Hunting Midnight

Chapter Eighteen: When The Lights Are Out

    "Is it a wolf hunter?" Ruhn asks sharply, his eyes full of fire as he looks around the forest.
    "I think so," I nod. "It smells human."
    "We should kill it," Marissa hisses, and I'm about to contradict her when Ruhn jumps in.
    "No. We should follow it and see if it will lead us to their compound."
    "So we're just going to let it roam free?" Marissa demands.
    "It's the only way we're going to find out how they're getting onto our land," I say, thinking over Ruhn's plan.
    "We need to take this opportunity now while we can," Ruhn adds. "Otherwise they'll keep sneaking onto our land and more wolves will die."
    Manteo, Caleb, and Jelene, having heard the chatter, walk out of the pack house together, joining us by the shed.
    "Kenna has picked up the scent of a human on our land," Ruhn informs them.
Caleb inhales sharply, then growls. "I smell it too."
Ruhn grabs a few guns, knives, bows and arrows from the shed and disperses them to the group. "Kenna, Jelene, Manteo and I are going to track the wolf hunter. Caleb and Marissa, you stay here and guard the pack house."
"I want to come too," Caleb says quickly, looking to Ruhn for approval.
"No," Ruhn shakes his head. "Since you and Kenna are the only two who can smell the hunters, you need to be here in case more come." Then, Ruhn pauses as he looks down and searches my face. "Kenna, I'm going to make Vargr pay for this. I don't care that he's your uncle."
"I..." I hesitate, biting my lip in apprehension. "I know he needs to be put to death, but he's still my uncle."
"And he's my father," Caleb adds. "Let's see what he says when he's captured. I'd really like to have a conversation with him before you kill him."
Manteo looks at Caleb with confusion. "You think he's innocent?"
"No," Caleb shakes his head. "But it's hard to believe that my father– my Alpha– betrayed me. I need to know why. Then I'll help you kill him."
Something about Caleb's hardened eyes and the tone of his voice full of anger makes my wolf senses feel on edge, but there's no time to worry about that now. Jelene eyes Caleb, then begrudgingly nods her approval.
"Now that I think about it, Vargr being alive explains a lot of things," Caleb continues.
"What does it explain?" Jelene asks.
Caleb looks at her and Manteo, contemplating if he should let them in. "Vargr began restricting where we could patrol and was spending a lot more time alone," he explains.
"What area was he restricting?" Ruhn asks.
"Our west territory that bordered your east territory," Caleb answers.
"We'll have that area checked when we get back," Ruhn says with a nod. Manteo goes into the shed and comes back with two bullet-proof vests. He hands one to Ruhn, who puts it on, and then holds the other out to me.
"My friend made these to stop silver bullets," Manteo explains. "But the material is so hard to come by that we only have two. For now."
I nod, pulling the vest on and snapping the three clips on the sides that hold the vest together. Surprisingly, the vest isn't very heavy, which I suppose is a good thing if we need to shift.
"We're going to wait as long as possible to shift so the wolf hunters won't be able to differentiate us from their own," Ruhn says, looking around at all of us. "Also, use the bow when you can. It's quieter than a gunshot and will draw less attention. Now, where is the scent coming from?"
I close my eyes and tap into my inner wolf, inhaling sharply as I turn east, looking into the deep forest. "He's that way. Let's go."

Ruhn, Manteo, and Jelene follow me deep into the forest, illuminated by the moon. The forest is quiet, minus the chirps of a few insects, and a light mist has covered the mossy floor. As we venture deep, we suddenly come upon a wolf hunter spraying a tree with a canister. I hold up my hand and dart behind a tree quietly, pulling Ruhn behind me. Manteo and Jelene do the same to a tree on our right. Ruhn mindlinks with me, Manteo, and Jelene as we peak around the tree, watching the hunter work.
"He must be spraying a scent blocker. Stay back, we don't want him to see us."
The wolf hunter marks a few more trees with the scent blocker, then turns just as another wolf hunter quietly comes to his side and they begin to converse before they start walking in our direction.
"They're coming our way, Kenna," Ruhn says, his voice laced with fearsome anger. The two hunters walk towards our tree, and Ruhn and I duck to the other side, letting the hunters walk right past us, oblivious. We watch them until they get about ten yards ahead of us, and then silently creep forward, keeping hidden behind the shrubbery and trees. To my surprise, the wolf hunters continue to walk east.
They are going toward my old pack's side of the territory before we merged with Ruhn's pack and expanded.
"Why are they continuing to go east?" I ask over the mindlink.
"It looks like it's close to where Caleb and Vargr told him to stop patrolling," Ruhn replies.
Silently stalking our prey, we follow them into the dense foliage where my original pack territory was. As bad timing as this is, it does feel nice to be back home. Suddenly, the wolf hunters pause when they get to a spot by a large tree, looking around to make sure nothing is following them. Then, they bend down and brush off the leaves and sticks that cover a large hole in the ground.    
"Damn," Ruhn growls over our mindlink. "I assumed they were coming from the lake."
"I wonder what else we don't know," I reply, watching the wolf hunter's movements intently.
"There's a lot we don't know yet," Ruhn agrees. "Let's give them a few minutes headstart and then we'll follow them down the hole."
I nod, and Ruhn tells Manteo and Jelene. Together, we hang back until the wolf hunters jump down the hole, waiting a few minutes before we follow them inside.