Wolf Tales 12 (41 page)

Sunny couldn’t believe how much stronger her legs felt today. Each time she shifted, her wolf form was more powerful, her coordination better, her senses more attuned to the world around her.

The downside was that the stink of the fire was almost overwhelming.

They’d been out for hours now. She’d seen miracles she might never have imagined if she’d not been invited along. Logan and Adam sitting quietly beside a badly burned sow bear, healing her with the touch of their hands and that weird thing they did where Adam said they actually went inside the injured animal.

Igmutaka was just as amazing. He talked to bears and deer, calmed a frightened fox, helped an eagle down from a branch so Adam and Logan could repair badly singed feathers. Watching the cat as he stared intently at the regal bird, holding it immobile with the force of his mind, was something she’d never forget.

They’d found death today, but they’d saved lives as well. The powers the Chanku had amazed her. The fact she was one of them was hard to accept. That she ran beside them, had a voice, a chance to live like a normal person was so far beyond anything she’d ever dreamed. Never had she imagined actually living the dreams she’d had for most of her life.

The sun was beginning to set when Logan paused along the trail.
I’m going back. I want to check on Jake, see what’s going on with logistics. I’m wondering how long we’re going to stay in the caverns, what Anton’s got planned for our living situation. And I haven’t seen Jazzy all day. I miss her.

Adam shot a glance at Ig and Sunny.
And after he gets laid, because we all know what “missing Jazzy” means, he really wants to see the evening news.

Logan’s tail wagged in silent agreement.

Record it, okay? Not the sex, the news. I want to catch it later. Right now, though, I want to check that rocky area at the tree line. Last time we had a fire, there were a bunch of bighorn sheep that got caught in a blind canyon up there, one they couldn’t climb out of.

Sunny? What about you? Do you want to come back with me?

I’m not tired, Logan. I’ll go with Ig and Adam.

Good. Don’t overdo it. You’re still new at this whole walking thing, so be careful.
Logan turned and headed back along the trail. Sunny followed Ig and Adam up the mountain, toward the distant tree line.

This was real. This was happening to her, and it still felt like a dream come true.

The foul odor of burned meat lay heavy on the air. Adam paused at the narrow entrance to the canyon.
I know it smells awful, but just in case someone’s still alive, I want to check it out. You okay with that?

Without waiting for an answer, he slipped through the opening—little more than a crevice between two solid walls of granite. Ig and Sunny followed close behind, all of them dreading what they might find.

The stench of death was even stronger inside this narrow path where the air lay heavy and still. They trotted along a meandering stream between two sheer cliff faces, following a gap barely wide enough to pass through in single file. Adam glanced over his shoulder. He’d been keeping a close eye on Sunny—she amazed him with her stamina. He hadn’t expected her to keep up as well as she had.

Instead, she’d been an asset throughout the entire day, instinctively calming many of the injured animals, holding them still so that he and Logan could work.

They made a good team—Ig able to talk to most of the creatures, he and Logan with their healing skills, Sunny taking on the role of surgical nurse. If Liana had been able to join them, they could have done even more, but at least they’d saved more today than they’d had to put down.

That, too, was a mercy, though he hated the way it felt to go inside an animal and stop its heart from beating. It was painless and a better death than days of suffering and death from infection or the pure shock of such terrible burns, but he was a healer. Giving an animal a merciful death was still a failure, no matter how he looked at it.

He squeezed through the last narrow spot in the canyon and paused at the opening leading to the meadow. A thick stand of aspen, already turning gold this late in September, grew along one side, and water still pooled in the northern end of the meadow. The grass was thick here. Muddy prints showed evidence that mountain goats and sheep had recently grazed.

The fire hadn’t burned this section, and in the falling light he couldn’t pinpoint the source of the odor. The stench was overwhelming now that they were in the enclosed canyon, but where was it coming from?

There was no wind here—sheer walls rose well over a hundred feet on all sides. Only the narrow cleft along the stream gave access.
Let’s fan out. See if we can find out what happened. The fire didn’t burn here, so I can’t figure out why I’m smelling burned flesh.

Adam took off toward the creek and the grove of aspens while Sunny trotted straight through the middle of the meadow. Igmutaka headed right, toward a jumble of rock piled along the eastern edge of the canyon.

The smell grew stronger as Adam moved through the belly-high grass. He found one dead ram, the body badly burned, the belly torn out, as if a large animal had recently fed on the carcass. Nearby he came across a second animal, and then a third. The second two were dead as well, showing some burns, but their bodies were intact. He stared at them for a moment. They hadn’t died from their burns, not from the fire.

Their necks were broken. All three of them.

They’d come here, injured and hurting, seeking a safe place with food and water nearby, but something had killed them. Something huge. He sniffed around, but there was no sign of cougar, and while the ground was trampled, he couldn’t find any recognizable prints in the mud. The passageway was too narrow for a bear to slip through, but something had broken their necks. Something had eaten half of a large bighorn ram.

Adam’s hackles went up. He raised his head and sniffed the air. The stench of burnt flesh was so overpowering he couldn’t pick out any other smells. Looking across the meadow, he spotted movement. Sunny was barely visible in the shadows, though her pale coat glimmered with the last of the day’s light. He couldn’t see Ig at all. Of course, the cat had a way of blending into his surroundings that was absolutely surreal.

Adam searched along the stream bank, sniffing in thick brambles and checking sheltered spots among the stunted willows. The sheep had been strong enough to come here, even though they’d been burned, obviously seeking sanctuary where there was plenty of food and water. What had killed them? Something big enough to bring down a bighorn sheep with a single blow.

The entrance was much too narrow for a bear. Beyond the broken necks, the amount of damage to the one carcass was pretty excessive for even a large flock of vultures or a single cougar in so short a time. The bighorn sheep had been injured just last night. Since then, many pounds of the carcass had been consumed.

Ig would have noticed if there were cougars about. He was notoriously territorial in his cougar form.

A loud shriek split the night air.
Ig? What’s going on?

Grizzly! He’s a big one. Has me cornered in the rocks. East side.
He shrieked again, a loud cry of feline anger that ripped open the night.

Sunny? Be careful. Stay back. I’ll help Ig.

Except Sunny didn’t answer. Adam raced across the darkening meadow.
Sunny? Sunny, where the fuck are you?

There was no answer. No sound at all. Nothing but the heavy chuffing sound of a large grizzly. Then a deep-throated roar. Ig screamed again, but there was fear in his panther’s cry as well as anger. Adam ran faster, searching for Sunny’s mental voice even as he raced toward Igmutaka.

The cougar snarled. The bear roared again.

How the hell could a bear have gotten in here? It made no sense—the canyon they’d followed was too narrow for an animal that large to pass. He heard a low growl, another low snarl from Ig.

He’s big, Adam. And he really wants a piece of my ass. Any ideas?

Not a one. Where the hell is Sunny?

I don’t know. Shit. That was close.

Ig, can the bear get to you?

If he wants me bad enough . . . and I think he wants me. I’m between two boulders against the cliff face. No way out, nowhere to go. There’s a twisted pine growing out of the cliff just above me.

I see it. Hang on. Damn. I wish I knew where Sunny was.

Adam saw the bear, a huge monster of a beast barely visible in the fading light. It stared at a dark area between two boulders. Ig’s glowing eyes were shining out of the shadows.

Adam slipped around behind the huge beast, looking for anything he could use as a weapon, but damn, there was no escape. Even if Ig could get out from under the rock, they’d have to make a run for the narrow canyon, and grizzlies were fast. Plus, they couldn’t leave without Sunny, but he had no idea where she’d gone. Could the grizzly have gotten her?

One thing for sure—the bear couldn’t get out of the canyon. He was too damned big to fit between the canyon walls.

And there was no way in hell a wolf was going to kill a full-grown male grizzly. A really pissed-off grizzly. Even with the help of a cougar, odds were the two of them would end up badly injured or worse.

But he had to try. Adam lunged at the bear’s hindquarters, latched onto thick fur and loose skin. The bear swung around, moving so quickly he slammed Adam against the side of the boulder.

Shaken, he lost his grip and rolled out of the way of the big paw that slammed the ground beside him. Yipping, he scampered to his feet and lunged out of the way.

His attention divided now, the bear stood in front of the opening to Ig’s hideout, swinging his huge head back and forth. His growl split the night. Adam skulked just out of the bear’s reach, his belly low to the ground, ears flat to his head.

Snarling, he tried to draw it away from Ig, but the animal seemed confused by two such diverse adversaries. Growling, it rose up on hind legs and glared at the cliff walls. Then it dropped back on all fours and lunged at Adam.

He spun out of the way just a hair’s breadth from the animal’s deadly claws. Standing just out of reach again, Adam kept his head low and snarled at the grizzly.

A low growl echoed out of the darkness off to Adam’s right. Startled, he spun around, hackles flaring along his spine.

No. Absolutely not.

Holy shit, Ig. We’ve got company. It’s another grizzly.

Chapter 29

The second bear was smaller, not nearly as monstrous as the big male. It chuffed and growled, but showed no fear of the larger bear. Adam backed off.
I think it’s a female, Ig.

Great. Maybe they’re planning a dinner party.

I don’t think so.
He stared at the second bear. There was something oddly familiar about the creature. Had he seen this one before? Grizzlies weren’t all that common—one had attacked Eve years ago, and they’d had run-ins with a couple of others since, but the big brutes tended to keep to themselves.

Finding two here in this small, blind canyon made no sense at all, especially when the entrance was much too tight for either of them to come in that way. Had they both fallen over the cliff?

He glanced up and tried to judge the distance, but to his wolven eyes it was hard to tell. At least a hundred feet up. The fall would probably kill any animal that had the misfortune to tumble over the cliff.

Holy fuck. Will you look at that.

Ig’s soft expletive had Adam spinning around and focusing once again on the pair of bears. The small one was staring intently at the large male, growling and making irritated chuffing noises, almost as if she was reading him the riot act. Then she turned away and headed back across the meadow, lumbering toward the burned carcasses on the far side.

The male swung his big head, growled, and stared after her. Then he took a final swipe at Ig, ignored Adam entirely, and followed the female.

Ig scrambled out from under the rocks.
Figured it out yet?

Figured what out?

Who the bear is?

Who?
Adam stared at the two huge beasts as they crossed the meadow.
Are you saying that’s Sunny? Shit . . . it can’t be.

You see her anywhere else? Adam, I understand the grizzly language. The she-bear is Sunny.

They stood there, speechless, watching as the big male followed the female across the meadow. The freshly killed ram caught the male’s attention and he squatted down beside the partially eaten bighorn. The female stood beside him for a moment, then she turned away and ambled through the tall grass, directly toward Adam and Ig.

Even though she was smaller than the male, she still made a formidable adversary. Both men stood their ground. Adam swung his head around and stared at the cat for a long moment. Finally he huffed out a deep breath of air.
Ig, I sure as hell hope you know what you’re talking about, because if that’s not Sunny, we’re in trouble.

So do I, Adam. So do I.

Sunny lumbered through the tall grass toward the wolf and the cougar. This body wasn’t nearly as easy a shift as the wolf, but the ability to communicate with the big bear made it worth the discomfort.

Just the fact she’d been able to take this form totally blew her away. She stopped in front of Adam and Igmutaka and shifted. This time she went to human, though, standing tall and way too proud of herself in front of them.

Both men immediately shifted. “How the hell did you do that?” Adam was laughing, but there was definite admiration in his eyes.

Sunny couldn’t have wiped the grin off her face if she’d tried. She didn’t try at all. “I just thought bear. I could sense his distress. That poor guy didn’t really want to hurt you, Ig, but he’s scared and mad at everything.”