“Watching you. I thought you had the day off.”
She removed her hat. “The tourists were closing in on the elk again. I can’t ignore that.”
“You have an affinity for elk?”
“Yes, always have.”
“Me, too. Can I interest you in joining me for an ice cream cone?”
Mammoth had few places to hang out, but ice cream at the inn dining room would hit the spot. “I would love a scoop of huckleberry.”
“So, tell me, why elk?”
“When I was five or six years old, my father brought me here for a vacation and I saw this magnificent bull up on the hill behind the inn. So beautiful and majestic. I begged my father for a plush elk from the gift shop. Do you know they don’t sell them? They carry bears, bison, and moose. Wolves. But where’s the love for the elk?”
He offered a smile, but she sensed no teasing. “You’re very passionate about it.”
“Perhaps too much. Sorry.”
“Never apologize for your passion.” Holding the door to the Terrace Grill open, he rested a hand on her lower back as she passed. The simple touch, even through her shirt, brought every nerve ending to life, all of them focused on him.
“Huckleberry?”
She fought through the fog of lust clouding her brain. “What, huh, oh yeah.” No way the jolt wouldn’t have zapped him, too, but he seemed so calm and cool. “One scoop, please.”
When his hands left her body, relief turned to an immediate sense of loss. You are losing your mind, Ranger. She grabbed a handful of napkins and located a table for two—where he’d have to sit across from her.
“It’s beautiful out. Do you want to stroll around?” He handed her a cone.
“Do you mind if we sit? I have been on my feet for the last few hours.” She let out a sigh as she sat down.
He took the other seat. “Forgive me. Of course you have.”
She licked the creamy delight and groaned. “So good. Didn’t you get any?”
“No. I needed an excuse to get to know you better.”
“You don’t need an excuse, you know.”
“I’ll keep it in mind. You mentioned your father bringing you here, just the two of you?”
“Yes, me and dad against the world.” She licked a drip from the side of the cone. “He passed away my junior year in college. For all his great qualities, he chain-smoked.”
“And your mother?”
She tried not to think of the woman who gave birth to her, but she couldn’t fault him for asking. “She wasn’t keen on the title. She didn’t like ‘wife’ too much, either. When I was seven, she sat me down and gave me a closing statement on why she left us. Mom’s a high-powered attorney who felt family took time away from the office. But, oddly, she also left me a note saying she never felt like a part of society. As if she never fit in.” Like me.
“Did you see her after that?”
“I see her when her career warrants me being brought out for display. She did pay for college and enough child support and alimony so my father could stay home and rear me. She covered his medical expenses in the end, as well. She gave us what she could, I guess.”
“But not the mother you would have wanted.”
“No, but you can’t force someone to be a mother if they don’t want to be.” For years, she’d hated the woman. Now she only wished for space from her.
“Do you want to be a mother one day?”
“More than anything, but I would want a couple of children. Being an only child can be lonely.”
“And you are you lonely now?”
He read her like a book. Yet, she found peace in being able to open up to someone about her disappointments. “Not with you, right this minute. If I hadn’t walked over to your table today, would you have approached me?”
“Yes.” He reached over and wiped her lip. “Your ice cream dripped.”
She brushed the area he’d touched, cheeks heating. “Oh.”
“My strength to stay away from you is at an all-time low.”
“Strength?” Good lord, she had thought him shy or perhaps nervous. Perhaps, like Brutus, this man concealed his real self in front of visitors. “I don’t understand.”
“Every time I saw you from my office window, I fought the desire to cross the grassy lawn to sweep you off your feet.”
“Why didn’t you?”
“You mean besides coming off as a crazy stalker?” He raised an eyebrow before chuckling.
“Besides that.”
“You’re young and full of life. I didn’t want you tied to me, to this park, when there are so many places you could experience.”
Tied? How would a couple of dates have tied her to anything? “This park is a ranger’s dream. We all long for the full-time position here.”
“So you are saying you would be happy up here in Mammoth for the next twenty years?”
“What ranger wouldn’t be?” She couldn’t imagine not being here, and the whole time she had been in the Everglades, she’d longed for the mountains of Wyoming. But she was young and there were so many parks for her to explore. “You know, a simple date doesn’t mean together forever.”
Her lungs seized as soon as the words passed her lips. They were lies. Something about this man drew her where others had failed. His presence screamed acceptance.
“Perhaps you are right.” His eyes bored into her soul. She wanted to run yet couldn’t think of a reason to go. “Would you go to dinner with me?”
“Tonight?”
“Do you have other plans?”
“No.”
“Good. I’ll pick you up in an hour, then. Dress casually.” He planted a kiss on her cheek.
Before she could reply, he left. How had she gone from being the one who had made the first approach to wondering what door she had opened? At lunch, she’d decided to be brave and use the opening to meet a man she had lusted after all last summer. But she’d never had the upper hand, after all.
Getting to her feet, she thanked the people behind the counter and took the few steps to the street. An unnerving sense of being watched washed over her. Turning to the hills, she spied a mature bull with a full six-point rack. Magnificent.
They stared at one another until her attention shifted to a honking car. When she returned her focus to the hill, the beast had disappeared.
Chapter Two
One touch had broken his willpower into a million pieces. He’d fought the need to claim her for over a year, denied himself for her sake and because he doubted his herd would welcome her. Now, it didn’t matter. He had to find a way to make it work. Since the death of his first mate, he’d lived an empty life. Liesel had been the strongest dominant female elk Yellowstone had ever seen. No one, not even he, had been surprised when the fates deemed them mates. Liesel had been the logical choice. They had always been able to finish one another’s sentences and worked as a cohesive team.
A hunter had shot her as she helped to lead the elk of the Grand Tetons to the National Elk Refuge outside Jackson Hole. He might have been over seventy-five miles away, but the bullet could have pierced his own heart. He closed his eyes, remembering the moment the warmth of his life had become emptiness. Now, with a chance within his grasp to feel passion again, he wanted it, needed it.
Of all the things he’d prepared for in his long life, a human mate had never been one. The wolves found a way to make it work. They had been mating with humans for years, followed by the bears. The other groups didn’t believe in sharing. He couldn’t imagine a human wanting anything to do with the knucklehead rams, but he had been witness to some strange couples coming through the park, so what did he know.
Leaning against a tree before the old red-roofed Fort Yellowstone building housing his office and the dorms, he chatted with passing rangers. As the door opened, he pushed himself off the trunk to greet her.
“Am I late?”
He didn’t think he had seen anything as beautiful as this woman in jeans and an ove
rsized beige sweater, her shiny hair pulled back into a bouncy ponytail. “Not at all.”
“I thought you said casual.”
His blue polo shirt and khakis said business casual more than date casual. “I didn’t have time to change, too busy getting our dinner put together.” He indicated the backpack he carried.
“You cooked?”
“Cooked would be a strong word. I put things together.” He offered her his arm, and every ounce of him thrilled when she took it. “I thought we could head up to the top of the hill behind the inn. The view is nice and, with the exception of young families looking to wear out their children, it’s relatively peaceful.”
“Sounds perfect.” She leaned into him as they walked. “How long have you worked in the park?”
“More than a decade.”
“That long?” she asked.
“Why would I want to work anywhere else?”
“Why indeed. What do you do in the winter?”
“I track the herds. Both bison and elk.”
She stopped. “Do you determine if the bison herds need to be thinned?”
Unlike the elk and other smaller animals thinned naturally by larger prey, the bison had no real predators. As Brutus explained once, bison’s thick skin and hard heads discouraged their efforts. “Thankfully, no. I track where they are wintering, the estimated numbers off the park lands, and when they return. But my reports do help make those decisions.”
“I know it’s part of what has to happen. I don’t have to like it, though.” She fiddled with her watch. “It can’t possibly take all winter to count the herds.”
“No I spend a great deal of time waiting for them to move.”
“Sounds slow.”
“Winter in Yellowstone can always be slow. But I go out for days on end to be with the herds. I enjoy it.” True to form, they came upon a few dads with young children on the hillside. Lars smiled and greeted them. Finding a clear area, he laid a blanket down, grateful the gift shop had all the accessories a picnicking beau could want, from blankets to picnic baskets complete with dishes and cutlery. “I didn’t know what you would like so I brought a variety. We have caprese sandwiches with garlic-cashew cheese, some roasted red pepper and mozzarella sandwiches with arugula pesto, lemon hummus and, if nothing else works, good ole peanut butter and jelly.”
“Wow.”
“There is also a salad.”
“Did you cook all this?” She settled down on a corner of the blanket, leaving a large space between them.
He chuckled. “No, the inn was kind enough to offer me one of their picnic baskets when I told them about our plans.”
While they ate, they watched the sun set over the steaming white calcium carbonate mounds of Mammoth Springs. Finally, the tourists wandered off into the dusk, leaving them alone. Jenny sighed. “I love the isolation of Yellowstone. The clean air and low technology lend itself to family time and turning in early. The silence of the park at night is like a balm to the soul.”
“If you can ignore the elk calls and sounds of other wildlife.”
“Ignore them? Never. They are a big part of why I love it so.” She wiped her mouth then folded the remaining food back into the waxed paper, and stuffed it in the bag. “Now to the awkward getting-to-know-you questions.”
“Ask me anything.”
“Do you have a family?”
“I married young. She died years ago, but we were blessed with children.”
“You’re a dad?”
“My children are grown. Liesel and I started a family as soon as we wed.” He and Liesel had kept expecting the arrival of their second mate, who she would have accepted as her lover as well. Jenny might have a harder time understanding the inner workings of the elk’s relationships. Unlike the canine, feline, and bear shifters who locked their life force with their mates, deer did not. When Liesel was shot, he gave up on the idea of another, too heartbroken even to consider another. Sitting next to his newfound mate after years of celibacy, he fought the urge to take her on the blanket under the moon.
“How many children do you have?”
Ten would not go over well. “My own herd, you might say. The boys work in the park.”
His two sons worked park patrol down near the southern and western entrances. He did his best to see them a couple times a month. His daughters had all left in search of something better. He spoke to them when they could get to a phone to call, but they had all joined new herds, so calling dear old Dad didn’t rate.
“I’m having a hard time believing you are old enough to have grown children.”
“I married young.” He shrugged. “Does the age difference put you off?”
“No. Though I still don’t know what it is.”
Time to redirect. “Does it bother you that I have grown children?”
“Shocked, not bothered.”
“Would it shock or bother you if I kissed you?” He crawled to her corner of the blanket.
“It might if you don’t.”
He claimed her lips. She opened to him immediately. A thrill he hadn’t experienced in decades, perhaps never, ran through him, filling him with an all-consuming need to claim this woman. His animal screamed mine, and he had to agree.
He gripped her braid as he deepened the kiss. A moan escaped her. The urge to lay her back and make love to her right there in view of anyone who cared to see past the inn ran through him. She clung to the short sleeves of his shirt, pulling him closer.
“Lars?” Through the lust-filled haze, for a second he couldn’t think whom the female voice might belong to. Jenny pulled away first, and the fog lifted. One of his betas stood before him, her head cocked to the side.
“What is it, Britt?” he bit out.
“I’m sorry to interrupt.” The young female elk shifter stared at him, openmouthed, and why not? Lars hadn’t been romantic in years. She turned her attention to his date then blinked twice before returning her attention to him. “Jenny?”
Lars struggled to stifle his irritation. “Britt, did you need something?”
The young shifter nodded. “Your son called.”
“Anders or Leif?”
“Leif. He says there’s something going on with the southern herd.”
He jumped to his feet. Neither of his sons would call him for assistance unless he couldn’t handle a situation himself—unlikely—or he’d found signs of poachers.
“What is it?” Jenny stood up.
“My guess, we have some illegal hunting going on.”
“In the park?”
“He wouldn’t be calling for problems outside the area.” He blew out a breath. “I’m sorry, I didn’t mean…”
“Don’t be silly. You’re justifiably upset.”
“Britt, can you walk Jenny back—”
“Go. I know my way. You need to get down to find out what’s going on.”
Britt wrung her hands. “Brutus said we should call Darius. His trackers might be of some help.”
“Can you call him and ask him if he could spare some of his pack?”
“Of course.” She glanced one more time at Jenny before running down the hill to one of the cabins.
“I’ll call you.”
“I hope you find whoever is responsible.”
Lars nodded, already heading down the hill. He had to handle this himself. His people counted on the safety of Yellowstone. He would damned well keep it that way. He allowed himself one last glance back, rewarded with an impatient “Go” for his troubles. At least she had his priorities straight.
Two hours later, he joined his sons, Brutus, and some of his sleuth at the side of the road.
“Dad, sorry to call you out here like this.” Anders rubbed the back of his neck.
“You did the right thing. He patted his eldest’s shoulder and faced the grizzly. “Brutus.”
“Lars,” the grizzly growled.
“What do we know?”
Anger poured off the bears in waves. “The w
olves have picked up a scent. They’ll call me when they find the person.”
“You can’t kill the hunter on Yellowstone lands.” Lars would relish watching the human cower in front of the bears, though. He would gladly run them through himself. Just outside the park. “Show me.”
The bears stayed behind as his sons escorted him to the crime scene. Though they were likely itching to take over the scene, this was an elk kill, and Lars was in charge. Three carcasses lay on the crusty surface near a geyser: two bulls with their heads missing and a cow. “Trophy hunters.”
“Appears to be so.” Anders searched the desolate landscape. “They probably killed the cow for being in the way.”
“This happened not too long ago?” Lars crouched beside the deceased.
“A family of tourists heard the shots as they finished changing a flat tire. They went straight to the first ranger station they could find.” Leif handed him a flashlight.
“We got here about half an hour later,” Anders filled in.
Lars offered a silent blessing to the departed, lifting his arms to the sky. “They were in and out quick; probably not their first kill. I’ll bet if we search the area we will find more headless remains.”
“What the elements haven’t taken, scavengers will,” Brutus said, coming up behind them. “Grant’s new mate is a geologist, I don’t think you have met Morgan yet. She has been out checking the geysers in this area. She hasn’t seen anything but will keep an eye open. If they staked out the area, they knew it was fairly deserted, and the geysers would help hide the evidence. It doesn’t take long at those water temperatures to destroy a carcass.”
“If they are hunting in the park, they won’t stop with elk.”
Brutus snorted. “Anyone poaching here is doing it for the adrenalin rush. The risk of getting caught where it’s illegal.”
“Have the bison been alerted?”
“No. I’ll contact Chintok in the morning.”
“You wanted to be out here and not stuck on the phone.” He couldn’t blame Brutus. Neither wanted to waste time dealing with the bison alpha.
“Hey, you want to call him in the morning? I have no issue backing you up.”
An Alpha’s Second Chance (Shifters of Yellowstone Book 3) Page 2