Page 34 of Crew

The two parted ways, Grey heading deeper into the woods and the herd’s territory to follow whatever clues he was sensing with his training, and Crew walking at a fast pace to the farmhouse to check on his mate.

Grey watched his alpha and friend leave. He’d been trained as a youth by his father and grandfather to track. Since stallions weren’t traditional predator shifters like wolves, they had to hunt for prey in human form, and the herd he’d grown up in had a number of trackers for that job. He’d enjoyed tracking as a kid, but he hadn’t used the skills much since he’d been in Little River. They had livestock and access to food in town, so it wasn’t like they were in the middle of nowhere and had to get all their own food by hunting for it.

He mused on Zara’s former herd life and how isolated they all were, mainly relying on foragers and trackers for food and keeping themselves as far from humans as possible.

Turning his attention back to the task at hand, he followed the subtle clues that told him people had been in the woods. Stallions didn’t really smell like anything except human, unlike other shifters that had a certain scent to shifters: lions smelled like grass, gorillas like the jungle, and wolves like the forest. So he couldn’t exactly follow anyone’s scent; he was following the evidence of their meandering through the woods. They were clearly being careful as they moved, but not so careful they weren’t leaving broken branches, footprints in the dirt, and trampled grass.

It took him over an hour of careful moving through the woods to pick up the sound of low voices. Moving cautiously forward, he crept through the trees until he came to a camp with several tents. Colton’s herd was milling around, talking quietly while one of them—he thought it was Colton’s brother, Weston—was making sandwiches on the liftgate of a truck and grumbling about how he’d gotten stuck with the task.

Grey hunkered down to watch and listen. They were still in Little River, though outside of his herd’s territory. The camp was crude, but it seemed like they were settled in for a while with evidence of a cooking fire and chairs around it, as well as boxes of what appeared to be supplies.

“Here,” Weston said with a snarl, handing a sandwich to Colton.

“What’s up your ass?” Colton asked, taking the sandwich.

“I don’t know why I have to do this. I’m your brother.”

“Yeah, but you’re low man on the totem pole and the youngest. I can’t show favoritism, bro.”

Colton took a large bite of the sandwich and turned his attention to one of the other males. “The question is, now that they found the traps and we weren’t able to grab that bitch, do we go with Plan B or Plan C, since Plan A failed?”

Grey recognized Silas, Colton’s second-in-command. “I like Plan C.”

“You would,” Colton said with a snort.

“I think we should do B,” Weston said. “Not that anyone is listening to me.”

“You’re right, little brother,” Colton said. “I let you talk me into Plan A and all that happened was we wasted a day digging damn holes and got nowhere with it except to let them know we hadn’t left town.”

“I’ll get working on Plan C, then?” Levi, one of the other males, said.

“Yes, now that they know we didn’t leave, we’ll need to move faster to implement things or they might locate us.”

“No way they’d find us, we’re hidden,” Weston said.

“We hurt their business, we threatened the alpha’s female,” Colton said. “We’ll have to move swiftly if we’re going to clear out the farm and take it over.”

Grey’s stallion let out an angry snort in his head. So the others in his herd were right—Colton wanted the farm for himself. What an asshole. They’d worked hard for years to turn the farm into a sanctuary for their herd. No way in hell was he going to let the male wander in and take over because he was too lazy to start a new home base for his herd himself.

Fucker.

He watched a while longer, but they didn’t say what Plan B or Plan C was, and they didn’t do anything but eat the sandwiches Weston made and tease him about being the “New Zara.”

Armed with enough knowledge for their herd to at least protect themselves, Grey returned to the farm without being detected by Colton’s people and then reported to Crew and the others about what he’d witnessed It wasn’t good news, but it was news all the same and more than they’d known before.

Every little bit helped.

They’d just have to make it impossible for Colton and his herd to get to them so they’d realize it was a futile endeavor and would be better served finding their own home.

* * *

The next morning, Zara’s ankle was back to normal and she was feeling more like herself. She was still scared by what had transpired, especially knowing that someone had actually been watching her and the traps had seemingly been set for her. She’d fallen asleep on the couch and woken up in bed with Crew, and this morning, they’d talked quietly about everything she’d missed while she’d been sleeping off whatever magical tea Doc Paula had given her that helped her to rest while she was healing.

The main thing he’d expressed was that there were now even more security measures in place and they were still in the process of installing everything. When they’d parted ways before breakfast, she’d kissed him goodbye and watched him leave with the other herd members, save for Avi who was keeping an eye on the farmhouse as part of the new security patrols.

She stood on the porch after breakfast and helping to clean up the kitchen while Tris tended to other things. Avi walked by, a walkie on a holster on his hip as he surveyed the area, making a circuit around the buildings.

“Did you tend to the animals yet?” she asked, leaning on the top rail.

---