Read Realm of the Wolf Book I: Wolf Dance Online
Authors: Lorraine Kennedy
the times he had pretended not to be hungry so that she
would have enough to fill her aching stomach.
Laura set the food on the small wooden table and they
settled down to eat. There were no further words between
them.
Her eyes scanned the tabletop, taking note of the deep
gouges and scars in the wood. Laura's gaze came to rest on
some carved letters. Deeper than the rest of the marks on the
table, the letters L.E & K.B stood out.
Remembering the day she'd carved them into the wood
with her little pocketknife brought back fond memories of her
childhood sweetheart. The days of innocence, childish
laughter, and Kenny Begay seemed worlds away from her life
now.
Finished with breakfast, Busby sat at the table and nursed
his coffee while Laura tidied up the kitchen. When the kitchen
was clean, Laura knelt beside her grandfather.
"I'll have to be leaving now. I'm due at the field office the
day after tomorrow, but I'll be back soon, a couple of weeks
... maybe." She made a feeble attempt to put some cheer
into her voice.
"The Indians up there, they have given your boss the
rights to cut?" His voice betrayed his doubt.
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Realm of the Wolf Book I: Wolf Dance
by Lorraine Kennedy
"Yes, we received the release just a few days ago. It
clearly states they have signed off cutting rights to the land
surrounding Beaver Creek."
"I find it a hard thing to believe that the Shoshone would
hand over their land to butchers of the earth." He was clearly
skeptical.
"They are not Shoshone." Laura paused, trying to
remember the name of the tribe that had laid claim to the
area. "I believe they call themselves,
Sungmanitu
. From what
I have been able to gather, they broke off from their main
band years ago and settled a small part of the land in the
area—forming their own community."
Laura was busy packing and failed to notice the way her
grandfather's face had drained of color or the way his
features distorted with fear.
"It's better if you do not go there, something's wrong
about this. Why do they need you there?"
Snapping her suitcase shut, Laura took a deep breath and
patiently tried to explain the situation. "The people there are
not real happy about the situation and they need a
P.R. specialist to try and smooth the way for a while."
She felt it would be better not to add the fact that Dan
Mitchell had disappeared shortly after forwarding the release
documents. In addition to her other duties, she had been
instructed to find out what she could about Dan too.
Franklin Duccini was a shrewd businessman, and smart
enough to know that without Dan, there could be a problem.
The
Sungmanitu
could contest the legality of the release
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Realm of the Wolf Book I: Wolf Dance
by Lorraine Kennedy
documents, and without Dan as a witness, things could get
messy.
"Grandpa, I have to go now." She stood next to him,
holding her bags.
Busby took hold of her arm. "Be careful," he whispered in
a raspy voice.
Laura's eyes widened in shock—a sudden rush of fear
caught in her throat. "Grandpa, are you feeling well?"
Putting down her bags, Laura kneeled beside him, putting
her arm around his shoulders. Never before had he been so
adamantly against her work.
He gazed at her with a wisdom that one can only obtain
with the passing of many years. "You must promise me
something, Laura."
"If I can, Grandpa."
"Stay far away from the
Sungmanitu
... they are
dangerous."
"What do you know of them?" Laura's curiosity was
peaked.
The old man shook his head. "Stay away from them,
Laura."
The summer sun was climbing high in the turquoise sky
and the surrounding desert shimmered with the rising heat.
Laura drove west toward Arizona—she felt a slight sense of
dread as she left New Mexico behind her.
Laura took her eyes from the road for only a split second
to fiddle with the knobs on the stereo. When she looked back
up her heart jumped into her throat. In the middle of the road
stood an old woman—her bulkiness covered with a thin cotton
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Realm of the Wolf Book I: Wolf Dance
by Lorraine Kennedy
blouse and blue skirt. Streaks of gray ran through the black
hair that was neatly bound in a tight bun at the back of her
head.
Her panicked consciousness took all this in as she was
instinctively slamming on the breaks. The tires squealed and
her red Bronco slid off the road, missing the woman by mere
inches.
Still dazed, Laura scrambled out of the vehicle. The woman
stood in the same spot, as if the near miss had not affected
her in the least. The old lady just stood there— staring with
piercing black eyes that seemed to cut through Laura's soul.
Raising her hand, the woman pointed in the direction from
which Laura had come. "Go back,
Puta!
The way you go leads
only to darkness. Go back before it's too late."
Laura felt faint. It was the same voice she heard in her
dreams. Shards of light burst forth in her head and Laura
squeezed her eyes shut in an effort to block out the sudden
ball of pain. When the throbbing finally subsided and she was
able to pry her eyes open, the woman was gone. Laura
quickly scanned the area but the specter was nowhere to be
seen.
With her stomach twisting into knots, a wave of nausea
overtook her. Laura leaned against the Bronco until the
feeling began to pass.
Reaching inside, she grabbed a canteen of water. Taking
the cap off, she brought the water up to her dry, parched lips.
Laura took several swallows before capping the canteen and
putting it back in its place on the floorboard.
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Realm of the Wolf Book I: Wolf Dance
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Circling the car, Laura checked for damage. Fortunately
everything seemed to be in order. Still too shaken to drive,
Laura sat in the driver's seat and rested while trying to gather
her wits. It must be heat sickness, she concluded. The woman
could not have vanished into thin air.
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Realm of the Wolf Book I: Wolf Dance
by Lorraine Kennedy
The singlewide mobile home was Duccini's makeshift field
office. Judging from the trailer's appearance, its better days
were far in the past.
The white dust-covered structure stood at the bottom of
an isolated hillside just south of Brantic City. It had taken
Laura an hour of roaming the dirt roads to find it. Before
leaving her automobile, Laura used the rearview mirror and
tried to brush her wind-tangled hair into place.
Carefully, she made her way up the rickety stairs leading
to the front door. What was once a living room had been
neatly converted into office space. An array of paperwork
littered the top of an old steel desk and the floor looked as if
it had not been cleaned in weeks. Behind the desk sat a
middle-aged black man, his short-cropped hair speckled with
gray.
The man, leaning back in his chair with his long legs
propped up on the desk, looked to be in the middle of a
heated conversation with someone on the phone.
"No more excuses!" he barked. "That truck had better be
here tomorrow morning to pick up that load, or we give the
contract to someone else." Scowling, he slammed the phone
down.
He eyed Laura speculatively and gradually the hard lines of
his mouth widened into a smile.
Offering her hand, Laura returned his smile. "Mr. Jessup, I
suppose."
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Realm of the Wolf Book I: Wolf Dance
by Lorraine Kennedy
"That would be me." He shook her hand firmly. Laura
noticed that he spoke with a slow, southern drawl.
"I'm Laura Ellison."
"Oh," he laughed. "For a minute there I thought you might
be one of those ecology people. It's not just the locals giving
us hassles—we have been butting heads with those ecology
people, too." Pausing, he searched through a stack of manila
folders for her file.
After several moments of searching, he finally located it.
He opened the folder and laid it on his desk.
"Where you been? The email I received said you were
supposed to be here yesterday."
"Had some car problems on the way up here—it keeps
wanting to die," she apologized.
"Hmm, you'll want to get that taken care of," he muttered,
as he poured through the details of her file.
"It sounds as if this job might be more difficult than we
anticipated," Laura offered her assessment.
"Don't you know it." Clyde Jessup went to the kitchen and
pulled two cans of soda from the refrigerator. He offered one
to Laura.
"Thank you." She accepted it gratefully, hoping it would
cool her burning throat.
"The locals in Brantic are not real happy about us messing
around up there, but that isn't the worst of it."
He popped open his can and took several swallows before
continuing. "Those
Beaver Creek people are downright hostile. They keep
insisting that their Chief didn't sign that contract."
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Realm of the Wolf Book I: Wolf Dance
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"What about the Chief?" Laura found a chair and sat down.
"He is gone. At least that is what they are telling us,"
Jessup smiled. "The truth of the matter is, I think the old man
took a payoff to sign it and then split." Jessup sat back and
rested his legs on his desk.
"You will be doing more than P.R. work while you are here,
though I expect you'll have your hands full enough with that."
"Oh?" Laura was not thrilled with the news, but she had
expected as much.
"I'm not an office man as you can see." His hand made a
sweeping motion, bringing her attention to the stacks of
paperwork.
Jessup gave her a wry smile. "In addition to everything
else, we are having trouble getting laborers. The temporary
service in Acton does not seem to be able to recruit any men.
Most of our employees had to be brought in from Rock
Springs."
"Why so much trouble?"
"People around here don't seem to care too much for those
Indians up there. Hell ... we can't even get any of the
Shoshone or Arapaho to take a job."
Jessup became quiet for a moment, but finally clearing his
throat, he continued. "To a point, that can be written off as
opposition to the clear-cutting, but still it seems odd. Usually
one or two will join up. They would just as soon stay away
from the Beaver Creek Indians, even if it means passing up a
good paying job." He shook his head, as if it were the most
ridiculous thing he could imagine.
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Realm of the Wolf Book I: Wolf Dance
by Lorraine Kennedy
"So what's the story on Mitchell?" Finished with her soda,
Laura tried to stuff it in the already overflowing wastebasket,
but it fell out and rolled across the floor.
She got to her feet to retrieve it but Jessup waved her
back. "I'll get it later."
Laura's smile was tolerant. She knew what the first thing
on her agenda for tomorrow would be, and that was to get
this place cleaned up and in some kind of order.
"Can't tell you a lot about Mitchell, except that I didn't like
him a whole lot. He tended to remind me of a big rat with sly,
beady eyes," Jessup explained with a laugh.
Laura laughed with him. Though she had only met Mitchell
once, she had gotten the same impression.
Jessup took a pipe from the top drawer of his desk. He
struck a stick match from the sole of his boot and lit the
contents of the bowl. "He was gone a day before he was
scheduled to leave. Didn't say a thing, just left. I guess he
never made it to New Mexico though."
"That's strange," Laura commented.
"Not really. He hated this place—said it wasn't civilized
enough for him."
The encroachment of shadows dimmed the light that
streamed from the open windows, reminding Laura that it was
getting late. She stood up. "Is there a motel in Brantic City?"
Jessup arched one thick brow. "You haven't been to
Brantic City yet?"
Laura shook her head. "No, I drove around forever trying
to get here, but I didn't run across any towns."
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Realm of the Wolf Book I: Wolf Dance
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There it was again, that deep throaty laughter. "Brantic
City isn't much more than a ghost town. The only thing you'll
find there is a combo restaurant-saloon, a little store, and
maybe a few year-around residents, but not many. The
closest real town is Acton and it's nearly forty miles away."
"So where do all the employees stay?" Laura was not
feeling good about this information.
"I stay here and most of the others stay in the camp