He had to think about that—ensure they both survived that—before he did anything else.
The woman came to life, jumping like a terrified rabbit as she stuttered, “Five ... six including Marion, the guide. Please.” She grabbed Savannah's jacket with her free hand, her knuckles so white they gleamed in the gloom. “Please help them. My sister—"
"We'll go find them,” Savannah said, her voice rock steady, soothing, even though she gave him a hopeless sort of look that made him want to wrap his arms around her and protect her from the madness up ahead. She peeled the woman's grip from her coat and added, “But you need to get into the truck with your friend and lock the door. Do you understand?"
The woman nodded, but she didn't move. Savannah gently guided her toward the truck and helped her inside.
"Humans,” Ronan said, anger in his voice as he handed Cade a tranquilizer gun. “Not wolves. It's going to be a blood bath up there."
"Yes.” No wolf, or group of wolves, for that matter, could have hoped to protect a group of humans against a wolf in bloodlust. And dart guns were going to be next to useless if Candy was still in that frenzy. Still, they had no other option but to go on. The rangers didn't carry proper weapons, and his team hadn't arrived with silver bullets. He raised the small dart gun and checked to make sure it was ready to fire. Two darts. Not nearly enough if this went down badly. He glanced at Vannah as she returned. “Ready?"
Her face was pale, her green eyes determined. “No. But let's go anyway."
He smiled. His woman had a lot of courage; there was no doubt about that. “Spread out. That way she can only go for one of us at a time."
She nodded and headed to the left edge of the trail. He headed down the middle, because it was the most dangerous and he was the only one with any real experience against a wolf in a frenzy. Ronan took the right-hand side.
They splashed through the wind and the rain, quickly reaching a sweeping bend that arced around to the right. At the end of it, in the middle of the road, amongst the mud and the puddles, lay the bloody, broken bodies of the hiking group. Not whole bodies. Just parts.
And standing beside them, still consuming the warm flesh, was a cream colored wolf. She didn't even seem to notice them, though she surely would have smelled them, if not heard them. Maybe the need to consume flesh was greater than the need to flee. He'd seen it happen many a time.
He quickly raised the weapon and fired his two darts. Heard the soft retorts to his left and right as Vannah and Ronan fired their weapons simultaneously. The metal tipped darts hit the large wolf in a small cluster right in the middle of her chest. She howled, a sharp sound of fury and pain, and bared bloodstained canines at them. But she didn't move, and that in itself indicated the frenzy was still under some control. She had done this to these people because she'd wanted to, not because she had to.
"Candy Jackson, you're under arrest for—"
Before Vannah had the chance to finish, the cream wolf attacked. Not him, as he'd expected, but Vannah.
"Watch out,” he warned, and threw the spent weapon at the lunging wolf, hoping to distract her even as he sprang to intercept her. But Vannah was far faster. In the blink of an eye, she'd shifted shape and launched herself at the cream wolf. They hit in mid air with bone-jarring force and tumbled to the ground, snarling and snapping and tearing at each other. Crimson stripes appeared along Vannah's golden hide, and fear and anger surged through him. Cursing softly, he shifted shape and lunged into the fray, snapping at Candy's back legs in an attempt to hamstring her.
As he and Vannah attacked from the back and the front, Ronan's russet-colored form hit Candy from the side, knocking her off her feet. Vannah pounced, locking her jaws around the cream wolf's exposed neck, a low warning rumbling up her throat.
Candy stilled instantly. Vannah had her jaws locked around a wolf's most vulnerable spot, and she could so easily rip the other wolf's throat apart. Cade had no idea how she was resisting the temptation, especially given the bloody mess that lay behind them.
He shifted to human form, as did Ronan. Vannah didn't move or shift shape until the drugs in the darts had taken effect. As she spat the hairs from her mouth, his gaze skated down her body, noting with relief the wounds on her side were little more than scratches.
"That wasn't a frenzy,” she said eventually, wiping a hand across her mouth but still missing several cream hairs. “Or we wouldn't have downed her so easily."
He brushed the hairs away from one corner of her lips with a fingertip. “No. She killed these people because she wanted to, because she enjoys the taste of flesh."
Her gaze flicked to the mess behind them, and her face lost what little color it had left. “God, those poor people.” She hesitated, and there was a catch in her voice as she added, “I can't even see Marion."
If Marion had spiky black hair and leathery brown skin, then her head and part of her torso were lying in a ditch just off the main path. But she didn't need to know that, didn't need to see it. He touched a hand to her chin and forced her gaze back to him. “Can Ronan handle the clean up? We need to get Candy contained so I can begin questioning her."
"You won't."
He frowned. “What do you mean, I won't?"
"I briefly tried to touch Candy's mind when I was attacking her. She has extremely strong shields. I doubt I'd get through, let alone you."
"I have to at least try. If I can't, I'll let you loose on her."
Her grin was wry and at odds with the horror still lingering in her eyes. “Not sure about your use of the word ‘letting'. After all, this is my town, and I have as much right to question her as you do."
She didn't, but he wasn't going to argue the point when it wasn't really that important.
He bent down and scooped up Candy's limp form. “Why don't we get this bitch to the safety of a cell, and then we'll worry about who does what."
* * * *