Free Hunter Moon (The Moon Series) by Jeanette Battista Page A

on, Shane?"
    "If you've got time, I'll take you out there." The hyena's voice was tight, tense. Rafe didn't like it; he felt his stomach tighten in apprehension. Something was seriously wrong to have Shane this keyed up.
    Rafe looked at Finn, who nodded. Finn said, "We’ve got the time."
    Shane got up, waved to the bartender, and led them to his dusty Ford pickup. They all piled inside with Rafe in the middle since he was the skinniest. Finn made a point at every opportunity to dig his elbow into Rafe's side. When he turned to say something to him, Finn just batted his eyes and gave him a devious grin.
    "So where are we going?" Rafe asked Shane, trying to ignore Finn.
    "Near the place where your momma fought Kess."
    "Didn't most of that get torched in the fire?" Finn asked, stopping his torment of Rafe for a moment.
    "Some, especially the marshes. But where we're going got through pretty much unscathed. Still pretty wild." Shane turned the truck on to an access road that led them deeper into the swampy marshland.
    They bounced along in silence for several miles, the shocks doing nothing as they hit rutted ground and potholes. Rafe braced his hands on the dash, trying not to fall out of the seat and into Finn or Shane. Finn had grabbed the handle above the door. Shane seemed not to notice, but at one point Rafe wondered if he wasn't deliberately hitting every bump and pothole as payback for Finn's dominance move back in the bar.
    "I think my kidneys have become lodged in my ear," Finn muttered to Rafe as Shane turned onto an even less traveled track that led them still deeper.
    "My spine has fused together," Rafe returned, grateful when Shane pulled to the side and cut the engine.
    "We walk from here." Shane pushed his door open.
    Finn hit the door handle and he and Rafe tumbled out with relief. Finn leaned back, his hands on his hips and cracked his vertebrae. "Thank God," the werewolf said.
    They followed Shane as the werehyena led them around a wooded area and started to circle the lake. "It's just up ahead that I found signs."
    "Signs of what?" Rafe asked, no longer sure of what they were supposed to be looking for.
    "You'll see."
    Finn sniffed the air, then bent lower to the ground. "Hyena."
    Shane turned to look at Finn, a grudging respect in his eyes. "Yep. You smell anything else?"
    "Not yet. Give me time though." The cocky Finn that Rafe was so used to seeing had been replaced by serious Finn. Rafe watched as the werewolf began a circuitous path around the area, checking the long grasses and the ground. When he was done, he indicated for them to keep going. "Lead on."
    Shane walked in front of them, being careful where he put his feet. Rafe tried to step where he did. "We're almost there now."
    The tall lake grasses opened up into a small clearing bordered by trees. Finn immediately took a step back, his nostrils flaring. Rafe took several more, putting his sleeve up to his nose to blot out the smell of decay. The buzzing of flies filled the air with a low drone.
    "Offal," Finn said, his eyes on a mound of something near the treeline.
    "What?" Rafe asked, his eyes watering at the smell.
    "When did you find it?" Finn turned to Shane who had begun to walk toward the trees.
    "Just yesterday morning."
    Rafe did the math. "So there have been two disappearances." He and Finn had been called down last week because of one werehyena's disappearance. Now there was another.
    Finn walked slowly, eyes on the ground. He stopped suddenly and dropped to his knees to take a closer look at something that had caught his eye. Rafe leaned down next to him. He watched as Finn picked up a few stray stalks that had broken off and sniffed them, then put his index and middle finger into the dirt. He rubbed his fingers. Then he sidled over to the lake, eyes still on the ground. He walked the shoreline carefully.
    "Any alligators in here?" he asked Rafe.
    "Not usually," he answered. "What are you looking for?"
    "I'll know it when I see