Page 27 of Her Big Bad Wolf
“Would I ever?”
She dropped the conversation and we carried on the day as normal. Instead of counting my babies’ heads throughout the day, I was counting down the seconds until I could go looking for the boys again. And this time, I knew exactly where to start.
*****
“Bye sweetie. See you tomorrow,” I said, waving to my last child of the day.
Mary had already packed up and left. I was glad for it because she wasn’t there to tell me what a bad idea it was to go snooping around places I shouldn’t.
First stop was home to change into better clothes. That only took a few minutes though before I was ready to go, sporting black leggings and a big black sweater over a black tank top. I even grabbed a solid black ski mask that would cover the majority of my face. I figured that way, if I ended up on the security cameras Mary mentioned no one would know it was me.
I had it all planned out.
As I drove towards the area she had mentioned, a bubble of excitement ran through me.
This time of year, the sun set early. It was already dark by the time I got to his general area. I didn’t stop driving until I found the house and then I turned around and parked about half a mile away. I planned to walk to the house through the woods in hopes of finding the boys along the way.
It broke my heart to think of them out here somewhere. It was cold tonight, closer to normal winter temps despite the warm spell we’d been having.
I pulled the ski mask over my head and locked my car.
A nervous giggle burst from me.
I never locked my car in town, so why did I find it necessary out here in the middle of nowhere?
Not second guessing myself, I left it locked and started into the woods with determination.
If those boys were out here, I was going to find them.
Even though it was very dark already with only a sliver of a moon out, I could see clearly with my accelerated wolf vision. Even at night the woods brought me peace. I lived in town and worked in town. Despite an abundance of places to run and get out in nature, I rarely took the time these days. I hadn’t realized just how much I was missing it.
My wolf stirred contently, but also anxious to run.
Soon,I promised her.
I was already making plans to schedule in a run. I knew it was long overdue.
It would be easy to shift and let my wolf track the boys out here, but I worried that it would only scare them. Sure, they were raised in a wolf Pack and knew not to be scared of wolves, but it was different when they were already out here and alone and a strange wolf ran up to them. I didn’t want to scare them anymore than I was certain they already were.
Uncertain just how close I was to Crazy Sac’s place, I didn’t want to just call out for them either.
It wasn’t fair for me to call him that. That was terrible. But based off the Crazy Sac stories, plus Mary’s depiction of him, I imagined an angry old man who shot first and asked questions later. He was probably hairy and half wild with long hair and a scraggly beard. I bet he smelled too. Was there even water and electricity all the way out here?
Before Mary mentioned it, I honestly thought this entire section of territory was just woods. It wasn’t the most popular area to run, but I didn’t know why that was. Perhaps it was because of him.
Poor old man probably hadn’t seen or spoken to anyone much out here.
Was he wild?
Did he live off the land and hunt his food in wolf form?
Was he more wolf than man?
It made me fear that maybe he was feral and that’s why Kyle kept him away from everyone out here.
How long had he been living out here?
Wolf shifters could live a lot longer than the average human. He could be ancient.
