Chapter Eight
Austin dashed from one pine tree to the next, seeking what scant cover there was on the mountainside. He was halfway up the mountain, sliding on loose shale and pebbles. The tree line up here was scrubby and didn’t offer enough cover.
It was late afternoon. He’d left Savannah behind, safely handcuffed, several hours ago.
You have to stop thinking about her. Focus on the job.
There was no breeze, the air was hot and dead still, and he didn’t hear a sound. Not even birdsong.
It was as if the entire mountainside was holding its breath. As if all the local wildlife was smart enough to head for safer parts. Smarter than him.
He stood there for a minute, holding perfectly still, but all he heard was the thundering of his own heart pounding in his ears.
It was like that old cliché. “It’s quiet out here. Too quiet.”
He knew he was getting close. Could he actually take Roy on? He would find out in the very near future.
He had the tranq rifle that he’d stolen from Savannah slung around his neck. At first he hadn’t planned on using it, but the more he thought about it, the more he realized that he would likely need every advantage he could get.
He was staying in human form for now, so he’d be able to shoot if he needed to.
He was going to have to go wolf pretty soon if he wanted to be able to track Roy down, though. In human form, his scenting ability was very good, but not as strong as when he was in his animal form.
He definitely scented wolf here, and the unique scent of the Dominus Alpha said it had to be Roy. The stink was everywhere
Oddly, it didn’t smell like rage. It smelled more like overwhelming sorrow. Maybe Roy felt bad about the people he’d killed. Maybe he’d been out of control when he’d done it.
Didn’t matter.
Dead was dead. Roy had been their death sentence. And now Austin would be his.
A warm breeze swept through the air. He tipped his head back and sniffed at the wind, searching for her scent, but instead he smelled Roy – way too close.
He dashed from behind the pine tree, heading for another stand of trees about fifty feet away.
Then he heard an odd rumbling sound. He glanced up to see an enormous boulder hurtling straight down the mountainside towards him.
Scrambling madly, he ran for cover, and tripped.
He tried to climb to his feet and kept slipping on the steep hillside, which suddenly seemed to be made of Teflon. Above, he heard howls of harsh laughter.
He stopped trying to stand and rolled over and over. The boulder thundered past him, spraying him with gravel and missing by inches.
He scrambled to his feet and looked up to see Roy standing on a ledge. Fuck, that wolf was crazy strong. And also just plain crazy.
He was wearing jeans and boots, stripped down to his waist. He looked just like his pictures, with a squarish, handsome face, with horizontal lines creasing his forehead and dark hair streaked with white. His scraggly beard had a white stripe through it.
“Oh good, I was getting bored,” Roy shouted down at him.
Austin cupped his hands around his mouth to yell back at Roy. “If you come with me peacefully, I will do my best to see that you get treatment.”
“What, after I butchered all those people? No, no, I really think you should kill me.” Roy threw back his head and laughed again, a harsh, horrifying sound. It echoed off the hills and bounced back, a chorus of madness.
Was that Austin’s future?
Roy came rushing down the hill at him, shifting as he ran. His wolf was enormous, gray and white and snarling. Foam flew from his mighty jaws.
Austin tried pushing at him with his Dominus power, and immediately felt an enormous splitting pain in his head. He was trying to force Roy back into human form, and the results were hideous. Patches of human skin appeared and then disappeared on his flanks, giving Roy a revolting, moving quilt of pink bald splotches. Roy’s ears seemed to melt like candle wax, then reformed.
