Sex, while being fun and entertaining, can do you a lot of good. In this case, by the time we'd finished there was the sense of being grounded again, of focus that I hadn't had before. That and being exhausted for all the right reasons. When my alarm went off I didn't wake up dreading what was to come. Shit was going to go down but I was all right with it because I knew that we'd make it through, one way or other. Not just Sam and I, but all of us. There was no damn way I let it go any other way.

She was curled up facing away from me, I ran my hand down her arm, "Let's go. Morning workout time, killer cardio and all."

"You know, there should be a workout based on being a hunter."

"Huh, three hundred twelve ounce curls a day, run like Death is after you, wild sex for a cool down and carb load like there's no tomorrow? Not sure that's going to be recommended by any health professionals."

She rolled over and smiled, "What health fad ever is?"

"Good point. I'll have Sam put that up on youtube, we'll make millions."

"Hooray, all our worries are over."

I gave her a quick kiss, rolled out of bed and texted Sam, "Get up, meeting Oliver in the lobby at nine."

About thirty seconds later my phone buzzed, "Plans change?"

"Yeah. Tell you at breakfast."

"Hotel restaurant?"

"Yup. See you there in twenty."

"Got it."

I took a quick shower, it was 7:30, plenty of time to catch him up and go get supplies for a hike. We ran into each other in the hall, guess we were back in sync with each other.

"Why?" He asked without any lead in, didn't need it. He had his laptop and bag with him, he was ready to roll.

"No point to sit here and stare at walls for a whole day."

"That park isn't small."

"Good thing we've got a few top notch trackers then isn't it?"

He frowned, "We don't even know if they're there yet."

"They are." My instincts were back online, thankfully. Several things had clicked in my head while I was getting ready. Wolf bitch had referred to her pack, they took full wolf form and from what Magnus had said they'd pretty much acted like regular, non-monster wolves. They wouldn't be hunting in totally unfamiliar territory. The random deaths that Sam had found were not all that far from here taking into account that we were dealing with wolves who could easily cover fifty-sixty miles a day in wolf form, not counting what they could cover when they had two hands and a car. "Did you get any maps or information about the park last night?" I asked as we walked into the lobby, "Other than size?"

"Yeah. Why?"

"Any caves?"

I saw him start to catch up to my train of thought, the slow nod and wide eyes told me all I needed. "Two."

"Bet you dinner they're hanging out close to one of them when they're furry."

We crossed the floor and walked into the lobby restaurant and I had to stop myself from laughing, "I wonder if he even went back to bed."

"Huh?" Sam asked. I pointed at the back table. Oliver and Roy were there along with five decent sized backpacks that looked pretty well stuffed. "Nice," he said, "One less thing to do this morning."

Roy spotted us and gave a quick wave. There just happened to be three more seats at their table too. Coincidence? I doubt it. We told the hostess chick we were joining them and took a seat. I sat next to Oliver, Sam next to Roy and we ordered some coffee from the waitress who'd headed over as soon as she saw where we were going.

"Morning," Roy said.

"Morning. Do some late night Wal-Mart shopping?" I asked.

Oliver smiled, "Technically early morning, the sun had just come up. Got everything we'll need."

"Good. Sam found some cool caves we can check out while we're out there. Coyote should be down in a few."

They were dressed in standard hiking clothes. Roy was wearing a green long sleeve plaid shirt over a white t-shirt, Oliver was in one of those long sleeve cotton shirts, it was black, like his jeans. Sam and I were in our usual double layers, we'd grab our jackets on the way out. We ordered breakfast and chatted about random crap while waiting for Coyote who showed up about twenty minutes later, most of that was probably spent drying and braiding her hair. She'd told me about a month after I moved in that if she bothered with makeup it'd take her way too damn long to get ready. Her hair was enough of a choir as it was. She'd done two braids this time, I thought that always made her look younger. She was in a green long sleeve button up shirt that was half buttoned up, brown tank top underneath and her jeans were just tight enough to show off her ass, one of my favorite parts. She was wearing knee high brown leather moccasins and she got a few looks from guys as she walked in. Usually that doesn't bug me but I guess I was feeling extra territorial so when she sat down at the end of the table I leaned over and kissed her cheek. When I pulled back from her I swept my eyes across the room, two of the guys gave me a quick glare but looked away.

Sam's right eyebrow went up, "That really necessary?"

He wasn't referring to the kiss. I shrugged, "Just practicing."

He shook his head and took a sip of coffee before he spoke. "Practicing what? Being intimidating?"

"Just making sure I hadn't gotten rusty."

"I don't think that's an actual possibility. It's in your genes."

"Shut up."

Coyote chuckled and patted my hand, "It's so adorable when your inner caveman comes out."

Roy almost choked on his orange juice and Oliver sighed.

"You really don't need to take his side here," I told her and took another bite of my eggs.

"But it's so much fun," she countered.

I chose to keep my mouth shut, no way I was winning this one. She ordered her food, we finished up and headed out. We decided to just take Baby, she fit five and had everything we needed. Oliver, thinking ahead as usual, had somehow found a car cover that we'd throw over her when we parked. Bullet holes tend to attract attention. I'd parked her as far back in the hotel parking lot as I could in a space where the shot up side faced a wall to make it harder for people to see the bullet holes. There was no guarantee we'd be able to find a space like that at the park, so car cover.

The park was an hour drive from the hotel, it was a quiet hour. Sam had pulled up some topographical maps on the laptop that we'd printed out using the hotel's business center and we'd plotted our route to the two caves before we left so there wasn't too much to talk about on the drive.

The entrance to the park showed up on my right, I pulled in and we all got out. It was empty, which was nice since we were unloading weapons. I popped the trunk, Sam and I grabbed our usual guns, then Coyote took hers and Oliver grabbed some for him and handed a few to Roy. It was weird watching Oliver handle a gun. There was no doubt he was a pro, he checked his weapons just like Sam and I do but it was just something I'd never seen before. Roy was a bit slower but he knew what he was doing. As Oliver tucked one of the 9 mils in his waistband and one inside the jacket he'd grabbed before we left he somehow seemed even deadlier than usual, colder. It didn't take me long to understand why, he was in a different mindset. Arrow was all about not killing, hunting however, requires it. This was who Oliver had become during those five years of hell. It was who I'd been all my life. I saw the switch over happen in Sam and Coyote too. Roy wasn't as far gone as we were, he hadn't killed nearly enough things in his lifetime but he was still plenty scary looking. Oliver and Roy switched into their boots from their vigilante suits and shoved their other shoes into the trunk.

"If it's okay with you guys," Oliver said, "I'll take point."

I saw no reason to argue, "I'll bring up the rear," I replied, "Rest of you, spread out a bit. Let's not make it easy for them if they do spot us."

We grabbed the backpacks, covered Baby up and headed down the trail. Oliver vanished within the first two minutes. Just disappeared into the woods.

"Impressive," Coyote said when between one blink and the next we lost sight of him. "He's as good as Cougar is."

"First time he did that when we were training I flipped out," Roy said.

Sam's eyes got this distant look, "First time it happened with me, I ended up flat on my face about five minutes later. He'd attacked me and sliced my hand before I could even think. Never saw him."

Seeing Oliver move like that gave me a bit more hope that we may all make it out of here in one piece.

We scanned the surroundings as we walked. Coyote kept her head down looking for any huge ass paw prints and I put myself back into Purgatory paranoid mood, which meant listening for any sound or lack of sound that seemed out of place.

"Nothing so far." Came from behind me.

I was reaching for my gun and turning before I realized it was Oliver, "A little warning next time! Jesus!"

He didn't say a word, just stared at me with those cold blue eyes. "Your instincts need help. Been following you for the last thirty feet."

That managed to piss me off and worry me at the same time. "They're on high alert now. Thanks."

"Hope so," he said. "I'll keep checking."

I was watching him the whole time and I still couldn't tell how he did it. Damn. One second he was there, forty feet away jogging into the treeline, the next second he was just gone. I needed some lessons. The rest of them didn't say anything and we resumed our hike. I put my head on even more of a swivel, I'd be damned if Oliver was going to sneak up on me again.

We made it about another hour before we decided to take a quick break and check the maps. I'd managed to spot Oliver twice more when he popped up out of nowhere. Seeing as how he'd checked in four more times since that first time I was at fifty percent, which would have gotten me killed in Purgatory. It'd sure as hell made me a lot more aware of how out of practice I was. Coyote had done better, she'd seen him three times, same with Roy. Sam had only managed it once. Guess he'd been concentrating on fight training, not tracking. Whether or not I ever hunted again after this I'd decided to make it a point to train with Oliver for a few weeks at some point. He was beyond scary good.

Oliver reappeared and checked the maps. "If we keep this pace and heading, we'll hit that first cave in another hour. I've spotted a few abnormal things but can't be a hundred percent sure on it being them. There's animals here I'm not used to tracking so could be that."

"Yeah, me too," Coyote added. "I found a few odd tufts of fur and what looks like a paw print but nothing definite."

"Rest for five minutes, then head out." Oliver ordered. "I'll clear the path ahead." He handed the map back to Sam and left. I looked down at where he'd just been standing. I could just barely make out footprints where'd he stood and there was one light indentation of the ball of his right foot when he'd started jogging into the woods, then nothing. I'd always respected his skills, but this pushed it up a whole lot of notches.

We waited exactly five minutes and followed him, not a single one of us questioning who was in charge right now. It sure as hell wasn't me.