Big Red and the Little Wolf

Chapter 5

Kodi pov

The scent of blood hit my nose as I wiped down one of the tables in the pub. I surveyed the room, trying to find the source of the smell. No one appeared to be in any danger.

Mikey was chatting away with customers that sat on the barstools while the men at the tables clinked their glasses of ale and shared stories from their glory days. When the faint scent of blood grew stronger, my gaze fell to the door.

Everyone in the pub remained unfazed because the danger wasn't inside. If I didn't have the blood of a hunter, I wouldn't have been able to detect the smell. It had been a quiet night of bartending, but that didn't mean there wouldn't be any commotion to occur outside. After a night of drinking, it wasn't uncommon for brawls to break out inside and in front of the pub.

I returned behind the bar for a split second to toss out the dirty rag. Though Mikey was in the middle of a conversation with two burly men, I was able to catch his eye. I gave him a curt nod as if to say I needed to step out for a second; either for a break or to check something out. He would just have to wait and see.

With his nod of approval, I made my way to the solid wooden door to the pub. It creaked as I pushed it open. The pub had been around as long as anyone could remember. It was rumored to be the first building established by the town's founder. My father used to meet with his friends at the pub long before Nathan, Brady, and I chose it as our retreat.

At first glance, nothing was out of the ordinary. However, my senses wouldn't deceive me. Since I didn't find anything out front, I rounded the building to follow the scent of the blood, now mixed with two other familiar scents.

My two best friends soon came into my line of sight. Nathan stopped pacing as soon as he saw me, but my gaze was drawn to Brady. Not only was he leaning against the side of the pub, but he was holding his shoulder that was soaked with blood.

"What the hell happened?" I asked, though it didn't take much explanation to figure it out on my own. The two of them had been way in over their heads when they went hunting in those woods by themselves.

"We let more of 'em get away," Brady grimaced.

"There were only two out there and we thought we had them until they split up. When Brady went after one, he was attacked from behind by the other," Nathan explained. "The wolf got him deep in the shoulder, but if I didn't get a hit on it, we might've lost him."

"I'm glad you were both there to have each other's back. We couldn't replace either one of you."

If Nathan shot one of the werewolves like he said, hunting there was about to become more complicated. They knew we were looking for them, and the next time we went there they would be more prepared.

Brady groaned, reminding us he needed immediate medical attention. I took a quick look at his shoulder wound in the limited outdoor lighting of the pub. It looked like Nathan had used a spare shirt to wrap tightly around his shoulder to reduce the bleeding. This was a good temporary fix, but it wouldn't hold up for much longer.

"You're losing a lot of blood, lad."

"Can we take him in the back to patch him up?"

"No, we can't go inside. It's unsanitary and as much as Mikey respects what we're doing, he doesn't need his back room turned into an infirmary."

"Then where can we take him?" Nathan asked.

"Let's get him into the truck and take him to Lyle. He'll know the best way to take care of this."

While Nathan ushered Brady to the truck, I gave Lyle a quick call to give him time to prepare for us. Since we hunted supernatural creatures, hospitals weren't our first choice for medical attention. It was possible to pass the injuries off as random wolf attacks, but the less questions we received the better. In addition to that, Lyle's cabin was much closer to hunting areas than any hospitals by being on the outskirts of towns.