Vesper was not having any luck.
She snarled and charged again, but the kids were protected by the close cluster of adults. A couple of the males even charged back at her, short dark horns scything through the air, but the coywolf kept easily out of their range. The problem was that this was a total stand-off; she was better at chasing and bringing animals down with speed, but against a metaphorical brick wall like this, she was useless.
She paused for a moment and huffed, eyeing the mountain goats resentfully. As surefooted as she liked to think herself as, one wrong pounce could send her skidding down the cliff—and she didn’t have a mother goat to catch her.
The scent of blood was suddenly sharp in the air, and the loner froze. Her chosen targets caught wind of the scent and shuffled anxiously, but none broke from the tightly-packed circle. She had to admire their resilience if nothing else—but right now, her attention was on the blood permeating the thin mountain air.
A more skittish canine would have avoided the smell—because blood, even that of a goat, often meant that some other predator was in the area. However, she knew that this could be her only chance for a meal today, and if it was another scruffy loner, she’d have no trouble fighting them off. She trotted quickly in that direction.
And then she came upon the kill. Light blue eyes widened, quickly passing by the crimson-throated goat to the creature crouched over the body. While she had seen luperci before, rarely had she been so close to one—and anxiety was creeping in, an anxiety common with approaching something new and unknown.
The luperci was a male—that much was obvious from scent more than the lack of certain defining features—and clad with jeans. She looked at the pants only briefly before becoming more interested in the blades he possessed. They looked unnaturally sharp, and the knife matched the wound in the throat of the animal.
Vesper padded into view and stood uncertainly, her ears slightly angled back and her tail low. All thoughts of fighting a scraggly coyote for a meal had vanished from her mind as she faced the man.
*lame*
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