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BOOK: Realm of the Wolf Book I: Wolf Dance
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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

13

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

14

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

by Lorraine Kennedy

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.

[Back to Table of Contents]

16

Realm of the Wolf Book I: Wolf Dance

by Lorraine Kennedy

Chapter Two

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."

18

Realm of the Wolf Book I: Wolf Dance

by Lorraine Kennedy

"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."

20

Realm of the Wolf Book I: Wolf Dance

by Lorraine Kennedy

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

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