Page 43 of On the Road

With a curt nod, Victor vanished, leaving Zee and me to scramble after them.

“Wait.” Zee pulled me up short outside. “Isn’t that the same truck from outside the vet’s?”

The rusted red pickup. I’d noticed it here when we’d first arrived, with the grass that had grown up around its wheels. But that same grass was all flattened now . . . The truck had moved . . . and recently.

“Is it Duke’s?” Zee asked.

Duke had his bike but the truck could be his too. “Maybe.” We didn’t have time to figure out what it meant, or even if it was the same truck.

A howl sounded behind the motel.

“Come on.” Zee flapped ahead, then vanished his wings between the confines of the trees.

Duke’s huge lupine form thrashed through the leaf litter around the back of the motel. He appeared to be bounding into the forest toward Zander’s old cabin, but the scent trail must have switched direction, because he made a sudden right turn and dashed back toward the bar. He turned again, following the trail deeper once more, then again, back toward the bar. Had someone deliberately tried to shake us?

The meandering route gave Zee and me a chance to cut through the brush and stay close, until we all ended up at the back of the bar where the kitchen door hung ajar.

Duke smashed through and vanished inside, but Victor stopped dead, arm out, blocking our path. “Blood,” he warned.

Panting next to Zee, I spotted the pool of blood dribbling out the door. That couldn’t be good.

A gut-wrenching howl filled the air.

Victor vanished again, disappearing inside.

Zee and I stepped more slowly over the creeping blood and into the kitchen. Glossy red splatters dribbled down the walls behind where Kate sat slumped on the floor. The air was rich with the smell of violence.

“This just happened,” I warned Zee.

“It’s weird how you know that.” Zee touched Kate’s neck, searching for a pulse. “She’s alive.”

Kate’s hand shot out and grabbed Zee’s arm.

“Gah!” he yelped.

She pulled him down and wheezed, “Galbraith.” She flopped back, wincing and clutching her side.

“Holy shizzle. Galbraith did this?”

“No. It doesn’t make sense.” Why would he hurt his own pack? No alpha would do that. Unless they’d figured out what he was . . . or were about to?

“Adam, get in here,” Victor shouted from the front of the bar.

We hurried through and found Duke—still a giant wolf—licking at Galbraith’s leg. Just his leg. The rest of the alpha was nowhere in sight.

“Eehk.” Zee recoiled. “Dicks, and fingers, and now legs?! I am so done with this shit.”

Duke howled again and shot from the bar, heading outside, back to the picnic table where we’d been seated minutes ago.

Victor dashed to the door but hesitated . . . “He’s heading toward the motel again. Adam?”

“Go. Stay on him.”

But Victor didn’t move. “The killer is likely close. They know we’re here.”

“We’ll be alright.” I crouched by Galbraith’s severed leg. “Track Duke, he has the scent. But if you find anything, come back here.”

“Very well. Stay . . . safe.” Victor vanished again, leaving Zee and me standing amid the grizzly scene.