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And I swear to hell on high, she had no idea how fit she had already become for the role of alpha in our pack.
12
DEAN
The stench of that bear sat thick in the air. The more we approached it, the more it backtracked, and that didn’t sit well with me. Bears never backtracked. Bears never backed down. They were relentless in their battle tactics and even more ruthless when it came to their territory.
And as we watched the bear scurry back up the mountain, I had a feeling we’d see it again much sooner than anticipated.
“Dean, come on. It’s time to head back.”
I slowly turned and found Raven’s wolf staring right at me. Even in animal form, her gaze was insistent. Filled with that same stubbornness that damn near sank her as a child. As the sunlight spewed through the treetops, illuminating her face, I swear she looked so much like Colin that it made me blink a few times just to make sure I was seeing things right.
Even her wolf looked like his.
“Yeah,” I spoke to her as I marched past her, “let’s head back to the pack.”
But as the wind kicked up, blowing gusts from down the mountain, I lifted my nose into the air.
And I regretted sniffing as deeply as I did.
* * *
“Dean!” Brody exclaimed.
I turned around and watched as he charged through my front door. “What? What is it?”
Brody slammed it closed behind him. “The nightly patrol is back from canvassing the area. They’re still smelling the residue of bear.”
“How many?”
He drew in a deep breath. “At least four distinct scents.”
“Shit,” I hissed.
The same four fucking smells I caught in the woods earlier. The bears were preparing something. They had to be. There was no other reason for so many of them to be traipsing down that motherfucking mountain.
But, what were they planning exactly, I didn’t have the faintest idea.
He thumbed over his shoulder. “Hudson is taking the morning shift out to patrol the edges of our territory. You want to head out with him?”
I smiled softly. “She’s getting the hang of this pretty quickly, isn’t she?”
Brody snickered as his body language relaxed. “I have to admit, she’s handled this bear thing well.”
“Probably because she doesn’t understand the threat they pose.”
He stared me down for a long time. “Do you think she really needs to know?”
I shrugged. “It might help drive home exactly how vicious the feud is between—”
A rush of wind almost blew me off my fucking feet and I looked around to see what in the absolute hell had happened. However, when I saw that I had left no windows open in my place, my eyes widened.
“Go,” Brody said, “I’ll take care of the patrols for today.”
With a nod of my head, I shifted into my wolf form. I charged through the back door, ripping it off its hinges as I leapt from the back porch. Gasps and cries rang out as I caught sight of that whiskey-colored tail making a break for the woods, and the sheer cries of panic that wafted throughout my mind spurred me on.
No, stop it. What are you doing!?
