~

 

“Tell me again why I got roped into this?” Lucas asked as he parked up behind the stationary vehicle in the car port and eyed the darkened windows of the three pods that sat in the field at the back of pack land.

“You mean you don’t want to get back in Griffin’s good books?” Neal grinned, reminding his brother of his most recent debacle that had the alpha spitting nails.

“Aside from that.”

“Oh well, aside from that misdemeanor - there’s the fact that misery loves company, and I didn’t want to come alone.”

“You set me up.” Lucas groaned.

He slapped the palm of his hand against the steering wheel and pushed his head back against the seat rest. He should have known better than to trust his brother.

“I omitted to tell you the whole truth.”

“Son of a…”

“Now be nice; she was your mother as well,” Neal growled.

“Let’s get this over with. Meet and greet - no sniffing the humans.” He growled.

“I think it’s no eating the humans.”

“Yeah, well, I’m not sure that one works for me,” Lucas grumbled.

He reached out and popped the door open. The rain was coming down thick and fast in waves that chased each other across the open land, and he was up to his ankles in muddy water when his boots hit the ground, and he sank fast under his own weight.

“I bet they’re regretting the decision to come this weekend right about now,” Neal said as he rounded the truck and came to stand by his brother’s side.

“Car’s here. It doesn’t look like anyone’s home – you’d think the lights would be on already. Night’s coming on, and they’re city folk.”

“If they’re out in this then they need their heads tested.” Neal took a moment to scan the area through the rain that was pelting down all around them.

“No harm in knocking,” Lucas said; eager to get it over with, earn his brownie points with the alpha, and get back to doing his own thing.

He pushed off and squelched on every step through the muddy field towards the pods.

“Famous last words, brother.”

 

~

~

~

 

“Ooo – Ooo – ooo.” Penny shrieked as she jumped around and waved her arms before brushing the backs of her hands against her backside.

“I’m guessing the music that you’re dancing to is in your head?” Isla chuckled.

“Spider! Crawling on my hand, yuck!” Penny shivered right to her very bones.

“Have a little sympathy … he probably just wants to get out of this rain as well.”

“Nasty yucky things!” Penny grumbled.

“So much for getting in sync with Mother Nature.”

“When Mother Nature has more legs than I do she can do one.” Penny pulled a face that reminded Isla of a constipated cow. Not that she’d seen a constipated cow, but it was how she imagined one would look.

“Well, apart from vegetation that lets out most things.”

“You betcha!” Penny assured her. “Unless it has fur. Depending on the animal; I may make an exception.”

Isla slowly pushed up to her full height. Her eyes widened as she looked over Penny’s shoulder at something in the distance.

“What about Wolves?” She asked. Her voice quivered a little, and that had nothing to do with the cold or the rain that had managed to seep right through her clothes.

“Wolves?” Penny frowned.

“A wolf, to be exact.”

“I wouldn’t want to come face-to-face with one…”

“Then I suggest you run!” Isla said.

She didn’t wait for Penny's reaction. Instead; she grabbed a handful of the woman’s jacket and wrenched her along behind her as she set off through the trees with no idea where she was going.

“Isla, what the hell?” Penny bit out.

Penny’s booted feet were slipping and sliding in the mud as she stopped being pulled and started to run on her own in earnest. She had no idea why she was running, but Isla had an aversion to exercise, so there had to be a damn good reason for it.

“Keep going – don’t look back!” Isla bit out.

“Look back at what?” Penny said.

Just being told not to look back sent the urge to do just that clawing within her, but she didn’t dare turn her head as they dashed through the trees, not with all of the low hanging branches that she needed to avoid.

If this was by some chance a damn joke – she planned to kill her friend at the earliest opportunity.

 

~

~

~

 

“Did you hear that?” Neal asked his brother as he twisted his head to the right and listened harder through the wind and rain.

“Sounded girly, I thought it was you.”

“Sounded like it came from the woods.” Neal offered back.

Neal had already set one foot in front of the other and was stalking across the field towards the tree line to investigate. Lucas rolled his eyes in his head, but he set off after his brother anyway.

“Tourists bug me so!” He grumbled.

“They bug everybody – it’s all part of their charm…”

“On the bright side. If girlies need rescuing, then I’m certainly the man for the job. Especially, if they look like supermodels and are grateful for the rescue.” Lucas chuckled at the thought.

“Probably more like trolls!” Neal offered back.

“Says you.”

“Says the laws of averages.”

“There you go with that fancy talk again,” Lucas grumbled.

‘I think I have a little problem,’ Jake, one of their pack; growled through the mental link that joined the pack as one, and set them apart from the mutts who couldn’t make the same connection as Lycans could.

Those words made Lucas groan; problems wouldn’t see him getting home anytime soon.

‘Please tell me you are not in the woods at the back of the property,’ Neal demanded that assurance.

‘Yep, I kind of am,’ Jake sounded less wolf and more sheepish.

‘Please tell me that you are not a Wolf,’ Neal could only hope, but it seemed unlikely.

‘I could … But, I’m guessing you’d rather hear the truth.’

“Oh, damn it to hell!” Neal ground out.

Now he knew what that girlie sound was. Damn humans spotting one of the packs wolves very rarely ended well.

“I’m guessing we’re going to need the vampire for this one, and a few stolen memories replaced with a few wonderful ones of their holiday here which would give us a five star rating too. So I suppose there’s no downside to that,” Lucas said and his brother shot a dark look back at him from over his shoulder.

“Well, I’m not begging for the bloodsuckers help!” Neal said, adamant that he wanted nothing to do with the vampire this time. The bloodsucker was as annoying as hell and bartering for his help could, at times, be like pulling fangs.

“Don’t look at me …” Lucas shot back. “I didn’t even want the damn tourists here in the first place. Besides, sorting problems is the alpha’s job, no?””

‘Griffin – we’ve got a possible Wolf sighting by the tourists. I think you’re going to need to get the vampire down here.’ Neal said and heard the growl of the alpha within his mind as if the man was standing right there in front of him.

He couldn’t help but chuckle at the thought of how his brother had just taken that news. He was probably holding the sides of his head so that it didn’t explode, but right then; enjoyment aside, the most important thing was to find the tourists and contain them.

 

~

~

~

 

“You saw a Wolf?” Penny demanded.

She was having trouble keeping her feet from skidding out from under her on the wet ground as she did her friend’s bidding, and ran through the woods without giving into the temptation of looking back, even if it was near killing her to do it.

“I saw – a Wolf!” Isla panted out on heavy breaths.

“You’re sure it was a wolf?” Penny demanded. “Because there are no wolves around here.”

“You wanna go back and check?”

“Not really, no.”

Penny’s right foot finally skidded out from under her; she’d known it had only been a matter of time before that happened. She’d been battling to stay upright since they’d set off, and she twisted her body and went down on her backside in the mud.

Her hands sunk into the gooey earth on either side of her body, and she let out a deep, unhappy, disgusted groan.

“Don’t stop!” Isla shouted over her shoulder, but as she turned her head to look back at her friend; so the ground gave way beneath her feet to a mudslide that took her down a deep embankment.

She’d tried her best to stay up, running against the odds like she was on a treadmill, but even double timing it with her feet – like some cartoon character – she still couldn’t stop gravity from taking hold. She fell onto her backside with a grunt that was followed by a squeal, and started skidding down over the bumpy, wet terrain.

Penny blinked twice. One moment; her friend was standing there running on the spot, and the next she was gone.

The sound of a loud shriek was closely followed by a stammering – choppy yell and topped off with an elongated squeal that echoed out through the woods.

“Oh, that’s not good!”