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strings beneath his fingertips and sweat trickling down his spine, dampening his shirt. The scent of strawberries and cream had drifted to him from across the building, just like it drifted to him now.
    For a few silent moments, the past hung between them, hazy-sweet and almost tangible. Then a sound broke the quiet, clear and crisp – a snapping twig.
    Kimberly whipped her head around, her cloud of strawberry-blonde waves spilling over her shoulders. “Did you hear that?”
    Michael barely managed to peel off the spare change of clothing she’d brought him before shifting, straining eyes, ears and lungs for more information, any hint of danger. Blood blossomed hot and ready beneath the surface of his skin, tinged with a hint of adrenaline. The missing hiker was an afterthought.
    “Deer,” he said seconds later, back in his human form. “It’s just a deer.” The scent had drifted to him, down from a ridge – a lone doe wandering the forest.
    “Oh.” Kimberly frowned, disappointment etching fine lines around her mouth. “I thought…”
    “We’ll keep looking,” he assured her, his gaze lingering on her expression of dissatisfaction. “We’ve got all night.”
    “Right.” She reloaded the backpack quickly, tidying away the little buffet she’d reluctantly laid out.
    He bit his tongue for half a second before shifting back into his wolf form.
    With her hand buried in the crest of fur behind his neck, they continued in near-silence, barely making it a dozen paces before graceful but panicked noises lit up the night – crunching leaves and breaking twigs, the sound of an animal on the run.
    The doe bounded toward them, down the ridge’s slope. Michael smelled her alarm before he saw her, a shadow flying on four slender legs. Her eyes and nostrils flared when she caught sight of him and Kimberly, and she veered to the right, adjusting her course to avoid them, disappearing with her white tail held high.
    Something had frightened her – something at the top of the ridge, or maybe on the other side.
    Michael tensed, alert for any sign of danger – any sign of anything .
    No scent came to him on the light night breeze. Whatever had scared the doe wasn’t at the top of the ridge, then – he would’ve scented anything upwind and so close.
    Eventually they made it to the top, where a drop-off ended the brief plateau of leaf-covered earth and mossy trees. It was only a few yards, but it was enough of a fall that a person might break bones, or even their neck. He placed his body between Kimberly and the edge, inhaling deeply.
    The smell hit him before he looked down. Thick and pungent, obscenely rich – the odor of early decay was distinct. A sense of dread slipped over him as he caught fainter traces of scent: bacon grease and DEET-laced insect repellant spray.
    The lifeless body lying somewhere at the bottom of the drop-off was human, and as he strained to see through the shadows cast by trees and rock, he made out the dark shape of a still, masculine form.
    He shifted and found that when he was back in his human body, his tongue was stuck to the roof of his mouth.
    “What is it?” Kimberly asked, gripping his hand tight, almost wringing his fingers, as if she sensed it too.
    As a human, he couldn’t smell the body.   It was below, and the process of decay had only recently begun, abated a little by the chill in the autumn air. One silent second ticked by, then another. He savored them, even as dread built in his gut, a dam that blocked off the truth.
    Kimberly squeezed his hand more tightly.
    “There’s someone down there.” His muscles tensed involuntarily. “They’re not alive.”
    He felt the knowledge of the truth go through her like an electric shock, stiffening her muscles, too. “You stay here – I’ll go down and look.”
    “No!” She clung fiercely to his hand as he prepared to shift. “No. Let’s go down together.”
    “No need. I’ll look and we’ll hurry back, notify the