Little Wolf

I followed them, wolf on a blood trail that was easy to follow. I jumped up when I reached the small opening, staying still for a while, listening. I went further in, making it all the way to the fence. The gate was locked again. Most of the supplies had been moved out of this area. There was nothing here that would help us now except for any information I might pick up.

The men were sleeping. I sniffed carefully, my eyes finally taking in a bundled form along the far wall. I had a feeling it would be a while before they woke if they had been up half the night moving stuff around.

I headed back in, slipping into the alcove I had thrown the ammo in. It was a tight fit even for me as a wolf. I had to shift my arms to get the bag through then shift back to a wolf to slide through myself. I shifted back to man, running my hands along the edges to make sure I didn"t leave any tufts of fur behind.

Retrieving the second bag of supplies, I headed back to Derrick. The only thing keeping me on two feet was the fact I had bags to carry. I growled a little as I slipped into our den.

"Derrick?" I kept my voice low, but more than a whisper. "They"re gone from this area. You can use a light for a bit. I brought breakfast. Go ahead and eat something."

The light from his phone came on, bathing the area in light. He looked down at me. I stared back up at him thoughtfully before grinning.

"Like what you see? Hope not, man, because it"s already claimed!"

"There are times you"re an a.s.s, you know that? Help me down, I gotta pee."

I shook my head. "No way. You"re safer up there." I handed him up the bag of food. "We would make too much noise and it would take to long to get you back up there if they come back."

"Man, I gotta pee!"

"Put it back in one of the bottles. And use one of the bags if you need to dump. We can"t afford for them to smell anything."

Derrick grumbled but did as I said.

A little while later Derrick asked, "So what happened?"

I sat in the creva.s.se of our doorway. My den! I tried to stay focused. This set of circ.u.mstances was bringing out the wolf in me.

"Tell me my secret."

"Just tell me what happened."

"One word. Say it."

There was silence for a bit. Our alcove was lit from the soft glow of his phone. He sighed.

"Werewolf." It came out softly.

I shifted right there. We had to get this settled while we had the time to do so. I looked up at him. He just took it in. His breathing increased a bit. His eyes dilated slightly. I grinned up at him, lifting up to shift back to a man.

"I don"t have three bottles of vodka for you."

He chuckled. "I"m not Mac. Besides, I took another dip of the drugs. I"ll probably convince myself I imagined it later."

"I hope not, don"t want to go through this twice. Grab some food and move over."

He did, and I shifted to jump up. His nervousness increased as I pulled myself up next to him. I came close, resting my wolf head protectively over his shoulder. Pulling back, I met his eyes. I scrunched my snout up, ears up, grinning at him, before shifting back. I wasn"t sure he could handle me at half-shift yet.

I refused the food he held out for me, but took one of the water bottles. I was comfortably stuffed now as a human.

I filled him in on why I wasn"t hungry before I went on to how I broke the one guy"s arm and killed him.

"Still no signal?" I asked, cutting him off from talking about the man whose throat I ripped out as a wolf.

"No, nothing getting through this rock."

"Wish I would have taken my phone with me when I went out the first time, but a wolf doesn"t have pockets."

"Wouldn"t have done much good, hard to get a signal out here anyway."

"Is it? I never noticed. I seldom use my phone at work. Explains why John uses the walkie-talkies though. I nabbed one, should be in one of the bags. I don"t know if it will help. Keep it off for now. I don"t want any sound from it. They might yet come back after they wake up."

"So what now?" Derrick asked.

"Now?" I sighed. "Now I go further down to find the way out. If we both go and they come, odds are you"re dead. You can"t move or hide like I can. There is an old scent trail from John. If they stay away after they wake up, we"ll both go. If I were them, I"d post someone by the exit and just wait for us to come out. I guess we"ll cross that bridge when we get to it. I nabbed one of their pistols and we have the ammo and other guns. I"ll get the pistol for you; I don"t want to leave it behind. Hand me the flashlight then keep the lights out."

I put the flashlight in my mouth, taking in Derrick"s confused, scrunched up brow in the dim light from his phone. I almost laughed at him. He understood when I rolled off the ledge, landing on four paws, no hands to hold it.

"s.h.i.t!"

I snorted at the increase in his heartbeat.

"Yeah, laugh away smarta.s.s, you didn"t just see your roommate land on four feet!"

I set the flashlight down for a second. "Light out," I growled.

"d.a.m.n!" he exclaimed, not expecting words from a wolf. But the light went out.

I chuckled as I picked up the flashlight.

"Smarta.s.s!" was whispered after me.

I was still quietly laughing when I brought the pistol back to Derrick. I left him the flashlight too.

I moved rather quickly through the dark cavern, my nose close to the ground. I knew I was full wolf, in both body and mind.

The scent trail, old as it was, helped me picture the ground before me. I went over small rises and through shallow dips. There were areas where the ceiling got very low. It would take Derrick time with his broken arm to crawl through this area. Maybe it would be faster if he lay on his back and I pulled him through. It was a good fifty feet.

The way got narrow, then split. The trail was harder to follow. John must have explored the whole cave system. I was wondering if I would find the way out when I saw a tiny gleam of light. I marked the branch I was taking before going on.

The light was coming through a small crack between large rocks. Fresh air was seeping in but not even I could squeeze through that tiny opening. If I stood on Derrick"s sore shoulders I might be able to slip my fingertips through.

The small amount of light from the rising sun allowed me to see better. I did my own exploring. There were a few tiny openings scattered throughout this area, but none big enough to get out.

As the sun climbed higher in the morning sky, I knew I would have to go back. The good thing about this area is it would be hard to find someone in it. There were areas that circled around, connecting with other openings. John hadn"t explored them all.

I figured some of the openings might have formed from the recent round of tremors. I had never realized how much seismic activity Yellowstone had until after I started working here.

I went past Derrick a short way to make sure we were still safe before sticking my nose back in to update Derrick on what I"d found.

"I"m going back to see what John and his crew are doing. Pack up. Keep my clothes on top. Try and keep the light to a minimum. If they come, they might see it before I can get back to warn you."

Derrick promised to be careful as I took off again. The way was becoming familiar. The area Derrick and I had been held in was still dark. I went up and made my way once again to the fence, being more careful than before. If they were still sleeping on the ground, they had a better chance of seeing me.

They weren"t sleeping. John was having a fit. I chuckled to myself as I heard him rant. Apparently, it had been dark when they loaded up the jeeps and they hadn"t noticed the tires. The lights, generator, and body were gone, as were the fridge and the drugs. The only light was the daylight streaming in from the cave entrance.

Finally, I heard John ask if they had it set. I strained to hear better and it was almost my undoing. I scrambled back to the dropoff as an explosion rocked the small area. I cowered down, waiting for the dust to settle.

They blew the cave entrance! Had they just left we might have been able to work the fence loose to get to my bike. I don"t know what I was thinking when I ruined all of their tires, other than they would think we had left. Now it would be impossible to go out that way. I hurried back to Derrick.

He was down off the ledge, sticking his head out the entrance, the light he was holding giving him away. I growled, no longer needing to keep silent.

"If I was a bad guy, you"d be dead!"

He brought the pistol around which had me growling louder and jumping to the side behind an outcropping.

"Sorry, Rick. I heard something. What happened?"

"They blew the main entrance. We aren"t getting out that way. I doubt we"ll find the other exit before they blow it up too. This area wasn"t affected?"

"I felt the shockwave but no rocks fell."

"We can try for the other exit, and hope we get out before they come and blow it, or that we don"t get buried under rock if we make it close and they blow it. Or, we can stay here, wait for the explosion, take our time in relative safety looking for a way out. There were a few small cracks to the surface. If they blow up the other entrance, it might open up another somewhere else, maybe. What do you think?"

Derrick was in the middle of answering when we heard the rumble coming from the other direction.

"Well," he said grimly, "looks like our choice was made for us."

"Let me go the other way, see what"s there. I"ll probably be gone for an hour or so. The good thing is you can try the walkie-talkie. Don"t say anything, just listen to see if you can hear anything. Then we can go toward the openings I found, see if we can get a signal for our phones, maybe send out a text."

"Sounds like a plan," he said. "I"ll start walking the other way, save us some time."

"Ok. Stop when you get to a low area. We"ll have to crawl through. It will probably be less painful for you if I pull you through on your back."

"Pull me how?"

"With my teeth," I grinned back at him.

He shook his head as I grabbed the flashlight and shifted again. I went the one way I hadn"t been yet, past our previous prison. I was disappointed to come to a dead-end after about ten minutes. I shone the light around just to make sure.

"No good that way," I said to Derrick as I came up beside him and shifted, dropping the flashlight from my mouth to my hand.

"d.a.m.n, I"m just never going to get used to that."

"Well, I don"t usually go around with a flashlight in my mouth!"

"Smarta.s.s!"

I laughed before getting serious. "How"s your arm? Let me take a look."

"Hurts. Wouldn"t be so bad if the other shoulder didn"t hurt so much."

"Let me see." I felt around, pushing gently, watching when he grimaced.

"I think it"s dislocated. Here." I gave a shove and a pull, hearing it snap back into place as Derrick yelled out at the sudden pain.

"Feel better?"

"No! Or maybe," he added as he moved it around.

"Ok, give me the bags. I"ll carry them. You focus on not tripping. The last thing we need is you breaking a leg."

"Keep it up and when I feel better I"ll meet you in the sand and kick your b.u.t.t."

I laughed as I shouldered the bags.

"Hear anything on the walkie-talkie?"

"Yeah, they talked about meeting up at the ranger station. They"re going to say they had car trouble and John"s going to use a park jeep to help them. I bet all our spare tires will be gone. You, uh, want to get dressed?"

"Hmmm? Oh. Ok. Better?" I asked as I went to half-shift.

"What the s.h.i.t!"

"Told you I don"t need the pants, I have fur. Seriously though, you should wear them with yours if we are still stuck down here tonight. The temperature drops at night and I"ll be fine."

We walked on in silence with Derrick throwing the occasional glance at me in my fur.

"So how many people know about you?" he finally asked.

"Dad, Running Elk, Anna, a few elders of my tribe, Mahina, Mac... not Chani so don"t say anything to her. And Sister of course."

"Who"s Sister?"

"The girl with the wolf."

"The make-wish kid? You told her? Are you nuts?"

We made it to the low area. I carried the bags through first, then had Derrick lay on his back. We went slow, him scooting with his feet. I had to remind him that we were in no hurry, to take his time so he didn"t hurt himself more.

We rested for a while and I told him the real story of what happened between Sister and me to pa.s.s the time.

I nudged his leg finally to get him up. "Come on, let"s see what it looks like up ahead."

He grabbed my hand with his relatively good one to pull himself up.

"A real frigging werewolf!" Derrick said as we moved out. I think he might finally be getting used to me.