HUNT (A Shifters Short Story)

“Where is she?” the man in the middle demanded, and my heart actually skipped a beat. Did he mean me? Had they been watching us? Or had they simply seen five hiking packs and deduced an absence?

“Where’s who?” Robyn said through chattering teeth, loyal to a fault. She would keep me out of this, even if it cost her last breath. But I couldn’t let that happen. They were scared and defenseless against men with knives, and I remembered being scared and defenseless. I remembered way too well…

The man in the middle backhanded her, and Robyn fell over sideways, unable to right herself with her hands taped together in her lap. It took all of my self-control to hold in the growl itching at the back of my throat as I rounded the halfway point of the clearing. Drawing attention to myself before I was ready to fight would get us all killed. That was one of the first things Faythe had taught me.

The tallest of the men hauled Robyn upright by one arm as I continued to circle silently, aching inside while she cried. “We know Abby was with you,” he said, and I froze mid-step. I recognized that voice. A few more feet, and my eyes confirmed what my ears already knew.

Steve… something. He’d transferred into my psych class a week into the semester and had sat in the chair behind me ever since, trying to make conversation while I nodded and pretended to be absorbed in my notes.

What the hell was going on? Had he followed us?

“Where’d she go?” the second man demanded, and I noticed as I edged along the clearing that the contents of both tents had been dumped in a pile about three feet from the campfire, including my sleeping bag and purse. Was this a robbery, or were they actually looking for me? Neither possibility made much sense—I hardly knew Steve and had never even met his accomplices, and how much cash could they possibly hope to score from a campsite?

The third man stepped forward, silently threatening Robyn and Dani with the knife when no one answered. My blood boiled, even as fear spiked my veins with a rush of adrenalin.

Tears poured down Robyn’s cheeks, but Dani answered, staring at the blade now inches from her throat. “She went for a hike!”

“In the dark?” Steve crossed bulky arms over a bulkier chest, the tip of his knife tapping against the waist of his thick camo pants.

Dani shrugged, and I saw a spark of the stubborn defiance that made her fun to debate—and might soon get her killed. “She likes nature.”

“And she took a flashlight,” Robyn added, shaking violently, either from the cold or from shock. “Please, you can have anything you want. My purse is over there.” She nodded toward the pile of supplies. “Just take it and let us go.”

“Oh come on, this is a party!” Steve glanced at his friends with a look of anticipation that chilled my blood. “But we’re one girl shy. You have her number?” Robyn nodded slowly, and Steve glanced at the third man. “Tim, give her a call.”

I’d circled to within feet of my roommate by the time Tim—shorter and thicker than Steve—hauled Robyn to her feet. She whimpered when his hand slid into the front pocket of her jeans, and fresh tears rolled down her face. My claws curled into the underbrush, itching to rip through his flesh instead.

I watched Robyn and Tim, waiting for my opportunity to pounce, but in my head, I saw something else. Another man. Another place. A bruising grip on my own arm. A cruel, unwelcome hand, followed by pain, and screaming, and humiliation.

The bastard leered at Robyn until she closed her eyes, then he shoved her down again and slid one finger across the screen of her phone to wake it up. He was already scrolling through the contacts list by the time she hit the ground. Tim pressed a couple of buttons, then held the phone to his ear, and they all waited.

But I already knew what would happen, and sure enough, my phone rang from inside my purse on the edge of the pile of sleeping bags and hiking packs.

“Damn it!” Steve kicked my purse across the clearing without bothering to open it, as his dark-haired accomplice ended the call from Robyn’s phone.

I’d left my phone in my purse because my feline form suffered an obvious and bothersome lack of pockets.

“Fine,” Steve said at last, having resigned himself to the inconvenient conclusion. “She’ll come back—where else could she go?” He shrugged. “We’ll just start the party without her.”

No… I recognized that tone. That slimy, hungry grin. I knew what would happen next, if I didn’t stop it.

Tim dragged Robyn away from Dani and closer to me. Robyn screamed and kicked, trying to twist free, but none of it fazed him. He dropped her on the ground and her head hit a fallen tree branch. Robyn moaned, dazed, and I could practically see the fight drain out of her.

“Get off her!” Dani shouted, struggling to get to her feet without the use of her hands. Her cheeks were dry and scarlet, fury eclipsing her fear, at least for the moment. She would fight them. And that would get her killed.