Free Wolf Lake (Werewolf / Shifter Romance) by Mac Flynn Page A

busy?"
    "He had something to do," I replied. I didn't mention that it was to hide inside and wait until she was gone.
    "Oh, well, I'm sure he's getting ready for the picnic this afternoon," she guessed. "By-the-by, have you two finished setting up the flags?"
    I frowned. "Didn't Will tell you we finished it?"
    "Oh no, my dear, I haven't heard a peep from him since I gave you two the flags and the map. I hope it wasn't too hard for you to find your way through that thick brush," she wondered. She must have noticed the confusion in my voice because she put a hand on my shoulder. "Is something wrong, Grace? You look troubled."
    "What? Oh, no, just thinking about something. Is there anything else you needed help with before the picnic?" I asked her.
    She smiled and shook her head. "No, I'm glad to say there's nothing at all to finish. The food is cooking or prepared to cook, and the fireworks are waiting for the fun." She clasped her hands together and laughed. "What a wonderful picnic this will be! I am sure it will be the best by far, and you shall have a chance to meet with so many friendly people!"
    "Yeah, it's going to be great," I replied. My enthusiasm was on par with a limp fish. Fortunately my fluttery friend didn't notice my lack of cheerleader spirit.
    "Well, I must be going. There are still friends to see and a few ti-ki torches to put up in the park. Ta-ta!" She waved her fingers at me and hurried off to finish her master plan of fun-making.
    She left me with an uneasy feeling. Will told me he'd talked to her about the flagging and our gruesome discovery, but Olivia just unknowingly disputed his statement. I turned and glanced at the closed, and possibly locked, rear door of Will's cabin and the memories of last night resurfaced. Now Will's tally had a lie and a mystery to it, and I had two options. I could confront him about his lying and hear another strange reply, or I could check out the reason for his lying that lay at the top of the cordoned off area.
    I wasn't a confrontational person and I had conflicting reports about the flagging rather than anything concrete, so I opted to revisit the scene of my horrible discovery. I hurried around the side of Will's cabin and onto the road where the flags started. The hill loomed above me and I glanced over my shoulder to see if anyone from Will's cabin watched. The curtains were closed as always, and none of them stirred. I started the climb.
    I had the flags on the far left to show me the way and in a few gasping minutes I reached the top of the flagged area, only it wasn't the top I knew. Yesterday, because of the dead animal, we placed the flag a couple yards short of the mapped area. There hadn't been any sight of the logging road at the top, but now I could clearly see a gap in the trees about fifty yards farther up the hill.
    I turned and glanced down the line of flags I'd followed. My eyes hadn't seen any sign of the animal anywhere, but it must have been there. I retraced my steps and paused at a strange clump of brush. The leaves were thick and wide, but fresh dirt shone through the gaps in the foliage. I pushed aside the leaves and saw that the ground had been turned over enough times to mimic a tiller, and the lower leaves on the surrounding plants, those that brushed the ground, were missing. I knelt down and dug my fingers into the dirt. The loose brown soil turned over and revealed a few flakes of a dark red, dried liquid. The blood. Someone had come up here, taken what they could of the creature, and hid what couldn't be taken away.
    I stood and wiped the blood on my pants. There was no way any wild would, or could, wipe their plate that clean. A human had cleaned up the mess, and I didn't need three guesses to know who. Why Will and Vuk had gone to the trouble was one question my mind couldn't answer, but it might have explained what was in the bag they dumped into the lake last night. They were getting rid of the evidence, but evidence of what? A large