broke our treaty. When Donovan left us, he fell in with them. They were a rough group…”
“I remember you telling me that,” I interrupted, “but what do they have to do with what became of Donovan? You said he was messed up before he ever fell in with them.”
Alex nodded. “He was. But they also didn’t do him any favors. It was under their influence that he came back to steal from us. They made sure he sank even further into abusing drugs and alcohol.”
“I get all that, but those were choices Donovan made. You can’t blame that tribe for his decisions.”
“I can blame them for breaking the treaty between us,” Alex argued as he shook his head. “I can blame them because it wasn’t just Donovan who came after us. He was accompanied by three or four of their own. And these men were never punished, never brought to justice.”
“And your tribe’s police?”
Alex immediately started shaking his head. “Did nothing and continue to do nothing,” he explained. “They’re a joke.”
“So how will you…”
“It’s what I do,” he answered quickly. “I’m a bounty hunter. I hunt down the bad guys and bring them to justice and that’s exactly what I intend to do here.” He took another sip of his soda as he studied me. “And if the tribal police won’t help me bust them, I’m hoping you will.”
“I don’t have jurisdiction.”
“You’re the Chief of Police of Hope,” he interrupted. “You carry more weight than any one person does.” He took another sip of his Coke. “I’m just asking you to help me as much as you can.”
I nodded. “You know I’ll help you, Alex.” I thought about what this could mean. “This tribe you’re talking about,” I began as I faced him. “Are they weres, too?”
Alex grinned widely. “You know it.”
I shook my head as I smiled back at him. “I hope to freakin’ hell that my mother never finds out about any of this.” I downed the rest of my soda water. Like that was ever going to happen. My mother had a way of ferreting out gossip, second to none. And this was some serious gossip.
“Elodie...” He let his voice trail off. She must never know. Although he’d stopped speaking, I heard his unspoken words as surely as if they had been whispered softly into my ears.
I gasped. “Did I just...?”
“You did, Chief. Congratulations, you just read my mind.”
“But... I heard you. Clear as day…”
“No, you heard my thoughts.”
I opened my mouth to speak, then closed it again. Honestly, reading his thoughts was about the third-least weird thing that had happened today alone, a day that had begun with strange hair follicles showing up in places where they most certainly didn’t belong, to me eyeing a cute fawn with what could only be described as ravenous hunger. A fawn! Lord help me...
“You’re telling me I can never tell my mom what I am now?”
“She can’t ever know. No one can,” Alex insisted. At my sigh, he reached out and took my hand. “You’re going to be okay, kiddo.”
I nodded. Somehow, for some reason, I believed him, even though I’d never felt less okay in my entire life. I gripped his hand like it was a lifeline. Maybe it was. “Alex?”
“Yes?”
“Never call the chief of police ‘kiddo’ again.”
The End
The Arctic Wolves will return!
Return to the Table of Contents
Also available:
Princess of Lost Memories
Here to There #1
by J.R. Rain
and H.P. Mallory
(read on for a sample)
Chapter One
Elle
I sat back, closed my eyes and tried to think, tried to remember Simon’s face. But, somehow, I couldn’t bring to mind his features. I could see his body, his clothing, but in the place where his facial features should be was simply flesh—his eyes, nose and mouth shadowed and impossible to delineate.
It was quite eerie, to tell the truth. And the more frustrated I grew with my failed memory, the more the nondescript flesh of the Simon in my mind’s eye began to drip off until there was nothing left but a skull with huge, bulbous eyes; red, glowing eyeballs and a set of elongated teeth, smiling back at me.
Gods above! I chided myself as I shook my head and forced the awful apparition away. Simon has hardly devolved into a grinning skeleton!
Soon I’d be seeing Simon again. And the time separating us had been far too long, thirty days too long, in fact.
Being apart from my one true love had felt like hell—like I’d been forced into the belly of the earth—where it