Erin stopped to glance around, making sure that she was at least partially covered by a nearby boulder. She crouched down in its shadow, hoping the moonlight wouldn’t make her exposed face glow to supernatural eyes. At that thought, she dug her fingers into the dirt and rubbed some of it across her forehead and over her cheeks and nose. Some camouflage had to be better than none at all.
She tried to tap into her wolf-senses as she looked around. A deep breath told her that there were wolves and humans not too far away. Molly and Becca and some of the others must have come out here after getting her message. A gunshot rang out and Erin hit the ground, heart pounding. Where had that come from? She swiveled her head carefully, trying to pinpoint it.
A moment later, the thought that it might have hit someone struck her, and she wondered if she should go back, run down the mountain toward the Pack members somewhere below. But what then? If she could draw off the werebear and his mate, then they’d be in less danger. Annie too, for however much that mattered. She shivered a bit at the memory of the brief hint of the other’s rage that she had seen earlier, but gave a mental shrug. Whatever Annie wanted was for Annie, not for the rest of them.
Of course, if she could figure out how to summon the cave’s magic and turn the other woman back to a human, maybe she’d leave again, this time for good. But what if she doesn’t? Or what if she comes back with more werewolf hunters? What then? Erin puffed out her cheeks and blew a breath out.
She suspected that Shelly wasn’t going to be happy that she’d shown the former Pack member as much as she had of what they’d attempted. It wasn’t like Annie wasn’t smart enough to figure out how to set up her own labyrinth, if she could get her wolfy fingers to work that way. But then what? She still needed Erin or Shelly or Becca or another wolf in the magic’s good graces to tap into whatever the cave could do. Erin grimaced. What if Annie went after the other two again? Time for her to get moving, lead them all to…
Her mind went blank. Where was she going? The cave near Painted Rock, like they’d discussed? The warehouse? Maybe that would be better. She knew her way in and out now and there were big rooms in the interior. Maybe she could lure them inside and lock them in. Or bump them off one by one, like an Agatha Christie story.
She rolled her eyes at the direction her thoughts were taking and dashed out from behind the boulder, her brain already mapping out the best and least obvious route to the warehouse. She started running down a nearby deer trail, a distant crash behind her telling her that something large was on her trail.