Red Moon Rising

2. suspicion

Chapter Song: Moonshadow - Cat Stevens

XX

For a long moment I can only stare at the contraption as Tyler slips farther away. We're two miles from the border, and there are no signs of ATV tracks or boot prints. Hell, I can't even smell human anywhere nearby. Whoever did this was bold, and they were careful. I kick a couple sticks and they trigger the pressure bar at the center of the trap, snapping it closed. If Tyler had stepped where I had, he wouldn't have noticed it—he wouldn't have even known to look for it. What would I do with him then, shift back into a human and carry a writhing wolf back to his parents' house? I look around and drop my jaw, searching for some trace scent of a hunter just beyond my sight. If someone set the trap, they would be close enough that they could get to it before its victim shifted back into a human. Everyone likes killing a wolf, but no one likes killing a kid.

I have to run to catch up with Tyler, but my eyes are locked on the ground. With every step, I expect the cold bite of steel to split through my skin, but I don't find any more traps, and when I finally find Tyler again the first grey wash of morning is beginning to chase away the dark. He's curled in a ball, breathing heavily, and when I approach, his throat lets out a resigned whine. I shift then and walk slowly up to him, but he doesn't growl or move away. Reaching slowly out to him, I expect him to snap or at least bare his teeth, but instead he closes his eyes and lets me stroke between his big soft ears.

"Tyler?" I whisper, and those ears swivel toward me. Tears prick my eyes as I realize that he knows me, even in his animal state. "Hey, you know who I am, don't you buddy?" Tyler whines again and shudders as the transition begins again in full. It's shorter this time, with the sun climbing quickly above the horizon, but all that pain is condensed into ten minutes of pure fucking agony. Tyler howls and screams and his spine twists at angles that would kill a normal person. But the fear isn't coming off of him like it used to. He knows what's happening; he's coming home to himself. Before long, he's lying on his back among the pine needles and drawing big gulps of air into his heaving chest. His eyes flick to me and I can't help but wear a ridiculous grin as a little smile finds its way onto his face.

"Did you see that?" His voice is ragged from screaming.

"I did. You started to remember who you are, didn't you?"

His smile got bigger. "I'm going to control it before I'm twelve."

"You bet you will. We'll practice more tomorrow, okay? Pauline is training your sister and we're going to have to work hard if you want to master it before Aidy."

Tyler nods and closes his eyes. When he tries to stand his skinny arms shake and collapse, sending him sprawling back into the dirt. I pull him to his feet and bend down to hoist him on my back, letting his little bare butt rest against my forearms. I've only taken a few steps before I can feel his hold going slack and I realize that he's falling asleep. Tilting forward, I walk the rest of the way to town, balancing my sleeping cargo all the way.

When we reach a shed at the edge of the woods, I wake Tyler up and set him down against a tree. The pack keeps clean sweatshirts and pants here and in several other sheds on the territory for this exact purpose. When you grow up filtering between two bodies, you get pretty comfortable living in your own skin—we have no qualms about nudity here. But we're still civilized enough to wear clothes in public, despite what some anti-shifter rhetoric might suggest.

Cameron meets us at the edge of the woods in the same place where Tyler and I took off last night. He gives Tyler a high five and I transfer the exhausted nine year old onto Cameron's back for a little while.

"Cam, Layla taught me to think while I'm a wolf." Cameron gives him a little bounce and Tyler laughs, tightening his arms around his neck.

"Look at you go! It won't be as scary next time, will it?"