Liam

The night was for hunting.

The sound of dried leaves crunching beneath small animals as they scurry to find shelter after catching my scent competed with the sound of crickets chirping their night song.

Light from the moon bathed the forest in cool blue shades. At night the temperature would dip below freezing, but that never concerned me. I always ran hot.

A certain smell filled my nostrils. This was what I'd been seeking—the hunt was on. It made me feel more alive than anything in my human existence ever had.

My heart pounded fast and hard, and I felt as if the sound could be heard by every creature for miles around. Four strong legs drove me forward, closer to the prey—our prey. But it is mine first. I was alpha.

Soon, I could hear another heartbeat racing faster than my own. Even the fallen branches and twigs cracking under my paws couldn't drown out the panicked thumping of the deer's heart as it made a desperate effort to flee.

Finally, the moment came. I leaped, making one final contact with a fallen tree to propel my body into the air. I collided with the deer, causing the frightened animal to miss a crucial step that sent it crashing to the ground. I was on it before it could recover. Sharp teeth sank deep into the animal's flesh—my teeth.

***

Early morning light woke me. That, and the feeling of sharp objects poking into my backside. The sun had not risen over the mountains yet, and I could see my breath as it formed, passing clouds in front of my face. Even though my body temperature ran hotter than an ordinary human, I had begun to shiver. Being naked hadn't helped.

I stood and brushed off the leaves and pine needles that clung to my damp body. Scanning the surrounding woods, I searched for my brothers. When I didn't see them, I started the cold walk toward the place we'd stashed our clothing the evening before.

Something about discovering I was a wolf-shifter freed me of the modesty I'd once had. I'd been caught naked before, but fortunately, it wasn't by any of the locals. I always figured we could have confessed to being nudists if we'd had to. While the notion was odd, it wouldn't have been unforgivable.

The good people of Flagstaff might actually accept that concept over the idea of werewolves living among them. Especially, being so close to the town of Sedona. That town had nudist, spiritualist, and a few self-proclaimed witches.

I heard one of my brothers long before I saw him emerge from the forest. Some of the benefits of being a shifter—heightened strength, speed, and hearing.

Seth fell into step beside me, and we walked in silence, attempting to shake off the deep sleep that followed shifting forms.

We reached the small cave—it wasn't large enough to crawl more than three or four feet inside—and pulled out three bundles of clothing and personal items. The freezing temperature was an excellent motivation for dressing quickly.

When I had my jeans and flannel shirt on, I sat on a fallen log to pull on my hiking boots. Seth still hadn't bothered to button his shirt or zip his pants. Instead, he'd checked his phone, like it wasn't freezing, or he had no sense of urgency.

Only a few minutes had passed before Cole came running toward us in all his naked glory. Cole, my youngest brother, always had a ton of energy and struggled with slow and easy. The look on his face warned me that it wasn't just his usual enthusiasm for life. Something was wrong.

"We got trouble," Cole said, as he reached us and took the pile of clothes Seth handed him.

Cole was shorter and stockier than Seth and me. His sandy blond hair was short on the sides but a bit longer on top. When he was younger, it used to hang over his eyes, and he was forever combing it back with his fingers.

"What's wrong?" Seth asked. I scanned the forest, alert to any signs of trouble.

"I stumbled across two dead campers about a mile back up the trail." Cole looked shook up, but finding dead people could do that to a person. Cole was also a firefighter and EMT, like Seth and me.

"Did you..." Seth started to ask.

Cole looked confused for a second until he realized what Seth was implying, then he looked indignant. "No. Of course not. It wasn't me. I just found them."

Seth and I exchanged a glance. We all knew that we only retained flashes of memory while in wolf form. It was the fear of hurting someone that sent us far into the mountains when we needed to shift. It was an itch that had to be scratched. I'd taken a life once, but I tried not to think about that if I could help it.

Cole dressed more quickly than Seth or I had, and was soon leading us to where he'd found the bodies.

"How'd they die?" I asked as we made our way through the woods.

"I can't be sure. I didn't do more than check for a pulse, even though I knew they were gone. Figured since I'm a firefighter the police would wonder why I didn't check. There's also something else odd about it." Cole glanced sideways at me.

"What?" I asked.

"You'll have to see for yourself. Or smell," Cole mumbled, before turning his attention ahead. He didn't speak again until we saw a red tent in the distance. "That's it."

We were about a hundred yards away from the campsite, but that was close enough for me to know what Cole was talking about. There was the smell of death, but not just the campers. There was something else.

"What the hell is that?" I asked as we drew closer.

"It's not that bad," Seth said. "Nothing I've ever smelled before, though."

Cole and I stopped to gawk at Seth. "Not that bad?" Cole asked. "That smell is not right. No way."

"It's different, that's all. I don't know what you girls are getting your panties in a wad over," Seth defended.

I had a bad feeling about the smell, but I kept it to myself. We reached the edge of the camp, and I took in the scene before me. A small camp table was knocked over on its side, and a few items were strewn across the ground. The tent seemed to be intact. "Did you check for anyone else?" I asked.

"Yes, I used a stick to pull the tent flap back, and then searched the perimeter. Nothing."

I nodded and walked carefully to the first body. It was a young woman, mid to late twenties, with long brown hair. She wore a blue down coat, and a beanie of the same color was lying a few feet away. Her eyes stared blankly at the morning sky, while her long brown hair was strewn all around her and partially across her face.

"Look at her neck," Cole said.

I carefully moved the strands of hair away. There was some dried blood on her neck, but only two bruised puncture wounds could be seen. I did notice that the front of her jacket looked as though it had been sliced up, but there was no blood or obvious injury. Possibly someone grabbed her by the coat. The location of the tears would support that theory, but who has the strength to put their fingers through nylon like that?

"What could that smell be, Liam?" Cole asked.

I glanced at the male a few feet away. By the angle of his arm, it had been broken before he died. He also had a wound on his throat, but the damage was more evident than the woman.

It seemed to me that they died, most likely, six or seven hours ago. It bothered me that they died in the same proximity my brothers and I had been. Something other than us was hunting last night.

The Coconino National Forest was 1.8 million acres of territory, but this particular patch of woods was ours. We chose it because of its remote location and the fact that people rarely used this part of the mountain range. These unlucky folks were way off the grid, but occasionally people wanted to be away from it all.

I spotted a book of matches next to the tent and bent to pick it up. After dusting it off, I handed it to Seth. He turned it over in his fingers and then passed it to Cole.

"The Burning Moon Bar," Cole read, then looked up at me. "They must have been in town at some point. Look at their gear. This was carried in from a car. That means their vehicle must be in the same parking area as ours."

Seth gives me a grim look. "We should walk away, right?"

I shook my head. "I don't believe we can. Think about it. We were roaming all over these woods last night. If we don't report this, we could find the finger pointing at us. Whoever or whatever did this isn't a shifter, but they aren't human either. The safest thing to do is report it. I'll say that we came across the bodies and then hiked back to the truck for better cell service."

I looked at them, and they nodded. This wasn't the situation I had in mind, but it was the reason I kept our camping gear in the truck so we could support the well-known belief that we camped together often.

I held out my hand, and Cole passed me the matchbook case, which I slipped into my pocket, then headed for the parking lot. Cole and Seth followed.

Ordinarily, we'd be laughing and cutting up by now, but this morning was somber and gray, matching our moods and out of respect for the two people whose lives were cut short.

When we reached the clearing that passed for a trailhead parking lot, I found a small blue car with two dangling hearts hanging from the rearview mirror. The vehicle had California plates, most likely they were tourists passing through, or college students attending Northern Arizona University.

They must have arrived sometime after us the evening before. I made the call that would bring the sheriff and open a can of worms I wished we could avoid. Whatever did this, I hoped it had already left town, even though I was curious about what else was out there, besides shifters like us. Not that we needed any mysteries to solve. Our own past was full of unanswered questions.

*Thank you for reading, voting, and sharing my stories.

R.K. Close