The Stinky Life I've Accepted

Chapter 23: Crazy

Maxon

I sigh as we continue to walk through the undergrowth, making sure our trained bodies, even in human form, stay silent and quiet. 

We also mask our scents, having full knowledge that if we ever did get close enough, he would scent us out and bolt. 

My inner wolf instincts whine for my mate, and how badly injured he is. 

"Hey. You good, cousin?" Mikey whispers from my right side, his eyes scanning the undergrowth quickly and efficiently. 

I nod my head. "Yeah. I just really want to finally catch up to him. I can't take knowing he's on his own, living a struggling life." I whisper back, and he smiles at me, his eyes full of something I can't quite grasp. 

We continue forward in silence, and before we know it, a few minutes turns into a mere hour, which then spans into six long hours. 

The night is upon us sooner than I'd like, but I won't give up. We could catch up to him, considering the limp Mikey mentioned. 

After thirty more minutes, something growls lowly from in front of us, and I wince, a dangerous smell wafting in my nose. 

A smell that has been caught too late, and my tracking team stops to a halt, none daring to breathe. 

The deadly smell is a full-grown, male grizzly bear. Even with our stronger eyesight, we seemed to not have noticed the claw marks on the trees, but judging by the next angry growl...we have trespassed. 

Even though we are masking our smells quite well from our own shifter species, it takes a life-time practiced skill to mask a shifter's scent from animals. Especially predatory, aggressive, and territorial bears. 

It soon comes into view, snorting and huffing, its hair on end as it nears us. 

If the entire search party was here, we would be able to take it on. But as such, we all have split, and besides Mikey and I, it is only Payne and a small group of those under him. 

We would not come unscathed so easily from a fight with this bear, but it seems we have no choice to fight, as the angry bear starts to barrel towards us, all muscle, mass, and fury. 

That is, until something lands on it, wraps its arms around the bear's neck, and with all the strength it can muster, tugs the bear back. 

Ryker

Now, I have been in a lot of crazy, messed up situations. But this here, forced to have climbed up a tree after running into quite an angry bear, whilst hanging on by my weakening strength, is simply outrageous. 

With the awful cold that has plagued me since I woke up this morning, my aching limbs, and my hungry stomach, it took everything in me just to run and climb this tree in time to avoid being a certain bear's dinner.