Jacob's POV
Starting 5 miles from Rubble Beach
Jacob looked at Jessie, "Stay put here for at least 50 minutes, then take your time driving the last few miles. Arrive as close to 3pm as you can. Sit in the car and let them move first. If they try to block the car, leave. If you see wolves, leave. If you see more than 3 people, leave. If any of them is carrying a weapon, leave. Don't forget to call me and leave the call going before you get out of the car. Ok?"
Jacob watched Jessie carefully as she nodded. She seemed steady enough so far but he was worried. She wasn't ready for this, it was too soon. She had very little training or experience -- there were so many different ways this whole thing could go wrong. She wasn't oblivious to the dangers, he'd walked her through them all carefully in the last 24 hours (probably overdid it if he was honest with himself). She just seemed too trusting somehow, like the world and all the people in it were better than he knew they were. There were times when her curiosity and enthusiasm was refreshing, and times when it terrified him.
All three of them got out of the car. Hidden from the road, Jacob and Liam stripped and shifted. Jessie pushed straps hooked to small pouches containing their cell phones over each of their heads and they trotted off through the trees towards the beach.
Come on old man, first one to their lookout point wins!
If a wolf could roll his eyes while running, Jacob would be doing that. Liam's competitive nature never took a break -- thankfully he could switch gears and get serious in an instant when needed.
It was going to take about 30 minutes to reach the park and then they'd each have to very carefully move forward to one of the spots they had identified where they could watch what happened. There were various alternatives, since they would be competing with Jenkins Pack wolves for the best locations. The trick was to find an unoccupied spot and hold it without an overt confrontation with wolves from the other side ... and not get caught outside the boundaries of the neutral zone (ok, it was getting old, but Jacob still chuckled every time he called it that since he was a secret superfan of all things
Star Trek
).
About 2 miles from the beach the brothers split up. Liam was going to swing wide and come in from the north while Jacob approached from the south.
As Jacob carefully crept towards the park boundary he spotted a sentinel right where he'd thought a wolf would be placed -- highest ground, best view of the southern area. Good planning but not foolproof. Jacob pulled himself up the side of rocky ravine in human form where a wolf could not have managed, then shifted back to continue on, now inside the park behind the watcher.
He got to the parking lot and saw no vehicles there, and no boats at the dock. Good. He didn't have to call Jessie off yet. Jacob wanted to be in the section of trees on the other side of the entrance road but he didn't want to be detected too soon, so running across the road was not a good choice. He backed up and entered a drainage area, walking up to a culvert that went under the road. This was not a comfortable thing to do, very claustrophobic for a wolf, but Jacob crawled through the pipe until he got to the other side ... where he found himself stuck behind a bunch of debris that he couldn't get past to get out. Crap!
Liam, how are you doing?
Good, I'm inside the northern boundary. There was a wolf watching where we thought one would be, got by him no problem. I'm going for the lookout spot at the north end of the parking lot. Should be there in a couple of minutes.
Great, nobody obvious here yet ... unfortunately, I'm stuck in the damn pipe! Too much debris to get out. So much for clever ideas. I can't believe you talked me into trying this.
That's what Plan B's are for, brother!
Easy for you to say. You are not the one who has to crawl backwards out of here -- and by the way, it stinks in here too.
Jacob was just about to start pushing himself backwards when he heard the sound of claws clicking on the roadbed above him -- a wolf was running across the road going north. Through a narrow gap in the debris he saw the sentinel from the south moving into the trees.
Liam, the Jenkins Pack wolves are pulling in tight, they must be setting up for the arrival of their Alpha.
Yup, the northern watcher is moving. He's going for my intended spot so I'm maneuvering around behind him to those rocks we saw.
Good, I'm half way out of here now.
As Jacob popped ass-first out of the pipe he froze, hearing a vehicle moving slowly down the road above him towards the parking lot. It was Jessie -- he knew the sound of her car.
Jessie's here. I'm moving closer to the highway and will run across the road once the Jenkins group arrives.
Right. I'm in the rocks. It's further away than we wanted and the view isn't perfect but it will do. Be careful, there have to be more than two wolves from the other side around here.
Jacob moved cautiously through the trees along the road and sat waiting. When a truck with three people in it pulled off the highway and past his location he waited to make sure no one was following, then sprinted across the road and began working his way back to the parking lot.
When he felt the cell phone vibrate in the pouch around his neck he quickly shifted and answered the call. Stuffing a wireless earbud in one ear, he heard Jessie say "I'm leaving the car."
This was a time when having a pack bond between the three of them, and be able to communicate mind to mind in wolf or human form, would have been very useful ... but in the modern world there were other options. Jacob pulled out a lump of playdough from his pouch, shaped it into a cone and placed it on a log with another earbud on top. Shifting back into his wolf form, he carefully turned his head sideways and jammed the earbud into his wolf ear. He and Liam had worked this out some time ago -- it had come in handy a few times before.
Liam, how's Jessie doing?
They've set up the woman she's here to meet at a picnic table. Jessie's over there now.
You still got eyes on one Jenkin's wolf?
