Den Of The Wolf (Spirit Of The Wolf Book 4) - A.D. McLain

Den Of The Wolf (Spirit Of The Wolf Book 4) by A.D. McLain

Book excerpt

Fifteen. Sixteen. Seventeen. Judy reached out to touch the door frame and continued counting. Eighteen. Nineteen. Twenty. Her fingers brushed against the edges of the table. Confidently, she set out the bowls and placed the utensils. Turning, she returned to the kitchen. One. Two. Three … Twenty.

Judy pulled two cups from the bottom cabinet and removed the water pitcher from the refrigerator. With one thumb pressed against the inside rim of the first cup, she poured, stopping once she felt the cool liquid reach her thumb. She repeated with the second cup and returned the pitcher to its proper place. Resuming her counting, she brought the cups to the dining room table.

The smell of freshly steamed potatoes and broccoli filled the room. Judy smiled and took a deep, appreciative breath in. The floorboards of the front porch creaked under a series of quick footsteps. The front door opened, letting in a burst of new smells. Pine needles and rain. He had run through the woods.

“Judy!” her father’s voice called.

“Daddy, what’s wrong? Why did you come through the woods?” He tried to keep his forest runs restricted to moonless nights, to avoid being seen.

Drawers opened and closed. His footsteps carried him quickly around the front of the house. “We have to go. Someone saw me use my strength to hold the wheel. Phillip got his arm stuck. He would have lost it.” Her father’s voice grew louder. “Those guys who’ve been poking around heard about it.” His footsteps stopped at the doorway. “Damn, you did all this? I’m sorry, we can’t sit down and enjoy all this delicious food.”

His hands rested on her shoulders. She put one hand on top of his and smiled reassuringly. “I’ll get the bag.”

“Already by the door. Let’s go.” He took her hand and hurriedly led her through the house. There wasn’t time for counting, now. She heard the sound of movement outside and felt her father tense. Taking his hand from hers, she heard him shift, paws hitting the floor, a low growl in his throat.

There was a crash of glass breaking, followed by the smell of smoke. A loud bang reverberated through the room, causing her ears to ring. Unable to hear or smell, barely able to breath, she fell to her knees and crawled toward the door. Broken glass bit into her palm. It wasn’t until her hands touched tile that she realized she crawled to the kitchen.

Judy scrambled to the pantry. Bloody, shaking fingers struggled to turn the metal doorknob. She cried and gripped harder, but it wouldn’t turn enough to open. She pulled and tugged until the door finally swung open, sending her tumbling on the floor. Clambering to her knees, she rushed into the pantry, intending to close the door behind her.

She didn’t make it that far.

Tough hands grabbed her body, holding her arms down against her sides. She twisted and kicked. More hands held her still, and a sharp pain pierced her neck. Crying in frustration, her mind grew sluggish. Her body felt heavy. The hands shifted around her body, and she felt the steady rhythm of footsteps. Vaguely aware she could now feel the cooler air from outside, her mind drifted off to sleep.

***

“Hand me that draw,” Seren called down to Gavin. Once the quick draw was in hand, she clipped it to the bolt anchor and fed the rope through. “All set.” Together, they climbed the remainder of the mountain.

Seren stood on the top and looked out. A cool breeze blew across her sweat covered skin and dislodged a lock of her hot pink hair. She took in a deep breath of mountain air and smiled, tucking the hair behind her ear.

“I thought your friend John was finally going to come out with us.” Gavin handed Seren a water bottle from his backpack. “I was looking forward to finally meeting him.”

Seren took a drink of water. “Susan came home,” she chuckled.

“Your sister?” Seren nodded. “Then what are you doing here?”

“It’s not really a ‘visit’ visit. She’s only home ‘cause the dorm is closed for the break. She’s had her nose in her law books the whole time.”

“Then why didn’t your friend come with us?”

“He offered to help her study.” Seren laughed at the confused look on Gavin’s face. “John has had a crush on my sister for years. He’s even planning to go to college in Smithsdale, which just so happens to be where Susan is studying.”

Gavin shook his head. “He’s got it bad, alright.” He threw the bag back over his shoulder. “Ready to explore more of the cave?”

Seren nibbled her bottom lip excitedly. Her cheeks hurt from smiling so hard. Barely restraining herself from skipping down the dangerous rock, she followed Gavin down the rope ladder into the mountain.

The chamber, about fifty feet wide, was decorated with battery operated lanterns hung from ropes, and a couple fold up chairs from their earlier visits. There was also a gigantic pile of ropes. Three tunnels snaked off in various directions. Rope and lanterns continued down the tunnel they already explored. It continued on for a few hundred feet, with many smaller chambers, about as big as a good-sized bedroom, branching off the path. Seren set down her bag and pulled out a few of the lanterns for the next tunnel they were set to explore. She laughed silently to herself. If there was an FBI database for people who bought an inordinate number of dollar store lanterns, she’d be at the top of the list.

Gavin grabbed the loose end of rope from the top of the pile. The other end was attached to a clip near the mouth of the tunnel. They learned early into devising their exploration strategy that if they tied several ropes together and bundled them neatly, they could pull the loose end like a skein of yarn and have more room in their packs to carry lanterns and supplies. They could explore for longer and cover more ground.

Clicking on their helmet lights, they began stringing lanterns down the new tunnel. “How’s your little brother doing with his rock band?” she asked as they worked.

Gavin groaned. “Loud.” Susan laughed. “I don’t know how he hasn’t gone deaf.” He tied off the rope and attached the next one to the clip. “He’s loving it, though. They played last week at a party for some girl he likes. She was appreciative.”

“Aww, that’s sweat.”

Gavin rolled his eyes and shook his head. “If you say so.”

They worked in companionable silence after that, only arguing once about the correct classification for a rock.

This tunnel was much like the first one. It branched off into smaller chambers, most the size of a standard room. A few were larger. Some even had sky lights cut out of the rock. One such sky light yielded a two-story high waterfall that flowed into an underground river, visible for several hundred feet. They placed several lanterns in that area to reduce the risk of dangerous falls on slippery rocks. After a short break to refill their canteens and rest, they moved on.

They continued their descent until Seren pulled the last lantern from her bag and clipped it to the rope. “Whelp, I guess that’s it for today. Shall we head back?”

“Hold on. Turn off your headlamp a second.”

Seren complied and saw what caught his attention. A dim light shone from the far wall. “How did you even notice that,” she wondered aloud, but he didn’t respond. Walking carefully across the room, Gavin’s hand on her arm for guidance in the shadows, they explored the source of the light, a narrow fissure in the rock, behind the main wall.

Carefully crawling up the slanted surface of the rock, she felt around for good hand holds. “Give me a boost?” she asked.

Gavin braced his hands under her feet and helped her get the last foot up to the opening. Grabbing on to the edge, she pulled herself the rest of the way up. “No way. Get up here.”

Gavin followed her up the wall, having less difficulty at the top, due to his taller height. She heard him gasp behind her at the sight. “We’re almost all the way back in town.”

A couple dozen feet above ground level, they had a good vantage point over the nearby neighborhoods and shops. The nearest building was about five hundred feet from the cave, but there was a bike path only fifty feet away. A smattering of small trees and bushes stood in the rocky ground between the mountain and the path.