Time Mends (23 page)

“
See, someone has been
here.” She held back a branch with one hand while the other perched
on her hip. “The grass is all smoosheded down.”

“
Which is exactly what
would have happened if a deer took a nap there.” And that was the
smell I was getting. Sorta. It was like a deer, but all chemically.
And underneath the scent I thought I could detect another scent,
but it was hard pick out from the other. Without thinking, I got
down on my knees and pressed my nose to the grass.

“
Scout, are you smelling
the ground?”

“
Ummm… Maybe?” My brain
scrambled for an explanation a seven year old would believe. “I saw
a guy on the National Geographic channel do this once. He said
plants absorb the smells of soaps and laundry
detergents.”

The lie worked a little too well. Soon Angel
was down on the ground beside me, swearing she could smell green
soap and the laundry stuff with the scary bear on it. After a bit
more forensic work, which included tasting a leaf she assured me
was wild mint, Angel declared we were being stalked by Perez
Hilton.

I ordered her back to the house and made a
note to limit the amount of entertainment news she watched.

I didn’t completely forget the whole
someone-may-be-in-the-woods incident, but I didn’t give it too much
thought either. It was strange, but what wasn’t these days? And
even when I started getting that creepy someone-is-watching-me
feeling me every time I went anywhere, I didn’t start worrying.
After all, I’m Scout Donovan. With my freakazoid looks and the
drama from April, getting stared at in public is a day to day
occurrence.

No, it didn’t cross my mind to be concerned
until I was halfway through the Change. One thing I hadn’t noticed
in my previous two Changes was how much my sense of smell improved
as I shifted from Human Scout to Wolf Scout, possibly because I was
too busy trying not to die. This time it was obvious. The smell
came to me slowly, getting sharper and sharper the further I went
in my transition.

Talley, we have a
problem,
I said as soon as I could form a
coherent thought.

“
The food is to your left,
Scout. Just use your nose.”

We have
company.

There was a pregnant pause on the other end
of the Shifter/Seer network. “Scout, he’s not here…”

It’s not the same smell as
before.
Although, I could have sworn that
one was there too, but I was desperately trying to ignore
it.
Shifters. More than one. They’ve been
through here recently, and I think they’re still close
by.

“
Do you recognize
anyone?”

No, they’re…
My wolf brain searched for the right word.
Not family. Predators. Enemies.
A breeze blew through the night, carrying the
scent of the unwelcome Shifters. They were just west of me, the
exact same direction…

Talley, do you have your gun? Charlie and
Jase insisted we keep them on us any time we left the house. When I
noted our lack of a concealed weapons license, Charlie produced one
for each of us two days later. His eyes told me not to ask any
questions, so I didn’t. Instead, Talley and I started carrying Vash
and Gilbert in our purses at all times. At least, I prayed it was
at all times.

“
It’s in the
car.”

Get it. And stay in the
car. Keep the gun out and shoot anyone or anything that gets close
enough.

“
Scout?”

Are the boys through
Changing?

“
Jase is close. Scout,
what’s wrong?”

I ducked through a
clearing in the brush, never slowing my pace.
As soon as they Change tell them to make their way back to
you. Fast
. There was no way I was letting
them take her. Ever.

The bad thing about being an animal is you
have no concept of time. The good thing is you can run fast and for
long periods of time. By the time I made it to Talley she was
locked in her car, her handgun sitting in her lap with one hand
tapping on the handle.

Jase and
Charlie?

“
On their way,” she said
aloud since she’d opened the door the moment she saw me. “I can
feel Jase getting close.”

Sure enough, the first of the coyotes burst
through the underbrush not much later. Once Charlie arrived we took
turns going out to gather food. I managed to catch a raccoon and
devoured most of it before Human Scout realized what was going
on.

Jase happily took my leftovers.

After we all ate, and therefore had a bit
more level head, we worked up a defense strategy. Talley was
stationed at the old iron furnace. It was an ideal place for a Seer
to be during a full moon - It was in the middle of nowhere, had a
nice little road that led down to it, and even sported a placard
explaining it’s very long and boring history, which gave Talley an
excuse to be there should park ranger happen by, providing the park
ranger wandered by just after dark and not at three in the morning.
As for a stronghold against another Pack of Shifters? We could have
done better.

Remind me why we didn’t
find you one of the million places in Lake County where you would
have a massive body of water on three sides?
I asked as I prowled in front of where she sat on the hood of
her car while Jase and Charlie ran a sweep around the
perimeter.

“
Water has tourists. No
one ever comes out here.”

Only because it’s totally
lame.

“
I like it back here. It’s
peaceful and the trees—” She cut off, her head cocked to the side.
When her eyebrows knitted together and hand tightened on the gun, I
got nervous.

“
Nervous” on a wolf looks
a lot like “about to eat someone”.

“
I’m not going to tell you
what he said until you stop growling.” I turned it down a notch.
“Jase confirms that we’re dealing with wolves. He’s got three, and
Charlie thinks there is another to the north of us.”

Movement?

“
They seem to be circling,
maybe three-quarters of a mile out.”

Central
location?

Talley pointed at the ground in front of
her.

It was a tense night. Jase, Charlie, and I
alternated guarding Talley and running the perimeter. No one made a
sound, and we kept our Talley to Shifter communication to reporting
on what we found. Never did the wolves get any closer. Never did
they alternate their pattern. Then, just as I was starting to feel
the siren’s call of the sun, they left. Still, we all Changed
within fifty feet of Talley’s car, which she sat in with the doors
locked, gun loaded, and cell phone with 9-1-1 at the ready.

We forewent our planned breakfast at The
Farmhouse and even decided to ditch our stashed clothes as a
precautionary measure. Thankfully, Talley always kept an outfit for
each of us in her car since we didn’t always Change back near our
original location. We hit every fast food drive-through in Lake
County, ordering enough food for ten people at each stop. As we
stuffed our faces, we began comparing theories.

“
Would it be too much to
hope some Shifters were lost, picked up on another Pack, and got
curious?” I asked, squirting some ketchup on a hashbrown
patty.

Jase leaned over the seat to swipe a sausage
and egg biscuit. “I’m sure that’s what happened. Some wolves in
Michigan got bored last night and hoofed it down to Kentucky in a
matter of minutes.”

I turned and snatched the breakfast sandwich
back out of his hand just moments before he put it in his mouth.
“That’s for being rude,” I said, taking a deliberately slow bite.
“How am I supposed to know what Packs are where? I’m Always in the
Dark Girl, remember? I’ve got a cape and everything.”

“
Packs live in territories
where they can blend. Since there are no local natural wolves,
there are no local Shifters who are wolves,” Talley said. “The
closest Pack of any sort, other than the Hagans, is the Beechers
over near Mammoth Cave.”

“
Definitely coyotes.
Definitely too small and timid to be sniffing around Hagan
Territory,” Charlie added.

“
We’re sure those were
wolves, right?”

“
Smelled like wolves to
me.” Charlie answered my question with a shrug. “But maybe not.
Like Talley said, Shifters try not to stick out. Four wolves would
eventually get noticed around here. Even if they’re nomads, this
really isn’t a stopping point between two wolf friendly
habitats.”

“
So, we’re left with the
most logical explanation, right? That they’re here because of
us?”

No one said anything.

“
What does that mean
then?” Their lack of assistance was annoying. “What wolves would
come looking for us? Is the Matthews Pack tight with another Pack?
Maybe distant relatives or something?”

The silence in the car stretched on for what
felt like an eternity. Just when I was about to scream, Talley
answered. “It’s the Alpha Pack.”

They were waiting for us at the house. The
others seemed to have been expecting it, if the expressions on
their faces were anything to go by, but I felt ambushed.

“
What do we do?” I asked,
eyeing the pair of matching luxury SUVs as if they were going to go
all Decepticon on me.

Charlie snatched Talley’s keys from her hand
and jumped in front of me. “You leave. Now. Just get in the car and
go. Don’t stop until you have to.” All the color was wiped from his
face, his eyes a pair of glowing pieces of jade.

“
What? No.” I stepped
closer to Talley. “I’m not leaving her at their mercy.”

“
It’ll never work,” Jase
said, laying a hand on Charlie’s arm. “It’s the Alpha Pack.”
Charlie didn’t move. “Come on, man. Whatever is going to happen is
going to happen.” The two did that deep stare thing guys do for
several seconds, then Charlie nodded his head and stepped to the
side.

We made our way up the driveway in silence,
Talley and I clinging to one another’s hands, sending “It’ll be
okay” vibes back and forth through our link. The men weren’t
sitting in their vehicles as I suspected, their scent obviously
strong there because of the time they’d spent inside, so we
continued on up to the house. As we got closer, I began to hear
snippets of a conversation.

“
And what does your
brother and sister do on their hunting trips?” a man asked, his
strong accent sounding eerily familiar.

“
They sit in the woods and
shoot things with guns,” came Angel’s reply. “Don’t people go
hunting wherever it is you’re from?”

I dropped Talley’s hand and took off at a
jog. No way was that creeper harassing my baby sister. The front
door was unlocked, and I sped through it. “Get away from her,” I
said to Stefan, who was crouched down in front of Angel in the
living room. My father stood with one hand on her shoulder, his
eyes boring into the other man.

“
Harper, how lovely to see
you again.” The way he said it, with that accent rolling around
with sincerity, was almost calming. Almost, but not quite. Instead,
it reminded me of Alan Rickman playing Professor Snape, and not in
a he’s-really-a-misunderstood-good-guy kind of way.

“
Get away from my sister,”
I repeated through my teeth. I was exhausted from the night’s
activities, but I still wanted to go over and forcefully move him
away from Angel. The fact that he was close enough to touch her
made my stomach roll. Unfortunately, he wasn’t alone. Three other
men stood in front of our couch, legs shoulder width apart and arms
crossed in front of their chests. It looked as though they’d
mistaken a piece of furniture for the President of the United
States.

Stefan stood up gracefully, brushing the
wrinkles out of his designer suit as he went. “I was merely talking
with the child, Harper. There is really no need for such
dramatics.”

“
My. Name. Is.
Scout.”

“
Nicknames are for
children.” My math teacher had said the same thing a year ago, and
it embarrassed me then. Now? Now it just pissed me off.

My dad wasn’t impressed much either. “You
will talk to my daughter with respect, or you will leave,” he said,
his hand pulling Angel slightly closer to him. I knew if I was
close enough, he would have reached out and brought me in for
protection, too.

“
My apologies, Mr.
Donovan.” He tilted his head in my direction. “I’m sorry for any
offense, Scout.”

“
How is Liam?” I asked,
not accepting anything he was offering. “Was he sad to pulled away
from the warm Florida beaches?”

Rasputin’s face remained calm and composed,
but his eyes flashed with anger. “Unfortunately, we have yet to
find your Mr. Cole.”

Big surprise. Liam hates warm weather, which
is why I pointed Stefan towards Florida in the first place. I hoped
that wherever Alex’s brother was, he was far away from Stefan and
the rest of the Alpha pack.

“
Is that why you’re here,
Mr. Vasile? Because, honestly, I’m out of ideas. Liam and I weren’t
exactly tight or anything. So if that’s all you need, can we be
done here? We’ve been out camping all night, and I’m really needing
to crash.”

Stefan’s mouth curled up on the side that
wasn’t marred. “The orphan’s location has been set aside for the
moment. There are now more pressing matters requiring our
attention.”