Ranger Drew (Shifter Nation: Werebears Of Acadia Book 4)

by Meg Ripley

  I find an empty parking spot--there are a lot fewer of them now, since it’s daylight--and pull into it, checking my hair and making sure I collected everything I’d need. I climb out of my car and by the time I’ve got it locked up and my bag slung over my shoulder, Knox is only a couple of yards away. I see him looking me over and realize that I’m not the only one who likes what they see.

  “Good day for a hike,” he says, giving me a smile. For a second, something vaguely primal flashes in his eyes, and I have to wonder if I imagined it somehow.

  “You do know that I’m going to spend the entire time trying to pry information out of you, right?” It only seems fair to give him warning, but I give him a little smile to go with it. I’m not usually coy or all that flirty with people I’m interviewing, but there’s something about Knox that makes me blush and flutter my eyelashes.

  Up close, he’s more muscular than I realized the night before; I can almost make out his pecs against the fabric of his shirt. He’s definitely more ripped than I would imagine a park ranger to be, and I can’t help, just for a second, imagining what he would look like naked.

  Shit! You stop that right now, Hannah Grant. I take a quick breath to try and stifle the heat that seems to be coursing through my veins, heading just south of my hips. What is wrong with me?

  “I expected as much,” Knox says, keeping that little grin on his face. I notice something secretive in his eyes, and begin to wonder if maybe I’m onto something; perhaps some of the bizarre claims I’ve read about the NPS aren’t so outlandish after all. I can’t think of what else he could feel the need to hide, but I’ll play along for now.

  “Well, shall we get started?” I open the thermos and take a swig of coffee. “I’ve got all day, but the sooner we start…”

  “The sooner we’ll have it done and over with,” Knox finishes for me. “Let me show you my favorite trail.”

  We start off in that direction and I fall into step with the ranger, running the questions through my head and trying to figure out where to begin.

  “So, I’m assuming that as the manager of the park, you’re pretty well-versed in its history,” I say. “Oh! I almost forgot. Do you mind if I record this?”

  “Not at all, go right ahead,” Knox replies. I take the recorder out of my bag and rattle off my standard disclaimer, holding the machine a few inches from Knox’s face for him to confirm his agreement to being recorded.

  “So, as I was saying, I assume you’re pretty knowledgeable about the park’s history,” I begin again.

  “It comes with the territory,” Knox says. “Is there something specific you want to know?”

  “While I was doing my research, I came up sort of...confused, I guess, about some of the founders,” I say. “Obviously, the main people involved were Christopher Ellsworth, his father Christopher B. Ellsworth, and Theodore Davis, but there were others too, right?”

  “Of course,” Knox nods. “What about them?”

  “A lot of them don’t seem to have much in the way of public records,” I say. “I mean, there are notations that they contributed or lobbied to the cause, but when I tried to find some of their birth certificates, for example, I came up empty.”

  Knox shrugs. “It was nearly a century ago, so keep in mind, many of the records might be a little shoddy.”

  I frown at that, but I can’t think of a way to press the point further. “So, Knox, you’ve probably heard the strange rumors about Acadia, and the National Park Service in general. What are your thoughts?” I hurry a bit to keep up with him as we head up a little incline. I have to admit it’s beautiful out, even if it’s a bit chilly.

  “The conspiracy wackos?” Knox gives me a sardonic grin. “Don’t tell me you’re doing some hit piece about how the people who created the national parks were all warlocks and freemasons.”

  “No, no; I’m trying to do as straightforward a piece as possible,” I say quickly. “But it does come up, you know.”

  “I know,” Knox nods. “It’s just always seemed so ridiculous to me--doesn’t it seem that way to you?”

  “Well, we know a lot of the founding fathers were masons, or members of other fraternities,” I counter; I’m not even sure why I’m pressing the point at all, because a day ago, I found the whole idea ridiculous. “But obviously, the idea of building a bunch of parks to make it easier to sacrifice goats in private is a bit much to believe.”

  “Glad to hear you think so,” Knox says, his voice rippling with amusement.

  We come to a stopping point and I mention I need to sit down for a bit; I offer Knox some coffee and he waves me off. “I’ve actually got a picnic basket with some snacks hidden for us down the trail a bit,” he tells me. “Did you bring water, too, or just coffee?”

  “I have a water bottle, and it’s full,” I tell him, and he nods his approval.

  “Do you do much hiking, Hannah?”

  I shrug off the question. “Some, but my job doesn’t leave me much time to.”

  “How did you end up in this line of work, anyway?”

  “Kind of by accident,” I explain. “I always liked asking questions, and I enjoyed writing back in school, so when it came time to pick a major, journalism sounded like the perfect path. By the time I graduated, I had honed my skills...and well, here I am.” I take another sip of my still-warm coffee and look at Knox speculatively. “How about you? When did you decide to become a park ranger?”

  “I’ve wanted to be one since I was a kid,” Knox says. “I’ve always loved the outdoors; hunting, camping, fishing. I even took foraging classes when I was young. My parents liked living off the land, and when I turned twelve, we did a tour of the different national parks; that’s when I decided.”

  I try to picture Knox as a twelve-year-old boy, foraging in the woods for mushrooms, berries or whatever, but it’s impossible. He’s far too masculine and fully-grown for me to imagine him any other way.

  “Ready to move on?” he asks, gesturing toward the next leg of the trail.

  If you enjoyed this preview of Ranger Knox, you may download the entire story HERE. Available with Kindle Unlimited.

  Sneak Peek of Ranger Trent: Shifter Nation – Werebears Of Acadia, Book 2

  There were three brutal murders at Acadia, so as the Law Enforcement Ranger of the park, I should be on the case. Because a crazed bear shifter is at fault, the possible exposure of our clan—and shifters everywhere—is on the line if this news goes public, but thanks to government politics, the head of the park was forced to call in an FBI agent to investigate the deaths.

  Bianca Gianni is her name, and this fiesty little thing is all business—more importantly, all human. If she could get off her high horse and stop barking orders for a moment, maybe I could grow to like her, even if she is stepping on my toes. Hell, with curves like hers, we could have a lot of fun.

  Getting on her good side isn't going to be easy, but that’s exactly what I need to do to make sure our kind isn't thrown into the limelight.

  Will I be able to keep her from the truth, or will this firecracker figure it out on her own, leaving on the next helicopter to expose us to the feds?

  With a little luck, maybe I can have my cake and eat it, too.

  Chapter 1 - Trent

  This does NOT look good…

  I was standing over a body. Not just any body either. The body of Danielle Peterson of Danielle’s Destinations, a well watched show on Maine’s Travel Channel.

  Only this time, it didn’t look like she would be ‘signing off from this destination.’

  I ran my hand through my shortly cropped black hair and reached out to Sophia with my mind, urging her to come quickly. I looked around for any sign that anyone had been present at the scene before my arrival, trying to find any clues that could tell me what had happened.

  Danielle’s small, plump body was contorted in ways limbs should never bend. Her chocolate-brown eyes were wide, yet empty and her black curls were matted into a knot with leaves and
branches caught in them. She was sprawled out on the ocean shoreline of Acadia’s most well-known beach, Hunters Beach, located in the south-eastern region of the park; it was usually far outside of my normal hiking area, but I had wanted to look at the ocean that day.

  And instead, I had found a body.

  If I didn’t know any better, I would have thought that maybe she had slipped on one of the rocks, hit her head and was just unconscious. Rocky beaches were always difficult to navigate—and extremely slippery. The rocks were glistening, which told me that the Atlantic had risen enough that day to coat the stones with a beautiful shine that reflected against the sunlight. So, it could have been possible. And I would have thought that were the case, had there not been blood everywhere.

  There were lacerations and puncture wounds all over Danielle’s body. She didn’t slip and hit her head: it was an attack, and judging by the damage, my mind went to only one explanation.

  “What seems to be the pro—Oh no! I know who that is: it’s Danielle, from Danielle’s Destinations! What the hell happened?” Sophia Ross, our emergency manager, rushed up to the body laying before me, checking for any signs of life. She was carrying a basic medical kit, which definitely would not be enough to aid the fallen celebrity.

  “Has she moved at all?” Sophia asked while checking Danielle’s pulse at both her neck and her wrists, her brunette ponytail bobbing as she worked over the body quickly. Her hazel eyes looked up at me waiting for an answer.

  “No signs of movement. When I found her, she was just lying there,” I said, snapping out of my daze and crouching down next to her while trying to stay out of her way. She pulled out a stethoscope and listened for a heartbeat.

  She didn’t seem to find one.

  Sophia started doing chest compressions and breathing into Danielle’s mouth, but quickly jumped back. As her breath had entered Danielle’s lungs, blood splattered out from her wounds.

  “These lacerations went deep and punctured her lungs. She’s gone,” she admitted, looking down at the body sadly. She started scanning around just like I did, trying to find the person who could have done this.

  “What do you think happened?”

  “Well, someone attacked her, obviously. Judging by the contorted limbs, she put up a pretty good fight. These lacerations, though...I would say it was probably—”

  “A bear…Right?” I made direct eye contact with her, knowing the answer before she even agreed.

  “Yeah. A bear, for sure,” Sophia nodded.

  “Dammit!” I stood and threw my fist into the nearest rock, causing it to crumble at my feet. I stared down at the ground, wondering how this could have happened.

  “Now you know Cassidy isn’t going to be happy about that.” Sophia shook her head, putting away her stethoscope.

  Cassidy was our park planner, and she had each rock meticulously placed on the beach. My gaze rose to Sophia, who was looking down at Danielle. “So, do you think it was one of us?”

  Sophia’s eyes met mine and they were filled with worry. I could tell we were sharing the same thoughts.

  Could a bear shifter have done this?

  Was he or she one of our own?

  Why would anyone have done something like this?

  Well, it was my job to find out.

  “I don’t know. There was no one here when I arrived. If one of us did this to her, I can’t pick up any incriminating scents with all this blood here. We’re going to have to get this cleaned up so I can try to track down whatever it is.”

  “You know Knox is going to want to hear about this. Should I tell him?”

  “You clean this up; I’ll handle Knox.”

  I started walking away toward the woodlands, reaching out to our Alpha, Knox, with my mind.

  What?

  I could already sense the annoyance in his thoughts.

  Sorry to bother you man, we—

  I’m trying to enjoy my day off, and you’re cockblocking me.

  He was not going to like this.

  Sorry, Boss…

  Just tell me what it is!

  I winced at the urgency that came off as Alpha authority. It was a little hard to discern the emotions, but I decided there was a little of both mixed in there.

  We found a body, Knox. Out on Hunters Beach.

  A local? Knox’s thoughts were serious now.

  Worse. It’s Danielle Peterson. I winced as I delivered the news.

  The travel guide? Are you serious? Knox’s thoughts were loud and echoed in my head.

  And we think it was a bear…

  Don’t move. I’ll be right there.

  But Sophia is here cleaning up the b—

  DON’T TOUCH THE BODY! I’ll be there in a few minutes.

  And with that, the connection was gone. I ran back to Sophia, who was just about to drop the corpse into the water of the Atlantic.

  “Whoa! What the hell are you doing?” I closed our distance, my long legs allowing me to cover the ground separating us quickly.

  “What do you mean what am I doing? She’s famous! We have to get rid of her!” Sophia sounded a bit panicked, and I could hear her heart hammering away in her chest.

  “We can’t just throw her into the ocean and hope she turns up somewhere!” I grabbed the body from her.

  “So, what are we supposed to do?” she asked with frantic eyes.

  “Knox demanded the corpse no longer be touched until he gets here.”

  “Why? What’s going on?” Sophia looked confused, which I supposed was better than panicked. Maybe.

  However, I was just as unsure. We didn’t usually get human deaths in Acadia. If someone from our clan died, we buried them and had a ceremony with all members present. We couldn’t just bury Danielle Peterson. She was famous, and people would recognize her disappearance.

  “I’ll just put the body back where we found it and we’ll wait for Knox. He was very insistent and not in a good mood.”

  “Was he with Hannah?” Sophia teased, her skinny shoulders doing a little shimmy. Her ability to switch from one mood to another had always astounded me.

  Hannah had come to the park a couple months ago to write a story on the history of Acadia and our national parks in general. Knox was skeptical of her at first; after all, if the media were to find out that our national parks were established as safe havens for people who could shapeshift into animals, our kind would be in for a one hell of a shitstorm. Luckily, the two of them really hit things off and our secret has been safe.

  Since then, it hasn’t been hard to find Knox on his days off—although god help you if you tried to bother him. Almost every time, he’d be in his cabin with Hannah—all day—and you wouldn’t see him again until it was time for his next shift. He’d never really showed much interest in the women around here, so I was glad to finally see him settling down with someone.

  “I honestly will never understand how you can joke in times like these, Soph. We’re handling a dead body here and you’re behaving like a high schooler.” I shook my head and placed Danielle back where we found her. I tried to align her body the way I remembered it being, in the same grotesque position that had stopped me cold in the middle of my hike.

  Whatever the reason was for Knox wanting to see her and handle this personally, I was going to find out what happened to this woman.

  No matter what.

  ****

  Sophia and I sat on the rocks waiting for Knox to arrive in silence while my brain kept working through what could have happened.

  Could Harris, Jamie, or Kevin have come back, despite their ban from the park? They already risked exploiting our existence once by trying to attack a reporter—who turned out to be Hannah—a few months ago. I was glad when their Alpha, Shawn, was destroyed by Knox for killing Matilda and Harold, two of the elders from our clan. Shawn’s three cronies had been spared, but Shawn had been given exactly what he deserved.

  Could there be a new rogue out there? Could someone from our clan have done this
? I shook my head at the last thought. There was no way one of us could have committed such a crime. I grew up with everyone and I couldn’t imagine anyone hurting a harmless person. Besides, no one wanted to feel Knox’s wrath if they were caught even thinking about doing something like that. And I didn’t want to imagine what it would be like to have to lock up one of our own.

  Knox stormed out from the trees, marching right towards the beach and interrupted my thoughts. “What the hell?” he muttered as he walked over, kneeled and examined the body. “Well, this is Danielle Peterson, alright.”

  I could hear low rumbling coming from Knox’s chest.

  “What’s the problem? Shouldn’t I go about the investigation as usual? It could just be one of Shawn’s punks returning for revenge for their Alpha or something.”

  “This is out of our hands now…” Knox stood up and looked to the sky, seeming deep in thought.

  “What? What do you mean?” Sophia asked. She and I exchanged confused looks once more.

  “Danielle Peterson is famous. Famous enough that her death will be noticed by the media. We have to call it in.” Knox took a tired breath.

  “Call it in?” I didn’t like where this was going. I’d been the law enforcement ranger of Acadia National Park for two years and I’d never had to call anything in. If anything ever happened in Acadia, I handled it.

  “The FBI. We have to get the feds involved.”

  “The feds? No way; this is my jurisdiction! I make the arrests. I investigate crimes around here.”

  I couldn’t believe my ears. He wanted to get the feds involved? Why? I felt my blood boil at the thought of some stuck-up asshole spouting off about rules and regulations.

  “You have to remember, we’re on federal land; this is beyond our jurisdiction,” Knox glared at me, probably sensing my anger, “and you will cooperate with them, understood?”