Page 17 of Found Objects

“Fuck,” Reggie grumbled.

“What you’re telling me is you have people out running around in wolf suits in the mountains and not one of you can actually hunt or track.”

“That’s correct,” Fletcher confessed.

I huffed softly. “Did it occur to you that being out in the middle of nature, it might be a good idea to have everyone know how to survive?”

“Abel was sure our instincts would kick in.”

“I see,” I said, trying to keep the sarcasm out of my voice.

“Fuck you, Merritt. We screwed up, all right?” Reggie grumbled at me. “All of that was brought up this evening. We had several kids get lost out there. David Hawes fell into a ravine, another guy rolled his ankle, and we lost Patrice Collins for an hour and finally found her in a ditch. It took five pack members to get her out.”

“Was she hurt?”

“No, just really mad that no one heard her howling or screaming.”

I couldn’t help laughing.

“It’s not funny.”

“It’s hysterical is what it is,” I assured him. “You moved city folk to the country and just expected everyone to know what to do?”

“Abel said⁠—”

“Shifters are still people inside. If the person you are can’t track, then the wolf you become can’t either. How do I know that and your alpha doesn’t?”

Neither of them said a word.

“It’s really lucky that those boys didn’t actually catch that deer, because an enraged two-hundred-pound buck fighting for its life with antlers and hooves could have really hurt them.”

“That has been discussed as well.”

“It’s too bad it wasn’t discussed before.”

“No one was hurt.”

“That’s just dumb luck because they crossed over onto my land.”

“Yes, we know, but listen—once Evan got back, we all got onto our ATVs because we’d already shifted back and we needed to be in human form to help.”

I wasn’t going to argue that they couldn’t have helped in either form.

“Do you know what happened the moment we got the boys off your land?”

Of course I did. “They woke up.”

“They woke up,” Reggie repeated.

“Probably not all at once, right? A couple woke up easy, and maybe one guy woke up screaming and yelling, and another one cried.”

“Yes,” Reggie barked at me. “What the hell?”

“Everybody’s different.”

“It was wild,” Fletcher muttered.

“But they’re all fine now, right?”