Mostly she heard the blood rushing through her ears as she raced to locate the wolf, in the event he was injured, before the hunters could reach him.
As she drew closer to the location where she'd entered the river the first time, she heard two men's voices across the water, and she froze in place in the woods.
"I hit him. He was a big male and was running so fast, I'm sure he'll get some distance before we can locate him. Want to swim across?"
"Hell, Joe, I don't swim well, and in this frigid water, we'd both suffer from hypothermia before we knew it. We'll have to return to the truck, and the first bridge we come to, drive across to the other side, and hike in to find him."
Silence.
Her heart pounding, the blood still rushing through every artery, Cassie waited.
"Okay, Joe, let's go before it gets dark. We'll never find him then."
Kicking stones, they tromped across the bank and disappeared into the woods.
