“They don’t bother people generally, I know. But just in case, since you’re going off the beaten path, keep an eye out.”
Aria smiled. “I will.”
“And take a snack.”
“I already ate enough for a small army!”
Doreen wrapped up a few more deviled eggs in a twist of wax paper. “Well, your father will just eat these if you leave them here, and the paprika gives him heartburn.”
“And it’s worth it,” Ben said.
“I agree,” Aria said, tucking the eggs into her hiking backpack. “Unfortunately for you, Dad, I love them too much to give them back.”
“Betrayed by my own flesh and blood.”
Aria rolled her eyes, warned her parents again to keep an eye out for the weather, and ventured into the woods to get to work.
She’d been coming to the nature preserve for years. Except for the carefully maintained hiking trails, it was dense, untamed forest that sprawled out for miles, but Aria knew every inch of it. Her dad had always said she had a compass in her head. She swung off the trail without any worries about being able to find her way back out again.
Hot, muggy July afternoons weren’t exactly comfortable for her, but the woods loved that kind of weather. Every green thing around her had unfurled to soak up the heat and moisture. The colors looked more vivid than ever.
And, best of all for a nature photographer, the heat had made the animals lazy. Aria snapped several pictures of unusually calm rabbits. There was one calendar that paid her specifically for bunnies, and she’d be able to fill half her quota with them from this morning’s work alone.
Aria moved easily over the uneven ground. She climbed over fallen trees and dodged around tangles of poison ivy, heading deeper and deeper into the forest.
She snapped a photo of a sullen badger lurking in its den, its eyes little light bulbs in the dark. She photographed a tree that had been struck by lightning, getting it from several different angles. The light was just as good as she’d hoped. It made everything look oversaturated, like the air itself had applied a heavy filter.
A great day’s work, and all in a couple of hours! She couldn’t even be mad when the rain started up.
She took her tightly folded poncho out of her hiking pack and unfurled it, pulling it over her head. Its bright red made her look like a living stoplight wandering through the forest. The animals would probably be scared off now, but at least no trigger-happy poacher would squint through the rain and mistake her for a deer.
She chose a shortcut back to the parking lot. It would wind over some really uneven terrain, but it would save her a lot of time and get her back to her parents before they went crazy from being cooped up in a car with a bored Mattie. She would just watch her footing—hurrying over wet leaves and slick mud was how accidents happened.
And the camera’s waterproof. I could even get some rainy weather shots if something jumps out at me. Hey, I could even do full-on underwater photography sometime if I learned how to scuba dive.
The rain beat down even harder, like it was offering to teach her to scuba dive right then and there.
Right. Save the daydreaming for later.
She checked the map of the woods she had etched into her memory. A quarter-mile in this direction, and then she would veer north—
There was a flash of something gray between the trees.
Aria froze, her instincts kicking in before her mind could even tell her what she was seeing.
Her heart was racing.
There was a weird smell in the air. Like...wet dog.
No way, she told herself. No way is it a wolf, no matter how big it looked. No matter what Mom’s friend said.
It was probably just a dog. Dogs were officially banned from the nature preserve, since there was a chance they could get off-leash and scare the animals, but the rangers tended to turn a blind eye as long as the owners kept an eye on them and made sure they were well-behaved. And this dog could be well-behaved!
Even if it was massive.
She took a few slow steps back, moving as quietly as she could. She wasn’t walking through the woods anymore; she was creeping through them.
Then she saw the streak of gray again, and this time there was no way to deny what she was looking at. She knew wolves: she’d photographed tons of them. And this was definitely a wolf.