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“Think we can get away with staying on the Reserve?” Tristan asks as we pull onto the road that leads to both the State park, and further down into the Reserve.
“I don’t know, but worth a shot. Depends on how pissy James will be. Technically the Reserve is supposed to be available to all shifters, no matter the pack.”
“I worry more about Arlin. He is...odd.” Tristan shivers at the memory of the shifter who maintains the Reserve.
“You do know why he lives in the Reserve, right?” I ask, running my hand down Bunnymoth’s back. Her fur is so soft that it is hard to stop touching her. I find it soothing. Maybe this is why humans have pets, I think, it calms them down when they pet them.
“Not really, other than that he doesn’t play nice when he is at the Lodge.” Tristan shrugs his shoulders. “You know me. I never really cared to pay attention as long as he wasn’t bothering me.”
“What’s the worst thing to happen to a shifter?” I ask Tristan.
“That’s easy. Being kicked out of the pack, forced to live on your own; and without pack resources that means living completely in the human world.”
“Yes, and something that James doesn’t like to use, and has only had to do once.”
“Arlin?”
“Yes. I don’t know what he did exactly- it was all behind closed doors. But he was sent to the Reserve to take over for Jake, the caretaker before him, who was ready to retire. He is only allowed to associate with the pack when we come to the Reserve or when he is called to the Lodge.”
“Harsh, man! You sure you want to do this? James will probably do the same or worse to you.”
I clench my jaw and look out the window. “I don’t have a choice. I can’t live the life he wants me to and he won’t back down.”
Tristan turns into the Reserve and parks in the small lot near the caretaker’s house. Turning the truck off, he stares at the house, lost in thought. I’m lost in my own thoughts and jump when he says, “Well in for a penny, in for a pound. Let’s find somewhere to camp, then figure out what we are going to do.”
Following his lead, I get out of the truck and stretch. Reaching in, I grab Bunnymoth and hold her for a minute. “Think you can follow us? I need to help carry stuff.”
She angles her head to look at me and nods. I set her down on the ground where she immediately starts pouncing on some bugs, grasping them in her claws and eating them. Blech! Wolves kill and eat their meat, but bugs...no!
Tristan and I each have a sleeping bag and backpack flung over our shoulders, and between us we carry a cooler filled with what every guy needs when camping: beer. “You know the full moon is in two days?” Tristan comments. “The pack will be out here in full force to celebrate. The newer and weaker members might be out tomorrow even, since they won’t be able to control themselves as much.”
“Then we’d better have something to show James by then.” Which will be easier said than done. We have a lot of land to cover if we have any hope of figuring out where Bunnymoth came from. Two days to cover miles of land and pray that my brother doesn’t go mega-alpha on us when he arrives.
“Hey, shouldn’t Arlin be around?” Tristan asks. “Maybe he has seen or smelled something.”
“He’s probably around here somewhere. I think he spends more time in his wolf than not.” The shifter is odd. Besides not having much communication with the pack, he always acts like he is superior to everyone. I imagine taking orders from an Alpha ten years his junior probably rubbed him wrong. But he definitely was not God’s gift to shifters, which is how he acts. “He and every shifter within a hundred miles will be here for the full moon.”
“So where are we setting up? This cooler is getting awful heavy.” Tristan mocks struggling to carry it.
Grinning I look over at him. “Can’t you guess?”
“It’s still there?”
I mock growl. “We have run all over these woods and you haven’t been back there?”
He looks sheepishly at me, “Not since we were twenty-one and had that little party.” When you are twenty-one and think you are God’s gift to females, a party in the woods sounds like a perfect idea. Except when your father catches you playing ‘find the tunnel’ with a couple human girls. Didn’t matter that we were all of age, humans don’t belong on shifter land. Ever.
“Dad was livid, wasn’t he? He wanted to tear the fort down, but James convinced him not to. It was built by granddad for us. Said it would be a shame to ruin part of shifter history.”
“So why the tent, if the fort is still there?”
“Just in case we need it. It’s been awhile since I was out here. Plus, if we have to go to the State park, then we have it with us.”
I look around to make sure Bunnymoth is still following us, relief filling me when I see her crawling behind us. Every few steps she would do an odd little hop and flap her wings for a few feet, then return to her waddling gait. Whoever created her is one sick dude that I can’t wait to introduce to my wolf.