Page 13 of Flock Around and Find Out (Flocking It Up #3)

“I need to ask Kelvin if my blood is just exceptionally good because these fucking mosquitos seem to think so.” I swatted my arm but just missed the sneaky little bastard using me as its own personal buffet.

“That question and image are incredibly disturbing,” Galen pointed out as he walked in front of me.

“So is being feasted on, so it’s better we both suffer.”

“Yes, well, seeing as I don’t choose to be a meal to a vampire, I suspect this is a you problem.”

I mouthed his words back sullenly as I kept pace with him. The path was narrow, barely a single person wide, and he used a machete to clear bits of leaves from our way.

I’d never been to a jungle like this, having only had experience with the north American forest type of trees.

This was a whole different beast, as it turned out. I wouldn’t have dared stepped foot in a place like this if it weren’t for Galen keeping an eye on it all. In fact, I suspected most of the peskier critters recognized him as an apex predator because I noticed a distinct lack of wildlife.

Except bugs.

Whether they were too stupid to fear him or just didn’t care, they didn’t keep their distance.

At this point I’d almost rather deal with a snake or panther rather than these fucking mosquitos—or the huge spider I’d spotted on a tree then promptly ignored because my psyche could not handle that shit. I’d been through enough, dealt with enough horrors, that an eight-legged arachnid the size of a dinner plate was so not something I was ready to accept as real and in this world.

Nope.

I would live in my happy little fantasy life where spiders were tiny and not furry.

“How much further?” I asked in a whine.

“You’ve asked me that six times.”

“Well, it’s a new answer now, isn’t it? We weren’t there yet ten minutes ago, but we might be now.” I knew I sounded like a kid complaining from the back of a car, but that was fine with me. I just really, really wanted to be done with this whole trip.

I knew I’d never been a huge outdoorsy sort of person, but this really solidified the fact. It was muggy and gross and I wanted a cold shower and a bug-free sleep.

Galen took out the tablet from his backpack and studied the map on it, giving me the chance to sit on a large, overturned log. Thank fuck he was guiding us, because I was pretty sure I would have gotten us entirely lost.

Then again, it would have been much easier if I could fly.

I imagined soaring over the canopy, getting that sort of view. It would have been pretty nice, right?

Except, each time I tried, it failed miserably. At the very least, I’d gotten better at small flutters that slowed my descent.

I thought back to when Kelvin and Galen had attempted to get me to fly, back in my first year of being a crow shifter. Galen had been sweet, but Kelvin had been convinced that a tough love approach would get me where I needed to go.

Which meant he’d taken the role of a mama bird and thrown me off the side of a building. I had promptly crashed and broken my wing—which translated to breaking my arm when I turned human again.

I could flutter now, so if the same thing happened, I suspected there’d be less damage.

To me, at least. There would be far more damage to Kelvin if he ever threw me off a building again.

That was the sort of thing I only allowed once per a customer limit.

“I think it’s just a few minutes,” Galen said, tucking the tablet back into the bag. “Just ahead there should be a rocky area to the left, and a slight path up that. We follow it and we should find the hut.”

I picked myself up and off the log, the idea of almost being to our destination given me a little extra energy.

His directions seemed on point, because we managed it to the rocks he mentioned, and after a few minutes on that path—which was more upward than I would have liked—a clearing in the dense trees revealed a small hut. It had a roof made of leaves, all tightly packed, and walls of roughly cut wood. The door was slightly ajar, and the windows had no covers on them.

Outside was a pit with ash inside it and a few rocks in a circle around, along with a stick that balanced above it—for roasting meat?

It wasn’t a bad set up, if you liked the rustic sort of life.

I didn’t, of course, suddenly grateful that we hadn’t decided to spend the night here. Despite my complaining, the walk from the town was only about an hour and a half, which meant we could easily head back. Galen had packed flashlights in case we had to return in the dark.

I was not going to sleep here—that was for sure.

“Stay here,” Galen said, his steps changing as he approached. They turned lighter, and he cocked his head as though listening.

It reminded me that he was alpha, that he wasn’t delicate as he might seem when he wore his glasses and worked on his computer.

He was a killer even if he didn’t act like it all the time.

He approached the hut, making a low noise. It wasn’t a growl, not exactly, but there was no doubt it was an animalistic sound. A warning? A greeting?

Fuck knew I didn’t speak dog.

And, come to think of it, I doubted the tiger did? Perhaps they all had some level of understanding, like different dialects of the same language.

He pushed open the door and stepped inside.

After a long, silent moment, he returned, still walking softly. “Not here, but he didn’t leave that long ago.” He peered out at the tree line. “This isn’t set up with much in the way of supplies, so I’d guess he hunts and gathers water and other food. He probably went to do that.”

“So we just wait?”

He shook his head. “Hunting for a tiger could take all day, and if he shifts into his animal form, he could choose to simply sleep in the forest and wait for tomorrow to try again.”

“So we’re going to go track the scary ancient tiger in the jungle? Yeah, that sounds good.”

“Not we—me. You won’t be able to move fast enough and you’re far too noisy. I’ll track his scent and find him, then get him to come back here.”

“And I get to sit here and wait all by myself?” I peered around. The idea sounded absolutely terrible. I didn’t want to get left behind while the muscle went traipsing through a jungle.

This was the exact moment when someone got killed off for being stupid in movies.

“We don’t have another option. I can tell that he’s been here a while, so nothing else is going to come anywhere near this place. It smells like tiger. So you’re safe from anything else, and I’m going to be tracking him, so you don’t need to worry.”

I sat down on one of the rocks with a huff. “Yeah, well, if I die, let me assure you that I have every intention of haunting you forever. I’m going to disrupt you every last time you masturbate, so be ready for an eternity of blue balls if your wrong!”

He let out a soft laugh. “I guess that’s a fair deal. Just stay put and wait for me. I’ll be back soon.” He paused just before he turned away, then shrugged his backpack off and left it beside me. “If I’m not back in two hours, follow the path back through the jungle to the town.”

He didn’t wait for me to agree, instead turning around and heading off at a full jog.

It went to show how much he’d been holding himself back during our little hike. I’d figured we’d moved pretty fucking fast, given how out of breath I was.

It was nothing compared to the way that Galen traversed the small space before disappearing into the trees, hopping a log and moving between the trunks with an agility that was fucking impressive.

It seemed he really had been slowing down to accommodate me. No matter how much I hated the idea of waiting here, there was no possible way I could keep up, not like that.

So I twisted my hand, opening the portal to my personal bay, and retrieved my stun gun.

Ready or not, here I was…

Galen

The tiger moved fast. The way his scent wound through the trees showed his comfort with this area. I was in his home turf, and I couldn’t let myself forget that.

Still, a part of me had to admit—I enjoyed the hunt.

When was the last time I’d gotten to really track anything? To let go of my control just a bit and use my instincts?

Being an alpha meant problem after problem. It meant dealing with issues, solving conflicts, and doing so many mundane tasks that, at times, I felt more like a politician than a werewolf.

Leaving Grey hadn’t been my favorite of ideas, even if it were the best, but at least it meant I got to release the pent-up frustrations inside of me, that growing discomfort, the aggression, and point it all in a singular direction.

Part of me hoped the tiger was feral in some way. I wanted a fight, wanted to find a way to get rid of these feelings inside me. The tracking helped, but the anticipation was for a fight, for the way I could deal with it when we found it.

So I moved through the jungle, giving up control, letting myself run based on the sensations running through me, trusting myself to my wolf rather than my human brain. I inhaled deep, pulling all the conflicting scents into my lungs to let my wolf sort them out, categorize them. I didn’t even know which way to turn immediately, but my body did, grasping a tree trunk to help catapult me in that direction. I didn’t need the blade tied at my waist to clear a path—I made my own, leaping rocks, vaulting over debris, a sense of freedom I had long forgotten rushing through me.

I almost wondered if this wasn’t some sort of forgotten ritual of its own. Too often we Weres tried so hard to give everything to our human sides, to ignore the animal inside of us, to tame it until it was no longer what it once had been.

We did that to exist in a society, to civilize ourselves, but we rarely let go like this.

I twisted around another corner, time having passed strangely in this state. I wasn’t sure how long it had been, what had happened, but I only knew that I was chasing something I desperately wanted to catch.

I jumped a large clump of fallen trees, but the ground didn’t catch me as it should have. Instead, it gave way, sending me plummeting down into a deep, dark pit.

I struck the ground hard on my back, pain shooting through my shoulder, my gaze cast up to the space above.

Where I spotted a white tiger, peering down into the pit, the eyes far too clear to be only animal.

It tilted its head, then took off, leaping over the open pit and toward the camp.

I let out a roar as I realized just how badly I’d screwed up, especially when I turned my head to see a bloody spike through my shoulder.