Free BrightBlueMoon by Ranae Rose Page B

shared the younger wolf’s sentiments. Gus Oliver was an idiot. To think that if he and his film crew hadn’t shown up, Michael would have Kimberly in his arms right now… He had to suppress a growl as he shifted his weight from one paw to the other, letting the aging pine needles crackle softly beneath his feet.
    The monster hunters wouldn’t hear. They’d focused their dull human senses on their work, which, at the moment, consisted of trudging forward, their equipment in tow. Gus led the group of five, and Alex brought up the rear, filming as they went. They made about as much noise as a herd of elephants, crushing sticks and underbrush, even talking.  
    A low growl rumbled from beside Michael, and he turned to look at Jack, knowing exactly why he was upset – the Monsters 24/7 crew were heading toward Half Moon Pack territory. Jack turned his golden eyes on the others, gave them a meaningful look and started forward, each step deliberate as he paced in the same direction.
    Michael followed, as did Daniel and Noah. Keeping up with the humans wasn’t hard – in fact, they padded along at a snail’s pace, deliberately hanging back.
    “Here,” Gus said after about fifteen minutes of hiking. They’d traveled almost due west the entire way, drawing even closer to pack territory – the forested acres that Jack owned. Was their direction random, or were they going that way on purpose, planning to make their way back to the road that wound down the mountain? If that was their plan, depending on where they exited the woods, they could end up right in Jack’s backyard.
    Maybe – hopefully – they wouldn’t be that stupid. If Gus Oliver cared at all for his own safety, he’d emerge elsewhere on the mountain.
    “We’re deep in the forest now,” Gus said to the camera. “It’s dark – so dark you can almost feel it, like a physical presence. It’s no wonder the shadow wolves have gone undetected for so long in this wilderness. You get the feeling that anything could happen out here, and no one would ever know. Serena, break out the audio equipment.”
    Serena fumbled with some sort of speaker, and Gus helped her set it up.
    “Wolves howl for many reasons,” Gus said. “Sometimes, when a wolf is lonely or becomes separated from its pack, it will howl to get in contact with others. It can be a gamble, though – sometimes the sound of a lone wolf howling attracts other, hostile wolves who consider the stranger a competitor for prey and territory. So we’re going to broadcast a recording of a lonesome howl throughout these woods and see what the shadow wolves think of a strange animal encroaching on their turf. With any luck, it’ll draw them right to us.”
    The group fell into a dead silence – for once – and Serena hit a button.
    The little speaker they’d brought along was surprisingly powerful. The sound of a single, long howl echoed among the trees, radiating through the darkness. The woods fell silent, the ever-present sounds of scurrying rodents and other nocturnal creatures stopping as the animals froze in their tracks.
    They let it play for a good minute, filling the mountains with the noise of one lonely animal. And then they stopped the recording, surrendering the night to the silence they’d brought on.
    Gus whispered something about waiting to the camera, and Michael listened too, despite himself. Unidentified canines had definitely been in the area the night before – had they heard the howl?
    Daniel breathed another long wolf’s sigh, and his breath formed a cloud that puffed out into the night air and drifted away. Maybe he was eager to get back to his mate, just like Michael was.  
    Well, maybe not just like Michael was. Michael had a hell of a lot of catching up to do with Kimberly, and his mouth watered at the thought. He was picturing her naked and in his arms when a howl shattered the silence, making the hair on the ruff of his neck stand straight up.
    The sound hadn’t come