The Bad Wolf (21 page)

“Travis could still be here,” Amy said in a hopeful voice.
“The scent was fresh.”

Chloe gripped Amy’s arm and said, “We have to
get out of here. Coach will be back any minute and he has a gun.”

“I need to transform.” Amy said as she turned away. “I hunt better that way.”

The air around her shimmered and went all wavy for a moment. When Chloe blinked again, there was a blonde wolf standing in Amy’s place. The Amy wolf cocked her head to stare up at Chloe then stepped out of the dress she’d worn. “Ryan and I make a great team. We don’t need you or Jenna. We’ll find him. Together.”

“Whatever.”
Chloe grit her teeth. “We don’t have time for this petty crap. We’re trying to find your brother, remember?”

“Ah ha!
You little sneak.” Amy bared her teeth in a real snarl. Her ears laid flat against her head. “You heard me, didn’t you?”

Chloe didn’t have time to think up an excuse because Jenna whirled to face them.
She stepped back onto the porch then in an urgent whisper said, “He’s coming.”

They could already see him approaching.
Chloe knew they wouldn’t make it out in time so she whispered, “Hide.”

Amy
darted to the couch and wedged herself beneath it. Chloe rushed to the closet and jerked the door open. There were too many tennis rackets, jackets and bulky things stored within. She wouldn’t fit. As she glanced back at Amy, she saw her tail sticking out from beneath the slipcover. “Tail,” she warned then sighed in relief when Amy jerked it beneath the furniture.

She glanced around the room, hoping to fin
d a good hiding place. There wasn’t really an ideal spot, so she darted beneath the desk. The chair wouldn’t roll all the way beneath the desk, but it would have to do.

Amy whimpered beneath the sofa.

Coach’s footsteps stopped just inside the living room door. His voice was edged with suspicion. “Where are your friends? You were with them earlier.”

Jenna said
, “I don’t know. They must have run away when the wolf chased me. I’m going home!” The scuff of her shoes on the porch indicated that she’d gone down the stairs.

Amy’s dress! It still lay in the middle of the floor. Chloe stretched her leg out from beneath the desk. Using the heel of her shoe, she dragged it toward her. The rubber sole squeaked on the wooden floor and seemed to echo throughout the room. She barely had time to grab the dress and hold it against her chest when she heard Coach’s footsteps coming
down the hall.

Chloe sucked in a breath and held it as
he entered the room. Dirty brown flip-flops were only inches away from her. His feet were just as filthy. It looked as if he’d been walking around outside without his shoes on. The heel of his left foot had a cut that was inflamed and red. Coach kicked the shoes off and one landed next to her hand. Chloe wrinkled her nose and struggled to take only shallow breaths. She didn’t dare move with him standing this close.

Finally, he
stepped to the other side of the sofa then crouched next to the pelt. Thankfully the sofa had a long slipcover that hung to the floor. He might not notice Amy hiding there if she remained very still and made no noise.

It was almost reverent, the way he picked up the dead thing. He stroked fingers through its musty fur and polished the teeth with his fingers. Once again, he draped the legs over his shoulders then adjusted the thing’
s skull to sit atop his head.

Chloe clapped her hands over her mouth to stifle a gasp when he stalked around the room and clawed at the air. His growls were almost comical as he shuffled zombie-like toward the mirror hanging against the far wall. He only examined himself for a moment before his entire body twitched and jerked. Was he having a seizure?

Coach Lewis fell onto all fours and threw his head back and howled. Somehow, the wolf’s head stayed in place. Coach slung his head back and forth and made more growling, snarling noises. He came dangerously close to the desk, but turned away at the last moment.

After several minutes of this, Coach Lewis stood up and readjusted the pelt.
He moved toward the doorway. In a voice that was lower and deeper than usual, he said, “I am wolf.”

Chapter
Twenty-Six

Chloe scrambled from beneath the desk. Pressing her back against the wall, she peeked around the corner in hopes of locating Coach Lewis.

Amy crept
out of her hiding place then looked around. “What the hell was that?”

Not trusting her voice just yet, Chloe whispered, “
He’s delusional.”

Amy’s ears twitched and she cocked her head in question.

“I’ve read about this. It’s a psychotic episode or something like that.” She peeked around the corner again. She couldn’t see him, but heard him moving around the kitchen. Keeping her voice low, she said, “It’s called clinical lycanthropy, the belief that one can shift into an animal. It doesn’t necessarily have to be a wolf.”

Footsteps sounded in the hallway and both Chloe and the
Amy wolf shrank against the wall. Instead of entering the den, Coach stalked past with a grimace on his face. He clutched the package of raw meat in his left hand.

The back door banged shut behind him
as he moved into the darkness.

Chloe and Amy quietly opened the door and followed. Amy
said, “It doesn’t make sense though. He always seemed like a normal guy.”

Chloe
stubbed her toe on what felt like a brick. “I need a flashlight.”

“He’d see it,” Amy’s fur brushed against her leg. “Put your hand on my back
and walk beside me.”

“Maybe he saw
you and the rest of the pack transform and it was too much for him to handle,” Chloe whispered as she scanned the darkness for the coach. How the heck did he see out here? He didn’t have a flashlight either.

“Don’t blame this on me!”
Amy snarled.

“I’m not. Maybe he saw
it and wanted to be the same,” Chloe explained. “I’m just grasping at straws here. How would I know what sent him spiraling into a mental breakdown? Jeez.”

Jenna and the black wolf
ran up from behind. Jenna was huffing, trying to catch her breath after the jog from the front of the house to the back.

“I called Sheriff Mackie,” Jenna
said between breaths. “He’s on the way.”

Ryan ran alongside Amy
who had forgotten about helping Chloe navigate through the dark. The wolves were tracking crazy Coach Lewis. She could hear their every thought, feel their every emotion. They really were good at hunting together.

An intense wave of jealousy surged over Chloe. Doing her best to ignore
it, she filled Jenna in on the latest developments as they entered the edge of the woods behind Coach’s house.

Ryan made a huffing noise, but in her mind, it sounded like, “You and Jenna need to leave. It’
s too dangerous now.”

“Not a chance,”
Chloe snapped.

He didn’t try to argue. Instead, he and Amy quickened their pace. Chloe and Jenna fell back, unable to catch up.
Unable to see in the dark, they had to walk with their arms held out in front of them. Their steps were slow and shuffling as they avoided fallen branches, bushes and debris.

Jenna grabbed Chloe’
s hand. “Look.”

A faint golden light
illuminated the front of Jenna’s shirt. She lifted the charm up and held it out as if it were a compass to guide them. The faint light only lit two steps ahead of them. It wasn’t much and they still had to walk slowly, but it was better than running into every tree between them and wherever Travis was being held.

“He’s close,” Jenna w
hispered with giddy excitement.

“I wish we could call out to him
,” Chloe said.

Ryan threw his head back and howled. It was a low, mournful sound that sent shivers up Chloe’s spine. Amy paused to do the same. Together, their voices echoed through the trees and bounced back.

Chloe felt groggy and confused all of the sudden. Her limbs moved in a lethargic manner and she could barely focus on putting one foot in front of the other. It took her a minute to reach realization through the foggy haze that had settled over her mind. “It’s Travis! I can feel him. I think he’s been drugged.”

Ryan and Amy howled again.

Pain and paralyzing fear slammed into Chloe. She crumpled to her knees and brought her hands up to her head. A low moan escaped her as her body throbbed in agony.

“Something’s wrong!” Jenna dropped to her knees beside Chloe. Her hands were on her shoulders, comforting and real.

The wolves raced to her. Amy sniffed the ground all around as if she thought maybe the source of Chloe’s troubles was there.

Ryan’s cold nose pressed against the underside of Chloe’s chin. He whimpered, the sound conveying the concern he felt. “Wha
t’s wrong, babe? Are you okay?”

“Travis is hurt,” Chloe whispered as tears formed in her eyes. She couldn’t breathe, the act of doing so made her ribs throb. Her head swam as she fought consciousness.

She tried to stand, but her limbs refused to obey. Jenna’s gentle hands gripped her shoulders to help her up.

Amy’s fear and anger threatened to swallow her up. “How bad is it?”

“I think it’s pretty bad,” Chloe said through gritted teeth as she pushed all the thoughts and emotions away. She closed her mind to Amy’s anger and Ryan’s concern. She pushed away the emotions and pain that had rolled off of Travis and onto her. Imagining a steel door in her mind, she shut everything out.

Finally, she was able to take a calming breath.
“We have to hurry. He’s having trouble breathing and he is close to losing consciousness. I don’t know what happened to him, but he’s really scared and in a lot of pain.”

Amy’s growl sounded a lot like a curse. Jenna withdrew the flashlight from the tote bag hanging on her shoulder. Without apology, she clicked it on and pointed it ahead of them.

They pushed onward through the tangle of brush and knobby trees, uncaring if Coach Lewis saw them now. Chloe only hoped that if he did see the light, his exposure would frighten him enough that he would run away.

“Look,” Jenna said then pointed at a small, wooden
hut that sat between two trees with thick trunks. She shined the light around and Chloe noticed there was a worn trail through the weeds. Coach had undoubtedly come here often. The shanty’s roof was made of tin and the walls were thin plywood. The wood hadn’t been cut evenly, making the entire thing lean to the side. It had such a crude foreboding look to it. Had this been Travis’s holding cell for the past two days?

Far, far away, the sound of sirens bounced off the mountains and trees. Sheriff Mackie
would be here in a matter of minutes.

Both wolves ran around the hut, sniffing and making odd little noises. Amy’s flood of relief was quickly replaced by a gnawing fear. Standing on her back legs, she clawed at the door. Her claws left deep grooves in the wood. “Open it. Open it!”

Chloe lifted the latch then curled fingers around the chunk of wood that had been nailed to the door as a handle. She jerked it open then gasped at what lay inside.

The blonde wolf lay on a blanket that was soiled with blood and dirt. His
blond fur was matted with blood, mud and who knows what else. Travis lay limp and unmoving, his eyes closed. Each shuddering breath he took seemed labored and threatened to be the last.

Amy ran inside the hut that was only big enough for one. She carefully stepped over Travis and nuzzled his head with her nose. He didn’t respond.

The inside of the shack smelled so bad, it brought tears to Chloe’s eyes and made her nose run. She didn’t dare open her mind to him.

The weeds rustled on the other side of the building. Ryan’s ears snapped to attention, but all Chloe managed was
a strangled, “Oh no!”

A grey wolf
with two faces jumped out at her. She shrieked then hit the ground as two very human arms clamped around her. Coach’s snarling face pushed close to hers and his blunt teeth snapped at her.

Chloe pushed against his chest, but he refused to
release her. She brought her knees up, clipping him in the crotch. Coach howled in pain then lurched to the side, giving Chloe enough time to scramble from beneath him. Within seconds, he was on his feet and coming at her again.

Coach’s large fist slammed against Chloe’s shoulder. She stumbled but didn’t go down. He growled at her, the sound rumbling from deep within his throat. He clawed her with hooked fingers, his ragged nails scraping
against her arms.

The sirens were louder now, indicating that Mackie was almost there. The spinning red and blue lights barely lit the sky. Jenna grabbed the flashlight from where she’d dropped it when the melee had started. Running back the way they’d come, she said, “I’ll get Mackie.”

Coach’s fist connected with Chloe’s cheekbone. She fell backward onto her butt then scuttled away when he kicked at her. Deciding this wasn’t cutting it; he stooped to pick up a large branch off the forest floor. He swung it at her and she barely avoided being hit in the head. She dropped to the ground then rolled when he used it like a spear to stab the place she’d been.

In a synchronized move, both wolves lunged at the crazed man. Teeth snapping and claws raking, they assaulted him.
Amy clamped onto his leg while Ryan bit down on the forearm wielding the branch. Coach shrieked in agony, but didn’t drop the weapon.

Chloe scurried out of the way then ran toward the hut.
There was a battery-powered lantern hanging on a hook just inside the door. She snapped it on then fell to her knees beside Travis. He was in bad shape. His entire body shuddered with each breath and his eyes kept rolling into the back of his head.

Chloe touched his ear because it was the only thing that didn’t seem to be broken or bleeding. “
Can you hear me, Travis? We’re gonna get you out of here.”

Travis raised his head from the crusty blanket and whined. A wave of nausea and agony rolled over Chloe. This time, she didn’t shut the steel
door that kept others out of her mind. She honestly didn’t know if Travis would make it until his dad arrived and she’d be damned if he’d suffer alone.

“Hang on, Travis. Stay with me,” Chloe soothed.

“Chloe?” The wolf seemed to be confused. The eye that wasn’t swollen shut moved in her direction. An emotion that felt a lot like relief coursed through him and swallowed her before being replaced by distress.

“Yeah, I’m here.” Chloe looked him over best she could in the crappy light.
One of his back legs lay limp and broken.

Travis tried to get up, but could barely move. He whimpered and his head flopped back onto the blanket. “
Get out of here. Coach coming back,” Travis’s broken thoughts drifted into her mind. “Dangerous.”

She gently smoothed her hand over his ribcage, testing for broken or cracked ribs. Travis flinched and yelped as soon
as her fingers skimmed the edges of his fur.

“I’m sorry, just checking to see how bad it is,” she
said softly. “Do you think you can shift back?”

“No.” The answer came immediately, like he didn’t even have to think abo
ut it. “Tried, but it hurts too much.”

Chloe glanced out the doo
r. Coach screamed then swung the large branch at the wolves. He was so desperate to drive them away that the pelt had fallen from his shoulders and now laid on the ground. His hair stood up in wild tufts and his eyes were huge. Teeth bared, he swung the branch at Amy who dodged it just in time.

The wolves broke apart then came at him again.
It became clear to Chloe that they only intended to keep him busy until Mackie got here. She lifted her head and wondered about the sirens. They’d fallen silent now, but she could see the spinning lights bouncing off the treetops near the house.

“In case I don’t make it…” Travis pulled her back to the here and now. Even the voice in her head was low and hoarse. “Coach wants to be one of us. Thought if I bit him, he could turn into a werewolf.”

“I’m so sorry.”

“He
swears he saw the pack change that day we chased you at school. He tried to get Josh to make him into a werewolf. Coach lost his temper and killed him when he refused.” Travis took a labored breath. “Josh died because of us. Because we weren’t careful and ignored the rules.”

Chloe touched the top of his head. Her fingers smoothed through the crusty fur in hopes of calming him.

“I tried to get away. At first, I fought back.” Travis said in a low voice full of misery. “He just got angrier and angrier until finally, he beat the shit out of me. I couldn’t even get up. Can’t change back to the other form, can’t get away.”

“We’re here now. We’ll help you.”

“Tell my dad and sister. They need to know.” Travis trembled beneath her hand. “Tell them that he saw us. There might be others.”

“You’re gonna be fine.” Chloe didn’t know that for sure, but she would say just about anything to soothe him. “You can tell them yourself.”

“Am I going to die?” Travis wondered as his eyes fluttered shut. The heartrending pain and terror she felt made her stomach lurch.