Chapter 44: A Trap is Set

“And you talked to Willow about it? Okay, I’m in. Whatever it takes,” Garin hung up the phone and tossed it onto the kitchen counter as he walked towards the living room. He needed to change before he left. He didn’t think his button-down and dress pants would work very well for running through the forest, especially since they were predicting snowfall tonight.
He instead, pulled on a black thermal shirt and flannel-lined jeans. He might not be the traditional outdoorsy type, but he did hail from the frigid northeast. He stopped one boot halfway on. He thought he heard the sound of a door closing. He brushed it off, thinking it was probably just his neighbors. The walls were thin in these rentals.
Completely dressed, he made sure he had everything he needed: wallet, keys. His phone was downstairs, he would grab that when he left. His hallway was dark when he left his bedroom.
“Weird,” he said aloud since he could have sworn that he left the light on. It was getting dark earlier now that winter was settling in. He saw something move from the corner of his eye. He went to throw an elbow, but it landed too late. A large, meaty arm was wrapped around his neck and a soft cloth, smelling sweet and pungent, was pressed against his mouth and nose. Everything went dark.
####
“He’s not answering,” Audrey said to Willow, her eyes worried.
“Could he still be in class?” Willow replied, feeling dread slowly creep up her spine. He was always really good about answering his phone, even if it was a quick text. Audrey shook her head.
“I spoke with him earlier and he said he was letting his last class out early. I don’t have a good feeling about this,” Audrey said and bit her thumbnail. “My mother…she wants Silas to take Garin out. Whether to use him as bait or just kill him, I’m not sure. I only overhead a bit of it. We need to find him. Silas will do whatever my parents ask of him.”
Willow swallowed the panic that threatened to rise and instead welcomed the metallic taste of anger. She looked towards Audrey, her pupils were large and black.
“Do you have anything of Silas’s?” Audrey nodded and dug around in the trunk of her car. She pulled a carefully labeled plastic bag and handed it to Willow. Willow gave her a curious look.
“I grabbed something from each of them. Just in case,” she stated, her chin lifted. Willow gave her an approving look and peeled open the zippered closure. She took a deep inhale of the shirt inside. Silas’s scent was similar to Garin’s but his was more chemical, less earthy, and warm. It reminded her of electricity, sharp and burning.
“Do you have any idea where they would take him?” She handed the bag back to Audrey who slipped it back into the trunk. Audrey thought for a minute.
“If they are going to use him as bait, I would think that they would take him somewhere to draw you away from everything else. Somewhere you would know to look,”
Willow gasped. She knew where they were going to take him.
“The mountain. Where I rescued him. They are going to take him there. It isn’t on our territory and it is super remote. No one around for miles.”
“We can come with you,” Cole said, speaking for the first time since Willow arrived. She appraised him. He was full-blooded Red Hood, she could tell. She didn’t want to trust him, but Audrey had convinced her and at this point, she would do anything to save Garin. Plus, Cole looked capable of wielding the crossbow he held at his side.
“Okay, let’s go. It’s going to snow so we need to go now before his scent fades,” she said and climbed into the back of Audrey’s car. Please let him still be alive, she prayed to whatever god was listening.
####
His mouth was dry, and his head pounded. The last thing he remembered was walking out of his room and…he jerked! Someone had restrained him. He opened his eyes and looked around. He saw only black. His hands were tightly bound behind his back and he guessed that they had also blindfolded him. He tried to still his breathing and listen. All he heard was the rumble of an engine.
####
Loriann looked around for Willow but she knew that she wouldn’t be here. The rest of the pack had gathered at Rashida’s. Rashida had received a tip from a neighboring pack of where and when the Red Hoods were going to strike. She didn’t know why the Grimfur pack had reached out, but she appreciated the tip.
Loriann had volunteered to watch those that couldn’t fight: the pups, the elderly, and the infirm. While she ached to be on the front lines and take a piece out of the Red Hoods, she was afraid that she would have to face Willow across the enemy line. She couldn’t bring herself to ever face her granddaughter like that. She was still puzzling over Willow’s erratic behavior. No other wolf was able to just shift partially. It sometimes happened to the males when they were transitioning and fighting it, but not as specific as just the teeth or claws. Perhaps one of the other elders would know more.
Their medicine woman was here as well. She had traveled from deep in the forest to be here to help with any injuries as well as prepare any bodies after their death. She would help prepare the body and ensure that the spirit was able to move on. Loriann cut her eyes to the ageless woman who was sipping tea in the corner.
Her skin was a burnished bronze and her long black hair brushed the ground where she sat. Her eyes were a sharp yellow that stood in contrast to her heavily wrinkled face. She was well revered, but all of the wolves still gave her a wide berth. There was something about her smell, that spoke of great power. It was unnerving.
Seeming to hear Loriann’s thoughts, the woman’s eyes turned to hers. They bore into Loriann’s for a moment before she nodded once and beckoned her with one crooked finger. Perhaps she would get her answer after all.
####
The snow fell in fat, wet flakes, coating Willow’s eyelashes. She trudged through the snow; it was growing deeper the farther they ascended. Audrey and Cole huffed behind her. Her legs were tired and cold. She needed to shift. Doing this as a human was going to take forever, especially in this weather. She glanced overhead at the thick, grey clouds. It was only going to get worse.
She saw a small copse of trees and she held out her hand to stop them.
“I’ll be right back,” she said and quickly hurried to the privacy of the pines.
A minute later, a large ruddy wolf came jogging from the woods. Audrey and Cole took instinctive steps back. The wolf came to a halt in front of them and dropped a pile of folded clothes in front of Audrey.
“Ah, makes sense. You wouldn’t want to rip them,” Audrey said and grabbed Willow’s clothes, stuffing them into the pack on her back. Cole was staring at Willow with wide eyes, breathing heavily.
“I don’t think she will kill you,” Audrey said with a slight laugh. Willow huffed and turned, her face held high into the wind. She let out a bone-chilling howl and began charging up the path.
“I guess she caught his scent,” Audrey quipped and began following the large prints in the snow.