caleb grit his teeth. "Lena, you do understand we are up here to make the trails. The map can't tell us where we are supposed to go because where we are going doesn't even exist yet."
Lena handed her canteen to her best friend, Ruthie, a shorter girl with extremely long golden hair that hung in two braids on either side of her round face. "Then why can't we be there already?"
Caleb's tongue was going to be swollen for weeks after biting it so much. He didn't want to stop the kids from asserting themselves and finding their voices, but wasn't there a way to maybe, quiet their voices? Limit the amount of time he was required to hear their endless thoughts, suggestions and commentary?
"Cut him some slack," Garett said. "He's trying to avoid Bigfoot."
"Idiot," Zeke scoffed. "Bigfoot isn't real."
"He is around here! Oscar told me!"
Caleb smiled. Most likely, his pack mate Oscar was trying to scare the kids into behaving. Though, when Caleb was younger, he'd heard rumors of a monster in these woods too. As a child, the idea of a great, hulking beast that mutilated deer and hikers terrified him. "Bigfoot isn't real," Caleb said which earned him a glare of betrayal from Garett.
Caleb reflected on the previous week he had spent with the kids-hiking back miles to retrieve items that were left behind, the complaining and the constant acts of defiance. He'd blame his lingering annoyance on what he said next. "No Bigfoot around here. We have something worse. The Pacific Skineater." He sat down on a log and leaned back against the tree behind him.
"The what?" Ruthie asked on a whisper.
Lena already shook her head back and forth. "It isn't real, Ruthie. He's just trying to scare you," she said with disdain.
It didn't matter that she was one hundred percent right. Caleb rested his head against the trunk and closed his eyes like he couldn't be bothered to defend himself. "Makes no difference to me if you believe in the Pacific Skineater or not. If he finds you, he'll eat your skin just the same."
Ruthie clutched Lena's arm. "My mom wouldn't let me come up here if there was danger."
"You're in the middle of the forest, there is always danger," Garett pointed out.
"Yeah, well, I mean like, danger of having my skin eaten off!"
It didn't take long for the guilt to kick in. Caleb sighed and leaned forward. "Don't worry, Ruthie. The Skineater lives higher up the mountain. With that, why don't we camp down here for the night, where it is safe?" So, he wasn't feeling that guilty.
Zeke and Garett unloaded the tents that they carried in their packs. Before they had left they decided the guys would carry the tents and the girls would carry the food. Everyone carried their own sleeping roll and water. Caleb's bag was especially heavy with the trail making tools, maps and survival equipment. Theoretically, they could have left with nothing and simply shifted into their wolf forms to sleep and hunt, but when Caleb had suggested that to the group, they'd stared at him with outraged expressions.
Call him crazy, but Caleb thought being able to shift into a wolf was a cool thing. These kids seemed to look at it like a tired tradition. Caleb wiped his hands off on his jeans after finishing constructing the stone perimeter for a fire. Once the kids matured and were the right age to seek a mate, they would appreciate their animal sides a lot more.
As a kid, Caleb had never fit in with the other shifter pups. He'd been small and too gentle in their eyes. But, he didn't fit in with the human children either. Now, he'd come into his own stride, without having to sacrifice too much of his own identity. He was still small in stature, but worked out regularly to keep himself in the best shape possible. He figured it was time to find a mate but so far, Caleb hadn't met anyone that made his heart thump. At this point, he wasn't sure if his heart would ever thump.
"What does it look like?" Zeke asked.
Caleb frowned.
"The Skineater? Why does it just eat skin? Or does it eat the skin first? What about really furry animals? Does it eat the fur too?"
Caleb used his flint and steel to start a fire. He'd diligently collected laundry lint for about a month before their trip so he would have enough tinder. He blew on it a few times before it flamed up. He set it under the formation of kindling and let the flames get to work, blowing air every once in a while, when it looked like the tiny fire needed it. He was stalling, realizing this was the point where he could come clean about his small lie, the kids would roll their eyes and never believe another thing he said. Or, he could…
"If the animal is very furry, like many are out here, the Skineater peels the skin off like a hunter and then gnaws at the fat and gristle until the hide is clean. A common fact about Skineaters are that they are never cold because they have so many animal blankets around. But, their favorite meal is a nice, bald hiker or camper."
"You're lying," Lena said with narrow eyes. "C'mon, Ruthie, let's go fill our canteens."
The two girls left into the trees. Caleb would have had one of the guys go with them for safety, but the creek wasn't that far. He'd be able to hear if they got into any danger. Zeke and Garett finished erecting the two tents and joined Caleb by the fire. "This would be a good spot to mark on the map for future campers," Garett said, looking around appraisingly. "Relatively flat and close to a clean source of water."
Caleb handed him the map and pen and let Garett and Zeke get to work, marking the map with the campsite. There were a handful of other similar markings on the map. They'd cleared out and identified almost every spot they'd stopped to sleep at. Except for one that ended up being a nesting ground for ants and another that flooded very quickly after only a small amount of rain.
They'd turn around and make the trip back home soon and hopefully the kids would feel a sense of accomplishment in what they'd achieved. Caleb wouldn't say it out loud, but he couldn't wait for a warm shower. He could only imagine how dirty the water would be that ran off his skin. That was one thing about camping, some part of him always felt sweaty. Even on colder days.
The girls came back, but Caleb could tell there was something different about them. They were excited.
"Did you find something out there?"
"In the creek," Ruthie said quickly as Lena shushed her. "I'm not getting in trouble so you can have gross beer," Ruthie snapped.
"He can't get us in trouble, he doesn't have the power," Lena retorted.
Teenagers were mean.
"I'm not going to ground you, if that is what you mean. But I can stop this trip right now and bring us all back early if you want me to."
The other three all groaned loudly.
"Please don't. My mom said it was this or summer school," Zeke wailed. He turned to the girls. "Just tell him what you have."
Lena begrudgingly revealed what she'd been hiding behind her back, a banged up six pack of beer, with one of the cans missing.
"Where did you find that?" Caleb asked, taking the beer from Lena. The cans were wet and cold to the touch.
"They were just sitting in the creek! I spotted them between two rocks. Must have made it down the river or something." She shrugged.
Caleb went back to his log beside the fire. He didn't want to freak the kids out but he was worried about what the cans of beer could mean. They did not make it down the river, as Lena had suggested since rivers flowed down mountains and they were currently hiking up one. The further up they hiked the more remote it was supposed to be. That was the point. In fact, they hadn't even seen another hiker since their first day.
Caleb checked to make sure the cans weren't expired. Maybe they'd been left up there a very long time ago. They weren't, and on top of that, the cans weren't dinged or bent like they would be if they had been a long time in the river, bare to the elements.
That meant someone had left them there, worse, they left them there with the intent to return.
They could be normal people, like you, enjoying the wilderness.
Caleb wanted to believe that but couldn't. Anyone this high up was likely to be avoiding something and probably wouldn't want to have their privacy invaded.
"I don't want anyone leaving this campsite alone. Not even in pairs. The four of you are to go together at all times, or be with me."
Four shocked, young voices all exclaimed, "What?"
"We are getting higher up, that means that if we come face to face with danger, we will have a farther distance to travel to get help."
"Like from the Skineater?" Garett asked.
Caleb should have known that lie would come in handy. "Yes, Garett, or like a bear, or a person, shifter or human who is up here for bad reasons."
"But, we're up here," Lena pointed out.
"Exactly. How unlucky would you have to be to run into us?" Caleb tried to lighten the situation. He wanted the kids warned so they would be cautious, he didn't want them terrified.
Lena's worried face cleared. She eyed the beer sitting on the ground beside Caleb. "So, um, I couldn't help but notice. Five cans, five people." She gave Caleb a broad smile that surely got her everything she wanted at home. The girl had guts, but Caleb wasn't about to hold back everyone's hair after they all had their first beer. He wasn't a complete monster though.
"One can, you can all share it. The rest will go in my pack that I sleep with. Got it?"
Four pairs of excited eyes shone back to him.
"Make sure you drink a lot of water too," he warned them, tossing one can to Zeke.
Zeke quickly went to the task of separating the single can of beer four ways. Three of them held their camping mugs while Zeke chose to drink his sips straight from the can.
While the kids took the longest time possible consuming what amounted to a few sips of beer, Caleb got their dinner going. Tonight's nutritious meal would consist of hot dogs, corn on the cob and rolls that had gone stale yesterday. Part of the reason he'd wanted to make it to the lake that day was so they could fish for their dinner, he was getting pretty sick of hot dogs, trail mix and jerky.
The giggling turned into wild laughing as the kids did their best to pretend they were drunk.
Zeke started walking like he hadn't quite gotten his sea legs while Lena launched into an overly emotional story about the ring her parents had given her for her last birthday.
"See the inscription? The moon is yours. Mine, Ruthie. I just want them to be proud." After a long hug, Ruthie and Lena began to sing loudly and off-key. Garett left them and joined Caleb, accepting the hot dog when Caleb offered it to him.
"This isn't my first beer," Garett said quietly.
Caleb looked at the cans. "For the best. It's sad for anyone's first beer to be MountainTop Lite." The brand was known for its popularity at barbecues and frat parties, any place where someone wanted to drink a lot for a small amount of money and didn't much care about the quality of what they consumed.
"Oh, Zeke's had beer before. I think he is mostly pretending for Lena's sake."
Sure enough, Zeke had managed to drunkenly fall in such a way that he was right beside Lena, who was laughing hysterically at his antics.
"Can't blame a guy for using his resources," Caleb said while mentally taking a note to be extra vigilant around those two. That would be perfect, to return from a two-week hike with a pregnant teenager.
A few hours later, after the sun had set and the fire had almost died, Caleb cleaned up their site. Any food or garbage left out would only attract predators. He checked the perimeter for tracks, but also for signs of people.
He hadn't forgotten the danger those beers posed and would rather be accused of over vigilance any day. When he was sure that everything was cleaned up and that they weren't being surrounded by backwoods serial killers, he crawled into the tent he shared with the boys. They were both sound asleep in their sleeping bags. Caleb thought about shifting and sleeping on the ground as a wolf, but the boys looked really comfortable in their bags. He pulled his out, laid it down in front of the tent door and slipped in. Just as his eyes closed he thought he heard something in the distance.