“Sy!” I accepted his hand, gripping high on his wrist and covering his small compass tattoo with my palm as he mirrored the movement before pulling me in for a tight hug. “Glad to have you.”
Instead of returning my greeting, my old friend pulled back and shook his head, his expressive eyes sad. “I can’t believe I had to hear that you needed help through the grapevine,” he said, shaking his head. “With everything we’ve been through, that hurt.”
I winced. “It wasn’t that I didn’t want your help,” I said weakly. “Honestly, I just didn’t know what anyone could do and, damn it, Sy, they’re fuckingHunters, calling anyone in would be asking you to risk your life, your family.”
Paul, Sylas’s young mate, must have been rubbing off on him because his eye-rolling game was on point. “That’s absurd,” Sylas snorted. “No Hunter has a weapon that could take me down.”
Okay, so he did have a valid point.
“True, but we were trying to deal with it without a huge death count,” I tried to explain.
Sylas snorted. “Pretty sure I could have just scared them off without any casualties,” he joked. “I mean, have you seen me?”
Paul was obviously a good influence on my old friend because I couldn’t remember another time in all the years we’d known each other that Sylas had joked about his inner beast. And let me tell you, it is a most impressive beast.
My response was interrupted by a loud screech that echoed through the trees. As a single unit, all of the rabbits that had completed their tasks raced toward the sound only to stop short when a large, gray fox bounded into the center of the clearing, a buff-colored rabbit gripped by the scruff of its neck, one of the rabbit’s front legs dangling awkwardly and dripping blood.
Stopping suddenly, the fox stared around as if considering his options before leaping over to lay the injured rabbit carefully on the ground in front of a large gray rabbit. I vaguely remembered being told it was one of the Battalion Bunny Officers, but damned if I remembered their name or rank. The gray rabbit promptly began to shift. In the periphery of my vision, I saw Sonny doing the same, while Pete pulled an impressive first aid kit from who knows where.
“Thank you,” the naked, suddenly human officer said softly to the fox before turning his attention to the rabbit on the ground.
“Try to slow your breathing,” he suggested, kneeling in front of the injured rabbit and quickly running his hands over the remaining appendages. “Okay, Tiko, you don’t seem to have any other injuries, but this is definitely broken. You’ll be easier to transport in this form, so I’m going to put a temporary splint on and we’ll wait until we get back for you to shift, okay?”
The small rabbit’s face was twisted in pain as he nodded, his furry chest vibrating as he attempted to calm his breathing.
“Did anyone see what happened?” the naked human called out.
One of the werewolves stepped forward. “There were Hunters at the edge of the camp,” he volunteered. “One of them pulled out a slingshot and started throwing stones at us. He hit that one and started over to grab him. None of us were close enough to stop him, but the cat thing came running in from nowhere and snatched him, headed back to y’all like his tail was on fire.”
“Cat thing?” the medic stopped briefly to glare at the werewolf. “Do you seriously not know a fox when you see one?”
Kade and I exchanged a look, and he rolled his eyes. At least we finally knew that the cat and the fox were one and the same and, even better, it was right there with us.
Except, when I turned to look for it, the fox was gone.
Of fuckingcourse, it was.
Julian
When the wolf -Colby, I reminded myself now that I knew who it was- and the strange man split off from the rest of the group, I stayed where I was and focused on my surroundings.
The humans’ camp was mostly quiet. The Hunters were once again spread out through their camp, some engaged in what looked to be a meeting around the same battered ODI campus map I’d seen before. Others were trying to brace up the restored buildings, probably to ensure they wouldn’t suddenly collapse again. A small group were trying unsuccessfully to break into the locked shed that the key hidden in my suitcase opened.
There were several rabbits visible at varying distances, if you watched carefully. Lookouts for the others who were scattering whatever was in the bags, I was guessing. Everything was calm and peaceful until a sudden movement came from one of the older boys leaning against a tree by the edge of the camp. His arm came up and with a flicked motion, he released a stone with the sling shot he gripped. It was too fast to track, but the cry of pain made it clear that the stone had found its target and the boy jumped forward excitedly, shouting to his friends.
“I got it!” he crowed, darting into the tree line to claim the rabbit he had felled.
I reacted without thinking, my four long legs faster that his two human ones as I jumped over the log I was hiding behind and raced through the underbrush, easily clearing the scrub and brambles that the human had to fight his way through and beating the human to the creature trying to struggle to his feet on an obviously broken front leg.
Praying he would understand that I was trying to help, I gripped the rabbit by the scruff of his neck and fled back toward the ODI group, ignoring the crashing sound of large beings behind me. Not knowing who was chasing me, I didn’t dare slow down, wincing in sympathy when each movement jostled the rabbits injured leg and forced pained sounds from his throat. I broke through the woods into the clearing and found myself nose to twitching noses with a veritable wave of rabbits heading in the direction we were coming from.
We all froze, but I caught sight of the large gray rabbit who’d seemed to be in charge earlier and I resumed running, leaping over the rabbits in my path until I reached him and laid the rabbit I carried on the ground in front of him, cringing slightly when blood on the curly buff fur showed I hadn’t been as gentle as I’d meant to in my mad dash to get help.
The gray rabbit was already in mid shift by the time I’d released his comrade and he threw me a quick glance, thanking me before turning his attention to the injured rabbit. Heaving a relieved sigh that he’d understood my intent, I backed away a few steps and faded into the woods, watching as the leg was stabilized and the injured rabbit was lifted carefully into the medic’s arms before I turned and ran back toward the dormitories in the distance.
Normally I prefer to shower immediately after shifting, but dinner was in full swing when I’d slipped in through the open window and I was starving after my trek through the woods. Not only had I not spent this much time in my fox form in years, as a middle school music teacher with virtually no social life, I also usually wasn’t quite as physically active as I had been in the weeks I’d been in Texas.
Deciding the shower could wait until after I’d eaten, I pulled on the same clothes I’d discarded before my walk and headed down to the dining room. I filled my plate and grabbed a chilled bottle of water, looking around for a place to sit. Immediately discounting Chuck’s small private table, I instead slipped through the open side door and sat down at the large oval table in the vacant conference room and dug into my loaded plate with gusto.
