Her Perilous Wolf by Julie Steimle (free e books to read .txt) 📖

hike back out to the post office to pick up her mail. It wasn’t a long trip. It was a decent hike, though—as she did not live in town yet she was too travel-weary to drive.

Hardly anyone was there when she arrived at the post office. She got the usual bills, advertisements, and fliers out of her post office box, but in the pile were two letters. One was from the academic office at NYU. The other was from a good friend she had met in Tanzania a year ago. She opened that last one while on her hike back to her small house, hoping it was good news.

 

My dearest wonderful, oh so sweet divine Audry,

How are you? It has been too long since I saw you. Your visit to my country had been too short. Come back. You can work with us again in the Ngorongoro National Park to deal with poachers. Or you can come with me to Kenya where we can have a real adventure. More poachers, but these we really want to stop as they are killing and selling all their rhino horns and elephant tusks to China and we need to put a stop to it. This time you can bring your guns. Checked luggage of course. Ha Ha. I kid myself.

But truly. I miss you. We all do. Come back and help us.  Your love for animals has been such an inspiration to us all. And your beautiful smile would brighten any day better than the sun. Always your servant and friend,

Juma Ajanlekoko

 

Juma. Audry sighed, staring at the paper. Juma Ajanlekoko was a big flirt. She remembered him very well. Twenty-five. Broad chest, almost as big as Bobo’s, skin the color of basalt and coffee, tall, short-trimmed hair, and a little superstitious. He always wore a good luck charm against the evil eye around his neck. Gorgeous white teeth. He used to call her Jabari, but he also called her Ife. She did not know what either meant, but the others giggled whenever he did that. One day she had planned to ask him. She just hoped neither word meant ‘sex goddess’. She was sick of stupid nicknames like that that old boyfriends secretly gave to her.

Why not ask him now? the back of her mind whispered. She could go back to Tanzania. After all, she had not been able to think up anything unique as a solution for her PhD. Most of the wolf and predator deterrents had been invented by industry already. Their products were on the market and not that expensive. And towns had their own systems to deal with predatory animals inclined toward killing their pets. She had discovered this long before her vacation. If anything, she was the outsider nosing into their business. They knew what they were doing. They had been dealing with wolves and coyotes and cougars and bears for decades. She was just a kid compared to them—professionally trained or not. They had generations of experience. And now she felt even more like a kid. Perhaps she ought to just move to Africa. She always had more success there.

Why not move to Africa? that voice in her head said again.

Why not? she thought.

It certainly would take her far from all this insane supernatural stuff—very far from Rick. The Deacons hardly had any business in that part of Africa. And she would be doing what she loved. She would be rescuing animals who really needed help. And ending the ivory trade was a noble cause.

Audry went to her computer to get to her email. If Juma was sincere, it was possible she could return to Tanzania. Or maybe they would have an adventure in Kenya. She’d been to Kenya only once before, and briefly. And though a written letter was nice, an email was quicker.

This would be good. And maybe she could find her answer for her PhD as well. What she knew about rescuing animals in Africa had to translate to the US in a unique way to help her.

Off to Africa

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Chapter Four

 

Stewart tugged Vincent into a service elevator the moment he spotted him in the lobby of the Waldorf Astoria. Stewart had hardly changed from the last time he had seen him. He was a posh sandy-haired man who on most occasions had a well contained personality. Not today. He walked at a mad, stressed pace today, his face pale and damp with sweat. They took their discussion down to the basement where Stewart led Vincent by the arm to the laundry room as all the washers and driers were running with a comforting noise. It so loud there was no way anyone would overhear them—which Vincent realized later was the point.

“So, he told you what he was?” Steward asked as he dragged Vincent into a far corner, making doubly sure no one would listen in. There were no workers in the room. Stewart’s eyes were wide, his brow and upper lip sweaty.

Vincent colored a little as he said, “More like showed us.”

Stewart went even more pale. He had already been the sort of ash color one would expect on a person who felt someone crawling on their grave. “When did this happen?”

“This last week, when my cousin’s family and mine were on vacation together.” Vincent shook his head, wondering what exactly Stewart was hiding from. “We kind of accidentally spied on them and saw too much. I thought that guy Tom Brown was going to kill me when he just appeared out of nowhere and—”

“Whoa! Slow down!” Stewart raised his hands. His cheeks colored. “Tom Brown was there? This wasn’t just Rick Deacon you spied on?”

Vincent shook his head. He sighed. “No. We were at our usual beach house—the one we go to every summer. And my cousin and her niece with me accidentally stumbled across some kind of Gulinger Private Academy reunion. There were all sorts of people there, and a really weird frisbee toss between several dogs, a wolf, Rick, and a Chinese guy. Audry freaked out and ran off when she saw it. Then Tom Brown and Randon Spade showed up—”

“Whoa! So Audry figured it out?” Stewart’s eyes went wide to the point that it looked likely they’d go dry from staring.

Vincent nodded. “Yeah. She knew the wolf. She recognized him. She had rescued it twice. Once—when she dug a bullet out of its leg. We mentioned it back at that social, remember? When you first met her, she was wearing the bullet as a necklace. I remember you telling her to maybe not wear it so much. Then she rescued the wolf the beginning of this summer when the wolf fought a cougar off from hurting Maris.”

“Who’s Maris?”

“Audry’s niece. My first cousin once removed, or something like that. My cousin’s kid,” Vincent said. “The cougar attacked her when they were all camping—or it tried to. The wolf interfered and got hurt. Audry rescued him. She recognized the wolf, but she did not know it was Rick.”

Stewart set a hand to his head. “Wait a second. This last summer? You mean that car accident story in the news with Rick was a lie? Rick fought a cougar?”

Vincent was feeling ill again, thinking about it. “Uh, the wolf did. She didn’t see Rick. She saw the wolf only.”

Nodding wearily, Stewart also looked ill. “Same deal.”

They exchanged glances for a minute then Stewart gestured they find something to sit on. Both men located and sat down on stools which had been stacked on side of one washer, both shaking their heads.

“So, it’s true,” Vincent said, going paler, resting his elbows on his knees.

Stewart huffed, out of sorts, if not entirely annoyed. “You saw him with your own eyes, didn’t you?”

Moaning, Vincent nodded, putting his head in his hands. “Yeah. But I keep imagining I hallucinated it. It was night. I was at a party… but I wasn’t drinking, so….”

“It is probably safer to think it was a hallucination, frankly.” For a time only the rumble of the machines filled their ears. Stewart chuckled weakly. “You know… I figured it out waaaaay back, the whole werewolf thing.”

Vincent stared at him, taking in a breath. He did not ask how. He did not need to. Stewart looked like he was prepared to make confession, and Vincent was his priest.

“I thought I was being so smart when I discovered it,” Stewart muttered. “I got the info straight from the SRA, and I saw all their proofs. You’ve heard of the SRA right?”

Vincent nodded painfully.

“And I was suckered into helping them out.” Stewart shook his head. “I was a complete ass.”

Vincent raised his eyebrows at him.

His old frat buddy weakly chuckled, gazing towards Vincent. “It is best to forget you know about all this.”

“That’s what Rick said,” Vincent murmured, knowing he couldn’t. He was not the type of person who forgot things—especially not things connected to the safety and happiness of his favorite cousin. He was afraid for Audry.

Nodding, Steward said in earnest, “Wise advice. That guy is trouble.”

Vincent’s eyes widened on him. He bent nearer. “What kind exactly?”

Shaking his head, Steward groaned. “He’s not a bad person. The Deacons are actually upstanding, decent people. However, it is not wise to get involved with the Deacon family in any way—except in business. They are fair and good business partners. Profitable. But trouble follows them everywhere. You have to know this. Their closest associates have to be either creepy supernatural themselves, or they have to be super resilient. And I’m not. So if Rick warned you to keep away, listen to him. He means well. And he obviously knows the danger that he is to others—which is why I still like him, but would never associate with him unless I had to.”

“Ok.” Vincent was convinced. Steward was one hundred percent telling the truth. He could see it. Vincent sighed.

“And protect your cousin,” Stewart insisted. “My wife Kim likes her a lot. We were sorry to hear she broke up with her fiancé—”

“I’m not,” Vincent muttered, rising from his seat. “Hogan was trash. He had been stringing along a lot of women and was just scum. To him, she was a conquest. We were glad she found out what scum he was before it was too late.”

Stewart stared, actually shocked. “Oh. I didn’t know that.”

Vincent shrugged. “It doesn’t matter anymore. He’s gone. And we’re just hoping she doesn’t fall for another creep. She has that kind of luck. She’s always attracted to dangerous guys.”

“You mean like falling for a werewolf?” Stewart laughed nervously.

Vincent flinched. “I hope not.”

That gave Stewart pause. He rose, asking, “What does she think about all this? She seemed so pragmatic when I met her.”

Shrugging, Vincent stared at his shoes before saying, “I’m not sure. She’s back in Idaho working on her PhD. But I don’t think she’s seeking romance right now. Her last breakup was really hard. Hogan really hurt her. And she gave me a dirty look when I asked her about her feelings towards Rick.”

Stewart nodded. Yet peeking to Vincent, he said, “Kim thought they would make a cute couple. She wouldn’t shut up about it.”

“That’s what my sister Vicky thinks,” Vincent muttered, glaring at an industrial drier. “But they don’t understand.”

“No, they don’t,” Stewart agreed. “They’re too