Page 93 of Wolf Bound

When he reached the other side, he took a deep breath, smelling Kira’s scent and entered through the doorway. Inside was a maze of stacked wooden boxes at various heights from three feet to twenty. He smelled Kira’s and Everett’s scents inside the room. Again, jaguars and cougars could leap up on top of boxes to see where they needed to go. Even bears could climb up them, if they ended up with any bear shifters in the organization. As a wolf, Fisher could leap up to a lower box and he did that, but he needed to get to a higher elevation to see which path to take. He could shift and climb as a naked human, he thought.

But then he smelled Kira’s scent and she had moved down in the maze rather than climbing on top of the wooden boxes so he jumped down to enter the maze too. When he began to navigate the maze, he discovered some of the boxes were open on one side. Fisher heard movement on top of some of the boxes and saw Everett pacing way up high, with his back to Fisher, waiting for him in case he showed up. With Everett up so high, he wouldn’t be able to see Fisher unless Everett was walking on top of a box that was near the maze path Fisher was navigating.

When Everett moved in Fisher’s direction, Fisher slipped into an open box to keep from being seen. He had to stay out of Everett’s sight at all costs or he might end up in a battle. Everett had been in the middle of the box maze, but he moved off to the right of the boxes. Cats could move quietly, but even so, the boxes creaked no matter how quietly anyone walked, which helped Fisher keep track of the jaguar. Even though he could smell Everett, he had moved all over the crates watching for Fisher so his scent didn’t help him keep track of the big cat.

Fisher slipped out of the box and made his move toward the left most path. The advantage he had there was that he could remain quiet on the cement floor as he made his way around the maze. But he didn’t know which way to go to get out of the maze to reach another door. Maybe the proper path was to the right where Everett had gone and that’s why he was mostly focused on guarding that area.

Fisher kept moving, coming to a dead end that went left or right. He didn’t smell Kira’s scent this way but maybe more than one path could be taken to reach the door. At least he hoped. He went to the right, suspecting Everett might be watching the middle and right side of the maze to make sure that he caught Fisher if he tried to move in that direction. Why would Everett be there, instead of to the left of the maze, unless the path to the right was the correct path to take?

Fisher heard Everett coming and he took refuge in another box and waited. Everett was moving straight for Fisher’s box, except five boxes were stacked on top of the one he was sitting inside. He just hoped Everett couldn’t smell his scent down below. For several seconds that felt like minutes, Everett stood way up on top of the box. No more sounds were made. Fisher couldn’t hear Everett’s heart beating so he knew the cat couldn’t hear his either. Thankfully.

Then Everett moved away again to the right side of the maze. Fisher breathed a sigh of relief but still he didn’t move in case Everett knew Fisher was sitting inside that box, and Everett was waiting for him to leave the spot and move again. Fisher finally moved as stealthily as he could when he heard Everett leaping and landing on a box near him about seven boxes high and Fisher dove into the closest one to him. He waited, afraid Everett had heard or smelled him and knew just where he was. But then after a couple of minutes, Everett walked back to the right side of the maze. Fisher hurried out of the box and headed straight down the path, then to the left, no other option, to the right, to the right again, straight, to the left. All the while, Everett was pacing around the right side of the maze and Fisher thought he was getting closer to the middle of the wooden boxes again.

Then to his guarded relief, Fisher saw a tunnel of boxes with just a missing section in spurts. If he could get through those at a run, it would help him travel faster. But if Everett was anywhere near the open sections, he might be able to catch a glimpse of Fisher. At least Fisher could move through some of the tunnel sections without being seen as long as Everett didn’t leap down into the maze.

Then Fisher realized this was probably the section that Everett had been monitoring when he moved back to the middle area. Fisher moved through the tunnel until he came close to the end of this part of the tunnel. He listened, hadn’t heard Everett for a few minutes, so figured he was sitting and listening too.

The last he’d heard of Everett, he was still off to Fisher’s right. Then a box creaked, but Fisher was certain he could dash through the open area to the next part before Everett could see him. Fisher made it to the next part of the tunnel and navigated to the end of it. Everett was still far enough away that Fisher chanced moving to the next tunnel. He leaped into the tunnel and then moved deeper into it so that Everett couldn’t see him. He continued on his way, hearing Everett making his way to where Fisher had been, which gave Fisher the opportunity to continue moving until he was out in the open. The maze had made a right turn and straight ahead was the door. Everett was at the middle of the boxes. Fisher was northeast of him. Fisher ran as fast as a wolf could for the door. Then he heard Everett leaping on top of crates in his direction. Fisher could hide in one of the open boxes to his left or right when they appeared or take the chance to reach the door first.

Once he entered the next room, would Everett just follow him into it? Fisher wouldn’t have any choice but to fight him. Fisher was so close to the doorway, he leapt the last few feet, hoping the door would open in time and he could leap through. And with any luck, the door would silently close before Everett knew Fisher had gone into the next room. The door magically opened, and Fisher managed to make it into the next room. He glanced back but didn’t see any sign of Everett. The door closed without making a sound.

Fisher took a deep breath and let it out. He smelled Kira’s scent in here and he wondered how she had gotten here. He hadn’t smelled her scent in the tunnel of boxes. This room was furnished like a bedroom, and he heard a muffled cry behind a dresser. The teen? But Fisher didn’t smell the boy’s scent in here. An ambush? He didn’t think so. At least he had to rescue the person if someone needed rescuing. He hurried to the large chest and behind it, he found Kira gagged and tied to a chair, not in her wolf form, but dressed and in her human form.

His brain couldn’t assimilate what was going on at first. Then he shifted and hurried to ungag and untie her.

Kira shook her head. “I’m bait. You’ve got to hurry and get out of here. Leave me behind.”

“Who did this to you?” he asked, his voice hushed.

She spoke in whispered words also. “The trainers. They told me I was supposed to stop you from reaching the teen. I just didn’t expect to be a hostage myself.” She smiled up at him, hugging and kissing him.

“My mission just became rescuing my partner and finding the teen. If you’re being used as bait, you’re now on my side.”

“Okay, I’ll go for that.”

She and Fisher headed for the door on the other side of the dresser. “Do you know your way to where the teen is being held?” he asked.

“No, and they have changed the whole facility since I was here last year so it would be like the blind leading the blind.”

“You didn’t go toward the boy’s scent,” he said.

“No. I figured they would have everyone there, waiting for you to arrive. And I suspected you would know that and go in the opposite direction.”

He shifted, then they entered the next room, and it was empty, save for stairs going down. He went first, since this was his mission, but also to protect Kira should they run into trouble.

He smelled the boy’s scent again, but this time he followed it. A clock showed an hour and half had passed and he wondered how that had happened! When they reached the base of the stairs, they were in a room surrounding a swimming pool that looked to be about twenty by forty feet. It looked inviting. Across the pool, a teen was tied up and gagged. Fisher hoped he hadn’t been confined for that long, but he suspected that the trainers would know exactly where Fisher had been at all times and would set up the hostage situation when he got close.

He hoped the same had happened for Kira. No guards were posted anywhere, which surprised Fisher. He could go across the swimming pool or race around the pool, which would be quicker. But when he took a step that way, the boy’s eyes widened, and he vigorously shook his head. Fisher glanced up at the walls surrounding the pool and again saw platforms where jaguars could leap to and make their way to the hostage from up above. Jaguars were powerful swimmers though too. But wolves were excellent swimmers and would cross rivers and large bodies of water in search of new territories or food.

Fisher didn’t see anything that would be an issue around the pool, but he wasn’t chancing it since the boy was indicating that there was something amiss over there. Fisher jumped into the pool while Kira waited behind. As a wolf, he could swim five miles per hour, and he reached the other side of the pool in record time.

He couldn’t get out of the pool as a wolf. Since the teen was a jaguar shifter, Fisher didn’t have to worry about shifting in front of him. He shifted, climbed out of the pool, and removed the teen’s gag and bindings.

“Are you alright?” Fisher asked, knowing this was a simulation, but if it was for real, he would have done the same thing.

The teen smiled at him and rose from the chair. “Yeah, they just tied me up before you got here. They said you were just as quick as Kira and didn’t take the long way around.”

So the way he took had been the shortcut? Fisher shifted back into his wolf, wondering now if he had to get the teen to safety without getting caught. David hadn’t mentioned that part of the equation.

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