Free Prey by cassanna dwight Page B

frame of the screen crumpled
under her feet and thorny branches scratched her arms as she pushed
through the foliage behind the flower beds. She leaned forward to
check the house’s entrance and sighed in relief when no alarms were
raised. A hasty look around and she found her truck a couple of
feet away from her, parked in-front of El’s vehicle.
    She took off running.
    Her steps thundered in her ears as she
moved from grass to the cement pad adjacent to the house. She
rounded the back of her SUV and skidded to a stop. Gunter leaned on
the door smoking his cigar.
    He pulled the brown wrapped tobacco
away from his lips and blew a ring of smoke above his head. His
eyes crinkled at the corners. “Took you long enough.” He chuckled,
and then yelled out. “Let’s get going, I got El’s mate out
here.”
    “ How?” Nae shook her
head.
    “ I’m a Hyena. I got a good
nose and great ears. I have been around a long time. El’s father
was my best friend.” He pushed off the truck and gripped her by the
elbow. “I hate chasing folks, so can we make this easy on all
parties involved and just go to Trots?”
    “ Wait you’re not a
lion?”
    “ Hell no. They can be
obnoxious.”
    Nae dug her heels in as he started to
drag her along. “Hold on!” She wrenched her arm from his grasp.
“Exactly how many species of you are there?”
    La swept by them, stopped, and turned.
“There are quite a few of us. Wolves, bears, big cats even snakes.
I hear there are some gators and boars down South, but I haven’t
met any.” She shrugged. “Oh, and there are rumors that dragons
reside up North somewhere, but I don’t know how true that is. I
have hung out with a couple of witches though. Those chicks were
awesome!” She spun around and continued to the Jeep.
    Ari passed on Nae’s other side. He
held two thumbs up. “It’s shifter’s nation baby.” He strolled
around the grill of the vehicle.
    Gunter took a deep draw off his cigar
before tossing it to the ground and stepping on it. “Will everybody
get into the fucking jeep?” He enfolded his fingers around Nae’s
wrist. “El should have explained all this to you. Listen, don’t pay
La and Ari any attention. They’re still young.”
    “ Hey, I’m almost twenty.”
La called from the backseat.
    Gunter opened the door for
Nae. “Like I said, young .”
    Nae met Gunter’s stare and tilted her
head. “So, tell me exactly how many of you are there?”
    “ That’s subjective. Are
you referring to our pride, or in general?” He showed a hint of
fang when he smiled. “Here’s how I see it. Human evolution went one
way. Animal advancement took another bend in the road. Imagine
every predator you can. Now, visualize half of those species being
able to hold a human form.”
    Her mouth dropped.
    “ Yeah, it’s a daunting
picture, which is why very few of you are even aware of our
existence. With regards to our tribe, as El’s mate, you are second
only to him in our hierarchy. A word of advice, keep a weapon on
you at all times, and I ain’t talking about some dinky metal rod
either.” He angled his hand at the front passenger seat.
     
    ***
     
    The acrid scent of gas and oil made
his nose twitch; by products of a vehicle exhaust. He searched for
an automobile. Tracking the smell, he caught sight of a structure.
Not far from an old logging lane El found an old wooden shack. It
sat deep among a copse of towering Evergreens. As he circled the
structure, he spotted the carcass of a deer at the base of a close
tree. Deep grooves in the trunk showed where claws had penetrated
the wood. They were markings, a warning from one beast to another
that the surrounding land was already claimed. He’d been scouring
their territory for most of the night and all of the morning. He
padded over to the doe and pawed at it, flipping it over. Large,
familiar bite marks at the throat told him it was a lion that’d
done the damage. He studied the body. The heart and liver were
missing.