Page 27 of Shifting Years (Whispering Hills #5)

Mike

"No!" I screamed. "I'm here! Take me! "

It didn't answer. Fur exploded over my skin as my body twisted too fast, sending me stumbling. Vomit burned my throat and dripped onto the dirt as bones snapped and reformed. An armored worm silently slithered out of sight, faster than a speeding Trans Am.

Protect. Chase.

Can't smell prey. Why no scent?

Run straight.

Instinct made me howl, and a confused wolf-song echoed back before being abruptly cut off. For a few seconds, there was nothing. Then came the screams, groans, and finally, faint yips.

New authoritative howls came, not directed at me but at others in town. I was still over a minute away and couldn't do anything except listen to the scream-howls. Yips cut off quickly, and I prayed I didn't hear wolves die.

He would have made it to my Angel by now. No paranormal had ever harmed a child. That's what we told ourselves, like the lie that all Alphas were kind to Omegas.

Quicker than was healthy, I shifted back into my naked form, trembling.

The strain of the spell and shifting so quickly drained me completely.

With shaking legs, I forced myself to my feet and ran toward the wreckage of Penny and Mary's cabin.

The air was thick with the scent of splintered wood, blood, and a single, uneaten chocolate chip cookie.

"Where is she?" I screamed to the sheriff.

He argued with Wyatt, no longer the young kid from years ago. A fear I had never seen in the mustached man's eyes reflected before he faced his older teenage son. "You stay here, Wyatt."

"Pa, you need all the men."

"I do, and some are needed here . Promise me you'll stay."

Wyatt was almost a man, burning to prove himself. He turned away, not as a child but someone ordered to not help his pack.

The sheriff turned with a scowl and took me to the side, away from shifter ears. "What do you know about this?"

The words tumbled out while I fought back tears of shame. I gasped when he said a huge, metallic serpent took my Angel. At least he didn't say ate .

"But," I said, "I didn't know it would happen. It just did."

Authors like Carlos Castaneda and others were right. Absolute will could rewrite reality. Tina and Dawn were proof, but they had control. I tapped into something I shouldn't have touched.

"Don't tell anyone. " His voice stayed low. "I'll see about the bayou ladies, and we need to track that thing down, cuz it ain't Henry no more." It looked like he was going to say something else, but his face softened. "Just stay here, and for all our sakes, don't do any more wishing."

It's an Omega instinct to listen, but every fiber of human and wolf said I should go. She was my daughter, but the sheriff's words made sense. Others needed my help, especially with no doctor. One day we'd get one, even if I had to choke our useless pack leader, but it wasn't today.

My growing power to sense someone's need screamed from behind in several directions. Ahead, men in trucks and others as wolves fanned out in pairs of two, looking for a monster I set loose upon the world.

Is this the last time I'll see them? What about Angel?

I turned, telling myself a small crowd would find her and to concentrate on the men and women in front of me.

Mary lay broken on the ground, bloodless but barely breathing.

Penny, the pretty woman who could be a model, stared up with bloodshot eyes, perhaps hoping she wouldn't live my Alpha-less life.

To their side, was their infant daughter miraculously not harmed.

I grabbed a First Aid kit, and my fingers brushed over bandages and bottles until thick gauze felt right. Instinct had me wrap Mary's elbow with a broken plank from their cabin. Once done, she stirred awake. I whispered so low, that only the two ladies heard. "I'm sorry. I did this."

"Maybe," said Mary slowly. She gestured to the splint. "That too." Even after the attack, she still found time to make me feel better.

She coughed violently and I found a lozenge on the ground, amid the rubble. Penny placed her hands on mine and then withdrew as if touching me burnt her fingers.

"We'll find her Mike," she said. "N-nothing will happen."

***

A month of torture passed, and Penny was half-right. Nothing happened, but wolves went out far and wide, looking for anything. There were no smashed trees, animal carcasses, or clothes belonging to a little girl. My daughter and a monster vanished off the face of the Earth.

Tina and Dawn were nowhere to be found. Their tiny metal house sat undisturbed, but when I stepped toward it, one word pounded in my head. Respect.

I had opened the rusty door anyway, finding an old room the exact size of a shack. Maybe it was too late. If humans saw a giant, armored, slithering monster, they wouldn't believe it, despite their eyes. Disbelief would erase it and anyone around them from existence.

My hand rested on my stomach. I couldn't take another loved one taken away, and certainly not erased. Please, let me find my little girl, ladies. It's not a wish, but I need to make sure she's okay.

A minute in the swamp crept by with no answer except a dank, watery smell.

If I don't see her soon, I'll wish and promise anything in return.

Again, there was no answer, but I could imagine the universe frowning in response.

Two more weeks passed, searching in groups, and searching alone.

Even the human authorities were brought in.

To them, my wife was dead since we couldn't explain how I had a child and had to lie about the time.

Between searches, I helped nurse Mary back to health and other still injured shifters, hoping I'd hear something.

I didn't.

***

Mary healed and their cabin was almost rebuilt, and I offered mine as a temporary home. Penny's hand rested on my palm while a tiny, static voice blared from a twenty-one-inch television. The other three stations had the same overall message.

The solemn voice of a news anchor filled the room. "Massacre today at Triple Island Campground, where two families were found brutally slaughtered."

The screen flashed images of bodies covered in white sheets already soaked with blood.

"The strange wave patterns in the ground could be Satanic markings of some kind."

My threat to the bayou ladies never happened.

I never made another wish offering anything, but I got my sign, a first real clue, and more shame.

People would be alive if it weren't for me.

None of the reports mentioned a five-year-old girl, but not all the victims were adults.

Someone paid the price, so I could believe Angel still lived.

"I'm going." Before Mary could speak, I continued. "She's my daughter." I pointed to their baby daughter sleeping in the crib. "What would you all do?"

"I'd go," whispered Mary.

"And that would be a mistake," said Penny. "Let the menfolk do it because that's what they're supposed to do." Technically, it was Alphas.

A single door knock got my attention. The leather, gun oil, and spicy aftershave announced the sheriff. I opened the door, and he stepped back, out of Alpha-Omega politeness. For seconds, he stared down into my eyes and sighed.

"Yeah… ah, hell. Let's go."

"Seriously?"

"You aren't staying, Mike and if we went, you'd just follow. At least this way, I can keep an eye on you."

Mary and Penny stared back. Penny figured it was men's work, and Mary was Alpha and would go if asked. I couldn't destroy another family.

Saying goodbye, implied a bad future, so I gave my thanks for everything. Quickly, I grabbed random spice vials from my kitchen, which felt useful, and then hurried to the truck.

Several minutes later into the drive, the sheriff spoke. "It'll take a while to get up there, and the corpses will be cleared out soon. So, no bodies to smell, except blood and sweat."

"He's building a nest," I said to the unasked question.

The sheriff raised an eyebrow.

"Just feels right. I don't know if he's still Henry, but he wants what's his. He doesn't want to be chased, and he's making a stand. That's why he killed the families. They were in his campground." I blinked. "Wait! I'm the bait." It wasn't a question.

He paused a second before nodding.

"You're an Omega and aren't built for combat, but we need a way to draw him out."

I thought about it for a moment. He'd let me out if asked. I'd be safe, doing nothing, or I could fight, not like John Kennedy, Doctor King, or Todd, but like a 'Mike' should. Fingernails pushed into my fist. "Whatever it takes."

We drove in silence as evening crept in around us. The campground signs showed paintings of happy families before my mind overlaid them with the news report. They couldn't show the mutilations, but my imagination filled the rest.

He flipped the CB radio and an electronic squawk followed. "You and me first, and our boys will follow." He paused. "You sure he can't see?"

"I don't think so. He sucked in air, like tasting or smelling his surroundings." I gestured to ten small spice bottles slung across my chest, making me look like an old-style gunfighter. Instead of gunpowder, it had garlic, black pepper, and other spices I felt I'd need.

The sheriff's white, shiny truck coasted to a stop over the dirt road. From the camp came an old copper smell. The sickly-sweet rot meant decaying flesh was in the area. According to the news, body parts were missing. And it's all my fault.

"Why didn't you tell?" I asked.

"About the wishing? It's not wise to inspire folks that way. Nearly a million times out of a million it won't work. You need the right combination of fear, hate, and will, to make it happen."

"It being those dead families," I whispered.

The sheriff's dark-green eyes stayed fixed ahead, searching for the new Henry. "No, but it wouldn't have happened without you wishing or him attacking you. You're someone who sent their husband out for groceries, thinking nothing of it, and they got in an auto accident."