After having brought up the possibility to the sheriff, the entire area had been quarantined off as the entire department worked to comb the woods. At least they wouldn't have to worry about an incident tonight. Not with that much going on in the hunting grounds.

Sam had reached four hunters that were on their way to blend in with the search team, and they'd be there before lunch the next day. So now the two were eating take-out in their motel room, both of them with their laptops open doing research.

"You find anything yet?" Dean asked around a mouthful of pizza.

"Bupkis," Sam replied with a resigned sigh. "No open missing persons reports in the area. Since the victims were killed in the woods, there's obviously no security footage to comb over..."

"Figures. Check this out, though," he said, turning his screen as Sam leaned over to see it. "Colstrip, Montana, a little over a month ago."

Sam glanced over the article. "Animal attack related deaths in the area. Doesn't mention any more detail about how they died." He straightened back to his own laptop and started digging deeper into the cases in Colstrip. "The deaths were within a span of six weeks," he discovered. "And check this out," he said, turning his screen to Dean now. "One of the victims had a four year old son, and he's been reported missing since she was found dead... Check out the dates, man."

Dean read over what Sam had pointed out, then looked down at their notes from the coroner's office. "This is too much of a coincidence not to be them," he said, looking back up at his brother. "So what're you thinkin'? They took the kid and ran? Is that a thing werewolves do now?"

Sam shrugged. "I dunno. Maybe the kid just wandered off after seeing what happened to his mother?"

"So he could just as well be dead in a ditch somewhere."

"Hopefully not, but...it's possible. You think...uh...maybe they took him with them?" Sam grimaced as he formed the thought.

"Back to the pack to divvy up a baby heart?" Dean elaborated. "That's disgusting. I hope that's not what happened."

"Or they're saving him for later," Sam offered, grimace still present on his face.

"Yeah. I mean that'd explain why they left town, I guess."

"You think he's still alive?"

"I don't think they'd be killing again if they hadn't already eaten the one they had on reserve," Dean replied morbidly.

"I'm gonna call Jody," Sam said, pulling out his phone. "Maybe she has some contacts along the route from Colstrip to here; flash the kid's picture around. They had to stop for gas on the way here. Maybe we'll get lucky..."

*~.~*

It was morning when Jody called back. Dean was in the shower, and Sam was halfway through his second cup of coffee. "Hey, Jody," Sam answered.

"Mornin', Sam. You near a computer?"

"Uh yeah," he replied, moving from the bed to the table where his laptop was charging. He opened it and woke it from its hibernation.

"Okay, I'm sending you footage from a Stop 'n Go along 25 from about twelve hours after the kid was reported missing. It's pretty bad quality, but it might have your wolf pack sighting. Looks like Dean was right. There's two of them, one male, one female both in their mid-thirties. The male can be seen paying cash for gas as the female carries the boy to the restroom." Sam watched the video as she spoke. The body language of both adults waved a red flag. The kid didn't seem very happy, but he was still alive here, so there was that... "What tipped me off is when they pull away from the pump," she continued. "They're Montana plates. And get this, from a sedan reported stolen the day before in Colstrip."

"It's gotta be them," Sam replied, trying to zoom in on the blurry faces. "Thanks, Jody. This is just what we needed."

"I hope they haven't hurt that boy," she said. "His name is Ian. If you find him... Damnit, Sam, are you sure you don't want me out there with you?"

Sam could sense the hurt in her voice. No doubt she was thinking about her own lost son. "I'd love for you to be here, Jody, but you've got your hands full there as it is, and we've got help."

"Can't ever have too much help."

"If we haven't figured this out by tonight, who knows. We might need you here after all."

"I'd be there in a heartbeat. You stay safe, Sam, you hear?"

"Yeah. You too..."

*~.~*

"Just found another one," Bully told the brothers as he pulled off what had to be his fifth pair of latex gloves. He'd called them back out to the woods when they'd found another body that morning, and now there was another. "This one's been here at least a week. The other...well I'll have to take a look, but my assistant estimates a bit older than that."

"But no activity last night?" Sam asked.

"Nothin' we've seen or heard about so far," he replied. "Sheriff Holt is at this one's wife's house breakin' the news. I'll have him contact you if he knows somethin' I don't."

"Thanks," Sam said, then turned to head back to the car with Dean. "Okay so...more frequent kills than we'd originally thought. But it's still within the same time frame, so I'm thinking that footage Jody sent us might actually be who we're looking for."

"Great. So we're looking for two big smudges and possibly a smaller smudge."

"We know they're somewhere between 5' 8 and 6'. One's a male, one's a female, and they might still be in the same car."

"Montana plates don't narrow down the search too much, Sam. There's a ton here."

"It's better than nothing."

"Well we can at least assume they're not actually living in the woods," Dean said as they got into the car. "They might be squatting somewhere in town."

"I can look for vacant houses nearby," Sam offered. "Assuming they're not just living in the car."

"They're rationing the hearts, Sammy. They'd probably need a fridge or something."

"So a vacant house with the power still running..."

*~.~*

"Okay, thanks, Randy. I'll send you the next one." Sam ended the call with a sigh.

"Still nothin'?" Dean asked after hanging up with another hunter associate that had come into town to help out.

Sam shook his head. "Thank god we've got help for this part at least. If it was just us going to each of these empty houses, we'd be at it all night."

"Well, I say we take a break," Dean said, getting up from the little table in their motel room and stretching. "It's past dinnertime. Let's gas up the car and check out the little diner up the road. Couple of the guys are on their way there, too. We can meet up and figure out our next move."

Sam felt a little reluctant to stop finding addresses to check out, but upon hearing about food, his stomach growled as a reminder that they'd skipped lunch. He closed the laptop lid and grabbed his jacket.

Outside...

A small figure quietly slipped into the back seat of the shiny black car and hid in the floorboard. He'd slipped away from the others in the chaos of them packing up so quickly. The others had been eager to leave after discovering that just a few doors down were people who would try and stop them. If they wanted to stop them, they must be the good guys, and maybe he had a chance if he could escape his captors...

"There's three more houses, Sam," the voice was getting closer to the car. "Randy's on his way to one now, and Kurt's probably already at the other one."

"Which means they could find them any moment, and they'll need us." The two got into the car, and the small figure in the back squeezed his eyes shut as he pressed himself harder into the floorboard.

"Just a quick bite to eat, Sam. If they find something, we'll head out. They won't go in without us. It'll be fine."

"Famous last words," Sam mumbled.

"What?"

"Nothing."

The car roared to life, and music came on all around him. It was comforting almost. It helped him to relax a bit, his stomach not as tight as it was when he'd snuck away from the monsters. It had only been a few minutes before the car turned off again, and the silence tore away the cloak of comfort. The doors up front opened and shut, and he knew he was alone again. They were leaving and he was alone. He couldn't help but cry.

"Hey," Sam stopped in his tracks beside the car, gesturing for Dean to be silent. "You hear that?"

Dean strained to hear, and Sam nodded toward the back seat. He could hear it now. "Is that...?" They opened both back doors simultaneously, hands on their guns and ready to draw if necessary. "Holy crap," Dean said, eyes wide as he glanced to Sam. "Is that...?"

"The missing kid," Sam finished, dumbfounded...

tbc...