Page 97 of Wolf Bound

He moved back into the woods and shifted. “Let’s go to the farmhouse and the pecan grove. Probably there are more patrols the other way.”

“Gotcha.” Parker shifted and gracefully jumped from branch to branch until he was down on the ground.

“Follow my lead. Unless Demetria heads over to the farmhouse, we can avoid the farm and reach the pecan grove. As long as the farmer doesn’t have any dogs and alerts him that we are in the area.”

Then they shifted and they sneaked low through the meadow, passing the edge of the farm where bushels of hay were perfect for hiding behind. The wind was blowing in their favor. They could smell the farmer’s scent. He was a jaguar—no big surprise. But was he just a farmer, or an agent, pretending to be a farmer?

They moved slowly, cautiously through the meadow, avoiding catching the farmer’s eye. He turned in their direction and they immediately crouched down. Parker shifted. “Maybe we could sneak into the house and borrow some of the farmer’s clothes. No one would suspect we were traveling as humans. Or at least you and I would be wearing something else.”

Fisher shifted. “Were you being tracked?”

“I don’t know. They gave me the clothes to wear.”

Fisher smiled. “I’m glad you shifted then. Your suggestion of shifting and dressing in different clothes was a good idea, but I’m supposed to accomplish this as a wolf. In a real-world situation, we could sure do that.”

“Okay.”

They shifted back and headed out again, finally reaching the pecan grove and moved through it with caution. It was clean underneath, no undergrowth that would help hide them, but they didn’t smell any scents of jaguars or wolves either if some of them were nearby.

Then they saw a patch of pumpkins and a gray-haired woman in a long sweater tunic, blue jeans and boots, and a cowboy hat crouching down among them. Their scents or movement must have caught her attention because she looked sharply in their direction. They flattened themselves against the ground, but they figured it was too late for that. She smiled and waved at them.

Thinking it might be a trap and that she would call reinforcements, Fisher nudged Parker to move again because she was still smiling at them and watching them so they were no longer undercover.

Parker began moving through the pecan grove at a more cautious pace like they had been doing initially, but Fisher hurried him up. There was no need for secrecy now.

Then they saw a designated water station near the farmhouse with a bench sitting beside it. A freshwater fountain for shifters in his or her fur coat and a water fountain for humans were both set up. Both of them shifted to drink from the human fountain.

“This is a safe zone so no one can come here to bother us,” Fisher said.

Then they saw the woman, who had been tending to the pumpkins, head their way. They immediately shifted.

She was carrying terrycloth bathrobes. “Would you like to grab a slice of freshly baked apple pie that I just pulled out of the oven before you continue on your way?”

Fisher shook his head. She might be harmless, but if she wasn’t, if they went with her to the farmhouse, they would be out of the safe zone. Wouldn’t that be an embarrassing way to fail a mission? Stopping to get a slice of apple pie from an innocent-looking civilian?

She smiled again. “Oh, I see. I’ll bring the pie out here and cut it. I’ll eat a slice too. That way you know I haven’t tampered with it. But you know, this is a safe zone, so I couldn’t do anything to you if I was one of the ‘bad’ guys.” She set the bathrobes on the bench. “I’ll be right back.” Then she went to the farmhouse.

Fisher felt they should just get on their way, but the older woman hurried back with a freshly baked pie still in its glass baking pan and some plates and a pie cutter. She cut them each a slice of pie.

“My husband and I retired from the JAG Corp. We were both Guardians. We loved our job and helping our shifter kind. Who would have ever thought wolf shifters were real and they would help us find bad guys now?”

Fisher knew that eating the pie wasn’t part of his mission, and this could mess up his score. But she seemed delighted to meet them and offer them some of her special dessert. Parker looked hopeful that Fisher would agree to eating the pie. She began eating her slice of pie and Fisher shifted, then pulled on a robe. Park hurried to do the same.

Then they saw the farmer coming. He was all smiles and Fisher was afraid that they had made the ultimate mistake.

“Howdy!” the farmer said. “I imagine my mate, Mabel, told you already that we were Guardians in the organization. Training missions are going on here all the time. But we’ve never visited with any agents-in-training before. We own all the acreage around the farm, about two hundred acres. We retired and they made a deal with us that we could continue to work our farm in retirement because it’s in the middle of the ten thousand acres the JAG organization had purchased. If we hadn’t been jaguars and part of the organization, they might have forced us out. But we love being here.”

“It’s beautiful,” Fisher said.

“They got right past you, dear,” Mabel said, cutting a slice of pie for him. “Not me. I saw them in the pecan grove. It doesn’t have any ground cover, but we own it, so no one is supposed to come onto our acreage to capture the good guys.”

“What about the water station?” Fisher asked.

“Oh, we copied one that they had created at different areas on their acreage so that any of you knew it was safe to go to and hydrate. We wanted you to know it’s safe for you here too. Both Meyers and I use it when we get thirsty out here while working on the farm.”

“So all of your land is safe,” Fisher said. “And in a way, your farmhouse is a safehouse. We’re supposed to go to the red house with a metal roof south of here though.”

“Sure, technically, this is as safe as they go,” Mabel said. “You’re welcome to stay and use our phone to call whoever is in charge to tell them you’ve gotten your freed hostage to a safehouse.”

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