Mark didn't turn immediately, but Ethan noticed the slight tightening of his grip on his weapon before he answered. "We tracked it for three days. Finally caught up to it just before dusk, near the river bend past the cliffs. We had it cornered—or at least, we thought we did."
Toren let out a low grunt. "Bastard was playing with us the whole time."
Ethan raised an eyebrow. "Playing?"
Mark exhaled sharply. "Yeah. It didn't attack right away. It let us get close, let us believe we had the upper hand. Then it struck, took out our backline before we even realized what was happening. By the time we regrouped, three of our men were already dead."
Lia sucked in a sharp breath beside Ethan, but he remained expressionless. He had expected this much. If this thing had survived so many hunts, then it wasn't just a strong beast—it was intelligent.
"So you're assuming a larger group will stop it from pulling that trick again?" Ethan asked.
