Alaskan Sanctuary (15 page)

He was finished.

* * *

To: Anna Plum [email protected]

From: Ethan Hale [email protected]

Subject: Interview

Dear Ms. Plum,

My availability has changed. I can make a trip to Seattle at your earliest convenience.

I look forward to hearing from you and discussing the possibility of a position at your newspaper.

Best regards,

Ethan Hale

To: Ethan Hale [email protected]

From: Anna Plum [email protected]

Subject: RE: Interview

Hello, Ethan,

Such great news!

I’ve taken the liberty of booking travel arrangements for you for the day after tomorrow. Your confirmation number and flight itinerary with Alaska Air are attached. A driver will pick you up in baggage claim upon your arrival.

I very much look forward to this opportunity to discuss your future at
The Seattle Tribune
. See you in two days!

Sincerely,

Anna Plum

Editor in Chief

The Seattle Tribune

* * *

Piper couldn’t get out of the dance studio quickly enough. Something about all those little girls, coupled with Ethan holding her hand, was just too much to take.

She’d said too much. Obviously.

What had she been thinking, giving him all those details about her childhood? She rarely talked about being bounced around between foster homes. And she
never
talked about her mother. Ever.

Piper climbed into her car, took a deep breath and tried to wrap her mind about what had just happened. Ethan wasn’t supposed to react the way he had. He wasn’t supposed to be so...so compassionate. So sweet.

It might have been a long time ago, but I’m still sorry it happened.

She believed him. Everything about the way he’d looked at her, touched her, said that he cared. Very much.

And yet it still hadn’t made a bit of difference.

She’d thought if he somehow knew how important the wolves were to her, if he understood
why
, that he would stop trying to undermine her at every turn. But he wasn’t backing down. He never would. And now he was taking aim at Posy’s dance recital.

Piper couldn’t let him ruin things for Posy. Not after she’d been the one to suggest the
Little Red Riding Hood
theme to begin with. It was bad enough that her own wolf sanctuary was struggling to survive. She refused to take Posy down with her. If Ethan wrote something awful about the ballet recital, it would affect the dance studio just as much as the wolves.

And he would do it. She knew he would.

He could papier-mâché enough trees to cover the entire state of Alaska, but he’d volunteered for the recital committee for one reason and one reason only—to keep an eye on her. He was just waiting for the right moment to ruin everything.

But what really made the situation impossible to bear was the fact that she now knew why. Why he’d left the park service. Why he’d taken it upon himself to ruin every chance her wolves had for survival. She had her reasons, and he had his. Neither one of them was about to back down.

She wished she could despise him. She couldn’t. Not anymore. He’d seen a child die. He’d tried to save her, and in his own way, he still was. How could Piper despise a man like that?

Her empty driveway was a sight for sore eyes once she’d made her way back to the sanctuary. She hadn’t seen Ethan’s SUV on the road, so she’d half assumed he’d be there waiting for her, seeing as he’d committed to following her every move.

She got out of the car and perched on her rock for a few minutes, reveling in her solitude, the silence of the snowfall and the beauty of her wolves moving among the pines. She tried not to notice when Ethan failed to show up after ten minutes had passed, and then again when he still wasn’t there after half an hour.

He was an abysmal failure as a stalker.

That was his problem, not hers, wasn’t it? She pushed herself off the rock and headed to the cabin. Today was enrichment day on the wolves’ schedule, so she had a little something special planned for them.

Wolves in the wild faced constant physical and mental challenges. From foraging for food, seeking out prey and avoiding hunters, to finding a mate and caring for a litter of pups, a wolf in its natural environment encountered stimulation at every turn. These beautiful animals were shaped by the world around them. Those that thrived survived.

Obviously, life for a rescue wolf living in captivity was vastly different from the daily struggle of surviving in the wild. Without the constant stimulation of their natural environment, wolves could become stressed. And stress could lead to harmful behaviors, such as pacing, illness, self-mutilation and even aggression. Piper was constantly coming up with new, innovative ways to keep her pack challenged, happy and smart. And today that particular task involved over one hundred fifty chicken broth ice cubes.

She opened her freezer and an ice tray came flying out. She caught it before it fell on her foot. A broken toe was all she needed to make this day complete.

Maybe she’d gotten a little overzealous with the wolf Popsicles. She’d gone through almost five gallons of chicken broth the night before. Enrichment was one of her favorite parts of her job, and every one of her wolves loved ice cubes. Even more so if they tasted like chicken.

She dumped a few trays’ worth of ice cubes in a bucket and headed back outside. Much to her irritation, her heart gave a little pang when she still failed to spot Ethan’s truck in the drive. Or anywhere in the vicinity.

She didn’t miss him or anything. That would have been pathetic. He should be here for enrichment, though. It would give him something new and different to write in his column. Piper would have loved to read an article about her wolves playing with ice cubes rather than what dangerous, bloodthirsty predators they were.

She tossed a few chicken cubes over the fence of Tundra’s enclosure. The white wolf leaped for them, twisting midair with the grace and elegance of a dancer. Tundra’s teeth snapped shut with an audible bite. Then she landed on all fours, shook her woolly head and tossed the cube she’d caught back in the air. Piper smiled, watching her play, until she finally settled down in a white ball of fur on the snow with an ice cube between her front paws.

“Enjoy it, girl,” Piper whispered as Tundra licked the cube with delicate swipes of her pink tongue.

By the time Piper got to the next pen, Shasta was prancing back and forth at the fence line with his ears pricked forward and his mouth open in a wide, wolfish grin. Shasta was never as polite as Tundra with his enrichment activities. He slammed against the fence on his back legs, gaze fixed on Piper’s bucket. She pitched six chicken-broth ice cubes over the fence in rapid succession, all of which he somehow managed to catch. Shasta liked to swallow things whole. Ice cubes. Meat. Stray mittens on occasion.

“Goofball.” Piper shook her head, grin fading. “Ethan doesn’t know what he’s missing, does he?”

Where
was
he, anyway? At least an hour had passed since she’d left Posy’s ballet school. As pleasant as it was to be able to go about her business without him watching her every move, his absence was troublesome. It bothered her far more than it should have.

I’m just concerned for his safety. That’s all. His car could have broken down.

Concerned for his safety. Right.

Ethan didn’t want, or need, her concern. He had a cell phone. If that SUV where he liked to sleep so much had broken down, he could have called for help.

Unless he’s been injured.

Piper hugged her empty bucket closer to her chest as she marched through the snowdrifts back toward the cabin. The snow was really coming down now, much thicker than earlier in the day. The curvy mountain road leading to the sanctuary had surely iced over, and it was typically one of the last streets in the city that road crews reached with salt and deicing chemicals. A car could slide clear off the mountain and no one would ever know.

She paused in front of her freezer again. What if something had happened? What if Ethan had indeed slid clear off the mountain?

Surely not.

She flung the freezer door open, even angrier with Ethan than usual. Which was pretty angry. How dare he make her worry like this? Didn’t he know it was rude to announce his intention to stalk someone and then vanish off the face of the planet?

She reached for her cell phone and dialed Ethan’s number while the air from the freezer cooled her face. She’d explain to him just how inconsiderate he was acting as soon as he answered.

But he didn’t answer. The phone rang and rang, then went to voice mail. Piper didn’t leave a message because, really, what could she say?
Where are you?
Right. And sound like a worried girlfriend, when that couldn’t be further from the truth? No, thank you.

She pocketed her phone and went back to work, emptying ice trays into the bucket. She didn’t have time to worry about Ethan’s whereabouts. Didn’t he know she had wolves to entertain?

She couldn’t seem to shake the feeling that something was wrong, though. So when she’d filled the bucket, she tried his cell phone one more time.

Again, no answer.

Maybe it was time to call his editor. No, she couldn’t. Ethan had already gotten in trouble with Lou for not knowing about her involvement with Posy’s dance recital. Piper would
not
be directly responsible for Ethan losing his job. As much as she wanted him to stop insulting her life’s work in the newspaper, getting him fired wasn’t how she wanted things to end.

She slammed the freezer door, and her gaze landed on Tate Hudson’s business card anchored to the brushed chrome with a magnet. Ethan had given it to her after the graffiti incident, with strict instructions to call if anything seemed amiss. Something seemed amiss, all right. Besides, Ethan and Tate were friends. They were probably living it up at the Northern Lights Inn coffee bar right that very minute.

Before she could change her mind, she dialed the number on the card.

“Tate Hudson.”

This had seemed like a much better idea before he’d answered the phone. Maybe she should just hang up. But wait. He was a state trooper. Wouldn’t he know exactly who’d hung up on him?

It was too late to back out now. She took a deep breath. “Hello, Tate. This is Piper from the wolf sanctuary.”

“I hope everything is okay out there,” he said, his professional tone laced with concern.

“I’m fine. The wolves are fine. No problem at all, except...” Gosh, this was humiliating. “Ethan.”

“Ethan?” Tate laughed. “What’s he done to upset you this time? It must be something really bad for you to call law enforcement.”

“Funny.” She rolled her eyes. The feud between her and Ethan was destined to go down in history, at least in the state of Alaska. “It’s not like that. Listen, I’m not trying to alarm anyone unnecessarily. I know you and Ethan are friends, and it seems he’s gone missing.”

“Missing?”

“Yes.” She gave him a rundown of the morning’s events, assured him that, yes, she’d tried Ethan’s cell phone and, no, he hadn’t answered.

Tate promised to look into things. She hung up and reassured herself that she’d done the right thing. At least now she could continue enrichment with the wolves with a modicum of peace of mind.

Bucket in hand, she headed toward the cabin door. But just as she reached for the knob, a loud thump from outside shook the door in its frame.

Heart pounding, Piper took a giant backward step. She blew out a breath. “Ethan, you just about frightened me to death.”

She knew he hadn’t driven off the side of the mountain. He was too annoying to disappear entirely. She swung the door open, fully prepared to chastise him for worrying her enough that she’d called Tate and then for beating on her door like a caveman.

But Ethan wasn’t the one standing on her front porch. Not even close.

Chapter Ten

E
than tossed the last of his belongings into his duffel bag and zipped it closed. It felt as if a century had passed since he’d slept in his own bed. Now that he’d made the decision to quit his column, he couldn’t wait to check out of the Northern Lights Inn. If he did so fast enough, he’d save the newspaper the cost of another night’s stay.

Not that it mattered. Once Lou got wind of the fact that he’d walked away from the assignment, Ethan was sure to be out of a job. He’d had his chance, and he’d blown it. He’d broken the cardinal rule of journalism. He’d failed to maintain his objectivity. Worse than that, he’d become personally involved. With the woman as much as the story.

At least he’d managed not to kiss her.

He stood for a moment, thoughts snagged on the notion of kissing Piper Quinn, until someone knocked on the door to his room.

“Ethan, you in there? Open up. It’s Tate.”

What now?

Ethan reached for the door and swung it open. “Sorry, but I’m not really in the mood for visitors.”

“I’m not visiting. I’m here on business.” Tate’s hand rested casually on the radio in his holster as if to emphasize his point.

Ethan’s brow furrowed. “What kind of business?”

“Missing person business.”

A missing person? In Aurora? The one time someone had been reported missing in town it had been a retired fisherman who’d wandered away one late summer morning from his room at the assisted living facility. Tate had located him less than an hour later on the banks of the river, fishing pole in hand and picnic basket at his feet.

“Who’s missing?” Ethan asked.

“You are.”

“No, I’m not. I’m standing right here.”

“I see that. Listen, you may want to call your boss.”

“Lou?” Ethan hadn’t even had a chance to quit yet, and already Lou was hunting him down? Not a good sign. At all. “How does he know I’m not at the wolf sanctuary?”

“Not Lou.” Tate shook his head. “Piper. She called the station and reported you missing.”

“What?”
Unbelievable.