Page 8 of Squatch Out!

CHAPTER SIX

SEAN

T he walk down the mountain calms me enough that I’m able to shift back by the time I reach my brother’s cabin. The windows are all dark, and I briefly wonder what time it is as I burst through his front door.

“Owen!” I shout, flipping on the living room lights. “We’ve got a problem.”

My older brother is already standing in the doorway of his bedroom, wearing nothing but a pair of black boxer briefs and holding his sat phone against his ear.

His eyes are squinty with sleep and his dark hair, streaked with silver, is sticking out all over his head.

Whoever he’s on the phone with must have woken him up just before I got there.

“What in the hell is going on—” he barks into the phone just as his head snaps up to look at me.

“ Oh, fucking hell, Sean!” Owen squeezes his eyes shut.

“Dude, why are you naked?” He pinches the bridge of his nose and grumbles into the phone, “Hey, I’m gonna have to call you back. Sean just got here.”

From across the room, I can hear the frantic voice on the other end.

Owen lets out a heavy sigh. “Yeah. Yeah. I know! Look, tell the campers we’re on it and that we’ll touch base with them to let them know what we find.

” He glares at me, and I realize the call must be about the woman.

“Uh-huh. Look, the longer you bitch at me, the longer it will take me to get out there. Okay. I’ll keep you updated. ”

He pushes the end button with much more force than necessary and then drags in a deep breath, holding it before letting it out slowly. “What the fuck did you do?”

Crossing the room, I sit my ass on the edge of his couch and drop my head into my hands, trying to think of a way to tell him without making it sound worse than it already is.

There’s really no sugar coating this, so I might as well tell him the truth and get it over with. I brace my elbows on my knees and look up at my brother. “I, uh, squatched out and sort of kidnapped a camper.”

Owen doesn’t blink as my words slowly sink in. Then he squeezes his fingers around the sat phone so hard, I’m surprised it doesn’t crumble to pieces in his palm. I lean back when he pulls his arm back like he’s going to throw a punch at me, only to stop at the last second.

“I know I’m going to regret asking, but why ?” He drops into the chair across from me.

“Uh—” I have no idea why I did it. In fact, in hindsight, everything is kind of foggy.

Owen rubs his eyes with his free hand. He’s probably using those calming breathing exercises he likes, to keep himself from murdering me.

“Okay,” he says when he’s no longer trembling with rage. “Tell me everything.”

After taking a deep breath, I do, starting with the recorded howls that brought me down the mountain and then the unbelievably amazing scent that sent me squatching out and barreling out of the forest toward the pretty blond.

I left out the part where I jacked off in front of her but explained that I left her in the bug-out cave not far from here.

“So, she’s unharmed?”

My head snaps up, and I glare at him. “What? Of course she’s unharmed!” I’m offended he would even think otherwise. He knows that I’d never hurt anyone, especially not a woman. We’re no different as a squatch as we are as men.

Owen’s shoulders droop with relief. When he finally looks up at me, his face is lined with disappointment. “You exposed yourself to four people, Sean. How the fuck am I supposed to fix that?”

My stomach clenches as the ramifications of what happened really hit.

As hard as we try to keep our secret, it’s getting harder and harder with technology.

Camaras are everywhere, and me barreling out of the forest and through a campsite was not my best decision.

Humans are not ready to learn that shifters exist.

“One of those guys is asking a lot of questions,” Owen goes on. “I have a feeling he’s going to cause us trouble.”

He’s scolding me like a stupid teenager, not that I can blame him. This is the worst kind of mess I could have gotten into.

Without a look at me, he punches a number into the sat phone and lifts it to his ear. “Hey, Ben? Sorry about earlier; I have good news. Sean found the camper up in the mountains. Since it was dark, he took her to one of the bug-out caves for the night. She’ll be perfectly fine until morning.”

He listens for a minute and then pinches the bridge of his nose again.

“Uh, they said it looked like a what –?” He glares at me through his thick lashes, and I can't help cringing at what’s going to come next.

“I don’t know what grabbed her. I mean, I guess it could’ve been a bear, but Sean didn’t say anything about her being injured, just shaken up. ”

By the time he hangs up with Ben again, Owen is clenching his jaw hard enough that I'm surprised his teeth don’t crack. There is murder in his eyes.

“Fucking hell, Sean. You squatched out in front of a group of bigfoot hunters! Of all the—” He clenches his fists and takes some more deep breaths to calm down before he squatches out himself and throws me off the mountain.

A completely inappropriate laugh bursts from my lips. Owen has every right to be turned inside out over this. Being caught as a squatch is serious enough, but storming through a camp full of humans who are actively looking for us is…

Another laugh slips out, and I try to stifle it with my hand.

This is bad. Like, really bad .

But I can’t stop laughing. When Owen gives me an unamused look, I just laugh harder.

Eventually, he gets up and leaves the room, and I’m able to settle down while the seriousness of this situation really sinks in.

Cryptids like sasq’ets are kept secret for a reason.

If humans knew we existed—hell, if they knew half of what we could do—they would hunt us to extinction.

Either because they want to study us, hunt us for sport, or any number of other reasons that would drive them to wipe us out.

Owen returns a few minutes later, fully dressed and holding a bundle of clothes for me. The zipper on the jeans hits me across my cheek when he throws them at me, and my eye waters, but I say nothing. I suppose I deserve more than that for what I’ve done.

Luckily, we’re close enough in size to share clothes. The extra pair of boots he drops in front of me are another matter. I’ve always had bigger feet, so I already know I’m going to be aching more than usual after the hike we’re about to go on.

After I’ve dressed, he reappears, this time from the kitchen, with two travel mugs filled with coffee. “We’ll check on the campers first, then we’ll head up to the cave. By the time we get there, the sun should be starting to rise.”

Despite the late hour, the campers are still awake and sitting around their fire when we make it to their camp. I hang back as Owen talks to them, keeping my head down as I listen to him assure them that their friend—her name is Olivia—is safe.

I roll her name over in my mind, liking the sound of it there. My eyes slide closed at the memory of her pressed against my chest and shoulder. The way her syrupy-sweet scent filled my head and?—

“Why didn’t you just bring her back down with you?” My eyes snap open to find an angry bearded man standing in front of me. His fists are clenched at his sides, and he’s trembling with rage.

I look over at where Owen is watching but not intervening.

I wonder who this guy is to her. A boyfriend?

My nostrils flare when I scent him. I didn’t catch his scent on her when I was carrying her over my shoulder, and he isn’t carrying her scent now.

A relative? No, there is no familial scent and no resemblance.

Just a friend, I decide. Except, the thought that there might be more, or that there was ever anything more between them has me grinding my molars.

Something like jealousy bristles under my skin, and I remind myself that I should not have, nor do I want, any claim on this woman. My god, imagine the mess dating a bigfoot enthusiast would cause throughout the sasq’ets community.

Unclenching my jaw, I say, “It’s too dangerous in the dark.”

The man folds his arms across his chest and narrows dark eyes at me. Clearly not buying my explanation. “What were you doing up there that you were able to find her, anyway?”

The lie comes easier than I expect. “I was heading home from patrolling and heard screaming. When I got to her, she was alone. Frightened, but unharmed. That part of the mountain is rugged, and it wouldn’t have been safe to bring her down, so I took her to a cave that was closer and easier to get to. ”

The man still looks skeptical, so I decide to try appealing to him: “Look. I’ve lived here most of my life, and I know these mountains better than anyone.

The cave she’s in has five-star accommodations compared to your tents.

She’ll be fine for the night. There are warm blankets, a wood stove, and food if she’s hungry. ”

As Olivia’s friend sizes me up, I can’t help doing the same. I’m well over a head taller than him, but he’s stocky, with a thicker build. Still, he wouldn’t have a chance against me thanks to my preternatural strength.

“And she’s alright? She wasn’t hurt?” he asks, letting go of some of his bravado.

I nod, trying to reassure him as another man steps up beside him. This guy is lean and lanky, and he gives me a curt nod before dropping a hand on the shorter man’s shoulder.

“See? She’s alright, Tony,” he says quietly. Then he holds his hand out to me. “I’m Brian. We’re not trying to give you trouble; we’re just worried about our girl.”

I swallow down a growl when he calls her our girl, just as Owen steps up beside me. “We’ll bring her back down as soon as it’s light,” my brother promises them.