by Terry Spear
“Got it. Be out there in a bit. Can you hang around to watch it in case the wolves return? Surreptitiously though?”
“I will for a while, but if I get an emergency call, I’ll have to go.” Plus, Eric had jobs to do. He couldn’t go missing for long without someone wondering where he’d disappeared to and worrying he was in trouble.
A flash of a tail whipped about in the brush several feet away. Hell. A gray wolf with a black-tipped tail. He must have believed Eric was a hiker who had found the plants, and the wolf thought he could scare him off. Until he smelled Eric’s wolf scent and took off instead.
“See one. Shifting and taking chase.”
“Eric—”
Knowing his little brother was going to warn him to wait for backup, Eric turned off his cell, stripped, and hid his clothes in brush farther away from the plantings. If a wolf was snooping about though, he’d find Eric’s clothes and gun and phone in a heartbeat. But this was only the second time they’d gotten this close to learning who the rogue wolves were. And Eric wasn’t going to let this go. Even if it meant an ambush.
He shifted, his muscles warming with the change, his body turning from his human form to his wolf’s in a flash, and then he tore after the wolf. Hunter’s spray made the rogue wolf harder to follow, but he was leaving just enough of a scent for Eric to keep after him.
The wolf reached a creek filled with rapids and hesitated to cross. That hesitation was all Eric needed to reach him and tackle him. He wanted to injure the rogue wolf enough that he couldn’t escape and could be taken into custody. But Eric would need his pack’s help to do that.
What a mess it would be if he accidentally killed the rogue wolf, Eric thought as he lunged at the wolf. He hoped no one was in the area to witness the two wolves fighting or, worse, videotape it and share it with the world.
As soon as Eric tackled the wolf, he smelled the cannabis on him, probably from him moving around in the plants as a wolf. The wolf was a big gray that matched Eric in size and was just as ferocious when Eric attacked him. The wolf swung around and bit at Eric, his snout wrinkling as he bared his canines. Their teeth clashed as they stood on hind legs, both trying to get the best of the other. Both were snarling and growling. As soon as they dropped to the stony ground, Eric went for one of the wolf’s hind legs. Eric was so quick, he managed to grab the leg and chomp down hard enough to break the bone.
Eric heard a crack, and the wolf howled in pain. Eric hoped to God none of the wolf’s pack members were nearby to come to his rescue. Though he was prepared to fight every last one of them.
But what to do with the injured wolf now? If Eric shifted and any humans saw him, that would be a nightmare. Even if he shifted to carry the wolf out, he was certain the injured wolf wouldn’t be docile. Eric would be fighting him every step of the way, trying to avoid his lethal teeth. And they were too far into the park for Eric to howl for any of his Silver pack members. Though he knew his last words had warned CJ that his oldest brother could be in the middle of a real mess. CJ would have contacted the sheriff and everyone by now to help Eric out. But they would still need an hour or more to arrive.
What about Sarandon? But then Eric remembered his brother was climbing on a mountain and wouldn’t be able to just leave his charges and come to Eric’s rescue.
Eric watched the wolf panting and sitting, his eyes narrowed and his whole expression filled with hatred. Not that Eric blamed him, but the wolves had to know they might get caught sooner or later.
He hoped he didn’t get an emergency call when he wasn’t monitoring his phone. He didn’t want to put a visitor to the park at risk.
Hell. He snapped at the wolf to get him to move toward the woods.
The wolf snapped back at him and didn’t budge. Eric knew the wolf could walk on three legs, but he also knew the wolf didn’t want to be taken in. Eric thought briefly that the wolf might be all wolf, but he quickly dismissed the idea. A wolf would have run off on three legs, not remain there growling at him.
Eric bit him in the shoulder—not hard, but enough to get his attention and make him move.
This time the wolf stood without putting any weight on his broken hind leg and limped toward the woods. Since he hadn’t howled, Eric assumed the rogue wolf was up here alone, maybe figuring no one would catch him if he wasn’t running with a pack.
Eric snapped at him again, forcing the wolf to return to the marijuana patch. Though it had only taken them about fifteen minutes to run to the creek, it took them forty minutes to return to the plants.
Again, Eric hoped no humans were trying to follow them. He’d been listening intently enough to ensure no one was. The whole way back, he was sweating it out, praying he hadn’t gotten a ranger call. Then in the woods near the open area where the patch was growing in full sun, Eric shifted. He was far enough away that he didn’t think the wolf would try to attack him. Besides, he had his gun and he’d use it in a nonlethal way on the wolf if necessary.
Eric grabbed his phone. No one had called him about anything urgent, thank God. He got dressed, eyeing the wolf the whole time. Eric called to let the park staff know he’d been chasing a cougar away from a campsite and gave false coordinates about where he was, but close enough so that if he were needed, he could get to that location soon enough.
The wolf had lain down, as if his fate was already sealed and he could do nothing about it. Eric had half expected the wolf to fight him further. Eric would have, in his place. But since he was armed with a gun, he assumed the wolf figured things could get even worse if he tried to attack now.
Eric immediately updated CJ. “Got the wolf. He has a broken leg. I’m back at Site 5. How long before your ETA?”
“Fifteen minutes. We have a whole team of Silver pack members headed your way. A couple of them in wolf form should see you in just a few minutes and can provide backup if the wolf has buddies in the area. I’ll notify both docs and let them know we’re bringing in an injured wolf. What about you?”
“I’m fine. A couple of minor scratches. Nothing that won’t heal quickly.”
Then he heard something running through the brush.
“Someone’s coming.” Eric readied his gun. When he saw Darien and Tom, Darien’s youngest brother, Eric smiled. “We’re good,” Eric said to CJ. “Darien and Tom are here.”
“Okay, they’ll relieve you. This is good news. Now we’ll get him to talk.” CJ sounded darkly satisfied with Eric’s efforts.
Eric was glad he’d had the chance to finally catch the bastard. CJ would take the wolf—or if he shifted, man—out of the woods, and the Silver Town sheriff and deputies could deal with him next.
CJ talked to Eric the rest of the time CJ was hiking through the woods along with Trevor, the other deputy, and Peter, the sheriff.
“Good job,” Peter said, sounding damned impressed, when they reached Eric.
“Thanks. Really only came up here to look for more clues. I didn’t realize more plants would be growing or that I’d catch one of the men involved.”
Then Eric’s phone rang, and he answered it. Dispatch told him about a case of mushroom poisoning. “Be right there,” he responded. To his pack members, he said, “I’ve got to run.” He really wished he could help question the rogue wolf, but he had to get his mind on his job.
“Talk to you when we know more,” Peter said.
Eric nodded and took off, making his way through the woods to where his truck was parked two miles away. He would continue to work his double shift, anticipating a real breakthrough on the case in a matter of hours. He hoped.
Then he sped to the campsite to see to the case of food poisoning, a kid who’d eaten mushrooms not meant for human consumption.
“He loves mushrooms,” his teary-eyed mother explained. “We didn’t think he’d see any in the forest. But this one looks just like the ones we buy in the grocery store. But he star
ted throwing up and…” She choked on her words and stopped.
The mushrooms looked so similar to the ones Eric bought in the store that he could see the mistake at once. And they could be fatal. They tasted really good too, according to people who had eaten them by mistake. He had the boy and his mom picked up and transported to the nearest hospital, where they would put the boy on an IV with a solution that would counteract the poison. Early treatment was important to prevent kidney or liver failure. Hoping the boy would be all right, Eric continued to take care of park business, but he didn’t hear from Peter about what the man had revealed.
Later that day, Eric received word that a family dog had gone missing at one of the campsites while chasing after a rabbit. Eric had the lead on that case because he was closest to the location and had a great reputation for finding lost pets and people. Locating the dog was easy. But trying to get it to come to him was harder. Animals loved him, once they got over the fact that Eric smelled like a wolf. Lupus garous had no trouble raising animals because the animals knew their scent, associated it with food and kindness, and realized the lupus garous weren’t a danger. But in a case like this?
He had to gain the dog’s trust.
Eric kept downwind of the dog, carrying some of its favorite treats and one of the chew bones the owners had passed out to the searchers. They had only brought a couple of chew bones, but the other rangers knew to give Eric one of them because he had the best tracking rate for animals. They swore he was a bloodhound in another life. If they only knew he was a wolf in this one.
“Come, Rascal,” Eric said. If he’d had some hunter’s spray, he could have sprayed some on himself and hoped that would hide his wolf scent. Eric crouched in a nonthreatening manner to get the shih tzu to come to him. He coaxed and offered the treats and the dog’s bone to him, hoping he could get Rascal to come close enough to be scooped up and carried back to his campsite. The dog had run four miles from his home away from home and was a matted mess, with leaves and twigs tangled in his long, silky hair and pine needles sticking out of his beard. That indicated he’d had his nose to the ground, smelling the scents. Eric was glad he didn’t have to be the one to clean him up.
The dog finally came to him, and Eric gave him a treat, then lifted the pooch into his arms and told him what a good boy he was, praising him to high heaven. He and the dog became best buddies on the way back as he fed Rascal treats and called in that he’d found the dog. The owners were ecstatic. They’d been upset with him for running off, mad at themselves for losing him, and afraid he’d be cougar food when night fell.
Eric was glad to bring Rascal back into camp safe and sound, and to see the happy owners. Hikers and other campers were snapping pictures of the dog’s return to his grateful owners. So far, the day had been busy, which was how Eric liked it. Helping others was what he enjoyed most about the job. A family erecting a new tent that was giving them fits as tempers flared and darkness approached, a couple changing a tire, or campers with a truck stuck in mud were all par for the course. Keeping the peace and ensuring that troublemakers didn’t ruin it for anyone else was another important mission. But what Eric loved most were rescues and saving lives.
He slept through most of his lunch and dinner breaks, and then got ready for the night shift. He still hadn’t heard back from Peter, so he called him. “Did the man give up who he is? Is he running with Waldron’s pack?”
“No. He refuses to shift into his human form. I’m half tempted to kill him to force him to change, but then I couldn’t question him,” Peter said.
Eric chuckled. “Well, let me know if he comes clean.”
“Yeah, we’ll call you if we get anywhere with this. He’s in a crate right now, and we’ve got round-the-clock guards on him.”
“Okay, talk later.”
After Eric ended his call with Peter, a call came in requesting Eric’s help in scaring a grizzly bear out of a campground. That had him rushing to get there pronto. Not that he believed it was actually anything more than a black bear, but they could be dangerous too.
When he arrived at the camp, he saw a large cinnamon-colored bear scrounging around a campsite, looking for scraps of food. With his enhanced sense of smell, Eric smelled beans, bacon, hamburger, and more food left on used paper plates all over the area around the campfire, which was still burning.
The park rangers were supposed to scare bears off so that they would have a natural fear of humans. But visitors to the park sometimes wanted to feed a bear if they saw one or get pictures taken of themselves close to a bear, selfies even. The more risks people took getting close to wildlife, the more dangerous it became for them and the wildlife. If a bear was provoked into injuring a visitor, that could mean putting the bear down. Visitors to the park had to realize they were just that—visitors. The wildlife lived here twenty-four seven.
Eric didn’t plan to harm the bear, only to yell and chase it off. Sometimes he’d have to use clear paintballs from a paintball gun. In this case, the campers had gone to bed for the night after having consumed a hell of a lot of beer and hadn’t taken care of their food or trash properly. One of the men had left the camp to pee in the woods, he said, and run across the “grizzly bear,” his words, and called in the frantic message.
When Eric arrived, all he had to do was yell and shoot a noisemaker and the bear ran off. Then he lectured the four men on the proper storage and disposal of their food and trash, and supervised them until it was done. As inebriated as they were, they wouldn’t have managed without him being there to make sure they complied.
After he finished with that, he made his rounds to the other campsites, checking for bears and making sure food was stored properly everywhere. Then he smelled cooking in one of the cabins that didn’t allow it and evicted the residents on the spot. No cooking meant no cooking. Other cabins allowed it, but some at the national park were not equipped for it. The rules were well spelled out, and the reservationist always reminded the cabin renter what the rules and regulations were and the consequences if the visitor violated them.
This was the part of the job Eric didn’t like. But if he let one group get away with it, then others could try to pull the same thing—and rules were rules.
The visitors were so angry that he thought one of them might get physical. Eric had a Taser, just in case, and he would use it if necessary. But one of the guys talked the other into just “packing up their shit” and going, and then they left. Not trusting them, Eric followed them out of the park.
At the end of his second shift early that morning, Eric had planned to head to Sarandon’s house for some much-needed sleep. But then he got a call from Pepper that made his heart kick up a notch.
“Eric, Waldron and some of his men were here last night. I just took my morning run and—”
“I’m on my way. I just finished my shift.”
“I’ll be at the Christmas tree farm for most of the day. You don’t have to rush to get here or anything, just come before the party starts. I just wanted to let you know they were here again.”
Despite her words, she was reaching out to him, wanting his help or some reassurance that everything would be okay if he was there. “I’ll head to your home and take a run around the place.”
“You need to sleep. Unless you got to sleep half the night.”
He smiled at that. She had to know enough park rangers to realize sleeping wasn’t part of the job duties. He was glad she had called on him to help. He really thought they might be making some progress.
When he had a chance, he’d tell her about the wolf they’d taken into custody—still not knowing if Waldron and his wolves were really involved.
Pepper really appreciated that Eric didn’t mind staying at her place while she was away. She didn’t think she would have any trouble, but having Eric there would ease her mind.
“All right,” she said on the phone to Eric. “I’ve
locked the wolf door to ensure no other wolves enter the house while I’m gone.” Pepper normally never locked it, but of late, with the problem with Waldron and his men, she’d started to. “You can run by Susan’s house first. She has a key to my place, and I’ll give her a call to let her know you’re on your way there. You can get some sleep and protect the house in the meantime.” Not that she really thought he’d need to protect the house. She hoped he’d just get a good sleep. If anyone saw his park ranger truck out front, they’d be sure to leave the place alone anyway.
What would her pack make of it if they learned he was staying there again? Susan would know and would let Richard know, just to be on the safe side. Maybe the rest of the pack too.
Pepper realized she was all right with that. Word about them being together on the run and swimming in the lake had probably spread anyway. This was a lot less intimate: she was at work and he was going to be at her home sleeping. Besides, he would have been coming over later to go to the kids’ birthday party.
Now she was glad she had invited him and he had accepted. But she really would have to get more groceries.
“Be there in a couple of hours.” Eric hated to hear that Waldron was encroaching on her land without permission, but he was glad she felt comfortable asking him to help out, which seemed to be a major change in her thinking. He called Peter again.
“Has the wolf shifted and told us anything yet?”
“No. He still refuses to shift. So he can stay in the cage until he does. Or not. He can just live like that until he can’t remain as a wolf any longer. New moon coming up.”
Damn. The new moon was still three days away. Eric hoped the wolf wasn’t a royal and the new moon would force him to shift into a human. Royals had the oldest lupus garous roots and could control their shifting.
“Okay, thanks for the heads-up,” Eric said. “Waldron and some of his men have been at Pepper’s property again. I’m headed over there and will sleep for part of the day at her place.”