Gino reached forward and carefully unlatched the door. The metal creaked loudly in the still air.
“Easy,” he muttered.
The shifter didn’t move. One of the wolves padded closer, sniffing gently.
“He’s alive,” Gino said after a moment. “Barely.”
Relief flooded through me so hard my knees almost went weak. We’d found one.
I knelt down carefully. Up close, I could see marks on the deer’s fur where restraints had rubbed raw. His ribs showed faintly beneath his coat.
Anger burned hot in my chest. Someone had done this and had kept him locked in here like an animal.
Behind me, Mason looked pale.
“I didn’t think…” he whispered.
I glanced back at him. His eyes were fixed on the cage, horror plain across his face.
Gino gently lifted the deer from the crate. The body hung limp in his arms.
“We need to move,” he said. “Clinic.”
“Yeah,” I agreed immediately.
The wolves shifted back quickly, pulling on their clothes while Gino carried the shifter toward the trucks. Mason followed beside him, hovering anxiously.
“Will he be okay?” he asked.
Gino gave a grim shrug.
“Hard to say. But we found him in time,” Gino answered.
We loaded back into the vehicles quickly.
Gino took the shifter in his truck with the other trackers. I watched them pull away first. Then Mason and I climbed into my truck.
The adrenaline still buzzed through my veins as I started the engine. For a moment, neither of us spoke. Then Mason let out a long breath.
“I can’t believe he was just there,” Mason muttered.
“Me neither.”
The truck rolled slowly down the dirt road. Dust curled behind us. After a few minutes, Mason looked over.
“You found him,” he said quietly.
“We found him,” I corrected.
He shook his head. “You trusted me enough to come out here.”
I glanced at him briefly.
“Guess that paid off,” I said.
A small smile tugged at his mouth. The tension that had been hanging between us for days felt lighter now.
Something heavy had finally shifted between us, and maybe that was why the last of my doubts started to fall away.
