by K. Panikian
Striding into the trees, I called my puma and knelt, quickly shifting into my animal shape. My paws left the beaten-down path as I stepped quietly into the undergrowth. As the rain started to fall, I headed deeper into the woods. Then I ran, my strides long and my claws pushing off of the ground in bounding leaps. I didn’t have a destination in mind, I only wanted an escape and my puma was happy to have free rein.
I ran deeper and deeper into the forest as the storm broke overhead. Thunder crashed and rolled and my vision turned to shades of gray in the gloom. Part of me wondered if I should turn back, but my raging heart wanted more—more distance, more time alone, more puma sensations to distract from the pain.
The scents of the forest streamed into my nose through the wet air. Heavier rain drops started to fall as I saw a small herd of elk gathered in the trees ahead. I slowed to a trot and then a creeping, slinking stride.
The herd huddled under the branches of the tall lodgepole pines—cow elk and a few calves. A lightning strike across the sky illuminated their restless forms.
I knelt in the leaves, watching. I didn’t want to hunt, though my puma disagreed. I only wanted to watch the wild animals that shared their home with me.
Thunder rumbled directly overhead, deafening my sensitive ears momentarily. The elk stirred uneasily, stamping their hooves. A few of the calves moaned.
My ears pricked as a hissing sound reached me. The air stank of electricity before the world exploded.
BOOM! A fork of lightning struck the tree over the elk. It arced in a blue bolt from the top branches and fell in a blaze of sparks and flames to beat into the earth in a secondary blast. The world turned white and the ground shook. Fear spiked through me as I realized how close I’d been to the strike.
Through my squinting eyes and the glowing air, I watched the elk panic. The fire fell from the tree in a circle around them—they were trapped.
As I rose to my feet, I ignored the quivery electrical feeling pounding through my veins. Flashes exploded across my vision and I couldn’t tell if they were after effects from the lightning bolt or sparks from the fire. I shook my head, trying to clear my senses.
The elk lowed to each other, huddling closer together in the center of the clearing. The fire inched nearer.
Why aren’t they running away from the fire? The adult cows could easily jump the blaze, but it would only grow.
The rain hissed as it fell into the flames and thunder rumbled overhead again.
I paced the outskirts of the clearing, staying away from the crackling fire but keeping my eyes on the elk. The calves stood in the center of the herd as the cows circled them, their eyes white and rolling with fear.
The lightning-struck tree shook, fully engulfed now, and I watched the fire spread to the nearby pines. The lake lay just beyond, and I hoped that it would stop the flames from spreading farther in that direction.
My side of the clearing had fewer trees and thinner undergrowth. The elk needed to head toward me, but the billowing smoke was beginning to make it difficult to breathe.
I ran to the far side of the fire circle, as close to the blaze as I could get, and I screamed at the elk—my puma roar startled the cows and heads swiveled in my direction as they began to buck in fear. I screamed again, trying to encourage them to run away from me, the predator, and toward the thinner and shorter wall of fire.
The elk panicked—they began to run in a frenzied circle in the middle of the blazing ring. I screamed again. Run away! I roared. But the elk were lost to their prey instincts. They circled, tighter and tighter in the clearing as the fire edged closer and closer. I saw one of the calves fall and the herd trampled it.
I cut off my scream with a choking cough. I hadn’t helped. I’d made things worse.
The smoke surrounded me as my puma spirit urged me to run, to get away.
I tried again to get the elk away from the circle of fire. I shifted to my human form and waved my arms in the air. I danced under the trees and shrieked, I threw rocks at them, but the elk were mindless in their panic.
The fire roared higher and the thunder clashed overhead as I panicked in the rain.
I watched the elk run in a tighter and tighter pattern. Two more calves fell. My frustrated cries mingled with the sound of the pouring rain.
The thunder rumbled again and the echo rose over the crackle of the fire. Huge sheets of rain fell at once and one of the elk bolted for the less-engulfed side of the clearing. It leaped over the flames and the rest of the herd followed it.
I dropped back to my heels, watching as their white tails vanished into the forest. The huddled, bloody shapes of the calves lay where they fell and the fire crept closer.
I backed away. Through the heavier and heavier rain, I trudged back toward my car. Tears streamed down my face as my heart broke again. I hadn’t helped those animals, in fact, I’d probably been the reason the calves got trampled. My puma had made the elk lose their minds—if I hadn’t interfered, they’d have found their way out sooner, I knew.
As I rubbed my chilled arms, I knew I was a bad alpha. I couldn’t protect my home territory and the animals that lived there. I couldn’t solve Daniel’s murder or the arsons in the park. Whatever connection existed between the death and the fires and the poaching, it eluded me.
Was Blair behind it all or was I projecting my anger and fear over the way she’d tried to murder me? Was it one of the ranchers, trying to put his neighbors out of the competition? Was it someone in August’s pack, trying to sow discord in order to take over?
The questions looped endlessly in my mind as I walked through the rain.
I wished I could call August, to pick his brain and share my worries. But that bridge was burned. Nick, too, had left me without a backward look. And Logan was a liar and a betrayer.
When I finally found my car again, I dressed and sank into the driver’s seat, weary to my bones. I called in the fire but dispatch told me it was already being monitored. It was almost dead, flushed by the rain and bounded by the lake.
At my apartment, I took a long, hot shower before falling into my bed, my heart still aching and my throat thick with tears.
Chapter 15
I woke up to a voice message from Jordan letting me know that Jackson police had arrested the serial arsonist responsible for the Yellowstone and Teton fires.
“A gas station owner noticed her filling up four or five gas cans and wrote down her license plate number. When she came back a week later and did the same thing, he called the plates into the police. They used the park entrance cameras and tracked her driving in on the days the fires occurred, so they had enough for a warrant. When they knocked on her door, she confessed. It had nothing to do with the elk or shifters or anything. She’s just a nut.”
I listened to this message twice before the meaning penetrated. The arsonist was caught and she was a red herring. That didn’t make any sense. How could she have burned the poached elk so precisely?
I thought about the small herd spooked by the lightning and my puma last night. They would have died in that fire if that one cow hadn’t leaped to safety. Maybe that was what happened to the other bodies in the fires, and the arson investigator was mistaken about the bones and the accelerant?
I shook my head, leaning back against my pillows. That made no sense. The arson had to be connected to the poaching. The police were wrong.
I called Jordan back and left my own message. “Please, try and get Chief Palmer to dig further. Maybe the poachers picked her as their arsonist because she’s such a nut. But there has to be a connection to the elk. Please let me know if they find anything else.”
I hung up and stared at my phone. I had the morning off before I was supposed to hike a trail near Canyon and check some wooden railings. I could probably switch that shift with Jordan.
Blair was still in the wind.
Blinking away my dark thoughts, I knew I couldn’t give up.
I hopped out of bed and dressed before driving
to Old Faithful again.
This time, when I knocked on his door, Mike Boyle answered.
Tall and thin, with sharp features and slouching shoulders, Mike looked older than his eighteen years. Tucking his phone out of sight in his back pocket, he nodded at me. “Morning, ma’am.”
I introduced myself and told him I’d been friends with Daniel. I missed him and I was hoping to talk to his friends.
Mike blinked at me for a long moment before saying he could have a coffee with me in the employee cafeteria, if I wanted.
Across the table, I inhaled my coffee steam and watched Mike fidget. His hand kept going to his back pocket where his phone rested. I wondered if he was expecting a call.
“How did you meet Daniel?” he asked.
“My duty station is near Yellowstone Lake. We were both in the cafeteria a month ago for lunch and started talking about the elk outside the window.”
Mike’s shoulders relaxed. “Daniel loved to watch the elk in the park.”
“I still can’t believe he died hiking like that. He was so young.”
Mike’s cheeks flushed red as he took a large gulp of his coffee, then swallowed noisily. “Bad luck.”
I nodded.
“He mentioned you,” I lied. “Said you live locally. Did you meet a lot of Daniel’s friends?”
Shaking his head, Mike said softly, “Daniel didn’t have a lot of friends. Mainly me, I’d say. I tried to introduce him to some of my buddies in Jackson, but he didn’t like them much.”
“Your parents live in Jackson?”
“Well, Wilson, just west of there.”
I beamed at him. “I’ve been to Wilson. It’s beautiful.”
He smiled back at me. “My parents own the Ribbon B Ranch.”
The words echoed in my brain for a long moment as my belly fluttered. “Oh?”
“Yeah, “B” for Boyle.”
“Elk ranching?”
“And cattle.”
“How’re they doing?” I asked, circling my coffee cup with my fingertip. “I was just talking to the Briscos and they told me they’ve been hit pretty hard by rustlers this year.”
Mike’s shoulders shrank a little and he bit at his lip. The skin looked raw and red. “Yeah.” He cleared his throat. “Everyone in the valley’s been hit this year.”
I leaned back in my chair, staring hard. Mike ducked his head to dig at his fingernails.
“Mike,” I said softly. “You know they caught the arsonist. Is she going to say something that’s going to get you in trouble?”
Mike’s shoulders hunched farther and the freckles on his cheeks stood out against his rapidly paling skin. He shoved his chair back and stood. “Thanks for the coffee, ma’am. See you around.”
I nodded and watched him leave the cafeteria before I got up, too, and followed him.
Pacing back and forth a few times, checking his phone with every other step, Mike finally started jogging toward the parking lot. I walked behind him slowly and when he jumped into a small, black car, I climbed into my Subaru and followed him from the lot.
It was easy to keep him in sight while staying back along the park road. The summer traffic was gone and the park loops had few turn offs.
I tailed Mike’s car south out of the park and once we reached the highway to Jackson, I picked up my phone and called August. He didn’t answer.
“Hey, it’s Sienna. I talked to Mike Boyle. He lives in Wilson and he was Daniel’s roommate—remember the murdered elk shifter? He didn’t say anything in particular but I have a gut feeling he’s involved with the poaching. He’s heading into Jackson and I’m following. Just a heads up that I’m about to enter your territory. I don’t need help; I don’t want to see you; this is only a courtesy call, I guess.”
I hung up and stared at my phone in horror. Gah. I should have practiced that beforehand.
I tossed the phone onto the seat next to me and shook my shoulders loose. Mike’s car moved steadily ahead of me on the highway.
When he pulled into the Elk Refuge parking lot, I stayed in my car. Through the large windows, I watched him talk to Alex at the front desk for a long moment. Alex pulled his own phone from his pocket and checked it, showing it to Mike.
Another car pulled into the lot and an older couple walked into the visitor center. At the front desk, Alex waved them toward the exhibits and grabbed Mike’s arm, pulling him to the back door that opened into the meadow.
I jumped out of my car and jogged around the side of the building, crouching out of sight and leaning against the wooden logs. The two men stood only a few feet away.
Their hushed conversation was too low for my human ears, but with my puma senses, I caught everything.
“Stop panicking. She knows nothing about our organization. She was only a tool. Blair kept her on a short leash.”
Satisfaction coursed through me. Bingo.
Mike paced in a circle around Alex, waving his hands in agitation. “But how can you know that for sure? My parents can’t find out about this. It’ll kill them.”
Alex tried to grab Mike’s arm but the shorter man shook him off. “You’re not the only one with a lot at stake, Mike,” he said. “I’ll lose my job.”
I stood and walked into sight. “What about the fact that you’re both going to jail? Murder? Accessory to murder? Theft? Arson? What else?”
The two stared at me with identical horror-stricken faces.
Alex bolted first, heading deeper into the refuge, and a second later, Mike followed.
I called after them in exasperation, “Why are you running? I know who you are!”
Their heads disappeared into the tall grasses and I stared after them. “Idiots.” I kicked the tufts at my feet, debating what to do. Speculatively, I glanced into the visitor center. I didn’t know if Alex’s boss, Ted, was also involved with the poaching. And I didn’t know if the two fools running across the meadow knew about shifters, or were only peripherally working with Blair to make money.
I had no information I could share with the human police. Alex and Mike hadn’t said anything specifically incriminating and the fact that they’d taken off when I confronted them wasn’t necessarily a sign of guilt.
But if I could get one or both of them to turn on Blair, then I had a story to tell.
I jogged back to my car and grabbed my back-up pack from the trunk. Toying with my phone for a long moment, I blew out a breath and called August again. And again, he didn’t answer.
I debated hanging up; he was obviously avoiding me. But someone needed to know what I’d found out in case something happened to me. I didn’t know what the men would do in their panicked state. Maybe one of them had murdered Daniel—I had to assume one of them could be armed.
“Hey, me again. I’m at the Refuge. Mike and Alex just sort-of confessed to being involved with the poaching and the arsons, said Blair organized the whole thing, and then took off into the hills when I confronted them. I’m going to follow and see if I can shake them up, get them to turn on Blair. If I do, I’ll bring them to Jackson Police.”
After hanging up, I shouldered my pack, tucked my phone in my pocket, and walked around the side of the building. In the meadow I found the scent trail—two different sweaty, hormonal men, one who’d eaten bacon for breakfast—and followed it.
I felt determined and steady. My personal life was in pieces, yes, but I had a serious chance to unravel the whole rustling ring and I wasn’t going to blow it.
Alex probably knew the refuge like the back of his hand. I knew only that it extended east to the Teton National Forest. There were no roads back there, or any people or towns—they must be planning to circle back around, I reasoned.
Or maybe they were calling for backup. Would Blair come to the rescue? She would if only to silence the witnesses, I decided. And I bet that Mike and Alex knew that. I predicted they weren’t calling her at all. They’d taken off in a blind panic at getting caught, but they’d slow and think things through soon. They�
��d realize their best bet would be to get rid of me, then pretend like nothing happened.
The area between my shoulderblades itched. I paused beside the strong scent trail and knew I needed to shift out of my recognizable human shape. This was a job for a puma.
Leaving the trail, I found a strand of cottonwoods along the creek and stripped, stuffing my clothes into my pack. I fingered my phone for a moment before tucking it out of sight. No messages or calls.
Sighing out a deep breath, I reached for my calm. I knelt, ready to shift, when a strong, musky scent hit my nose.
I froze and looked up into the dark amber eyes of a large male tiger. He dropped his head and sniffed me, ruffling my hair with his triangular pink nose.
Letting out a long breath, I stretched my hand to stroke his soft fur, but pulled it back. I had no right to touch him. I lifted my chin. “August.” My heart pounded with an adrenaline release—I hadn’t expected him. I wondered why he came before deciding he had as much at stake as I did to stop the poaching in his territory.
The tiger nodded back and flopped his heavy head against me, rocking me onto my heels.
I smiled, delighted, and dug my fingers into his fur. The fluffy strands coiled around my fingers as August let out a deep, rumbling purr. “You’re beautiful,” I told him honestly.
He snuffled me again and sat back.
“I’m about to shift too.” I gestured self-consciously at my nude body, fighting hard against my blush. “I think they’re going to try and get rid of me, then circle back around. I can’t think of any other reason they’d run into the hills.”
August chuffed and lay on the ground, waiting. His stripes blended with the tall grasses, his pale orange fur perfectly camouflaging with the autumn colors that surrounded us. His amber-green eyes glowed and I felt the intensity of his alpha regard.
I turned my back to him and knelt again, closing my eyes to pull my puma to the surface. She came reluctantly, smelling the tiger and worrying. I coaxed her with promises of trust and shifted.