Outsiders
8

I went to my room first. I had a pretty good idea of Katelyn’s scent, but it had been a day since she had gone missing and two days since I had seen her. I needed to fully implant her odor.

The bed was nicely made. Too bad. I yanked down the comforter and pulled the pillow into my face to inhale where she had put her head. I took a breath of straight air and then buried my face in the pillow again. I thought I had it locked down, but I wanted to make absolutely sure. The trail was going to be old.

I felt guilty. The door was shut. I was just doing this to help me replace Katelyn, I told myself. It wasn’t weird. Ok. It was really weird, but it would solidify her into my wolf brain. First, I dumped the bag that had the laundry in it. Then I stripped and shifted. I nosed through the laundry, thoroughly sniffing Katelyn’s clothes. Telling myself, it was for the cause, I stuck my nose in her underwear and breathed in. I shook my head feeling pervy as her panties landed on the windowsill next to Wolfie. Then I shifted and redressed. But Katelyn was locked in every fiber of my scent memory.

I grabbed the phone saddle and headed back out through the kitchen door. I shifted and wiggled into the harness, tightening it with a quick pull of my teeth. Then I started running, nose down toward the waterfall.

It hadn’t rained; so, Katelyn’s scent was still on the stone path that led through the trees. I could make out the scents of the other two as well. I was moving at a lope; so, I arrived at the waterfall quickly. Their scents were all around the waterfall where they had lounged, used the rope swing, and jumped off the high rocks. Someone had already been here to clear away their belongings. I could smell them, too.

The girls’ scents left the pool and started off down a deer trail to the left. It seemed that was where some of the pack, maybe Trackers, had followed. I circled the pool in widening loops to make sure that was the only place where Katelyn had left her scent. She had left the others to pee at one point but that was a relative straight out and back trip. What was interesting was another very faint scent some distance from the waterfall.

I ranged back and forth to see if I was confused by some other smell. Maybe someone had walked through that pee and tracked it or something. I made wider circles. There was nothing there at all. But that faint scent had to have been from something. I got a drink and sat down to look at the plants and the pool.

The trace made no sense. Shaking my head, I went wider. The other Trackers would have followed that obvious trail. So, I wasn’t missing anything there and I could go back to it. I needed to figure out this lingering essence. I put my paws up on a tree and scented the air. There was still something there. I slowly followed the elusive scent, occasionally rising up on my back feet to smell the trees or a bush.

Bingo. Katelyn had touched that tree. I circled the tree and rose up as high as I could. It was definitely her scent nearly six feet up. There was nothing on the ground. I studied the plants. Some were bent. Someone had passed through here. I started raising my head to smell the bushes and trees. I caught a slight whiff of Marci near one bush, but it was Katelyn’s scent that was the most consistent. It was as if she was deliberately trying to touch things. I couldn’t understand why I couldn’t smell her on the ground. She couldn’t fly. The only scent trail at ground level was deer but I was following a deer trail; so, that made perfect sense. Was she riding a deer? That was absurd. Wasn’t it?

I decided I couldn’t figure it out and should just follow it. Maybe I was hallucinating. Maybe I was following a pack of deer and only thought I was tracking Katelyn. I put my paws against a tree and closed my eyes to smell the next strong scent. It really seemed to be Katelyn, though. Oh, well. Just keep going, I suppose.

The trail crossed a stream. Katelyn’s scent stopped at the stream. I walked up and down the water trying to replace where it exited. There was nothing. I guess I had been making the whole thing up. But, it had been so real. I got a big drink and kept going sniffing for where it might have come out the other side.

I decided I probably should have grabbed some food before running off into the woods. My stomach was complaining mightily about this all working, no eating schedule. I got another drink to try to shut it up. As I looked up, I saw a footprint in the mud on the edge of the stream.

I waded over to it. Unknown Were male by the smell. And further up the embankment were smaller footprints. I stepped up out of the water. Marci. The next step brought me to Katelyn’s scent on her footprint. Then there were two other Were males and Janis. They had all gone this way.

I debated for a minute on shifting and calling Connor but decided against it. I hadn’t really found anybody yet. I just had footy prints. I wanted to know where they physically were. At least if they were now on the ground, I could track them easier. I supposed that the unknown males must have been carrying them or had them in sacks or something to keep them off the ground. Plus, they had been disguising themselves as deer. The guys had once said there was some way to do that if they wanted to teach tracking or avoiding humans or something. I hadn’t been paying much attention. Wished I had been now.

At any rate, I could practically lope after them through the woods. They were still following a game trail to avoid dealing with undergrowth. I had no idea how far we had gone. The day was fading. It had been morning when I had left the house. Between all the running and the lack of food, I was getting kind of tired. I had a feeling I had to be close. That kept me going. I wanted to replace Katelyn and get word back to Connor.

Suddenly, the trees grew sparse, and I was looking across a mown yard. I froze and laid in the grass. There was a big house in front of me. Not as big as my house by any means. This only had a couple of floors with a garage on the side. It wasn’t built of stone. It had a lot of windows. I didn’t see anyone moving around outside or inside but there were cars parked in the driveway. Lights suddenly came on in a downstairs room. Someone was home.

I bellycrawled towards the back of the house where it was still dark. They had a short brick wall around a patio where a large grill sat. Two wooden doors were partially visible to a basement level. I sniffed the air. Katelyn’s scent led across the backyard. I was betting toward the basement.

There was no one around the back side of the house. I slunk toward the basement doors. Katelyn’s scent was like an arrow straight down the concrete steps toward them. I had no doubt that was where the three of them had ended up. It was time to call Connor. I would get back into the woods first.

“Don’t you just love when they walk right up to the trap?” a male voice said to my right.

I leapt to my feet as I felt a sharp pain in my left shoulder. I yelped hearing another male laughing. I whirled to run but my legs gave out under me. I fell over, thrashing my legs as my eyes swirled into darkness.