Hunting Human - Amanda E. Alvarez [99]
“Not for me.” She couldn’t understand how there could be beauty in the death and destruction of an innocent. “I’ve accepted that this is a part of my life. I’m learning how to live with it. I don’t need more than that.”
Braden jerked away and turned his back to her. “You know, as long as you think like that, the harder this—” he gestured loosely to the space between them, “—is going to be. If you can’t accept that part of yourself, it’s like saying you can’t accept me, Beth.” He ran a hand through his hair. “Come with us this morning. I won’t ever ask again, but this is something you should experience.”
Before she could formulate a response he slid into his wolf form. “Shifting to avoid an argument isn’t fair.”
Braden cocked his head and gave her a pointed look as if to say, “I can still hear you.”
Beth sighed. “Just once?”
He nodded.
“Fine.” Beth slipped out of her T-shirt and underwear and slid into the shift, blocking out all of the reasons why she was doing it in the first place.
The morning was cool and moist, a thick mist lingering above the grass and winding between the trees, growing heavier as the sun rose. In the first hour they hadn’t done much more than walk and sniff around. Occasionally, Chase or Braden would pick up a trail of something and they’d surge forward, but each time the trail had died out.
For Beth, at least, the lulls in the hunt were more interesting than anything else. It amazed her how much of the siblings’ personalities came through as wolves. The three of them were so dynamic and different as people—she wondered that it surprised her that it held true when they were wolves.
Braden was never far from her, always hovering to her right or to her left, silently ensuring she was comfortable. He only left her side when Chase picked up the trail and, even then, she knew without a doubt that Braden instinctively kept track of her and his siblings, at all times. A big brother, even as a wolf.
Chase was different. Steadier, calmer. He moved with purpose and intent, much the way he spoke when human. He used every ounce of his instincts as a wolf to whatever purpose or task he shouldered. His gray eyes were as keen and piercing as when he was human; they could convey a message precisely. Except when he showed a restrained sort of deference to Braden, he used very little body language.
Lucy—well, Lucy was Lucy. Her personality was completely irrepressible. Even now, as they stood together, Lucy tracked a rabbit that kept darting between the trees. It was obvious by the way Lucy was twitching and moving that she was desperately fighting the urge to leap, completely heedless of success or consequences. She’d done so twice today, once after a squirrel and once after something Beth hadn’t seen. Each time Lucy ended up in an undignified heap in the bushes and each time she came up empty-handed. Beth was beginning to suspect that Lucy just liked the acts of leaping and pouncing and didn’t actually intend to catch anything. Even in wolf form, she was unfailingly effervescent and carefree.
Just as she looked ready to pounce again, her head snapped toward Chase, the fur along her spine rising. A split second later Chase and Braden surged up the hill, intent on something Beth couldn’t see. She and Lucy broke into a run as Braden and Chase crested the hill and disappeared down the other side.
As they broke over the rise, Beth saw an expanse of forest laid out before them. Braden and Chase were ghostly blurs, passing through undergrowth and maneuvering around trees as though they were born for it. Ahead of them, a tiny flash of white darted back and forth. Next to her, Lucy surged forward and howled. The deer’s tail twitched and flashed furiously as it increased its pace in an effort to escape.
Beth opened her stride and raced alongside Lucy. Air rushed through her nose and down her throat, the scent of the doe imbedding