her that Jeb had petitioned for the assertion of his blood-kin rights and would be contacting her shortly regarding visitation with her son, Alexander.
The letter slipped from her fingers. Her knees gave out. She sank to the floor. Her heart climbed back into her chest and beat in a furious attempt to make up for lost time. A sudden deluge of adrenaline made her head spin. Her breaths grew short from the tightening of her chest and the closing of her throat. Even her nose seemed unable to draw in air.
As her mate’s brother, Jeb had a stronger blood-kin relation to Alex than Rafe Wyatt, Ronni’s distant cousin, who had given them refuge after Zeke’s death, providing a home and helping to establish them in the Walker’s Run pack.
Zeke had risked his life to protect her from Jeb, who had begun obsessively stalking her with a mind to forcibly claim her if she resisted. And later, in hopes of giving his family a better life, Zeke had been coordinating with Rafe on their transference to Walker’s Run when he was killed by rebel packmates.
If allowed to go unchecked, Jeb would undo everything Zeke had sacrificed to give them.
Under no circumstance would Ronni allow that to happen. Taking a calming breath, she forced down her panic.
The clock on the wall behind her chimed and she jumped.
Irritated with herself, Ronni stood and shook off her momentary weakness and flattened her hands on the counter. She couldn’t stop Jeb from coming to get them, but she would make damn certain he left Walker’s Run empty-handed.
* * *
“Who are you again?” Mary Jane McAllister, an elderly woman with short, gray curly hair and wearing overalls, squinted at Bodie from behind her screen door.
“Sergeant Gryffon.” The wooden porch squeaked as he shifted his weight. He’d been interviewing tight-lipped Co-op residents all morning about the gunshots he’d heard inside the wolf sanctuary last night. “I’m with Georgia DNR.”
“What’s that?”
“Department of Natural Resources,” he answered, for the third time. Noting the hearing aids in her ears, he swallowed his impatience.
Again, she inspected him head to toe. “Are you a game warden or something?”
“Yes, ma’am.” Though as a DNR conservation ranger in the law enforcement division, Bodie had the same investigative and arrest powers entrusted to all local, state or federal law enforcement officers.
“Well, whatcha doin’ here?” She crossed her arms over her full chest.
That was a loaded question.
In recent years, there had been a number of fatal wild boar attacks in and around Maico. DNR’s growing concern with the feral hog situation was, in part, responsible for Bodie’s reassignment here. And since his arrival, he had combed the entire area, on foot or in the air. And there wasn’t a single boar to be found, wild or otherwise.
There were, however, wolf shifters who in all likelihood did not take kindly to trespassers or interlopers.
“A witness reported shots were fired inside the Walker’s Run wolf sanctuary last night.” Bodie didn’t elaborate that he’d been the one to hear the shotgun blasts while perched in a tree at the she-wolf’s house.
After following her home from the sanctuary a few nights ago, he couldn’t seem to stay away, returning nightly to watch over her as she sat on the back porch swing. During the day, wherever his job led, he searched the faces of every woman, hoping to find her and introduce himself.
This morning as he began to interview residents living near the wolf sanctuary, Bodie had thought he would finally meet her. But when he knocked on her door, no one answered. Somehow, he had to find a way to meet this woman while in his human form. Maybe then, visions of her would stop invading his dreams.
“Did you hear gunshots last night, Ms. McAllister?”
“What if I did? It’s hunting season.”
“Yes, ma’am, but it’s illegal to hunt inside a protected wildlife refuge.”
“You ain’t got nothing to worry about,” she said. “The Co-op will take care of any poachers caught on their land.”
The thought had crossed Bodie’s mind more than once. In the sanctuary, the she-wolf-turned-beautiful-woman had said sentinels would hunt down anyone who harmed an animal on Co-op lands.
“I’m trying to do my job, ma’am.” Before someone gets hurt.
“Well, go do it somewhere else.” Ms. McAllister stepped back and gripped the hardwood door. “I ain’t got nothing to say.”
The door closed hard enough to rattle the metal screen. Definitely not the first one slammed in his face this morning, but since this was the last house bordering the Co-op’s wolf sanctuary, it would be the final interview for today.
He descended the porch steps, walked to his state-supplied, double cab truck and climbed inside. Shaking off the autumn chill, he studied the McAllister homestead. It was different from the other homes bordering the Co-op’s wolf sanctuary in that she had a dozen or so chickens running around her yard and an empty pig sty. There had been no indication of pets or farm animals at the other residences.
The house appeared more weathered than the others he had seen, but still in good repair. In the front window, one slat in the blinds parted. His intent when questioning the residents wasn’t to antagonize them, but to offer help.
Help that no one seemed to want or appreciate. If indeed they were wolf shifters, as he suspected, perhaps the Co-op residents believed they were safe living among their own kind. Estranged from his clan and under constant scrutiny, Bodie could only imagine how comforting that feeling must be.
He turned the key in the ignition and waved to the woman in the window. The blind snapped closed.
In the rearview mirror, he saw a white pickup truck pull in behind him. An older man got out, his movements stealthy and predatory.
Wahya! The term the she-wolf had used when referring to her species pierced his mind. Whereas her spirit had been kind and gentle, the aura emanating from the man stalking toward Bodie’s vehicle caused his feathers to ruffle.
Bodie rolled down his window. “Good morning, sir. I’m Sergeant Gryffon with DNR.”
“I know who you are.” The man’s dark eyes narrowed. “Appreciate your interest in the shots fired last night, but it’s a Co-op matter. Best you stay out of it.”
“If it involves poaching or any other illegal activity, I’m inclined to disagree.”
“It doesn’t.”
“Then you know who discharged the firearms?”
The man sucked his teeth and his gaze flickered right. “A couple of the Co-op’s teenagers were horsing around. Won’t happen again.”
It was an outright lie. In his raven form, Bodie had seen the shotgun casings on the ground and the cut fence. He’d also followed several wolves tracking the perpetrators’ trail,
