Page 6

She was still locked in a fierce battle with her emotions after two-and-a-half hours of walking in the mountainous forest. She had spent the time imagining various scenarios, playing out different strategies to outsmart the men in case she ever crossed paths with them again. Her imaginings ranged from amusing to breathtaking, leaving her alternating between laughter and catching her breath as she trekked across the snow-covered landscape. She stooped down to pick up an empty snare.

“There are probably tons of shifters out there. Just because I saw them once with Ty and Ella doesn’t mean that I’ll see them again. They could be anywhere by now,” she muttered.

Feeling comforted by that thought, she carried on with her duties. When she reached her last trap, the sun was high in the sky, painting the surrounding landscape with a comforting warmth. She had checked every trap, but they were all empty of any catch. Perplexed, she scanned the snowy landscape, searching for any signs of disturbance in the pristine powder. The forest was devoid of its usual sounds, as if nature itself was holding its breath in anticipation. It was an eerie atmosphere.

She straightened and carefully stowed the twine she had used as a snare inside her bag, her eyes scanning the dense forest. There was a strange stillness that she’d failed to notice earlier. Unease built inside her, and the overwhelming desire to return to the cave pulled at her.

There are others searching for you.

The memory of Tracy’s warning swept through her mind. Fear propelled her back along the path she had taken hours earlier, moving much faster than she had in the early morning light, though she carefully studied the ground, searching for tracks other than her own. She kept her breathing even as she exited the forest and began the climb up the ridge. She didn’t let her guard down as she searched the landscape for anything out of the ordinary.

When unfamiliar tracks leading toward the cave appeared from the southwest side of the ridge, her breath caught. She stopped and crouched by a set of the footprints, running her fingers along the unusual grooves in the snow. They differed from anything her people would wear. They were more like the boots Tracy wore, only larger. There was no fresh snow in the tracks, meaning they had arrived after she had left this morning.

The Others!

She rose and slowly advanced, keeping a wary eye open for any movement. Her heart pounded when she saw unmistakable droplets of blood in the snow. Swallowing down bile, she prayed that none of the specks were from someone inside the cave. She continued forward, moving with caution and holding her spear out in front of her.

As she approached the outcroppings of rocks that helped conceal the entrance to the cave, horror threatened to choke her when she saw a large pool of frozen blood covering a section of compacted snow. She frantically scanned the path, trying to discern how many footprints there were and whether any of them belonged to her people. Confusingly, she only saw tracks from one shifter.

She expanded her search and found a duplicate scene on the other side of the trail, near another line of boulders. Whoever, or whatever, had been there had also met a grisly demise. Following the splattered trail of blood as far as she safely could to the edge of the drop-off, she discovered that whatever had attacked the shifters must have deposited them over the cliff.

“But how?”

There were no tracks of the perpetrator nor of a dragged body—only blood. The closest she could safely get to the edge was twenty feet. It was impossible to tell how stable the snow was.

“None of this makes any sense!” she mused, turning back to look toward the cave.

Whatever had happened, she needed to find out if everyone was safe. Retracing her steps, she climbed the last two hundred feet to the mouth of the cave, silently praying she wouldn’t find the same evidence of death inside it that she had discovered outside.

A short time earlier:

* * *

The team lead of Charley 1 crept forward, following the shallow impression of footprints in the snow. He held up his hand and motioned to the soldier across from him. The soldier nodded and crouched behind a snow-covered boulder.

A sneer curved his lips. “It looks like there’s a cave up ahead.”

The second soldier chuckled. “This is like herding lambs to the slaughter. We’ll be home before nightfall.”

Charley 1 nodded and spoke quietly into his mic. “Team 3 is moving up.”

He motioned for Charley 2 to follow him. He went first, detouring around the boulders, stopping several yards up the trail before taking cover behind another boulder two-hundred yards out from the entrance. Charley 2 fell into position across from him again. They both lifted a pair of binoculars to their eyes.

“Target sighted,” Charley 1 murmured.

“Confirmed. Target sighted,” Charley 2 concurred.

Static on his com made him grimace. He kept his eyes glued on the entrance to the cave. From the markings on the woman standing just inside the opening, it was the shifter. According to their Intel, there should only be the one.

“Team 3 report.”

“Confirmed visual on a cave entrance. One target is visible,” Charley 1 responded into his mic.

“Charley 1, do not engage until we are in position,” Alpha 1 ordered.

He held up his fist to show they were ordered to hold their position. The neck gaiter he wore concealed the fog from his breath as he breathed out a sigh. Charley 2 must have felt the same frustration.

“Don’t know why we needed eight men. We could take the humans with one hand tied behind our backs,” Charley 2 muttered.