Callie's Captors [Mountain Men(6)

But Blue had other ideas. Growling again, he whirled around and dashed toward the woods. Raine danced on his feet, waiting for Pete to jump out of the hole, but when he didn’t, he gave up and chased after Blue.

She glanced up, noted their departure, then lowered her eyes to his. Her lips parted and he had to resist the urge to shift back to human form so he could kiss them.

“Go.”

It wasn’t a command. Her whisper was a plea, but it held a tone of regret, too.

He had to leave. He knew his brothers were waiting for him. In his present form, there was nothing he could do for her anyway. But he couldn’t leave before he did one thing first. Lifting his head higher, he reached out and slid his tongue along her cheek.

She jerked, but didn’t scream or try to get away. Instead, she lifted her fingers and touched the spot where he’d licked her.

She tasted even better than she smelled.

A howl broke the silence of the night. He stepped away from her.

Damn you, Blue. Shut the hell up.

Gathering his strength, he crouched then hurled his body out of the pit. He spun around and looked back at her. She stood, her camera still in her hands, as he lifted his head and howled his answer to his waiting brothers. With a flick of his tail, he bolted and ran toward the woods.

Raine and Blue stood just past the edge of the trees, hidden by the dense foliage, but he could still find them easily enough. Since they were back in their human bodies, he shifted, too.

“How did she get in?” Blue’s eyes, a testament to his name, glittered with excitement.

Although Raine shook his head, his own blue eyes blazing, he still gave an answer. “She has to be a werewolf.”

Pete glanced back at the hole. “No, there has to be another answer. If she’s a werewolf, why doesn’t she shift and jump out?” He shook his head, mimicking his brother’s gesture. “Could someone else have brought her into The Hidden?”

“And then desert her?” Blue sniffed the air. “If someone did, they ought to get strung up. I can still smell the stench of The Cursed.”

Pete caught the scent, too, but at least the odor wasn’t strong. That meant only one or two of the wretched creatures had been around. “If they saw her, then they’ll tell the rest.”

“You don’t think one of them brought her through, do you?”

Pete cringed at Raine’s question. “Let’s hope not. If one of them dragged her inside, then that means they can get on The Outside now.”

None of The Cursed aside from the leader Burac had ever been able to go to The Outside. And they’d had no indication that any of them could leave and return as Burac had done.

Since his death, the Cursed’s attacks on the people of The Hidden had happened less frequently than before. A few had even said they’d run across The Cursed and had seen no aggression from them. But the past was difficult to forget and the people weren’t ready to believe that The Cursed could change.

Blue’s concentrated thought made creases in his forehead. “None of us is getting this right. We’re missing something and the best way to figure out what that is would be to talk to her.”

Pete grabbed Blue’s arm to keep his brother from taking another step. “I agree, but don’t you think we’d have better luck if we had some clothes on?”

As it often did, Raine’s crooked grin preceded his joke. “That depends on what kind of luck we’re wanting.”

But they both knew he was right. As shifters often did in The Hidden, they’d left what few clothes they had back in their tent at camp. Their tent wasn’t very large since they preferred to sleep in the woods at the edge of the community that served as home for all kinds of supernatural beings. Werewolves were the predominant form of shifter within their group, but The Hidden was also a refuge to fairies, werecats, werebears, and skinwalkers. The Deacon brothers often stayed in their wolf forms, running through the forest and howling at the moon.

“Okay, then, let’s get our clothes.”

“We can’t leave her alone, Blue. What if The Cursed comes back?” Pete didn’t want to risk that happening. “I’ll stay here and keep watch. You two head back and grab our clothes. Once we’re dressed, we can show our faces to her.”

“Pete’s right.” Blue was the oldest, but he rarely asserted his authority. Raine was a couple of years younger at twenty-six and Pete a year younger than him at twenty-five years of age.

Pete was thirteen years old when Blue and Raine’s parents had found him wandering the woods surrounding The Hidden. He’d been frightened and hungry, but he’d still tried to fight them by shifting into his wolf form and lunging at them, fangs bare, and claws extended. They’d easily subdued him, and after finding out that his mother had abandoned him, pushing him out of the car on a lonely mountain road, the Deacons had welcomed him into their lives and their family.