Tean waited in the chalet’s combined living area while Jem made his way down the darkened hallway.Tean’s phone buzzed.He didn’t recognize the number, and he hesitated a moment before dismissing it.He received a lot of calls from unknown numbers for work, but whatever the issue was, he didn’t want to deal with it right then.
He glanced up at the sound of a door closing.Jem was making his way down the hall.His face was unreadable.
“She’s sleeping,” Jem said quietly.
Which was…interesting, because Tean was sure he’d seen Jem come out of the bathroom.
Tean waited.
But Jem only resettled his coat.“Ready?”
Tean’s phone buzzed again.This time, the call was from Kolen Lodge.
“Hello?”he said.
“Mr.Leon,” a woman said on the other side of the call, “I’m so sorry, but she said it was an emergency—”
Noises came from the other end of the call: the rustle of something scraping across the receiver, the click of plastic, unsteady breathing.
When the next voice spoke, it took a few seconds before Tean recognized it as River Jordan’s.
“You have to see this,” she was saying, “before they get rid of it.”
26
Tean’s first thought, when they got to the front of the lodge, was that only the cold had prevented a crowd from forming.Even with the sun shining, even with the snow so bright it was like glass, the cold made Tean’s face prickle.He had already started a mental timer.More than ten minutes, and Jem needed to go inside.
As it was, there was no crowd.Three men stood in an uneasy line, all of them dressed in dark winter gear marked with the lodge’s logo.One was middle-aged.One was younger, probably still in his twenties.The third was Vaughan.
His expression darkened when he saw them.“How did you—” He shook his head.“Please go back inside.”
“We were told there was an animal-related incident,” Tean said.
“Please go back inside, Dr.Leon.”
“This is kind of his thing, you know,” Jem said.“He’s a wildlife veterinarian.”
Vaughan’s cheeks and nose were red, but that might have been as much from the cold as anything else.
It was the twentysomething kid—White, rangy, dark hair visible under his knit cap—who blurted, “It looks like wolves.”
“What do you mean?”Tean said.
Vaughan sighed.“Come on.”
He waved a hand, like he meant for the other two men to stay, but when he started forward, the twentysomething bounded along at his side, already answering Tean’s question.“The tracks.We go hunting with my uncle up in Idaho sometimes in the Sawtooths.I’ve seen wolf tracks before.”
The snow hid an uneven spot in the ground, and Tean stumbled.Jem caught his arm.When Tean glanced over, Jem’s mouth was set in a hard line.
“There aren’t any established wolf packs in Utah,” Tean said.
“And I’ve seen a mule deer after they get at it,” the young man was saying, as though Tean hadn’t spoken.“This is just like it.”
“Let him take a look first,” Vaughan said.
“I bet you anything it’s wolves.”
Vaughan glowered, and the younger man shut his mouth.
