He shut off every human thought running through his head and let himself be guided by instinct alone. That didn’t work well, though, because every instinct of his wolf told him to leave that truck the hell alone. Take Kenzie, take Ryan, leave the area, and hole up in a wild place with them, and to hell with the human world.
The weight of his Collar around his neck stopped him. There were no wild spaces for them anymore. They had to try to make it in captivity, to build strength until the time was right for them to be free again. That was the whole point of agreeing to move to Shiftertowns.
The Collar, however, sparked once as Bowman forced his wolf feet forward. It sensed his rising need to fight.
The truck loomed. Bowman made himself sniff its perimeter, but that told him nothing new.
He sat down, waiting for the other two, and looked up at Kenzie when she stopped beside him, her hip pressing his flank. The intimacy and peace of simply touching her flowed into him, quieting the sparks in his Collar, the jangle of his nerves. She stroked the top of Bowman’s head, giving him a nod of understanding.
When they’d first become mated, Bowman had told Kenzie never to pet him when he was in wolf form. He wasn’t a frigging dog.
So Kenzie, of course, made sure to pet his head at least once every time he went wolf. She did it again now, smoothing between his ears, scratching behind them. He’d never, ever tell her how much he liked that.
“We need to open it up,” Kenzie said to Gil.
She stroked Bowman’s head one more time before she joined Gil, who had thoughtfully brought along a large set of bolt cutters.
Gil, who had the advantage of a weaker sense of smell, went right up to the truck. Bowman knew he could smell just fine, though, because he said, “Sheew,” as he broke open the door.
The stench that wafted out made all three of them back up rapidly. The monster wasn’t inside, but there was no doubt it had been confined in the truck for some time. It had done what all animals do, judging from the wetness on the floor—repeatedly.
“Wait,” Kenzie said. She put her hand on Gil’s arm, a familiar gesture that any other time might have made Bowman slam Gil into the nearest wall. “Flash the light in the corner again.”
Gil, happy to oblige, did. “Is that blood?”
“Sure is,” Kenzie said. “Kind of a lot of it.”
“Did it kill someone?” Gil asked. His dark face had gone a shade lighter, and the lantern swayed.
“I don’t think so,” Kenzie answered. “I’m willing to bet that blood belongs to the monster. Bowman must have hurt it more than he thought.”
Bowman caught the scent, distinct from the other disgusting odors. Blood, sharp and acrid. Bowman turned his head, a new breeze bringing the exact same scent from a point beyond the arena.
Bowman growled to Kenzie, came to his feet already moving, and loped out into the cold darkness.
CHAPTER THIRTEEN
Kenzie followed Bowman at a rapid pace, Gil’s light bobbing along behind her. She knew Bowman was following a new scent, but her human senses weren’t honed enough to catch it.
Was the monster out there? Waiting? Was its blood and piss in the truck bait for Bowman to follow? Pretending to be hurt so he’d walk right into it?
Kenzie shivered, from both dread and the drop in temperature. The night was growing rapidly colder.
She couldn’t see Bowman anymore, and a quiet call to him produced nothing. He’d disappeared, keeping silent to better hunt.
Kenzie stopped so quickly that Gil almost ran into her.
“You all right?” he asked, his warm eyes holding concern. Gil wasn’t very tall, even for a human, being an inch shorter than Kenzie. But his body held strength, his shoulders wide, muscles as powerful as any Shifter’s.
“I’m going to have to go wolf.” Kenzie dug cold fingers into her pocket and pulled out her cell phone, scrolling through it. “If anything goes wrong, if we have to fight, call this number. This is Jamie, Bowman’s top tracker.” Her cell phone was a few years old and refurbished—Shifters were not allowed the latest state-of-the-art smartphones. Phone technology changed so rapidly, though, that a phone from even a few years ago had more bells and whistles than Kenzie ever used.
“Are you sure?” Gil said, taking the phone. “About shifting, I mean.”
“I need to be able to help Bowman at a second’s notice. Don’t call Jamie unless we’re really in trouble, though. I don’t want all of Shiftertown out here because Bowman spotted a rabbit.”
The fact that no snarl came out of the darkness at that remark worried her. Bowman was either keeping quiet because he was sneaking up on something, or something had happened to him.
“Do you have a gun?” Kenzie asked, sliding off her boots. The ground was burning cold beneath her stocking feet.
“Yes,” Gil said without reaching for it. “But do you think a pistol will do any good against something that can fill a semitruck?”
Kenzie shot him a smile. “Can’t hurt.”
Gil returned her grin, the expression lighting his face. “Glad I met you, Shifter woman.”