“How dare you come back!” a man roared from the living room.
Cole slid to the floor, ready to fight for his life, but then he smelled the aroma of wood and straw, and realized that the voice belonged to Ned. His insides throbbed with a strange sensation that must have been the result of the things they’d done before falling asleep, but when Ned ran across the living room, dressed in a flurry of animal skins, Cole rose as if someone poured icy water down his back.
The noises he’d heard outside were real. Growls and distressed whinnies.
The horses.
He found his shoes where he’d left them and stuffed his feet in, collecting his rifle on the way to the open door, instantly awake.
Blinding light assaulted him when he ran out of the house. Sunshine bounced off the endless piles of snow, turning the whole world white for half a second, but Cole knew the way to the barn by heart. The dark forms of several wolves dragging something out brought his world back into focus and made all the hairs on his body bristle.
Ned let out a low roar and shot at the animals from a battered shotgun that, miraculously, still worked. Two wolves ran off right away, but three more growled back, baring their bloodied teeth in challenge. They wouldn’t give up their catch without a fight.
“This is my land!” Ned yelled and shot again, rising to his toes as if he were trying to imitate a bear. Dog roared, speeding onto the scene as if he had no regard for its life, and stopped alongside Ned, ready for battle. It seemed those two had brains of the same size.
The icy air vibrated, but Ned’s costume couldn’t chase off the predators, and when one of them approached him with its head lowered, as if he were about to attack, Cole sent a bullet straight into its skull, then got one of its companions with another precise shot.
The third wolf howled, but had the sense to flee with its tail between its legs, leaving behind a red trail.
Only then did Cole have the capacity to look at the white horse trembling in the snow, its guts dragged out and steaming on a bed red slush.
“Oh, poor Galahad…” he whispered, staring at the meat showing through tears in the stallion’s formerly pristine white coat.
Master and horse, gone within the span of a day.
“Lars must have left the stable open when he found the picture,” Cole mumbled, his gaze trailing inside the barn, but Nugget and Carol were still in their stalls, even if terrified. Safe. He squatted by the horse and only then noticed his cock hanging out through the front of his union suit. As the wind blew at him from the back, its icy fingers groped his naked backside.
He’d let Ned fuck him last night, and then fallen asleep with the man still on top of him.
A hot flush bloomed on Cole’s face as he reached back to button up his access hatch. He was sore. And his insides felt strange, even if not painful, but it made him ashamed that those were the things he cared about while the poor creature was dying at his feet.
“I’m sorry,” he said, placing his hand on the stallion’s shivering side while tucking himself in with the other.
Ned was panting by the time he finished circling the barn with madness shining from his eyes. He stared between the trees as if he expected a gang of grizzlies to accost them next, but the predators were all gone. “Fucker. If he hadn’t thrown away my mask, we would all have been safe.”
Cole blinked, watching him approach Nugget in the fur coat that transformed him into a massive bear, but the scent of blood was too strong to ignore, so Cole shot the dying horse in the head, ending his suffering. Like he’d ended the life of his master the previous day. Memories of Thunder’s untimely death passed through Cole’s mind, and he swallowed hard to get rid of the tightness in his throat. Soon enough, only memories would be left of Lars too, and who would remember him if not Cole?
“What are you saying, Ned?” he asked, standing between the three dead animals while snow melted from the heat of their blood.
Ned rubbed his cheeks, which already showed a hint of stubble. “They fear and respect the Wolfman. They must have sensed he’s—” He blinked and frowned, walking deeper into the open barn. “You’re all right, Nugget, I’m here.”
“You can’t believe that. You really think your costume fools the wolves into thinking you’re something else? They can still smell you under all… that,” Cole said, feeling the burn between his buttocks as he followed Ned out of the windy air.
Ned stroked Nugget’s neck, calming him with sweet words. “I don’t know. They sensed a change. Maybe Lars’s blood.”