Cry Wolf (Alpha & Omega #1)(46)

* * * *

He stirred in the packet of olive oil and handed her the larger foil bag. She looked inside dubiously. "It doesn't look like sweet-and-sour chicken," she said.

"You need to pay more attention to your nose," he admonished and took a bite of his own stew. It wasn't as good as dinner last night, but not too bad for something you poured water on and ate. "And at least the sweet-and-sour chicken doesn't look like dog food."

She leaned over and looked in his bag. "Ewwe. Why did they do that?"

"They can only freeze-dry small pieces," he said, pulling his bag back before she got her hair in it. "Eat."

"So," she asked, back on her earlier perch, "how long will our scent disguise last?"

He was pleased to notice that after she'd taken the first bite, she'd fallen on her food like a lumberjack.

"It won't matter," he told her, as he made quick inroads on his own meal, "as long as we keep talking about what we're doing so that any wolf out there can hear us."

She stopped eating and opened her mouth to apologize, then stopped midword to frown at him. He wondered if he should have smiled so she'd know he was teasing; but she got it, because she waved her spork at him. "If there was a werewolf within hearing range, you'd know it. Answer the question."

He seldom spoke of his magic to anyone, including his father-because Brother Wolf told him that the fewer people knew about it, the better weapon it was. But Brother Wolf had no objections to telling Anna anything she wanted to know.

So he ate a bite of beef and admitted, "I don't know. As long as we need it to-unless we tick off the spirits and they decide to aid our enemies instead."

She stopped eating a second time, this time to stare. "You're not teasing this time?"

He shrugged. "No. I'm not a witch to impose my will on the world. All I can do is ask, and if it suits their whims, the spirits allow it."

She'd taken a mouthful of food and had to swallow hastily to ask, "Are you a Christian? Or..."

He nodded. "Like Balaam's ass, I am. Besides, as a werewolf, you know there are other things in the world-demons, vampires, ghouls, and the like. Once you know they're out there, you have to admit that God is present. That's the only possible explanation of why evil hasn't yet taken over the world and enslaved the human race. God makes sure that evil stays hidden and sly." He finished off his food and put away his spork.

"Balaam's ass?" She muttered to herself, then caught her breath. "Balaam's ass saw an angel. Do you mean you've seen an angel?"

He grinned. "Just once, and it wasn't interested in me...but still, it sticks with you." Gave him hope in the darkest night, in fact. "Just because God is, doesn't mean there aren't spirits in these woods."

"You worship spirits?"

"Why would I do that?" He wasn't crazy or stupid-and a man had to be one or the other to go out looking for spirits. "All that would do is get me more work-and my father gives me more than enough work as it is."

She frowned at him, so he decided to explain. "Sometimes they help me out in this or that if I ask, but more often they have something they need done. And there aren't as many people who hear them as there used to be-which means more work for those of us who do. My father keeps me busy enough for three people. If I were seeking the spirits out in daily conversation, I wouldn't have time to tie my shoes. Samuel spends a lot of time trying to figure out where spirits fit into Christianity-I don't worry about it so much."

He thought he was going to have to remind her to finish her food, but she stared at her bag for a bit, then took another bite. "What do you do if they ask you to do something wrong?"

He shook his head. "Most spirits are more friendly or unfriendly rather than good or evil." And then, because the odd urge to tease her was still strong, he added, "Except for the brain-sucking spirits who live around here waiting for silly hikers to camp under their trees. Don't worry, I'll keep them off of you."

"Jerk," she told her sweet-and-sour chicken, but not like she was bothered.

Somewhere out in the darkness a wolf howled. It was a long way off, a timber wolf, he thought. Twenty years ago there hadn't been any wolves to howl, but they'd been making steady progress back down into Montana from Canada for a decade or more. The sound made him smile. His father worried that there was no more room in this tame planet for predators, but he figured if humans had decided to allow the wolves back into their rightful place, they could adjust to werewolves given enough time.

* * * *

Walter found the dead man, dressed in hunter orange, propped up against a tree. From the looks of him, he'd fallen from the rocks above where a game trail snaked along the edge of a short cliff. One leg had been broken, but he'd managed to drag himself a few yards. Probably he'd died of the cold a few days ago.

He must be the reason all the searchers had been hiking through the woods. He must have gotten turned around because no man with any sense would have gone hunting this far from a road without a pack animal of some sort. It was so far from where people had been looking that the chances of anyone finding the body were somewhere between slim and none. By spring there would be little left to find.

He thought about burying the body, but he'd have to dig through eight or ten feet of snow and another six of frozen ground. Besides, he didn't have a shovel with him. The dead man's feet were the same size as Walter's, so he took the boots as well as the gloves and parka-leaving behind the orange vest. Leaving the hunter's gun was a more difficult decision, but ammunition was hard to come by, and he had no desire to advertise his presence with gunfire.