Asha crouched in the cargo bed of Zuri's pickup truck. She forced open a crate full of six-packs of Kibibi's favorite beer. Working quickly, the chocolate-skinned redhead dumped the beer cans behind some bushes, keeping one for herself. Alpha Zuri generally restricted alcohol to pack members aged sixteen and up, but Asha had never cared much about rules. Hell, she was breaking one just by stowing away.
The nine-year-old crawled into the crate and slipped the lid over her her head. She chuckled to herself. Thanks to her parting remarks, Kibibi and Asanti would probably send her mother over to Nyoni and her family's cabin to look for her. Once they gave that up, nobody would think to search a crate that was full of beer cans. Then those two morons would drive off, and they'd be well on their way to Stokerville before they found Asha.
Asha smiled. She was finally getting out of this stupid, boring, middle-of-nowhere prairie! She'd get to see the rainforests of the Pacific Northwest. She'd see mountains for the first time. And Stokerville might only be slightly bigger than Fort Hyde, but it was only a three-and-a-half hour drive away from Seattle and all of its big-city fun. And Kibibi thought she could keep Asha from this adventure!
Asha heard Kibibi and Asanti's voices drawing nearer. She kept very, very quiet. Kibibi opened the pickup truck's tailgate, and she and Asanti began loading the remaining supplies into the cargo bed.
"Where do you suppose Asha could be, Kibs?" asked Asanti. "Amani checked with Nyoni's parents, and Nyoni hasn't seen Asha all day."
"Weird," said Kibibi, trying not to get distracted by the sun glinting off Asanti's nipple piercings. "That's where she said she was going. If she wasn't there, I'd've thought she'd be here, begging us to take her to Stokerville with us."
"Sounds like the Asha I know," Asanti nodded. Shi shuddered. "Ugh, I do NOT want Asha in Stokerville while there's a skulk camping there! Can you imagine what she'd be like with werefoxes around to influence her?"
"Agreed," said Kibibi. "Good thing she isn't here. So, assuming hour-long lunch breaks and six-hour overnight stops in motels, we should be in Stokerville three days from now. Imagine being able to go halfway across the country in less than three days! How did werebeasts ever get along without cars?"
"Very well according to Mom and Sire," said Asanti. "They have this whole thing against technology, remember. They say it's dragging our pack too close to its human nature and too far away from its animal nature."
Kibibi shrugged. "Sire says we're as much humans as we are hyenas. Humans have always used tools since they were apes, and technology is just an advanced kind of tool. Might as well use it to our advantage... especially when he werelion packs are doing the same. Don't want the enemy to have the advantage, do we?"
Asanti smiled. "I guess not."
"Speaking of humans," said Kibibi, "We'd better shift. I don't want a traffic cop seeing us like this and calling the men in black." She then shifted from an eight-foot hyena humanoid with black fur and gold spots to a naked six-foot, ebony-skinned girl with a shaved head.
"Right," Asanti agreed. She also shifted, becoming a five-foot-seven girl with coffee skin and hair worn in cornrow braids. The two girls hastily tossed on some clothes, climbed into the truck's cabin, revved the vehicle up, and drove off. Little did they know that Asha was coming along for the ride.