I cringed as Seth’s voice broke into my reverie. I couldn’t see much in the shadows. He was hiding somewhere in the tree line, keeping out of sight. I was willing to bet his friends were out here somewhere too. “What do you want?”
“Nothing. Just wondering why you’re out here by yourself, no big, bad pack leader to protect you.”
“I can protect myself,” I shot back, edging toward the doors that led back inside the lodge. Back to safety.
“Not from us.” The laughter that came from the trees had me searching, looking for signs of where the others were. I spotted two by the slight luminescence reflecting off their eyes, glowing cat-like in the dark. Seth and the other one remained hidden from my view. Too far to rush me before I could get inside, I thought. “Not that you have anything to worry about. You’re not my problem.”
“What the hell is that supposed to mean?”
He’d gone quiet. The two Weres I’d seen walked out into the light, followed soon by Seth and the remaining Were. Their movements were completely silent, not a snapping twig or crunch of dead leaves to give away their whereabouts. All of them were smirking in amusement, watching me with hungry, predatory eyes. It wasn’t Seth, but one of the others who answered me.
“It means we don’t give a shit whether you live or die. Just stay out of our way.”
The four of them filed inside, one of them turning to give me a grim smile as he went. Shivering, I turned away, unable to meet his eyes as I hurried off in the dark toward the sound of rushing water and the cabins beyond.
I didn’t meet anyone else in my haste to get as far away from the lodge as I could. My thoughts raced as I tried not to slip in the mud, anger and fear warring for dominance in my mind. Coming out here had been a mistake. It had only been one day, and already I was sorely regretting my decision to come along on this crazy camping trip. If the night hadn’t ended so badly, I might have even pulled out the contract to surprise Chaz with tonight after he came back from the hunt. As it was, I had the whole rest of the weekend to get through, and nobody had even shifted yet.
Would whoever set off Paula start whispering in the ears of the rest of the pack? Would the others start giving me venomous looks, or thinking those terrible things about me?
Were they thinking them already?
Rubbing at the tears gathering in my eyes, I thought about digging out my cell phone and calling Sara. Maybe she would know what to do. I wouldn’t have reception, but I could get the number out of my phone and use the landline provided in the cabin.
Thoughts of home vanished when I saw the cabin. The door was open a crack. No lights shown through the gap.
Warily, I stepped a little closer, noting that the wood around the small lock had splintered. Something was burning, the scent strong enough to make me wrinkle my nose in disgust. I listened cautiously, trying to determine if anyone was still inside.
The only sounds I heard were some music drifting from one of the other cabins a few doors down and the faint drip of water pattering on the ground as the wind gusted today’s earlier rain off the leaves.
Pushing the door the rest of the way open, I immediately flicked on the light and stepped aside in case someone was planning to rush me. There wasn’t anybody inside, but what I found was worse. Far worse.
“Shit!” I cried, slamming a closed fist against the door, making it bounce against the wall.
Some of the furniture had been upended, one chair smashed to bits. All of our stuff had been yanked out of the drawers and tossed across the floor. It looked like my bras and panties were all missing. A bunch of Chaz’s stuff had been tossed in the fireplace, only a few charred scraps of his clothes and the vague remnants of a sneaker remaining. That’s where the bad smell came from, the lingering odor much stronger now that I was inside. I lifted my arm to use my shirt as a filter over my nose and mouth. It didn’t help much. My cell phone was in pieces, bits of pink plastic littering the small counter in the kitchen. Chaz’s