Tag seemed to shrug off the odd mood. “Not on your life,” he said. “He and I deal better when we stick to events of the present time. We were on opposite sides of too many wars to discuss the past. Here’s a gas station, Anna. Might as well fuel the pig up.”

He was right; the SUV got better mileage than she’d expected, but it wasn’t a hybrid. The man working the gas station was a Native American somewhere in his fifties. He gave Charles a narrow-eyed look.

“Salish,” said Charles.

The clerk smiled. “Fishermen,” he said in satisfaction. “Karuk.”

“Fishermen,” agreed Charles gravely. “We drove down from Montana to do a little hiking. I’m Charles.”

“Rob,” offered the clerk.

They shook hands. Rob rang up their purchases—mostly water and Tag’s junk food.

“Lots of hiking around here,” he said. “Careful of fires. We’ve got one going about twenty miles away—started this morning. If you stay south or east of town, you should be okay.”

“Appreciate it,” Charles said gravely.

“Watch out for Sasquatch,” said Rob, tapping the side of his nose.

“I always do,” Charles agreed. “But I’m more concerned with the Singer in the Woods.”

Rob’s eyebrows went up. “That old story? Stay on the trails and you should be all right.”

“I’ve heard that some people built a town up thataway,” Anna said, unfurling her power a bit. Being Omega didn’t have as much of an effect on normal people as it did on the werewolves. But it did seem to lower hostility. She didn’t clarify where “thataway” was.

She hadn’t needed to. Rob gave her a warm smile and shook his head.

“I heard that, too,” he said confidentially. “One born every minute, isn’t there? I heard that something happened to them, they disappeared like that Virginia colony of Roanoke. Smart people don’t travel that way. My grandfather, he took me up near that place one time. Showed me a drawing someone had made on a rock—told me that if I saw that symbol, I should take it as a warning, like when you come upon a tree that a grizzly has marked. Something we didn’t want to meet has that territory claimed.”

“What did it look like?” Charles asked.

“Like an upside-down capital V with lines hashed over both sides. I heard that the place where those people put their camp had those marks all over it. Lots of beautiful country around here, beautiful river, good places. Don’t know why people have to go poking hornet’s nests.”

He paused a second, then frowned at Charles with sudden suspicion. “If you folks intend to go hunting for Wild Sign, you’d better have good weapons.”

Charles smiled. “Thank you for the warning.”

Rob shook his head, but he had a smile on his face. “Young people always think they know best.”