Page 28 of Her Big Bad Wolf

An ancient crotchety old man who probably ate children.

I froze mid-step, and my heart raced.

No! He wouldn’t eat the boys, would he?

Mary hadn’t seemed concerned about anything like that, but how could we be sure?

Maybe he was just making up excuses about the boys having been here and run off, when really, he was keeping them hostage or he already ate them.

The more I thought about it, the more horrors my mind conjured up.

It was enough to make me pick up the pace in my rush to reach them and save them from old Crazy Sac before he did something horrific to them.

Engaging my wolf nose, I sniffed the air hoping to catch any scent of them I could. It took every ounce of restraint not to yell out for them.

By the time I reached the edge of a clearing, I’d worked myself up into a full-blown panic.

At last, I caught the scent of something. I stopped and sniffed the air once more. My senses were assaulted by the most enticing scent I’d ever encountered.

What is that?I wondered.

It took a lot not to run towards the smell to find out.

I had to force myself to remember why I was here in the first place.

Focus, Vanessa. You have to find the boys. No distractions.

Taking a deep calming breath proved to be a huge mistake. All I did was inhale that delicious scent even stronger. It wrapped around me like a warm blanket leaving me with a heady feeling.

Before I realized what I was doing, I had changed course and was heading right for the scent. It was as if I couldn’t stop myself. And for some reason, my wolf was suddenly agitated, but not in a bad way. She was excited.

What the hell?

I stepped on a twig or something. The snap of wood echoed through the forest all around me.

The natural sounds changed as animals in the area became alert to my presence and sent sounds of warning out into the night air.

Was that a goat?

In my confusion, I headed towards those sounds. Why were barnyard animals all the way out here?

My curiosity propelled me forward.

I couldn’t have gotten that turned around. I had a great sense of direction and was pretty certain I hadn’t changed course until I heard the goat. Even that was leading me deeper into the woods.

A donkey?

Was that a sheep?

The sounds that kept coming were so at odds with my expectations that I was fascinated by them. I had to know more.

Where were they coming from?

What were they doing all the way out here?

When I reached the edge of the woods it opened up into what looked to be a small farm.

That scent I had been following was everywhere. It made me feel high from the saturation of it here.