Wild Country (The World of the Others #2)- Anne Bishop Page 0,124

his forearms. “You want us to protect your pack?”

He sounded reluctant, and she understood why. Except for the nanny, Rachel, and the litter of pups, the rest of the Prairie Gold pack had been slaughtered by the Humans First and Last movement. Morgan and Chase were the only ones strong enough to protect the surviving Wolfgard.

“No, I want you to protect your pack and your settlement,” Jesse said. “These humans may be smart enough to stay away from terra indigene settlements, but they may gamble that you won’t know them and will give them supplies or let them stay among you, knowing no other humans would hunt them in your territory.”

“They are dangerous?”

“Yes.” She said the word, knowing it was a death sentence. As far as the Others were concerned, a dangerous human was a dead human waiting for the fangs and claws that would kill him.

“Rachel,” Morgan said. “The pack’s nanny is too old to mate and bear young. Rachel is the pack’s dominant female now.”

Rachel was the only female currently approaching adulthood, and she would accept Morgan or Chase as her mate when she was ready to have pups of her own. “She should be safe here, but if you want her to stay with the pack until these men are found, I will understand.”

“We will consider your words.”

“I’ll put one of these pictures in a tube that will be easy to carry. You should take it back to your settlement so that all the terra indigene can see the human’s face.”

“We will wait for the tube. Then it is time to go.”

She found a mailing tube, rolled the picture, and stuffed brown paper into both ends to seal up the tube. Morgan and Chase trotted out the door and headed for the settlement in the hills. Jesse tucked Cory in her crate near the desk and tried to focus on paperwork, but more often than not, every time she needed to write something down, she had to force her right hand to release her left wrist.

* * *

* * *

Tobias was a few miles out of Bennett when he spotted the horse and rider in the middle of the road.

No reaction from the rider, who had to see the pickup. No attempt to move aside.

Slowing down, Tobias scanned the land to his left and right but didn’t see anyone trying to approach the pickup. Deciding it wasn’t an attempted holdup, he flashed his lights, not wanting to startle the horse by blowing the horn.

Still no reaction. Then a fire tornado swirled in the middle of the road. As soon as Tobias hit the brakes and stopped the truck, the tornado changed back to a horse and rider.

“What the … ?” The Elementals had no reason to be coming after him. At least, no reason he knew about.

That was when he looked in the rearview mirror and saw the Wolf running toward him. Coming fast.

Had to be Virgil.

Tobias waited until Virgil was a few yards away before rolling down the window. Reaching the truck, the Wolf stood on his hind legs, thrust his head into the opening, and dropped a mailing tube into Tobias’s lap before shifting to human.

“Tolya says you need that picture,” Virgil said. “All the humans at your ranch need to see that picture. There is also a copy for the Skye Ranch, and Tolya says you should talk to the other ranches so that they will look at the e-mail he is sending to them and see the picture.”

Tobias opened the mailing tube and pulled out the copies of a drawing that had been cropped from a larger picture. “I don’t recognize him.”

“He and other humans attacked Stewart Dixon’s ranch yesterday.”

“I’d heard about that.” Jana had told him about it over breakfast.

“I’ll make sure my people know to be on the lookout.” And he’d stress to Ellen Garcia that she shouldn’t open the door to strangers. It wasn’t their way not to be neighborly; there were terra indigene who showed up at the ranch house these days, looking for a drink of water or just wanting to rest in the shade of the ranch house’s big porch. Ellen always took a minute to talk to them, even if they weren’t in a form that could reply.

He’d talk to Ellen and “Ed” Tilman and emphasize the need for caution. And he’d talk to the folks living at the Prairie Gold farms as well. And he’d talk to Jana tonight and see if she knew anything