“There!” I pointed down to a cluster of rocks below us.
Dodge angled his wings and turned in that direction. The wind blew my hair in my face and I brushed it out of the way.
Are you sure? I didn’t see anything.
“I’m positive I saw something. There were at least three of them.”
Were they human?
“I don’t know. I didn’t have time to check.”
Dodge beat his wings and took us higher into the air to avoid arrows if any were to be shot at us. He made a lazy circle around the boulders.
They’re running.
I spotted the three beings running through the trees. I sent a nudge towards them and shuddered at their lack of aura.
“Humans!”
Why aren’t they shifting? They could at least pretend to be Majs.
“I don’t know.” I glanced down and behind us where a tiger, a leopard, two grizzlies and a wolf were running to keep up to us. Jasper looked up and I pointed in the direction of the three we were chasing. “Do you think these ones will just surrender?”
Dodge blew out of his nose. Probably not. It’s almost as if they have orders to die if they get caught.
We had been travelling a week towards Howel and had come across four packs. Out of the hundred Majs I had scanned three of these had turned out to be human spies with shifting stones. All of them had decided to fight when they had been discovered. None of them were alive.
“There’s a clearing up ahead. Let’s fly ahead and cut them off. Jasper and the others shouldn’t take too long to catch up to them if they don’t shift.”
Dodge veered off and headed to the open ground, circled back and hit the ground running just as the humans came scrambling into the meadow. I pulled my swords and Dodge folded his wings over my legs to keep them out of the way. One of the humans gave a shout and the three of them came to a stop then spun around as the rest of our pack charged out of the woods behind them.
They put their hands up and stood back to back. Our pack circled them. Rainen shifted so she could talk.
“Identify yourselves!”
One of them, the smallest of the three, it was hard to tell the color of his hair because of the hood he wore, jumped and tried to sprint away.
“Don’t!” This came from the blond human as Matthew launched himself at the hooded one. He drove his shoulder into the leopard’s side and knocked him off of his friend. The third man, this one with hair so pale it was almost white, stayed frozen in place.
Jasper crouched low, ready to spring at the blond man who stood between the shifters and his friend. The latter was still lying on his stomach, his head in his arms.
“Your pack,” said the blond man. He had his back turned to me. “It’s different.” He looked from one animal to the next. “There’re both kinds in it.” He ran a hand through his hair. “God, what did she call them? Nommies? No. Nimals?” He shook his head, frustrated. He turned to the light haired man. “You know this!” His friend stayed quiet. “The other ones. It sounds like magic. Mage? Mag. No, that’s not it either.” He took a deep breath.
The more he talked the more familiar his voice sounded. “Look, I’m looking for Hayden. You’ve got to be one of her packs.”
Jasper growled low in his throat and stalked closer to the human.
“What is your interest in Hayden?” asked Rainen. She did a great job of not looking in my direction.
The man hesitated. “I just need to find her.”
Jasper shifted still ready to strike. “If you were to find Hayden, what would be your purpose with her?”
“I need to talk to her.”
“What would you say to her?”
“What? Umm. Well, honestly, I guess the first thing I would ask her is if she’d had a chance to have a shower lately.”
My heart jumped in my throat as the voice and the sentence suddenly made up my mind about who the man was. I sheathed my swords and slid off of Dodge. The man turned at the sound of me landing on the ground and his hazel eyes locked with mine.
“Hayden!”
My lovely husband picked names out of a hat so its totally random
And the winners are................. 
