Lucas nods solemnly. “Yes, ma’am. Spell it like it sounds.”

Dawn points up the boulder field. “You mean that cliff up there?”

“No,” Lucas replies. “You can’t see Fart Mountain, yet. It’s still hidden behind the trees. But tomorrow, if it’s not too cloudy when we get up into the alpine, then you’ll see it.” He grins at her again. “And it will scare the ever-loving shit out of you.”

This actually makes Dawn kind of nervous, but she pretends like she doesn’t care.

“What the fuck is Fart Mountain, and why should I be scared?” she says. “And that’s not its actual name is it?”

“It might be; you don’t know,” Lucas says. “No one ever said what its real name is, so who’s to say it wasn’t named after a fart?”

“You sound like Evan and Brandon,” Dawn replies. “All this fart talk, what are you, twelve?”

Lucas’s smile disappears. “I’m just saying, it’s a scary freaking mountain,” he tells her. “I call it Fart Mountain to, like, ease the tension or whatever, because up close and personal? It’s terrifying. You’ll see.”

Dawn looks out through the trees again, even though it’s getting dark and there’s no hope of seeing the mountain, whatever it’s called, anyway. “How do you know that’s where we’re going?” she asks Lucas.

“This trail only goes in one direction,” he tells her. “Ask Kyla or Warden; they’ve done it before. Ask anyone; why do you think Christian’s so excited? He knows it’s going to be torture. It’s three days to get to the top of Fart Mountain, three days to get out of the bush again. The toughest hike in this part of the state, and we haven’t even barely started yet.”

Lucas doesn’t look like a big happy dog anymore. He looks pretty scared actually.

“Have you done it before?” Dawn asks him. “Climbed, you know, the mountain?”

(She’s not calling it “Fart Mountain.”)

Lucas shakes his head. “Not yet.”

“So how do you know it’s so rough? I call bullshit.”

“Ask Kyla,” he says. “She did it, the first month she was here. She said the summit’s so high, there’s snow up there all summer long. Half of the Pack nearly froze to death.”

Dawn doesn’t say anything. She doesn’t look at Lucas.

“I mean, hey, she’s probably lying,” Lucas says after a beat. “Either way, I guess we’re going to find out.”

He wanders off, after that, though Dawn barely notices. She’s watching the night fall above the dark treetops, feeling the sudden chill in the air.

And that’s when she hears the bear.

Chapter 23