Why a Wolf Cries, Julie Steimle [ebook reader macos TXT] 📗

the canyon village to claim the wolf. I’m going to head that way tomorrow also. Maybe I will meet him there. He said he would call a vet. He knows a few.”

“So what was he doing?” her mother asked, shaking her head. “Did he just bring the wolf here and let it run loose? You know tamed animals can’t cut it in the wild.”

Audry sighed. She really did not know what was going on with that wolf, and she merely shrugged. “I can’t tell you. I don’t really know. Both he and Rick claim the wolf is wild and goes where it wants. But I have no clue how they are tracking it.”

“RFID chip?” Doug suggested.

She shrugged again. “Possibly. But I wonder about the rumor about those causing cancer. Besides, they don’t seem the type to chip a wolf.”

“Maybe they really are werewolves,” Skyler suggested with a shrug.

Audry shot him a sharp look. “Don’t be stupid. That’s—”

“We don’t use the word ‘stupid’ in our family,” Jean interjected.

“Fine,” Audry snapped. “How about insanely foolish? Werewolves are fiction. And I think Skyler is smart enough to know to not even fantasize someone as a werewolf.”

“It’s kinda funny,” Skyler murmured.

She shot him a harsh look. “No. It’s not. That wolf gets shot at because some people believe in werewolves. Rick gets shot at because of it!”

“Aren’t you exagger—” Doug retorted, smirking.

Audry cut Doug off. “I’ll show you the damn website!”

She tugged on her brother’s arm for them to leave the room, as they could not use their cellphones in the hospital room. Skyler followed. They went to the lobby where Audry dragged them through, out to her car, dug out her small laptop from the case in her car trunk, then hauled all of it back to an area where she could plug it in and go online. When she finally got the SRA webpage up, she poked the screen and snapped. “There. Read it.”

So they did.

The page had posts and links all about handling different kinds of ‘monsters’ including vampires, werewolves, elves, demons, and the occasional witch. Both Doug and Skyler chuckled as their eyes raked over it, because of course werewolves and vampires and all that were not real. Then she clicked on the link called ‘Werewolf Watch’ which posted the whereabouts of the Deacon family.

It had phases of the moon shown in graphics, labeled: Waning gibbous. With a tag that said:  Hunting hour is on. One night remaining.

Audry gesture to where the page the actual location of Rick and his father.

 

Richard Deacon III—current location, Yellowstone National Park—unwise location for hunting. Vehicle in canyon village parking lot.

Howard Deacon II—current location, Yellowstone National Park—unwise location for hunting. Vehicle in transit.

 

Audry drew in a breath. They were tracking their vehicles? How? She knew both of them were at Yellowstone. Mr. Deacon had said so. And he was dressed for hiking, rather well, actually. Why didn’t he just call Rick if he was at the canyon village? Yet, she recalled cell reception would be bad.

But then it occurred to her that Rick was just parked there. He was probably out camping. Did he even know about the cougar attack?

“It’s a fake,” Doug said.

Moaning, Audry shook her head. “No. It isn’t. It’s legit. It’s a monster hunting union—”

“It’s a LARP site.” Doug laughed.

“What is larp?” Skyler asked.

“Live Action Role Playing—you’ve never heard of it?” Audry was surprised.

Skyler shrugged. Then nodded. “Yeah. I think I’ve heard people say it and talk about it, but nobody ever explained what it meant.”

“It’s when grownups pretend to be something, either medieval something or like D&D without the board game,” his father said.

Yet Audry sighed. “This is not that. These guys actually believe in monsters.” She pointed back the Deacons’ locations. “Look at it. They are naming real life people. They are tracking real life people. Mr. Deacon is in Yellowstone, and is in transit. I just spoke to him in the hallway. He just left. He told me he was going back to the canyon village.”

Doug drew in a breath. “Whoa… You mean, these LARPers take it seriously?”

She nodded. “That’s what I have been trying to tell you. And they have been shot at by people who really believe they are werewolves.”

Audry then clicked back to the main page. They stared at it. It listed known threats and missing monsters to keep an eye out for. She was about to close the site when her eye caught on two names. The first she knew well.

“No way…” Audry dragged her mouse to it and clicked on the link.

It opened to page called ‘Vimp Watch’.

 

Eve Marie McAllister—current location, possibly Middle East. Unwise to hunt. No longer mortal. Presumed reaper. Keep eye on Intended.

 

It had the most recent photos of the girl whom Audry had heard only positive rumors about. One was corporate photo—a torso shot of Eve in a business suit with her long black hair hanging down. She was smiling closed-lipped, and her eyes were brown. But Audry knew her real eye color was orange. The second photo of her was with her known fiancé, Hanz Johaansen, walking together. It was like a paparazzi shot. There were a few others of her in a swim suit with a surf board—confirming all rumors Audry had heard about Eve McAllister. A pale surfer. “What the crap…?”

Doug shot Audry a dirty look, covering his son’s ears.

“Dad!” Skyler moaned. “I’ve heard worse at school.”

Blushing he took his hands off. “What are we looking at?”

“I…” Audry felt sick. “She’s a friend of Rick’s. But… what is this they are saying about her?”

“No longer mortal?” Doug read. “What? Is she dead?”

“Not mortal, but in the Middle East?” Skyler said, pointing that out. “That makes no sense. And what is an intended?”

Audry and Doug exchanged a look. “Fiancé.”

“Freaky,” Skyler murmured.

They all nodded.

“Presumed reaper…” Doug shook his head. “Ok. This is LARPing gone too far.”

“I want to see another one.” Audry went back to the main page and clicked on the link under ‘Vampire Watch’ going to a specific name. She knew the name, but met the man only briefly, twice. But he was another acquaintance of Rick’s.

 

Troy Devlin Meecham—confirmed; forced conversion by Order of Blood. Day walker. Not imbibing. Under protection by H7, Deacon Enterprises, & NYPD. Has cursed attendant/bodyguard. Do not approach unless imperative. *POSITIVE NOTE* He is currently researching a cure for the bite and is close to a breakthrough.

 

“What the crap…,” Doug said this time. He looked to Audry. “What is this?”

“I met him once,” Audry said. “No. Sorry. Twice. Very briefly. But he’s a friend of Rick’s from Gulinger Private Academy.”

“A vampire.” Doug shot her a dry look.

She shook her head. “No. He was nothing like that. He was just a guy. He bought one of my shirts.”

Nodding, Doug stepped away from the computer. “Ok. Audry, you made your point. There are crazy people who… what are you doing now?”

Audry had gone back to the main page. She clicked on the link for ‘Witch Watch’, where there was a lit sign called ‘Rogue Witch Warning’. She had a bad feeling about it.

Up popped five images, three of the three witches of who had attacked her and Silvia, the twin of the other one—alongside one of Silvia herself. Out of the five, the four were police lineups. They had caught the twin, apparently. Silvia’s pic was the one from her hair salon. She was bright and smiling in it, with beautiful hair.

“That’s them,” Audry said, pointing.

“Them who?” Doug asked.

But Skyler read the names and pointed at Silvia’s picture. “That’s your old roommate? The witch?”

“Whoa!” Doug got in close. “You mean they also track those weirdoes who claim to be witches?”

Audry nodded, staring at the page. She swallowed as her mouth felt dry. Under each were their names and info. Danna Groves. Marta Lindon. Trisha Garland. Amber Garland. Audry paused on that one, reading over the facts of how she was in police custody under their protection and not under arrest. Something about the Unseelie Court, which honestly gave Audry chills. Then she looked at Silvia’s blurb.

 

Silvia Lewis Spade—Shadowing. Under protection from H7. Claimed to be leaving Coven Inc., Middleton Village. In NYC, location unknown. Married to Randon Spade—a black cat familiar—and Troy Meecham’s best friend.

 

So they did get married. Good. But what was this about a black cat familiar?

“I need to call Silvia,” Audry murmured. And she pulled out her phone.

“Whoa! You’re going to call that person they’re claiming is a witch?” Doug gasped.

With a dry look, Audry dialed. “Are you taking this website seriously? Just a second ago, you were calling this website crazy.”

He pointed at it. “It may be crazy, but those girls look insane!”

Audry nodded, pointing at Trisha’s picture. “She tried to kill us.”

Skyler leaned in closer to the picture. “She’s the one in your story?”

“Yep,” Audry said, listening for the dial tone. “The first three were the ones I was talking about in the story. I never met the twin.”

“Damn,” Doug murmured as the phone continued to ring. “No wonder you got out of New York in a hurry.”

Audry nodded back.

<< Hello? >>

“Silvia!” Audry felt a wash of relief. “Oh, thank heaven I got you! This is Audry. I really need to talk to your husband, Randon. I don’t have his phone number.”

<< Audry… >> She sounded surprised and pleased. << And I thought that voicemail was a prank—that someone had gotten hold of your phone. What did you need Randon for? You said something in your last message, but you were difficult to hear. It was most car noise I heard. >>

That made lots of sense. Come to think of it, the window had been rolled down.

“I’m sorry,” Audry said, glancing to her brother who actually looked worried for her. “I wasn’t exactly thinking at the time. I was flustered. Um… I’m here in Yosemite and I need a vet who is willing to help a wolf.”

There was a pause. << We’re in New York. >>

“I know,” Audry peeked to her brother again, then her nephew. “But this is my wolf.”

<< What? >> Silvia sounded as if the wind got knocked out of her.

“The long and the short of it is, he’s badly wounded. I just bumped into Mr. Deacon in the hospital and he might call Randon soon. He said he had a vet here, but—”

 << We’ll fly out immediately. Where are you staying? >>

“Um, the Cody Regional Hospital in Wyoming? I need to go back and get the wolf from a ranger I left him with in canyon village—”

<< How bad is he? >> Silvia sounded like she would cry.

Blinking, it struck Audry as odd. Yet she said, “Skin deep, but pretty bad. He’ll live if he gets medical care soon.”

She heard Silvia cry. << I’ll call Randon right away! But how did it happen? >>

Audry immediately told her about the cougar attack, from start to finish. When she was done, Silvia said the weirdest thing, << That’s so like him. But you know he came there because of you. >>

Blushing, not knowing why, Audry peeked to her brother and Skyler again, who had overheard the entire thing. “Uh, can we end this call so you can call Randon?”

<< Of course! I’m being stupid about this. We’ll be there right away! >> And she hung up.

Turning off her phone, Audry looked to Doug, then Skyler. “Well, I guess you are going to meet a witch.”

Free the Wolf