Page 37 of The Goblin in the Sink Drain
On the way out, Fayne nudged me to go first, sweeping the area before joining me.
Halfway through the hole, I jolted as light spilled across my back.
“Where did they go?” a commanding voice demanded. “I thought you dosed them.”
Perry Nelson. The Springvale alpha. I recognized his voice from the video.
Crap. Crap. Crap.
“No way the humans left here on their own two feet,” another man growled. “They were taken.”
Fayne headbutted me in the rear, jarring me out of my shock, and I scrabbled faster.
“Did you hear that?” Perry grew quiet. “There’s something in here.”
No sooner had I burst into the space between fences than Fayne rushed out behind me.
“A hole,” the second man confirmed. “Some kind of animal must be trying to get at the cow feed again.” He stuck his arm through until I saw his hand. “The prisoners didn’t escape through there. Too tight.”
“Raise the alarm,” Perry ordered. “We have to locate them before Sartori finds out.”
“On it,” the second man snapped out, his footsteps fading as he left.
High-pitched whining filled my ears, a siren designed for shifter hearing frequencies.
“Run.” Fayne danced in place, eager to go. “I’ll be right behind you.”
Thanks to the fresh scent trail, even I couldn’t get lost on such a short route.
Fear coating the back of my throat, I put my body through its paces, stretching my legs until my stomach brushed the ground with every stride. Fayne kicked up leaves behind me, but I hoped the shifters would write off the noise as small animals and not the infiltrators they were looking for.
“Go, go, go.” Fayne bumped into my hip. “Get under the fence.”
This hole was a tighter fit, but I squeezed out and scanned for signs of where Rían had gone.
A long shadow fell over me, and I hunkered down, making myself smaller.
“Well, well, what do we have here?”
eleven
The cougar—andhe stank of cat musk—crouched in front of me and tugged an earbud from his left ear. The thumping bass from his music spilled out into the air, almost deafening to me in this form.
“What’s a cutie like you doing out here all alone?” He attempted to pet me, but I backed away slowly, shielding Fayne until she could retreat deeper into the hole. “Are you scared, pup? Don’t be. I promise I won’t hurt you. My grandmother had a weenie dog when I was a kid. If we can’t find your owners, maybe you can go live with her. Does that sound good to you?”
To be stuck like this, never able to resume my human form again?
Uh,no.
That sounded terrible to me.
“Princess,” a blessedly familiar voice called from a short distance away. “Come here, girl.”
As much as I wanted to race toward the safety it promised, I remained hunched to cover for Fayne.
The cougar pivoted, glancing over his shoulder, and he noticed Rían. “This your dog?”
“Yeah.” Rían jogged up, smiling warmly, his eyes a rich brown I blamed on contacts. I couldn’t say I cared much for the change, even if I understood the necessity of hiding his identity. “She likes to hunt for mice and ground squirrels, so I let her off leash when we come to the park.”
