Nick eased himself out of the Jeep, stumbling when his bare feet hit the hard-packed road. “Once or twice,” he rasped, hunched into himself and holding his ribs.

My ears pricked and I wondered if he was serious. If I wasn’t so worried about Nick, I might be able to concentrate on keeping my own head above water. Jenks, too, seemed surprised, saying nothing more as he led the way into the scrub.

One foot raised, I hesitated. Jenks was going the wrong way, toward the interior, not the beach. A questioning whine brought him around, and he gestured for me to join him, kneeling just inside the scrub off the road. Nick wobbled into the brush, and I trotted to Jenks, worried.

The pixy peered into my eyes, and I was thankful he didn’t try to pet me. “Nick stinks,” he said, and Nick cleared his throat in protest. “They’ve got my scent, and yours,” he added, “but they aren’t as obvious as Nick’s. If you still had your scent amulets, we might be able to slip their lines, but not the way we are. I’m betting both the island Weres and the ones coming from Mackinac will start their search from the beaches and move in.”

So they catch us inland instead of on the beach, I thought, but Jenks shifted his weight, regaining my attention. “I want you to take crap for brains to that carcass and sit tight. Hide yourself in its stink. I’ll drive the Jeep down the road to confuse the trail, then come back.”

He wanted to separate? Again? My black paws fidgeted, and Jenks smiled.

“It’ll be okay, Rache,” he said. “I’ll go tree to tree like a squirrel. They won’t trail me to you. Once they pass us, we’ll slip out clear and easy.”

It wasn’t him leading them back to us I was worried about, and I whined.

“You can do this,” he said softly. “I know it goes against your nature to sit and hide, and if it was just us, I’d say charge ahead and kick anyone’s ass between us and the water….”

I made a doggie huff. Nick couldn’t do it. We had to adapt to his condition. Agreeing, I sent my tail thumping. Yeah, it was degrading, but everyone knew dog-speak, and no one knew Rachel/wolf-speak but me.

Jenks smiled, standing to look tall above me. His pleased expression shifted to one of annoyance and he looked at Nick. “Got all that?” he asked, and Nick nodded, not looking up. “There’s a deer carcass thirty feet from here. Go make nice with it.”

With a numb weariness, Nick picked his way there, old leaves crunching under his bare feet.

“Stay down until I get back,” Jenks said, carefully manipulating the keys so they wouldn’t jingle.

I watched him retrace his steps, glancing both ways before breaking the camouflage of the surrounding brush and vaulting into the Jeep. Almost stalling it, he eased onto the road and drove away with the enthusiasm of an eighteen-year-old playing cops and robbers.