Sick of seeing only the backside of her, I pumped all four of my legs harder, and with a burst of energy, leapt through the air, catching her off guard and rolling us into the cold water again. Callie laughed as we tumbled, nipping and clawing at each other the whole time.
We finally came to a stop on a small, sandy embankment. Our chests heaved with our labored breaths, and our tails wagged with the excitement still coursing through us. As I looked down at Callie, her eyes as big and bright as the full moon above us, I wondered how I’d let her go again.
Without thinking, I leaned down and nuzzled her neck, pulling her scent deep into my lungs. She froze beneath me and I slowly pulled away, wondering if I’d finally taken a step too far. Her eyes were wide with what looked like fear and my stomach dropped.
“Callie. I’m sorry. I–”
“Ssh! Do you smell that?”
I lifted my muzzle into the air and took a deep breath. Now that I wasn’t drowning in her scent, another infiltrated my nose. It was harsh, and stark, and wrong somehow.
“Get off me!”
Looking back down at her, I realized I was still pinning her to the ground. I pulled away and stood at attention, my hackles rising on their own.
“What is that?” Callie asked from next to me.
Without thinking, I stepped in front of her, shielding her from the awful smell and the worse feeling in the pit of my stomach.
“I don’t know, but I need to get you out of here.”
Unsurprisingly, she began to protest, but I tuned her out as I mentally reached out to Abraham.
“Alpha. Something’s wrong. I think you and as many enforcers as you can gather need to get here asap.”
He answered almost immediately. “What is it?”
I took another big sniff, my nose wrinkling in disgust. The scent was familiar in a strange way, even though I knew I’d never smelled anything like it before. It was putrid and awful. I didn’t know what it was, but I knew it was bad.
“There’s something in the woods out here. I don’t know what it is, but it’s not good.”
Abraham cursed quietly in my head. “Send up a signal. We’ll be right there.”
I tipped my head back and let loose a long, loud howl so they’d know where we were.
“What’s going on?”
I turned to find Callie next to me, so I stepped in front of her again. “Abraham’s on the way. You should get out of here.”
“I’m not going anywhere.”
I growled softly under my breath. “How did I know you were going to say that?”
“Because you’re a smart man.” She stepped around me and started climbing up the embankment.
“Where the hell are you going?” I called as I scrambled after her.
“I want to find out what that smell is.”
I raced ahead and cut her off, positioning my much bigger body in front of hers. “No. You’re not. You’re going to turn your little ass around and head back to the lodge where it’s safe.”
She snorted and rolled her eyes before trying to walk around me again.
“I’m serious, Callista. I don’t know what that is and I’m not willing to find out with you out here unprotected.”
“I’m not defenseless, Wyatt. I can handle myself.”
“I’m sure you can, but until I know what’s going on out here, I’m not willing to risk it. I’m not willing to risk you.”
Her pale eyes softened the tiniest bit.
“Besides. If I let something happen to you, the alpha would never forgive me.”
Just like that, her once open and expressive eyes closed down like cell block D.
“So, what you’re really worried about is impressing Abey.” She scoffed and shouldered past me, bumping me hard as she went. “Don’t worry, I’ll make sure he knows how hard you tried to stop me,” she spat with a scathing look over her shoulder.
“Callie, that’s not what I meant.”
“I think you’ve made yourself perfectly clear.”
“No. I haven’t. Stop walking away from me,” I yelled at her back.
“I’ll do what I want!” she hollered as she disappeared into the dense foliage.
I cursed under my breath and hurried to catch up with her. I wasn’t just irritated at her, I was also furious with myself. I’d made it seem like the impression I made with Abraham was more important than her and that was the furthest thing from the truth.
But maybe this was a good thing.
Maybe having Callie mad at me would make it easier to leave her when the sun rose. Maybe I should have been pushing her away instead of trying to get closer. The thought made my stomach churn with dread even though my head knew it was for the best.
When I finally caught up to Callie, her ears were pulled back, tail snapping behind her in anger. “Listen, I get that I’m not going to be able to convince you to turn around and get somewhere safe, so can we compromise? Can I at least go first so if there’s something dangerous out here, I can protect you?”
“I don’t need your protection.”
I sighed heavily and tried again. “Please, Callie.”
She tipped her chin higher and shot me a small sideways glance. “You can walk next to me. That’s the only compromise you’re going to get.”
I closed my eyes for a moment to let the irritation fizzle out. Honestly, I shouldn’t have been surprised. I shouldn’t have expected anything less from Callista McCoy.
“Okay, fine. Just don’t take off again.”
“No promises.”
I just barely held back another sigh, and instead, focused on what we were doing. The smell was getting stronger and more rank the closer we got. And worse, the sinking sensation in my stomach was getting harder to ignore. I had an awful feeling I knew what we’d find at the end of this trail and I just hoped I was wrong.
We walked in silence for a few minutes, both our hackles rising higher the farther we went. Finally, we stepped into a small clearing and found the source of the stench.
Lying at the base of a massive pine tree was a scantily clad woman who had clearly been dead for a while. She looked like she was in her twenties, with dark brown hair and eyes that were open, vacantly staring at the canopy above us. A shiver raced down my spine as all my senses ramped up on high alert.
“Callie. I need to get you out of here.”
“What do you think happened to her?”
“Callie. I’m serious. We don’t know who the wolf is that did this. I need to get you somewhere safe.”
“Wolf? You mean a werewolf did this?”
I winced internally. Clearly Abraham hadn’t divulged that much to his sister. “Yes.”
“Are those bite marks on her?”
My stomach clenched as my eyes caught each bite wound covering her exposed legs and arms. There must have been a dozen. “Yes,” I said again.
She started pacing, walking back and forth between me and the body. “I don’t understand. How do you know this was a werewolf and not a regular wolf? Or a mountain lion? Or a bear? We are in the mountains.”
I swallowed harshly and nodded toward the poor woman lying lifeless on the forest floor. “She’s partially shifted, Callie.”
She stopped in her tracks and slowly turned her head to peer at the dead woman again. I could tell the moment she noticed the small tufts of fur and the way her legs were bent at odd angles like they’d been broken.