by Meg Ripley
Hopping into my truck, I decided to drive toward the site.
18
Madelyn
The day had felt long, and I was relieved for its end. I packed up my tools and hauled them into the trailer, but as I walked out, looking forward to getting back to the hotel, Julian waved to me.
“Madelyn! Come here!”
“I’m on my way out.”
“Quick! I need to show you something.” He waved again.
I groaned and trudged over to him. “What?”
“Look at this. What do you think that is?” He pointed, but I didn’t see what he meant.
“Where?”
“That mark right there. You might have to look more closely.”
I squatted down, balancing on my toes. I got as close as I could. “I don’t see—”
I felt a hand whack my back, and I lost my footing, landing face first in the dirt. I tried to push myself up, but something landed on top of me, pinning me down.
Julian laughed. “That’s better. I like this.”
I struggled to free myself, but his weight was too much for me. My legs kicked wildly, but they were of little help with my torso pinned down.
I coughed and tried to turn my face away from the ground. “Jul—”
He pushed my head down again and I got a mouthful of dirt. I tried to spit it out.
“What? I’m sorry? What was that? I think you tried to say something.”
His weight left suddenly, but before I could move, I felt a sharp pain in my ribs as he kicked me. I screamed in pain and he kicked me again.
How could I get out of this? There had to be a way.
There is a way out of this. But that would mean…
Could I make the sacrifice? Was it even mine to make?
I looked up. Specks of dirt clouded my vision, but I could see the fossil in front of me. I reached one hand out to my side, but Julian grabbed onto it, pinning it behind my back.
He was going to kill me if I didn’t do something fast.
19
Sawyer
Julian and Madelyn’s cars were still at the site when I pulled up. I listened for the sound of voices and Julian’s voice reached me first.
“I told you I was the winner. You should have picked me.”
The only response I heard was a muffled cry, and that’s all it took for a surge of adrenaline to rush to my muscles. I broke into a run, sprinting as fast as I could while trying to keep my bear within.
When they came into sight, I couldn’t believe what I saw. Rage tore through me in an instant, and now, there was no holding back. My bear ripped his way out with a roar, leaving my shredded Ranger uniform in his wake.
My thick paws pounded the dusty earth below as I raced toward her, but just as I was ready to take out Julian from the side, I stopped dead in my tracks. Madelyn freed herself from his grip all on her own.
With the terrifying growl of a great cat.
I watched as she shifted into a mountain lion, and it took a moment for the shock to settle before I jumped into action. She reared back to sink her fangs into Julian and I sprang forward, my jaws closing around his neck. Madelyn’s razor-sharp lion claws came down over his chest, tearing thick red lines through his body.
It didn’t take long for him to die. When he was still, I released his body and let him fall to the ground. Madelyn jumped on top of him, lifting her paw to swipe at him again, and I nudged her shoulder with my nose.
She turned and seemed to understand what I meant. She looked down at Julian, then lowered her paw.
We had to hide the body. It would be an obvious animal attack, but we couldn’t leave him there under the lights. I’d send a crew for him in the morning.
I grabbed his ankle with my teeth and Madelyn got his other foot; together, we dragged him along.
I stopped when we’d reached a spot that was secluded enough and we dropped his legs. Madelyn stood there, staring at the body. I nudged her, but she wouldn’t come.
I shifted back. “Are you okay? Madelyn?”
She backed away from the body slowly and shook her head.
“Can you shift back?” I asked.
She lowered her head to the ground with her feline eyes closed, concentrating. After several moments, she shook her head again. Then I noticed her entire body trembling.
I didn’t think I could comfort her in animal form as effectively if I were human. Shifting back to bear form, I stood beside her, pressing the side of my body against hers and she pressed back.
I sat down and made my lap available to her. I didn’t really know where we stood now, but I wasn’t holding anything against her. In fact, I wanted her even more badly than I had when I’d first met her.
She ambled over to me, curling up between my legs and rested her head in my lap. Wrapping my arms around her, I held her tightly and could feel her heart beating. I took in her mountain lion scent, wondering how I could have missed what was so obvious to me now. She didn’t smell like a shifter at all in human form, though; mountain lions were like that. Something in their makeup gave them a very light scent that was undetectable to most shifters. It protected them, but it came with a price. Mountain lions also had trouble recognizing other shifters, so I guessed she hadn’t known I was one either.
After a long while of us sharing warmth and trading heartbeats, she sank deeper into my lap and became human, sitting up and rubbing her face. “I’ve never had that happen before.”
I shifted back, too, and pulled her into my human arms. “It’s okay. I’ve seen it happen when someone faces trauma. The animal comes right out and won’t go back.”
“So, you’re a shifter, too. I had no idea.”
“I didn’t either—I mean, that you’re a shifter. I knew I was, of course.”
She chuckled, then wiped away a tear. “It’s a thing with us mountain lions.”
“I know. I always thought it was just an adaptation for survival.”
“I suppose. But no other shifters have one like that.”
“None that I know of,” I agreed.
She grew quiet for a long time; so long, that I finally had to ask, “What are you thinking about?”
“I just… I can’t believe we killed someone.”
“It’s always hard to take a life,” I agreed. “But this was self-defense.”
“You sound like you’ve done it before.”
“I have. I’m the Alpha of my clan.”
“You’re the clan Alpha and a Ranger manager?”
I nodded.
“Oh,” she said. “I guess that’s what Wyatt meant; he said you were bound here. And he’s right. An Alpha couldn’t leave his clan.”
“I don’t know. If there was a strong enough reason, I think he or she could. I could move for you, if that’s what it would take to be with you.”
She shook her head. “I could never let you. Even if you said you wanted to, I know better. The pull of the Alpha is too strong.” She was quiet for a long while, then said, “I can’t believe the time is almost here. One find ends up being not even a fossil but recent animal bones. Another is a very rare shifter fossil that had to be destroyed in order to keep the secret. I still have nothing real to write about. And now I’m almost out of time.”
“You have time. Don’t get hung up on this timeline thing. You can find a dig outside of school if this one doesn’t turn anything up for you. And you can take a semester off to write, and that won’t mess up your scholarship.”
She sighed. “Maybe. I feel like all I’ll be going home with is guilt, shame and a broken heart. I thought I’d have a laptop full of notes.”
“Don’t think of it like that. You did get experience. Now you know the trials of a dig site and what can go wrong. You kept the secret safe for shifters all over the world, and you managed to stay alive when Julian tried to kill you. I’d say you’ve accomplished a lot. And you didn’t kill him alone, you know. I was there. I did plenty of damage. He left us no choice.”
/> “I know. You’re right.” She wiped away fresh tears. “I didn’t think of my experience like that.”
I leaned down and kissed the top of her head. I was getting cold sitting out there naked, and she had to be, too. It might be hotter than hell during the day in Big Bend, but the nights could get downright chilly.
“Are you ready to head back?” I asked.
She nodded and we got to our feet.
“We’ll get there right quick in animal form,” I suggested.
Dropping to the ground, she shifted back to her feline form. I did the same and we ran back to where the initial incident had gone down to cover the blood trail.
Next, I ran to the shed where we kept spare clothing for our shifter Rangers, grabbed clothes for us both in my human form, and walked back. When she saw me, she shifted back to human and we dressed.
“Now I’ll have to erase the tape.”
She nodded. “That’s good. I doubt it’d be wise to have video proof of us shifting.”
“Sho’nuff.” I stepped forward and brought her into my arms, holding her for a long time. “I’m so glad you’re okay.”
20
Madelyn
“Thanks for the clothes,” I said, stepping back from his embrace, my mind spinning from not only the craziness that had just transpired, but from also being so close to Sawyer again.
“Well, I wouldn’t have minded if you’d stayed naked, but I thought you’d be more comfortable like this.”
I forced out a half laugh and smile. Why did he have to be so kind and funny? So very perfect. My protector. The one who had actually killed for me. What other man would ever live up to that?
I burst into tears suddenly and fell back into his arms. “I feel like everything is messed up in my life. If I just go home, without a find and without you, then what was this all for? Nothing!” I went back to sobbing and laid my head on his shoulder. He rubbed my back in small circles.
“Madelyn, I’m not trying to force you into something you don’t want, but I don’t think you can deny we have a strong connection. Like nothing else.” He moved back to look me in the eyes. “Don’t you believe that?”
“I don’t know what to believe anymore.” But I did know that as the time came closer, the more panicky I felt about going home. I wanted to go, but I didn’t want to leave Sawyer. My worst nightmare was coming true: I would have to choose between him and my family.
He tilted my chin up, and when I realized he was about to kiss me, I stepped back. I couldn’t let him. My heart couldn’t handle it.
But as I pulled back, I tripped, landing on my ass, and he held out a hand to help me up. Why did he have to be such a gentleman all the time?
Frustrated and embarrassed, I looked around for what had tripped me. Wait… It almost looks like…
We were standing on the edge of the dig site where we hadn’t been digging at all and I knelt to brush some of the gravely dirt away. Now I saw something light in color, its shape looking very familiar.
I gasped as I saw the outline. Using my hands, I dug and scraped at the earth around the bone.
“What’s going on?” Sawyer asked.
“This…” I finally got it free and brushed off as much dirt as I could with my now-filthy hands. “This is a spinal plate. From a stegosaurus.”
“A dinosaur?” He sounded almost as excited as I was.
“I think so!” I got back down and dug around nearby, my pulse so fast, I felt jittery. I found several more bones. “We didn’t even dig over here!”
He looked down at me and grinned adoringly.
I chuckled. “What?”
“Oh, I was just thinking how the stars guided you right to it.”
“You and those stars.” I shook my head. “Why don’t they tell me what to do then.”
“Maybe they are. Are you listening?”
The question brought me up short. Was I? Or had I missed it? If the stars had shown me this discovery, what did that mean? Was it meant to tie me here, to Big Bend? To Sawyer?
“Tell the stars to talk louder,” I told him. I took out my phone and snapped several pictures. After all I’d been through, the adrenaline was pumping through me again, making me wired. I needed to do something. “Do you mind if we dig a little while?”
“Now?”
I nodded. “I’ll never be able to sleep, and I’m too afraid to be up here alone.”
“Can I help somehow?”
“That would be great.”
I went to get some tools and Sawyer adjusted one of the lights to shine on us. I got down on my knees and got right in the dirt, not caring how dirty I got, and the excitement of it all kept me moving faster by the minute.
Sawyer knelt beside me and did as I showed him to clear to the dirt from the bones, and I could see my excitement reflected in his eyes every time he looked at me.
We worked for hours and hours. I didn’t know what time it was; all I knew was to dig and keep digging. To uncover the whole fossil. When I noticed that the dark night had grown lighter, I stopped to blink and really look around us.
I stood to stretch, my legs aching from kneeling for so long. “What time is it?” I yawned.
Sawyer sat a few feet from me, working on one area to remove the dirt. “How does it look from over there?”
“Amazing.” I shook my head in disbelief. “We actually found a dinosaur.” I looked out over the bones that were an obvious and fairly-complete stegosaurus. Not a new species by far, but no less exciting. It would mean a lot of great publicity for the park, too, with plenty of new visitors coming in. Sawyer would be busy for months.
I thought of the next months with added confusion. I had just found something huge there. In all the time I’d been desperate to find something, I’d forgotten that if I did, I’d have to leave it behind when I went back home in just a few weeks.
I rubbed the dirt off my face the best I could, but it was hopeless. Every inch of me was dirty and so was Sawyer. I laughed and he looked over. “We are a complete mess.”
“Who cares?” he chuckled. “It’s fun. I feel like a kid again.”
“I always do when I’m uncovering something. It’s the best part.” I took out my phone and tried not to touch it too much. The time was nearing sunrise. “Let’s see, with the time difference…it’s almost a decent hour to call people.”
“There’s one thing we have to do first.”
He stood and came to me. I thought he was going to hug me, but he took one of my filthy hands in his and led me until we reached a spot where there was a break in the trees, and all I could see was rock.
“It won’t be long now.” He stood very close behind me and wrapped his arms around my waist.
We stood like that for many minutes as the sun rose and crested the rocks, sending a bright, sudden flash of light into the sky. The sky was painted in pinks and reds. I hadn’t seen very many sunrises, but that one had to be my favorite, hands down.
When the sun was fully visible, I turned to face Sawyer. “Thank you for showing me. I’ll always remember this.”
He nodded tightly. “I wanted you to have this memory of Texas. Before you leave it for good.”
I nodded back.
We returned to the dig, and in my excitement, I decided to call my professor. I knew this was one call he would not mind being woken up for.
I told him what I thought I’d found, which was difficult because there was very little signal. I thought he said to call him back in a video call, then the call ended. I called back and saw a single shot of him as the screen froze.
“The cell coverage is almost non-existent here.”
He said something back, but I couldn’t make it out. I growled at my phone.
“Maybe you should call him from the station?” Sawyer suggested.
“Yeah. But he wanted video. I’m not sure if he needed something specific.” I tried to send a text, but that didn’t go through either. “I’m going to take more photos and video now that we
have natural light; then I can send it all to him.”
I sat carefully on a plastic bag in Sawyer’s truck, not wanting to get the upholstery dirty. But he jumped right in. A dust cloud puffed into the air as he hopped into his seat and started the engine.
Seeing the plastic bag, he chuckled. “I tried that when it was new. Lasted about a month. There’s no point trying to keep it nice. My mom put some kind of treatment on the fabric, and I detail it every week.”
With so much dirt on his job, I wasn’t surprised. “It probably gets dirty just being in this dry atmosphere.”
“Exactly. I bet it’ll be nice to get out of this heat when you go home.”
I said nothing. I didn’t want to think about that.
I sat at the computer and emailed the videos and photos after several attempts to text them. I called my professor from the landline and was finally able to hear him.
“I’m looking at it all now… Wow, it looks great, Madelyn… um… hold on.”
I waited for him to say more.
Finally, he said, “Do you have a close up of the skull?”
I scrolled through my photos and found one. “Sending it now.”
“Got it,” he said a minute later. “Okay, well. This is not a stegosaurus.”
“It’s not?” My face fell and Sawyer, watching me, reflected my disappointment in his expression. “What is it then?”
“It’s very close to the stegosaurus we all know in most museums. I guess I shouldn’t say this isn’t one, it’s just that… see the shape of skull around the ocular and nasal cavities? Google and compare it side by side.”
I did as he said and noticed the difference he was talking about. “Could it just be a deformity?”
“It’s not the only difference, it’s just the most pronounced. I think this is a close cousin, but it may be a new species entirely.”
I gasped and my head spun. I held out my hand and Sawyer was the first thing I touched. I put my hand on his chest to steady myself. “A new—new species?”