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Chapter 20
Ascream tore throughthe night, chilling Wynona all the way to her bone marrow. She stopped moving entirely. She was sure some of her blood cells had stopped midflow. She was glad she was holding onto Tucker’s arm, because he gave her some grounding.
“That was a coyote, right?” she managed.
“It was,” Tucker whispered, “and he’s close.”
“Too close?” she asked.
“We’ll find out. But don’t worry.” He tugged her back into motion.
She hoped her blood cells followed suit. “If you say so.” They both had their bear spray, but that didn’t mean she wanted to use it. “I knew it was too high-pitched to be a wolf, but I thought maybe it was a banshee that had staggered south from one of the Deadwood hotels.”
He snickered, which pleased her, and she relaxed some. “I have never heard a banshee in these woods,” he said.
She silent-chuckled. “Inthesewoods? So you’ve heard one in other woods?” He didn’t respond, and worried that she’d annoyed him, she said, “Interesting that you didn’t reassure me it wasn’t a wolf.”
“You knew that it wasn’t.”
His confidence encouraged her. “I have heard wolves in the wild before, and when I do hear them, it’s not so much the objective part of my brain that knows it’s a wolf. It’s like my soul knows. It’s a whole different kind of sound, like it’s something from another realm. It’s absolutely terrifying and beautiful at the same time, and it sucks the air out of my lungs. I both loved it and hated it at the same time.”
“Wow, you’re quite the poet for a biologist.”
She laughed softly. “I wouldn’t go that far.”
“Well, you’re at least as good as the journal writer who came up with prepubescent toad-boy.”
“Okay, I’ll take that one.” She had run out of words to say, so she focused on her feet. When they had started this hike, she had been looking at the ground for toad evidence, but now she was staring at it just trying to stay vertical.
When her light started to dim, she tried to convince herself that it wasn’t happening.
“I think your batteries are dying. Do you have more?”
“Sure do. In my pack.” Which was back at the camp.
“Do you want mine?”
She’d rather chew nails. “I’m good.”
