Rogue Alpha: Wolf Shifter Romance (Wild Lake Wolves Book 1) (2 page)

Chapter Two

“Jesus. Laura. Are you all right?”

My ears still rang from the shotgun blast. Professor
Flood brought the gun down and came to me. He put a hand on my shoulder and
shook me gently.

“Laura. Are you all right?”

I shook my head. “You shot him?”

I held my hands in front of me. Professor Flood put
the shotgun down and grabbed my wrists. He drew me to my feet.

“It’s not my blood,” I said. “I’m okay. You didn’t
have to do that.”

He pulled a white handkerchief out of his pocket and
wrapped it around my hands, wiping off most of the blood. I jerked my hands
away. I didn’t want him to touch me, to touch any part of the wolf, strange as
that seemed. Shock. I must be in shock.

“Why did you do that? That wasn’t a dart. That was a
12 gauge! Jesus, you could have taken my head off.”

“Not even close,” he said. “And I didn’t shoot at
him. I shot high. But you can’t be too careful. I warned you the coyotes out
here are extremely aggressive. That’s why you’re not supposed to venture off
this far alone, Laura. Especially with it getting so dark. That could have been
much, much worse. We’ve got black bears out here too.”

“What?”

Professor Flood grabbed my backpack and held out his
hand to help me up. I shook it off and rose to my feet. “I’m okay.”

“That wasn’t a coyote. You saw it. You shot at it.
What are you talking about?”

Professor Flood froze and turned toward me. He ran a
hand through his light brown hair. He had a cowlick at the front that never
laid flat. It lent a boyishness to his looks along with his perpetually tanned
skin and piercing blue eyes. Eyes that stared at me now as if I were speaking
Martian.

“Yes. I know exactly what I saw. Why the hell didn’t
you stay where I told you to?”

“What?” My mind raced. My heart still beat in my
throat. I struggled to grasp something normal. Something to get my pulse to
beat steady again. I looked down at my discarded pack, the patch of leaves on
the ground. “Oh. Number 11.”

My hands still shaking, I pointed back at the birch
tree where the little fawn had fallen. Flood stepped around me and went to it.

He shook his head. “Damn. I was hoping that little
guy would make it. No sign of injury?”

“No. He looks like he just went to sleep like that.”

“Hmm. Well, while we’re out here. Might as well make
some use of it. You think you’ve got a hold of yourself?”

I bit my lip past the comment I wanted to make.
You
mean since you shot at my fucking head?
“I’m fine.”

“Good. You have any specimen containers in your
pack? I’ve got a flashlight. Why don’t we see if we can find any droppings
nearby?”

Droppings.

I smacked my palm against the side of my head,
trying literally to knock myself back to the present. Droppings. Right. I
pulled a fresh pair of gloves out of my pack and a specimen container.

“It’s not glamorous,” Flood said as he shone the
light in a circle around where Number 11 rested. “But I don’t have the
equipment or funding for autopsies or blood samples. Poop. We can do poop.”

“Right.”

“Bingo!” Flood stopped a few feet from the fawn and
shook the light. “Bag it up.”

I raised a brow at him but went to the spot on the
ground he indicated. Then I bagged the poop.

“Congratulations, Miss Prince. You’re on your way to
becoming a bona fide biologist now.”

I sealed the container and disposed of my gloves
with the other. I held the container out to Professor Flood, but he just
smiled. “That’s all you.”

“Right. Lucky me.”

“Come on. If we hurry back, there might be some
pizza left for you.”

“You ordered without me?”

Flood shrugged and smoothed his cowlick back. It
fell right back in front of his face a second later. He shot me a dazzling
smile and put a hand on the small of my back, making my skin prickle just a
little. “I told you to be back by six thirty. You try making Cameron and the
others wait when there’s food involved. Don’t know where that kid puts it. He’s
got a hollow leg or something.”

Cameron Davies was Professor Flood’s favorite graduate
assistant. He, Professor Flood, and I made up the team from Great Lakes
University until the end of the summer semester. Another group of researchers
from Michigan State shared the camp with us. We had help from the D.N.R. and
the Manistee Park Ranger Service, but this was all Flood’s show. Tracking
Chronic Wasting Disease or C.W.D. in a particular herd of white-tailed deer
that had been given certain antibiotics within the first few months of their
lives. So far, the results had been dismal. The animals were still getting
sick. Still dying.

Flood had parked the Jeep at the entrance to the
trail. I hopped in the passenger side and put my pack in the seat behind me. As
Flood started up the vehicle, I turned to him.

“That wasn’t a coyote back there,” I said. “Didn’t
you see it? It was a wolf. A great big wolf.”

Flood smiled when he looked at me. I’d seen him
flash that smirk in class. It was kind of his trademark. It’s why most of the
girls sat in the front row, for a chance of having it directed straight at
them. Then they’d leave class giggling and whispering to each other about Byron
Flood and his killer dimples. For me though? Right now? It felt patronizing.

“You’ve been out here too long,” he said. “Don’t
worry. Tomorrow’s going to be a down day. I was hoping you’d come into town
with me. We need to stock up on some supplies. I’m making my famous chili
tomorrow night. One of the perks of being my summer assistant, I let you in on
the secret formula.”

He wagged his eyebrows up and down. I rolled my eyes
at him and crossed my arms in front of me. Then I shifted in my seat to stare
straight ahead. We rode in silence the rest of the way. We made the steep turn
up to the Great Lakes University Center for Wildlife Conservation. A fancy name
for a row of five rustic log cabins. Only two had electricity by way of a
portable generator and running water. One, we used as a mess hall and meeting
area. The other was our lab. As the only woman in the group this summer, I got
the luxury of being the only one out here besides Flood with a cabin to myself.
Cameron shared his cabin with six students from M.S.U. out here working a
different C.W.D. based grant. They kept to themselves except for chow time.

As Flood pulled up alongside the mess hall, Cameron
came out licking the thumb of one hand while folding a giant slice of
Chicago-style pizza in the other. He made a great show out of cocking his head
back and taking a bite. He shot me a wink as I climbed out of the car.

“Any of that left or did you mongrels eat it all?” I
slugged Cam in the shoulder.

Cam gave me a sly grin. He had the warmest brown
eyes and thick black hair that parted down the middle. A birthmark on his scalp
resulted in a thick, white stripe of hair along the left side. The scar from
his harelip gave him a permanent lopsided grin that actually fit his
personality pretty well.

“There’s half a pie left of the sausage and
anchovies.”

“Gross.” I wrinkled my nose. “You guys suck.”

“I told her.” Flood stepped around us. He had my bag
slung over his shoulder along with his own. He tossed mine to me. I got my
hands up just in time to catch it. “Hurry up and grab a slice. You can pick off
what you don’t like. Then, have Cam take you to the lab and show you how to set
up the slides for that specimen.”

Then Flood turned and took the steps into the mess
hall three at a time with an athletic stride.

“I’ll wait for you,” Cam said.

I shook my head. “No thanks. Between the anchovies
and the poop samples in my bag, my appetite is pretty much gone.”

Cam
put an arm around me. “You’ll get used to it. Poop is life. Come on.
Plus, I lied. I hid a couple of slices of pepperoni in the back of the fridge
for you.”

I leaned up and kissed Cameron on the cheek. “You’re
all right, you know that? No matter what those assholes from State say about
you when you’re not listening.”

Cam reared back, his mouth went wide. “What do you
mean? What do they say about me?”

I reached up, tussled his hair, and started walking
to the cabin lab. Cameron Davies had genius-level intelligence, but he worried
way too much about what other people thought of him. And, he was gullible. I gave
him a raised eyebrow over my shoulder to let him know I was only kidding. He
flipped me off and followed me into the lab.

“Watch it,” he said. “I’m about to teach you how not
to get deer shit all over yourself. You wouldn’t want me to forget a step.”

“If I can’t figure that out myself, I have bigger
problems.”

I popped the screen door and stepped into the cabin,
fumbling with the switch against the wall. The overhead fluorescents blinked to
life, casting the whole room in flickering yellow. It took a few minutes for
the generator to power the things all the way. The lab consisted of four long,
white folding tables with various specimen jars covering them along with two
large microscopes. We had three industrial-sized refrigerators in one corner
and our computers in the other and storage lockers in the other. The walls were
covered with maps of the area and Professor Flood’s whiteboards. I was still
trying to get the hang of how to decipher his scrawling handwriting and
shorthand.

“Take the stuff to the second table,” Cam said. I opened
my pack and pulled out the specimen jar while Cam fired up the microscope,
readied a few slides, and pulled a wheeled stool up to the table. He kicked the
second stool toward me. I stopped it with my knee and scooted over to join him.

As I set the container on the table, my hands still
shook. Cam shot me a quizzical look and waited while I tried to unscrew the
cap.

“Put some gloves on first,” Cam said, tossing a fresh
pair of purple ones at me.

“Right.”

“First rule of not getting shit all over you.”

“Right. Right. I got it.” I handed the jar to Cam.

“You okay? You’re shaking like a leaf. Did something
happen out there?”

Cam’s expression darkened. He pursed his lips
together and peered at me over his thick glasses.

“What? No. I’m okay.” For the briefest moment, I
hesitated before telling Cam about the wolf. Professor Flood had acted
strangely. Maybe Cam would too. But, Cam and I had been working together for
two semesters now. He knew me well enough to know when I was bullshitting him.
Still, an odd feeling speared through me when I thought of that dark wolf and
his golden eyes. My heart fluttered and I felt . . . protective of it somehow.
As if telling anyone else about that brief moment between us would betray the
wolf in some way. Silly. I shook my head as if I could physically drive away
those thoughts.

“Laura?”

Cam reached into the container and took the sample
out using tweezers. He placed a small amount between the slides and gave the
rest of it back to me.

“Well. It’s kind of hard to explain. But, uh, I ran
into a wolf out there. A big-ass black one.”

Cameron dropped the tweezers and sat back. “You did
what now?”

I bit my lip. “Yeah. A wolf. Came right up to me. I
think it was just as interested in the fawn as I was.”

Cam whistled low. “This far south? There are known
packs in the Upper Peninsula. Not down here. You sure it wasn’t a . . .”

I put my hand up. “It wasn’t a coyote, Cam. I know
the fucking difference.”

Cam
cocked his head to the side. “Easy. I’m just asking the question.
Jeez.”

“I’m sorry. Ugh. It got really close. I mean. I, uh,
I sort of got to pet it.”

“You pet it? You pet a wolf.”

I shrugged, realizing now how ridiculous the story
sounded as soon as I said it out loud. Well, no going back now. “Kind of. Then
Flood showed up. Cam, he shot at it. Not darts. With the 12 gauge.”

A muscle twitched near Cameron’s left eye. He let
out a sharp exhale. “Are you fucking serious?”

I nodded. “Shot ricocheted off the trees or
something. Grazed it.” I looked down. I hadn’t noticed before, but a few drops
of drying blood clung to the sleeve of my gray hoodie. I held my hand out and
showed Cam.

“He got away. The wolf did. Ran off quick as a bolt
of lightning after that.”

“Wouldn’t you?”

I got up and looked out the front door. For some
reason, I thought it best if no one overheard this conversation. Again, that
strange protectiveness rose up in me.

“Why the fuck did he shoot at it?”

Turning, I went back to my stool and pulled it up
even closer to Cam so he could hear me when I whispered. “That’s the thing. I
have no clue. What was he doing with live ammo in the first place? Seriously.
He dinged the wolf, but he could just as easily have got me. He was about a
hundred yards away. And Cam. He insisted it was a coyote. I swear to you. It
wasn’t. It was a big, black wolf with fiery eyes. How in the hell could he
mistake one for the other? I’ve never seen a black coyote, have you?”