Like dead things. Not freshly dead. Carrion.
Ryder frowned.Scavengers?
Yes.That was Nolan.That’s it exactly. Someone is waiting for us.
Are they coming from, up or down? There are a lot of birds that scavenge.Race kept glancing around, searching the area.
Con scanned the sky, nose up. He had a good sniffer, so he put it to use.No. No this is like a rodent. Maybe rats?
Rats.Race’s eyes went wide.They can be brutal, and they work together well.
How many rats does it take to subdue a bear?Con asked.He had to. It seemed ridiculous.
It only takes one to shoot a bear.
It only takes one to keep a bear sedated and unable to shift,Warrick pointed out.
Race shuddered, and Con got it. That sounded like hell on Earth, and Milo was Race’s brother. He had to be horrified.
Okay, so if it’s rats, then we have a problem, because shifted, they can be in the walls.He gagged at the thought.
Then where the fuck is Milo?Race’s eyes were flashing.
They have to have moved him. We need to get one rat either coming or going and get it to tell us where. Con was sick of this shit already.
Okay. Okay, well, rats live in walls and basements. Tear this bitch down.
There was a round of grunts of agreement. They were bears. They had two things going for them. Their sense of smell and their raw strength.They could take that place apart and catch them a rat.
The five of them set to work, Ryder and Nolan upstairs, Warrick and the two of them down. A quintet of bears could do some glorious damage in short order.
They ripped and shredded, and a piece of wall came down, which sent four rats scurrying.
Con’s nose told him which one was a shifter, and he pounced. Not too hard. Not as hard as he wanted to.
Warrick’s roar proved he found one too, and Race was right there next to him, teeth bared.
Nolan came to them, a scowl on his human face. “You’d better shift and talk to us, or I’ll let the big guy eat you.”
The rat chittered, and Race roared, pure fury in the sound.
“Dude, I’m serious. You have our brother. You are in deep shit.”
The rat looked back and forth desperately, then finally slumped, changing right there where he hung in Con’s paws. “I don’t have anyone.”
“Someone does, and I know it,” Race snarled. “Someone has our brother. He was here!”
Connal shook the rat, whose teeth clacked together. “He will hurt you.”
It wasn’t even a threat; it was a promise.
“Okay! Don’t let him eat me. We’re supposed to dart you, but none of us can shoot for shit. And you can see, it was every rat for themselves.”
“Yeah, we can see that. Now tell us where the other bear is.” Race smacked the guy across the face with an open hand, not hard enough to even hurt but enough to shock him.
It was kind of hot.
“Oh fuck, stop it. Okay I’ll tell you but you gotta promise to let me go.”
